Q is repeating a demand over and over and over and over and over and over....

[buddy]

Thanks Janet, that is what I was trying to say. We all know what would be appropriate for kids with Tourette's (and Q) but the schools are just not always that advanced, and my experience is they put them in EBD classes. Also, about the medications... that is what I have read too and since many of the anti-psychotics are on his list of "not allowed to give medications", it wouldn't help in that sense.

It is absolutely right that they should have brain injury classes. Or at least resource teachers readily available. In the county any brain injury goes under Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). In the educational system, only external force injuries are under Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). oxygen deprivation, tumors, illnesses, any other after-birth brain injury is called an Acquired Brain Injury and does not meet criteria for Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) services. Though as a brain injury professional, I have to say the differences are far fewer than the similarities. Workshops/professionals say that Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) can cause global injury due to the pressures, etc.... that is true for the others in certain situations too. The nature of the damage can be very different, that is true. Ripping, shearing, twisting etc. in accidents. An argument is that it is life changing, the person's personality may change and emotional effects from being so different is a difference from ABI... well I taught a girl who was a twin, had a tumor and from chemo had a stroke too. She surely did remember she had been different and she could daily compare what she was like. The effects of the damage are what they are, individual and based on the areas of damage. A brain injury professional can work with any child who has a brain injury. There are many who are trying to change this law. It is nonsense.

So, his secondary ed. category is OHI with a letter from the doctor simply stating the Brain Injury diagnosis due to Cavernous Angioma.

SOOOO frustrating because that IS what would turn this around. That is why I bring my own brain injury expert to the table. They should, and that is so very frustrating.

IT is one of my agenda items for our IEP meeting tomorrow.

 

[DammitJanet]

But Dee...his issue was due to a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). You can prove it. He would have never have had this issue at all if not for the accident. He was a perfectly healthy child...maybe autistic but one cannot even know if he was that....before the accident.

 

[DammitJanet]

Actually unless someone has a MRI of that childs brain from when he was born showing that angioma and when it occurred, then I think they need to realize it happened due to the Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and realize acquired means it happened due to something. And it was acquired because he had a trauma.

 

[TeDo]

I completely 100% agree with Janet. The ABI is the PRIMARY diagnosis so that is what I would fight the school for. Who knows if the Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) or anything else would be there if it weren't for the ABI.

 

[DammitJanet]

Exacty Tedo...he was so young that it would be hard to even know if he was autistic at that age before the accident. Kids can be slow or quirky and then grow up to be perfectly normal. However if you add that accident in, no way can you discount that. That is the defining moment in his life.

 

[buddy]

But Dee...his issue was due to a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). You can prove it. He would have never have had this issue at all if not for the accident. He was a perfectly healthy child...maybe autistic but one cannot even know if he was that....before the accident.

I totally hear you. That is federal special education criteria. Believe me, long before Q I have fought this. I even have friends who would just go ahead and put a kid under Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) years ago before auditing got so tight. It absolutely says EXTERNAL force injury. ABI can be serviced, but it is under OHI. I 100% agree it is stupid.

As for if he would be autistic anyway???? who knows???? but he definately has classic autism and he has bio sib with the same autism traits so really they think he would have. Doesn't matter though. He best learns through autism methods. That much we have found out thru the years so I am fully comfortable with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) being primary. daughter, EBD etc. would not meet his sensory needs, need for highly visual/hands on teaching etc. Their classes are just set up differently. He learns wonderfully and generalizes through social stories and comic strip social story teaching. The other classes dont use the sensory room etc.

 

[buddy]

But Dee...his issue was due to a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). You can prove it. He would have never have had this issue at all if not for the accident. He was a perfectly healthy child...maybe autistic but one cannot even know if he was that....before the accident.

OH.... do you mean the car accident when they took him into foster care????

That accident did not cause a head injury. He was ok, he was not restrained but they crashed into a tree and no one was hurt.

His angioma is a genetic condition. It is a low pressure blood vessel that expands with blood. They are now finding the genes that are attached to it and he is at risk (especally because he is partly hispanic) of others in the future.

 

[buddy]

gosh, as I write all this, I think... really is this my kids life? He has been thru heck, but we just live with it you know, I really dont dwell on the horror he has gone thru.