Hi,
I’m new to this board, and grateful for it being available.
Next year my son will transition from a Preschool Program for Children with Disabilities (PPCD) in which he repeated a year, to kindergarten at the school I work at as an art teacher. I just had him tested by the school, and privately by a neuropschologist. Both results were similar: ADHD, severe phonological prosessing disorder (especially expressive language), cognitive disorder.(IQ is 70, but s/b viewed with caution due to up and down scores) But delays in all areas. Presently he gets 3 speech classes a week, adaptive health fitness, and OT. I am finally getting him outside Speech therapy and OT, which I am thrilled about. Long overdue.
The school says he has Oppositional Defiance Disorder, and his mood and temperament will be monitored to rule out possible emotional disturbance or a juvenile biPolar disorder. The Private eval doesn’t go to that extreme, but says anxiety needs to be monitored. He is very immature and stubborn. I don;t worry about an emotional disorder becasue I think he is reactiong to his limitations with frustration and a need for some kind of control in his world.
I am mostly concerned about his cognitive ability and was wondering if it’s realistic to expect the school to meet the recommendation of the neuropschologist to keep him in a small structured class, with a low student teacher ratio next year. I know I should probably know this since I work in the school as an art teacher, but I honestly don’t know to what extent the school is capable of individualized help like that.
At our ARD in March can I insist that he gets at least half a day (or more) in a special ed. classroom. Is that realistic?? I just know that there s only one resource person, and an aid and when I aked what was typical pull time out for help, she said it was up to the teachers, and the most she did once was 2 hours. That sounded weak to me. And though the ultimate goal would be full inclusion, I am getting the impression that they feel Kinder is not the squeaky wheel. I notice that they postpone testing until near the end of the year, and even then that’s only in obvious cases where the child is too hard for theacher to deal with. So many kids go by until 2nd grade when it’s obvious to me that they are already showing some kind of learning issues. I just don’t get it. Well, my son is one of the obvious cases, and because he has so many different issues that I am determined to see him get the attention he deserves. This will be tricky since it may mean pushing my nose against the school that I work for. Not only that I want to know how I can be sure that a trained sp. ed professional will be working with him and not just get dumped off on an uneducated aide.
Long story short - are free ‘appropriate’ resources actually available? And who’s call is it on creating the environment that is most affective to his individualized needs? Should they honor his neuropsychologist’s long list of specific recommendations?
If anyone knows what I mean please give me your opinion or experience.
Thanks
Welcome...
just wanted to mention another site that might be helpful for you: www.conductdisorders.com. Also, try this link: http://www.dbpeds.org/articles/detail_p.cfm?id=119. It is a link to an article about ‘Oppositional Behaviour as a Learning Disability’ by Ross W. Green, PHD and others — he is the author of a book called ‘The Explosive Child’ that I have heard recommended for oppositional kiddos.
That site also has great links and articles about the various problems that could be causing the ODD behaviour — I believe it is a symptom, NOT a disorder per se — could be originated by very different things. I have heard of PDD NOS and aspergers children being mis-dx’d as early onset bipolar — not to say that this is what is going on, but it is best to rule out EVERYTHING…you want the RIGHT dx, whatever it may be…
Best wishes!
Re: restrictive environment needed
Thanks to you both for the replies. Wow! It feels so good to know that I can get support like this so easily! I love this site. I’m a single parent and I’ve been going it alone here for too long! Thanks!
Janis, You are right on the money about the help we give him at home and with private services. I just discovered a gold mine. Today was our first day of his new therapy he’ll get. I put it off because I didn’t think I could afford it, I didn’t know where one was, and because I thought he was too young and non compliant to get anything out of it. But suddenly it all was right there. A block from my job, and they cut back on my co-pay to help me get the amount of sessions he needs. They offer everything there. Speech, OT, PT, social skills, and sports. I know this is where a huge chunk of progress begins. They will give me resources to work with him at home too.
It’s unrelaistic to put all my eggs into one basket. I will fight for what he needs at school, if I can keep it within reason, but I can’t continue to count on them to make it all happen for him. Hearing that from you couldn’t have come at a better time.
Thank you so much Elizabeth, I had to put the kids to bed so now I’ll go check those sites more thoroughly. The first one looked excellent. I failed to mention that he only has subthresh-hold characterisitcs of PDD (?). So I take that as they pretty much ruled it out.
The school agrees with you that ODD is more of a co-morbid “symptom”. That it can be outgrown and I definately see that happening. But I do have some other behavior concerns, that may or mat not be a result of the severe speech and cog. disorder. So I look forward to exploring the site you gave me. Thanks so much.
Sounds like you are on your way!
I believe that ALL these problems, learning or otherwise, that are labeled as ‘diagnoses’ are part of a wide ‘spectrum’ and the dx itself is only a thing you get to qualify for services — find out what group(s) of problems he ‘belongs’ to and therefore fast-track on the way to find things and ways to help him.
The kids are God-given (what ever you conceive God to be, that is) and the dx or disorder is MAN-MADE…so use the testing etc. to lead you to things that WORK for him. The right therapy can do WONDERS…you are starting nice and young and, though you have lots of learning to do, you also have plenty of reason to expect a great outcome for your son. It sounds like you have found a great resource.
Good luck — hope we’ll hear how you get on! There is lots of support here, especially for learning difficulties.
BTW…It is funny, just today I noticed when lurking at the conductdisorders forum (I don’t post there since I have a bystander’s interest only, just go to learn but don’t have any front line experience to share) that they recommend ‘US’ (ldonline’s forums, articles, and resident experts) as THE place to go to get help for reading problems…congrats to all who participate here!
Well, Jonette, you ask some tough questions. When a parent makes him or herself the expert and pushes, they can sometimes get what they want. Your child may need some time in regular class for social reasons, but the cognitive and phonological issues will need extensive work before he’ll be able to keep up with academics in the classroom. I see nothing wrong with pushing for 3 hours a day. Be sure you ask for 5 days a week for speech-language and hope to get 3-4. It is hard to advocate for your child when it is the school where you work. On the other hand, perhaps they might try to give him what he needs because you DO work there. That could go either way.
You can’t dictate too much about the special class, unfortunately. It could be pull out to a resource room with kids of different ages going in and out during the time he is in there. And certainly, he won’t get much one on one. Realistically, most of the remediation he’ll get will be what you provide at home or privately. There are excellent parents on this board who can tell you about a multitude of therapies they have tried. The kids are mostly doing far better than they would have been with just school services. So just keep that in mind.
Janis