Available at 
Tweet
They gave DS services immediately, but the autism label in his IEP meant they were wasting resources on a kid who didn't need some of them. They had him in OT, PT, speech and language therapies when he only needed the language.
The school district we were in during the initial DX and therapy was really frustrating to deal with, but the next district in another state was fabulous. They did some testing when we arrived to gauge where his level of ability was and they were pissed at the amount of BS they found in his barely-intelligible IEP.
The first district tried to tell us that DS was borderline mentally retarded according to the IQ testing they had done. Except the IQ testing they did was very language dependent and not appropriate for someone with delays or someone not fluent in English. Our developmental pediatrician made them give DS a non-language based test and he scored in the "high" range. Our doc was gobsmacked that the district was giving kids with language delays a language-based IQ test.
Our final IEP meeting with the preschool got ugly. They were fighting with us tooth-and-nail that DS was "absolutely autistic" and that we just "needed to accept the obvious". So I asked the school "psychologist" what the DSMIV was -- what criteria did she use to diagnose our son. That's when she revealed that she wasn't actually a psychologist, only had an undergrad degree, and wasn't qualified to make a diagnosis. No shit. So I asked her why she kept arguing with someone (DH) who WAS qualified to diagnose DS and why they were wholly disregarding the diagnosis and paperwork we had given them from our specialist. They had nonanswer and we left shortly thereafter.
Not all districts suck. Some do, some don't. But during the time when you feel vulnerable and afraid, go with the professionals who know their shit. You're less likely to find power tripping ding-dongs who make you feel like a shitty parent.
The school district we were in during the initial DX and therapy was really frustrating to deal with, but the next district in another state was fabulous. They did some testing when we arrived to gauge where his level of ability was and they were pissed at the amount of BS they found in his barely-intelligible IEP.
The first district tried to tell us that DS was borderline mentally retarded according to the IQ testing they had done. Except the IQ testing they did was very language dependent and not appropriate for someone with delays or someone not fluent in English. Our developmental pediatrician made them give DS a non-language based test and he scored in the "high" range. Our doc was gobsmacked that the district was giving kids with language delays a language-based IQ test.
Our final IEP meeting with the preschool got ugly. They were fighting with us tooth-and-nail that DS was "absolutely autistic" and that we just "needed to accept the obvious". So I asked the school "psychologist" what the DSMIV was -- what criteria did she use to diagnose our son. That's when she revealed that she wasn't actually a psychologist, only had an undergrad degree, and wasn't qualified to make a diagnosis. No shit. So I asked her why she kept arguing with someone (DH) who WAS qualified to diagnose DS and why they were wholly disregarding the diagnosis and paperwork we had given them from our specialist. They had nonanswer and we left shortly thereafter.
Not all districts suck. Some do, some don't. But during the time when you feel vulnerable and afraid, go with the professionals who know their shit. You're less likely to find power tripping ding-dongs who make you feel like a shitty parent.
Comment