Advice on bad dev. ped appt....
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| Fri, 10-07-2005 - 7:41am |
Hi,
Yesterday I took Jack (age 4) to his semi-annual dev. ped appt. How it works is that he sees a psych and it's taped. The dr. watches the tape and we go see her next week and get the recs. etc. (she also sees him then).
So of course I had all my ducks in a row. I packed the snacks, went into NYC early and took him first to the playground where my DD spent her formative years (he really liked that). On and on. Long story short, he wouldn't cooperate very well for the psych. He wasn't acting out...he was cheerful at points. She thought some of it was sensory but some was behavioral and he just decided not to work since I was in the room and he didn't know her, etc. I had reinforcers, sensory toys, you name it. At least he showed some skills and language for her which she thinks means that he has more and she just didn't get a good read on him. It was a very expensive and frustrating 2 hours!
She offered to let us come back with a therapist of his, who could potentially get more out of him. But there aren't any openings for several months.
Or, we could just procede with this eval. I was hoping to get some idea of where he was on his "curve" and therefore the dr. would give us some sort of prognosis. DH and I (and his therapists) have all seen improvements.
But if we are just using this to try and get more services out of the SD, then we can use what we have. At the moment he is getting what services the dr recommended, but we are paying a lot for it. The SD has denied mediation (yes, it's optional) so we'd likely have to suit.
WWYD?
Thanks,
Cathy

Hmmmm -- I'm inclined to say go with what you have. Here's why -- YOU know Jack can do better than that appt. showed, so that should set your mind at ease somewhat. For getting more services covered by the SD, you need to show he NEEDS these services, right? With a less-than-glowing evaluation, you have ammunition. Even if he is higher functioning than that shows, he will qualify, right? I know it's hard to settle with those results, especially if you know what he can do, but it seems that the purpose is to get services paid for. Just my thought. Let us know what you do.
Kellie