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<blockquote data-quote="rlsnights" data-source="post: 422075" data-attributes="member: 7948"><p>Anxiety and depression, if they appear to be interfering with his learning, should be sufficient to meet the requirements of IDEA. Don't know why the autism evaluator thinks that should be dismissed as a problem except that uninformed people seem to think that kids' depression and anxiety are OK to ignore if they're not obviously showing signs of severe distress. It is NOT normal for a 6 year old to be showing signs of depression and anxiety anywhere let alone at school and this should be a big red flag to the school that there is a need for behavioral/emotional supports at school.</p><p></p><p>Is he being seen by a child psychiatrist (psychiatrist) as opposed to an adult psychiatrist? If so, what position is the psychiatrist taking regarding a diagnosis and do you have that in writing? Will the psychiatrist make recommendations regarding school placement? Usually you have to write the letter for the psychiatrist (if you have the skill/knowledge to do so) so they can edit it and have their staff re-do it on letter head. They just don't have the time to do things like that. </p><p></p><p>Usually in our signatures we list the medications our kids are on - saves answering questions all the time since nearly all our kids are on medications.</p><p></p><p>Do you have any idea what changed at school that reduced the problem behaviors there? Was it the teacher or the medications or maturation or? That might help if you can</p><p></p><p>Did you ask for a behavioral assessment beyond the autism evaluation? This is something else that you could/should get or include if you get the district to agree to an IEE. And the observations should include home and recess at school. Depending on how closely supervised the kids are at recess he may be having problems that are below the radar. If you get the IEE I would just tell them you want assessments in every single area that can be assessed so that the team has a complete picture and has identified ALL areas of disability (the requirement under the law).</p><p></p><p>Will his teacher advocate for the special program placement? A lot of times teachers are afraid of losing their jobs or their work life made difficult if they take an opposing position with the SD. If she's not able to take a stand that way, does she know another teacher in a different district who might be a helpful support and be willing to talk to you and come to the meeting?</p><p></p><p>Did they do a new comprehensive speech assessment or has he had one within the last year? If not and you didn't have one done I strongly encourage you to get one done and/or ask them to do one and table the meeting until it has been done. If you get them to agree to an IEE then make it part of that. I assume he is getting speech services through your health insurance but he could also be getting speech through the school district and this may qualify him for an IEP all by itself. Hopefully it would show the typical speech/language processing problems associated with Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD) and would further support your position that he needs to be receiving services in the classroom that make the curriculum accessible to him - i.e. he needs the language supports in the autism program.</p><p></p><p>Unless the social skills problems are really blatant, in my experience, you will not get anywhere asking for support for these - in the absence of other deficits - unless you have a really progressive and well bankrolled school district. If so then I would think the best they would offer is to have him do a social skills group at the school once a week and they probably have a way to do that outside of the IEP process. If the social skill deficits were really obvious then it should have shown up in the reports.</p><p></p><p>The fine/gross motor skills should be assessed by an Occupational Therapist (OT) along with sensory issues. You can ask the pediatrician to refer for this or you can have the school do it. Again the deficits have to be pretty severe to get him help through the school. Examples - he can't walk in a straight line across 10-15 feet or can't walk heel to toe for at least 4-5 steps or falls down immediately when he stands on one foot. Can he hop in place, can he do a standing jump, can he write legibly even if very slowly?</p><p></p><p>My son had the deficits you mention well into 3rd grade and it was not sufficient to get school Occupational Therapist (OT) services because what's considered the range of "normal" for young children is very large. And the school's assessment is aimed solely at the question of whether it is interfering with his ability to benefit from FAPE.</p><p></p><p>Have you asked your pediatrician to test him for celiacs or allergies? If not this is another thing that might be influencing his behavior especially if he is not really eating when he's at school.</p><p></p><p>Have you been able to identify triggers at home? Are his problems mostly with transitions? If so then this is one reason he may be doing OK at school right now. One teacher, skilled at working with ASDers, almost no transitions except to/from school and maybe to/from recess, a highly structured predictable environment. The teacher may be consciously or unconsciously using a lot of the methods that work best with ASDers.</p><p></p><p>Well that's a lot of question marks. Sorry if you feel bombarded and don't feel you have to answer all of them. They're mostly to intended to help you focus on areas that might have been missed or as a backhanded way of offering advice.</p><p></p><p>Keep us posted.</p><p></p><p>Patricia</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="rlsnights, post: 422075, member: 7948"] Anxiety and depression, if they appear to be interfering with his learning, should be sufficient to meet the requirements of IDEA. Don't know why the autism evaluator thinks that should be dismissed as a problem except that uninformed people seem to think that kids' depression and anxiety are OK to ignore if they're not obviously showing signs of severe distress. It is NOT normal for a 6 year old to be showing signs of depression and anxiety anywhere let alone at school and this should be a big red flag to the school that there is a need for behavioral/emotional supports at school. Is he being seen by a child psychiatrist (psychiatrist) as opposed to an adult psychiatrist? If so, what position is the psychiatrist taking regarding a diagnosis and do you have that in writing? Will the psychiatrist make recommendations regarding school placement? Usually you have to write the letter for the psychiatrist (if you have the skill/knowledge to do so) so they can edit it and have their staff re-do it on letter head. They just don't have the time to do things like that. Usually in our signatures we list the medications our kids are on - saves answering questions all the time since nearly all our kids are on medications. Do you have any idea what changed at school that reduced the problem behaviors there? Was it the teacher or the medications or maturation or? That might help if you can Did you ask for a behavioral assessment beyond the autism evaluation? This is something else that you could/should get or include if you get the district to agree to an IEE. And the observations should include home and recess at school. Depending on how closely supervised the kids are at recess he may be having problems that are below the radar. If you get the IEE I would just tell them you want assessments in every single area that can be assessed so that the team has a complete picture and has identified ALL areas of disability (the requirement under the law). Will his teacher advocate for the special program placement? A lot of times teachers are afraid of losing their jobs or their work life made difficult if they take an opposing position with the SD. If she's not able to take a stand that way, does she know another teacher in a different district who might be a helpful support and be willing to talk to you and come to the meeting? Did they do a new comprehensive speech assessment or has he had one within the last year? If not and you didn't have one done I strongly encourage you to get one done and/or ask them to do one and table the meeting until it has been done. If you get them to agree to an IEE then make it part of that. I assume he is getting speech services through your health insurance but he could also be getting speech through the school district and this may qualify him for an IEP all by itself. Hopefully it would show the typical speech/language processing problems associated with Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD) and would further support your position that he needs to be receiving services in the classroom that make the curriculum accessible to him - i.e. he needs the language supports in the autism program. Unless the social skills problems are really blatant, in my experience, you will not get anywhere asking for support for these - in the absence of other deficits - unless you have a really progressive and well bankrolled school district. If so then I would think the best they would offer is to have him do a social skills group at the school once a week and they probably have a way to do that outside of the IEP process. If the social skill deficits were really obvious then it should have shown up in the reports. The fine/gross motor skills should be assessed by an Occupational Therapist (OT) along with sensory issues. You can ask the pediatrician to refer for this or you can have the school do it. Again the deficits have to be pretty severe to get him help through the school. Examples - he can't walk in a straight line across 10-15 feet or can't walk heel to toe for at least 4-5 steps or falls down immediately when he stands on one foot. Can he hop in place, can he do a standing jump, can he write legibly even if very slowly? My son had the deficits you mention well into 3rd grade and it was not sufficient to get school Occupational Therapist (OT) services because what's considered the range of "normal" for young children is very large. And the school's assessment is aimed solely at the question of whether it is interfering with his ability to benefit from FAPE. Have you asked your pediatrician to test him for celiacs or allergies? If not this is another thing that might be influencing his behavior especially if he is not really eating when he's at school. Have you been able to identify triggers at home? Are his problems mostly with transitions? If so then this is one reason he may be doing OK at school right now. One teacher, skilled at working with ASDers, almost no transitions except to/from school and maybe to/from recess, a highly structured predictable environment. The teacher may be consciously or unconsciously using a lot of the methods that work best with ASDers. Well that's a lot of question marks. Sorry if you feel bombarded and don't feel you have to answer all of them. They're mostly to intended to help you focus on areas that might have been missed or as a backhanded way of offering advice. Keep us posted. Patricia [/QUOTE]
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