Hi All,
Sorry to have been a stranger lately, we were tied up with my daughter;s outside evaluations and husbands securing a new job.
My question for you all today is as follows…
The Speech Language Pathologist has conducted some evaluations of my five year old son. She tested his hearing with Audiometric screening, did an oral peripheral examination, observed his voice, speech, fluency, articulation, language, and a vision screening was done. She prepared and supplied us with the evaluation report and an invitation for an IEP for Speech Placement only.
She lists the following as his weaknesses…
numerous soud changes in spontaneous speech
Poor pragmatic language skills
Moderate-severe Articulation Disorder for age
She also states…
Although his receptive and expressive language skill performance falls within normal limits for his age, he exhibits pragmatic language skills which are often inappropriate. These include difficulties with verbal turn-taking, topic initiation and maintenance, discribing activities and procedures completely, and with providing appropriate responses to questions and in spontaneous conversation.
Due to speech changes present in his spontaneous speech and language difficulties evident in spontaneous communication. these are expected to have a significant impoact on classroom reponse and participation. His participation in speech-language therapy, along with consultation with the classroom teacher, many be necessary for progress in the area(s) of deficit to occur.
*Eligibility criteria for services in the speech-lanuage program will be reviewed by the Multi-discilinary team at the school. The team will use these evaluation results and additional information to determine appropriate education services.
Note, she does not describe what additional information they will be using. Also, the team we will meet with, that she refers to, consists of the speech-pathologist, the classroom teacher, and the guidance counselor, and no one else.
While not noted in the report or discussed, it is an important factor that I tell you my son has been prescribed stimulant medication for a trial period by our pediatrician for many symptoms of ADHD. His sister is also taking same medications and has been declared by the same school as Learning Disabled in Reading and Math.
Finally, here is my question to all of you experienced and wise parents out there. Should my husband and I go ahead and serve the school our written request for them to conduct the complete, comprehensive, Psycho-Educational Evaluation right now, or should we allow them to place him in speech for a time and see how he progresses before we make any further request for further evaluations? Our pediatrician, who is of course, not as experienced as many of you with this sort of issue, recommended that we wait. Her theory is, as he is five and will be getting the speech services, perhaps the school will sense an air of cooperation from us if we let them try the speech services for a month or two, and if his grades and classroom behavior warrant further testing, then ask at that point. We don’t have his interim report at present. We know he got off to a rocky start in the classroom, was and still is somewhat afraid of his teacher as she is less than comfortable to be around at times, still has trouble attending at times, but has been academically improving over the last few weeks with the stimulant meds.
As the Mom, my first impulse is to be very reactive, and I generally take the most extreme route to a problem when it comes to my children. My husband, the more anylitical of us, who tries to think like the attorney etc., believes we should give them time, opportunity, etc., which if we end up in disagreements later, certainly bolsters our legal position if we appear to have been extremely cooperative all along. Still I read in the current Wright’s Law Newsletter that as a Parent, we should make sure that our child is assessed in all possible areas of concern as soon as possible. I don’t want to come off like a picky, overbearing Mother, which I already have done many times this year, but if I should be asking for more evaluations right now, then I want to do so. Could you all share your opinions, advice, thoughts here?
Thanks in advance,
Deb
Re: Should Speech Language Evaluation be the only Evaluation
I would wait but I tend to be overly cautious
What I am seeing, however, is a kid starting medication and speech services which is already a big chunk of help. It is very possible these two changes could make an impact.
Id worry that too many services would make it hard to tell what indeed was working. Id also question what you think he may qualify for?-kindergarteners in the schools Ive exepreienced may qualify for Title one but are rarely admitted to special ed at that age unless their problems are severe. It seems that comes more into play with reading in first grade
Flip side, how backlogged are they for testing? Would it be worthwhile to schedule testing for summer 2003 so you could enter first grade with this info in hand-and they can have more openings in the summer as well. Usually, by October, most schools are overwhelmed with testing requests as this is the point teachers are developing concerns and parents are getting grades. He could get a ‘quickie evaluation’ or perhaps one done by someone less qualified than the preferred examiner
My son had several tests done by the slp in our old district that should have been done by the psychologist. Psych was that backlogged and I didnt consider having them pay for outside eval-in retrospect, I should have “rocked the boat” and insisted. But you might avoid that be asking for a summer eval
Re: Should Speech Language Evaluation be the only Evaluation
I am just wondering why he is taking medication without a formal ADHD diagnosis? Wouldn’t it be better to determine what the actually disability is before you start a trial of medication?
I heard to many times “He is only five!” about my son. I would not even for a second consider waiting until he was a little older. I had him evaluated and know I have a complete understanding, at least and understanding right now, of what is going on with his brain and how to help him. If I had just waited another year, he would be suffering in first grade because I wouldn’t know what was wrong.
I am not a fan of waiting, the earlier you know the better and easier things will be.
K.
Balancing the political realities with the need to know...
That’s really the issue right? You already know that his issues may be indicators of other things to come such as learning disabilities, and that the sooner you know that the sooner you can take appropriate intervention. I don’t know about your school, but my kid’s school doesn’t expect kindergartners to read. But I now have a 3rd grader we believe is dyslexic, and I sure wish we had started working on phonemic awareness when he was 5, not 7. If the speech therapy is going to work on those early reading skills then he won’t be harmed by waiting, and you may gain some credibility with the powers that be. I liked the suggestion to schedule the evaluation now if there is a backlog. Of course, if a private evaluation is a possibility you could have your cake and eat it too - so to speak.
Re: Balancing...and more discussion...
Thanks Everyone for the excellent advice, info, etc. I truly appreciate your input very much. To answer one of the first questions, it was at my suggestion that we tried my son on the Adderal. He was having difficulty attending in class, and control impulses to blurt things out, often at inappropriate moments. I had asked the teacher to keep me informed about his behavior, but found he was being punished at times without my knowledge for some of these kinds of offenses. Anyway, after discussions of moving to another class, many feathers ruffled, etc., my dear husband laid down the gauntlet for these educators, in that we were to be notified of ANY unusual behavior and so far, they have been complying with great detail. As his behavior has greatly improved since beginning the trial of medication, I have concluded that he benefits from taking it as does my daughter, and myself.
As far as I am aware there is no back log for evaluations. As understand the law here, they have only forty five days in which to begin the evaluations from the date they receive a request in writing from the parents. I agree with Karen N., it really IS a balancing of political realities. Still, with all my research, hours of reading on this site, and others, I have found tons of info to support the “Ask for the Evaluation now” decision. The most recent was current research being conducted that correlates the relationship between speech problems and learning disabilities. The researches say of course, it is all still being debated, but they also declare that the “Wait and See” attitude that educator’s often recommend, is no longer acceptable. Still, if we plan to continue to use the public education route, we will have no choice but to make efforts to work with these folks. How much is acceptable cooperation though? Do I wait for a couple of weeks/months, and then serve my written request? My daughter ended up having to repeat first grade because we didn’t know enough to act more quickly and we swore we would never let that happen again to our children. Am I being too careful or not careful enough?
Thanks again for any help you might offer!
Deb
Re: Balancing...and more discussion...
I think that if you use the “If I knew then what I know now” philosophy, you will be doing a great service for your son.
I would try and think of it this way: Since the school has 45 school days to complete and evaluation and have an IEP meeting, if you were to request an evaluation on Monday, they have five days to get you a consent which is means the 45 days would start next Friday. They have until sometime in December to complete testing, that is if they comply with the timeframes!
Then you are looking at Christmas and Christmas vacations and all that good stuff. You won’t have an IEP until January and then you must review and make sure that it is competent. So you are at least into the end of January beginning of February.
My thinking is the sooner the better. If the thinking of wait and see is outdated for educators and administrations then it should be outdated for parents as well.
Also, just wanted to throw my two cents in about retention. I don’t believe in it. I understand that some parents feel their child is not emotionally mature enough to move on, which is fine, but retaining a child with a learning disability and trying to get them to relearn what the teacher didn’t teach the first time around sounds foolish. I know I will take some flack for saying this, but if the child has the right services and accomodation, ones that fit and help his or her disability and learning differences, there is no need for retention. Not to mention how the child must feel watching his or her friends move on and having to stay behind!
K.
Re: Balancing...and more discussion...
Excellent Points K!!!!!(:
You guys are great for helping me grow a backbone about these issues. You are absolutely correct about the timeframe stuff. I had forgotten how long they took to do all the paper juggling etc. for my daughters evaluation. Also, it was started on, of all dates, 9-11-01!
Do me another great favor and respond to my additional questions on the above post.
Thank you for writing, I will definitely have my husband read your post!
Deb
Re: Should Speech Language Evaluation be the only Evaluation
Is your child starting in K this year, and is this the first school experience? I would certainly request a comprehensive evaluation in writing from the school, and include the fact that your son’s behavior prompted your doctor to start medication. Despite what you read on these BB, it is not usual for students to require medication in K, in fact a full eval for ADHD should include standardized behavioral assessment by school, home and daycare providers. This is the time to get a full psych. eval thru the school, and have a meeting to discuss all the issues, not just speech and language. Use the school’s resources first, as private evals. are very expensive.
Re: Should Speech Language Evaluation be the only Evaluation
Thanks SAR,
From all my advice here, and discussions with my husband we came to the same conclusion as you recommend. I am printing up our written request for the complete Evaluation as we speak. Thanks very much for sending me your thoughts. It helps so much to have this kind of support when the system so often attempts to break down a parent’s confidence level and ability to think rationally under pressure. I have armed myslef with stacks of appropriate practices for writing IEPs. I will keep everyone posted.
Much Thanks,
Deb
Re: Should Speech Language Evaluation be the only Evaluation
If your son has speech and language issues, especially pragmatics and also behavioral issues he may have developmental issues that are too complicated for the school to do a reasonable job of assessing. Yes, I believe you should request that the testing be done but if at all possible I’d try to get assesments done by a pediatric developmental specialist. Believe it or not, the wait for that testing will probably be longer than the testing offered by the school. Perhaps you can get him on a waiting list for a pediatric developmental specialist and then if you feel the school has not gotten sufficient information from it’s testing to develop an appropriate educational plan for your child, you can request that they pay for the additional testing. Meanwhile… the best thing you can do for your child is make sure he is having a positive classroom experience regardless of test results. Talk to the principal and teacher often about your concerns. Put your concerns in writing… along with the things you think are great about your child. Make sure that they are using positive behavioral techniques with him. You don’t want him to start out his school career with the perception that school is a punishing place. Good luck.
I may be on the opposing side to this discussion, but I believe it would be best to request all the evaluation now. Why can’t he be receiving speech therapy while the evaluation are going on?
It would be best to know what all the areas of weakness and strength are instead of just addressing one particular area. If nothing else turns up in the full evaluation, than no harm was really done, you will simply have a better understanding of how your child learns.
Also, just out of curiousity, you said the SLP “..tested his hearing with Audiometric screening, did an oral peripheral examination, observed his voice, speech, fluency, articulation, language, and a vision screening was done.” I wasn’t aware that an SLP could test vision and hearing and make “diagnosis” about those things? Just wondering? What tests did she use to make the speech and lang diagnosis and how is she qualified to do so?
K.