so what's the point then?
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so what's the point then?
| Tue, 08-29-2006 - 11:16pm |
I don't know if I should vent here today (jk) but here goes anyways....
What exactly is the POINT of "early intervention"?!?!


Awe man Deb, lets do our IEE grumble together.
What happened with the testing? Often our HFA/AS types can ace testing so observations and such need to be done too. And they need to do the right type of testing.
And I hear you about early intervention. Man I could really go on a tear about that one. I am glad you have Steph giving you some advice. There are some great weblinks on understanding test results. Some times, honest, they mis read or misinterpret the results. For instance if a smart aspie type kid scores really really high in one area of a test that has to do with memorization and then really really low on another (say inferences or comprehension) then the overall score ends up average or ok. However, if you look beyond the overall or total score and look at the subscores you see that the child is really struggling in some areas and this descrepancy between the 2 are huge.
It is very common for ASD kids to have this kind of discrepancies in their testing. That may be one thing to look at.
Renee
Debbie,
It's frustrating, I know. ITA with Renee, you need a smart evaluator who will look at the *child*;
visit my blog at www.onesickmother.com
That is so frustrating when that happens. Jake always scores average or above average on most of those evaluations and even on the testing for his school he came out almost a year ahead in a couple of areas but I got lucky and they still felt he needed help. I think that was mostly because he was so behind on motor stuff and sensory wise. Good luck and just keep pushing them!
Teresa
Now I am ready to post my don't let them not give an ASD kid in preschool/kindie services rant. LOL. Most here have likely heard it, maybe you have because I am on a mission not to let this happen to anyone again. I think Dave is doing as well as he is because of this mission.
When Mike was 3,4,5 etc he was continuously tested. They always found "something" but couldn't put thier finger on what it was. He had over a 50% delay in social and self help skills per the vineland, he had a 50% delay in parts of his gross motor skills and a 25% delay in his motor skills over all, he had a moderate to severe sensory integration disorder, and he had significant behavioral and social difficulties (all this evaluated by the schools) BUT he didn't have a significant language or cognitive delay per the lame preschool testing. for instance his language was 6month delay (had to be 1year) but he didn't understand any negatives what so ever.
Because he didn't have a language or cognitive delay he did not qualify for special education. He was lucky to be one of the last kids like him allowed in the integration program as a typical peer (ie kid who needs the program but doesn't qualify so mom pays and he still gets some of the benefits). I think it was because of him they didn't allow it anymore. He took alot of their time and effort and alot of the aides resources.
At the end of preschool the special ed preschool teacher calls me and informs me that I should take Mike to a doctor. If something wasn't done he would likely end up in a special day class and he was "too smart" for that. So I took him to a doc and medicated him.
I was told he still didn't qualify for special ed because of his cognitive and language skills. It took until he was falling apart in 2nd grade before they finally gave him a full IEP (and before I finally faught it hard enough).
By then it was too late. I can't help but think if I had pushed and made them give him services in preschool that he would have been able to be mainstreamed through out school and would have much better skills now.
Renee
Hi Debbie,
I have been MIA lately, due to vacation, start of school and the "non" hurricane Ernesto (glad he turned out to be a wimp, but we had to prepare anyway!)
But I wanted to say I echo everyone else. Eric too was/is all over the board on tests. I remember one of my first posts here was bc at his transition eval between early intervation ande school system. The testers decided he was too advanced and didn't need services, just bc the speech evals, which were tests he had done many times before. Never mind how far behind he was on adaptive skills, fine motor, sensory integration, certain cognitive areas (but not others). Plus Eric was having a "good" day when they tested.
We pulled out the guns, got all our team to write letters (neuro, OT, ST) and finally hired an advocate. In the end, the problem seems to have been "political" they were changing the criteria for who gets services. Once we had our advocate on board, we had no problems. Once we got Eric into the system, all was well.
However, things in "the system" have changed and we fear for our next IEP, which is a year away. Figure we'll have to hire the advocate again.
It's stupid, the "system." Don't have advice, Steph and the gals have more than me and they helped me two years ago. But just wanted to say keep your supermom armour on along with those stilletto heals that are also great weapons. Don't give up!!!
Katherine
Once they are in the system it is easier as long as you dont let them pull them out of the system. We decided to take Cait off an IEP for a year after kindie. It became apparent that she needed the supports within 6 months but we had to argue it all over again. It was just silly, it was obvious she needed an IEP but because her scores were relatively good (some all over but with the high ones came out average) they tried to fight us on it.
The trick was I found was collecting every bit of data I could on how Cait was struggling in all areas of school. Teacher notes, highlight lower areas of scores as well as copies of articles on problems with discrepancies, etc.
Isaac is 5 right? Then he qualifies under the school age rules I believe and as such it may be completely easier to qualify him for services. He has a medical diagnosis and it is likely affecting him educationally (even if it is socially and behaviorally) and he will needs special education and related services to meet his needs.
If you want to email me with his reports and such I am usually pretty good at interpretting test results at least in a way that can identify how to argue that he qualifies for special education.
Renee