medication change and finally a school meeting

SmallTownMom

New Member
I have been waiting to get a school based meeting for my difficult child since the beginning of school this year. My difficult child has a great teacher and has been doing great at school, a wonderful change from the past two years. My goal was to get an IEP done this year, we had a meeting at the end of last year (his grade 3 year) with plans of meeting at the beginning of this year to put an IEP into place.... patiently waiting for months ..... finally I call the school and get a call back after a few days... my difficult child dosen't meet the "requirements" to get aid. How frustrating, he has to get worse to get any help. Not fair for him!
We are having a school based meeting with the learning resource teacher, the principal and his teacher in 2 days to figure out what we can do to help him. When I talked to his teacher I expressed my concern with the effect homework has on him. It causes HUGE anxiety meltdowns and rages and times. Her response was "I can't not give him homework! He needs to learn how." ..... how is that helping him???

We had a psychiatrist appmt last week and changed his medications, he is now on a newer drug Vyvance (any feedback?), Clonodine and another for sleep. I mentioned to his doctor about the school and what his teacher said, I loved his answer... I plan on using it at the meeting..he said....

" That is like taking a cane away from a blind man and saying, go - cross the street, how can you ever expect to learn how to cross the street by yourself if you keep using a cane" (I am paraphrasing a bit... it made more sense when he said it)

Telling our difficult child's to stop being a certain way is like telling a blind man to SEE... it is not possible.

:O)
 

InsaneCdn

Well-Known Member
You're in Canada.
Welcome to the land where IEPs have no teeth.

If you don't have the support of the principal... UGH!!!!!!
(been there done that.)
 

justour2boys

Momto2Boys
My oldest difficult child used Vyvance and for him, an ADD-inattentive kid, it worked well. However, we had to discontinue due to lack of weight gain/growth... he just wasn't eating enough.

You might want to discuss with your doctor about the timing of the Clonidine dose. When my difficult child was using Vyvance, we added an afternoon (4:00 pm) dose of Tenex to help with the re-bound of Vyvance... and together they worked well.
 

TerryJ2

Well-Known Member
Oh, no. That's awful. Clearly, he's not learning much this way.
One thing that has worked for us in the past, is to get difficult child to do as much of his homework at school as possible, at lunch or after school. Teachers and teachers' aides have after-school hrs to work with-students so you could try that. Then, once he's home, no more homework.
 

InsaneCdn

Well-Known Member
He's nine.
Time to fight for a comprehensive evaluation.

The list of dxes he has? don't mean much to most school systems (in Canada).
If he were to be diagnosed as Aspie, for example, or a mood disorder (and severe anxiety or depression count - even if they are secondary)... then he may qualify as a "high needs" student.
But unless you can get that umbrella diagnosis... it's really hard to get accommodations, much less interventions and special resources (technology, access to an aide, etc.)
 

Anxworrier

New Member
My difficult child is 13 and started on vyvanse in October. He has add, inattentive. I feel it has been a tremendous help. He is a skinny boy though and I do worry about weight.
 
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