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    Joined: Apr 2015
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    Originally Posted by polarbear
    Did they give you any other reason for why the process was refused? And did they refuse the eligibility assessment process or did they go through the process and find him not eligible for an IEP?

    I don't think they want any troublesome kids in the program.
    Both times the evaluation was refused bc they looked at his records and there was no discrepancy between ability and performance, as I understand it.

    In third grade, I asked for eval bc school counselor observed him in classroom and told me he was in his own world.

    My son did okay in elementary school. There were some minor behavioral issues, but he always had good grades and his teachers liked him. ADHD med seemed to pretty much take care of it. Not this year...he is also going through puberty kind of early. That may be confounding things as well.

    Last edited by eco21268; 04/28/15 09:29 AM.
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    Originally Posted by eco21268
    Originally Posted by indigo
    Many of us have been duped at one point or another by those we believed were making friendly, supportive overtures.
    ... "assume the worst."
    The old quote "Trust, but verify" may be a handy guide as you ask clarifying questions; Sometimes a catchall question such as, "Is there anything else I should know?" is helpful.

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    Originally Posted by polarbear
    I'm also curious about the teacher who filled out the sensory eval - was that the art teacher or a different teacher? Any type of behavior-related assessment should be completed by more than one person, and by adults who are observing the child in more than one "domain" - i.e., a parent should have input in addition to school personnel, and the professional who is evaluating the combined evals should be able to have a sense of how behavior differs from home to school. I would also be vary wary of having just one teacher fill out the form, especially a teacher who appears to not like your ds and who's had issues with other kids at school.

    I asked the OT if just one teacher filled it out. She responded--yes, but evidently all three core teachers conferred on the answers. I don't know much about these things, but that is just so obviously ridiculous.

    AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

    smile

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    Hi eco,

    Two things I wanted to add - when you were having difficulty getting the OT report emailed to you - our school district doesn't allow the OTs/SPED folks/etc to email or fax reports due to privacy policies. When I needed to see a report, it worked best to ask that the person leave it at the office desk at school in an envelope for me and I picked it up in person. They can also send things home in a sealed envelope with your child. You received your report so this is irrelevant at this point, but if you run into situations like this in the future, I'd consider asking (via email/writing) for a printed copy that you can pick up.

    The other thing I noticed - in the sensory profile your ds is listed as "probable difference" for Sensory Seeking and also "definite difference" for Sensory Avoiding. I'm not a Sensory expert, but wouldn't it be unlikely that a child would be both sensory seeking *and* sensory avoiding? I also think that with most kids who truly have sensory issues it's unlikely that they'd have definite differences across the board - I'd expect a more uneven profile.

    polarbear

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    Originally Posted by polarbear
    The other thing I noticed - in the sensory profile your ds is listed as "probable difference" for Sensory Seeking and also "definite difference" for Sensory Avoiding. I'm not a Sensory expert, but wouldn't it be unlikely that a child would be both sensory seeking *and* sensory avoiding? I also think that with most kids who truly have sensory issues it's unlikely that they'd have definite differences across the board - I'd expect a more uneven profile.


    Having two kids with sensory issues, I'm less certain of this. They can be sensory seeking and sensory avoiding for the same stimuli under different circumstances. For example, there are kids who cannot stand having a light sheet over their bodies, and yet love a weighted blanket.

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    Originally Posted by polarbear
    The other thing I noticed - in the sensory profile your ds is listed as "probable difference" for Sensory Seeking and also "definite difference" for Sensory Avoiding. I'm not a Sensory expert, but wouldn't it be unlikely that a child would be both sensory seeking *and* sensory avoiding? I also think that with most kids who truly have sensory issues it's unlikely that they'd have definite differences across the board - I'd expect a more uneven profile.

    Yes, they apparently think he is deficient in every single possible way!

    Their observations don't seem to line up with the VMI stuff, either, unless I'm just totally not getting it. The "visual" and "movement" things are making me giggle a little. I guess that his "above average" visual perception and motor coordination appear as "awkward and clumsy" and whatever questions resulted in the 21/55 in Visual.

    They haven't said one nice thing about him all year long--now I know why! He's just so terribly defective.

    I also think it's kind of funny the "above mentioned behaviors were not observed during assessment." I don't think the teachers get to read this but I wish they did. I tell everyone (who will listen) that he is not difficult at home and is great with adults, one-on-one.

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    Originally Posted by ElizabethN
    Having two kids with sensory issues, I'm less certain of this. They can be sensory seeking and sensory avoiding for the same stimuli under different circumstances. For example, there are kids who cannot stand having a light sheet over their bodies, and yet love a weighted blanket.
    I actually do think he has some sensory issues. I would describe him as "under-reactive" which is not a technical term (there's a better one, but I don't remember it).


    Last edited by eco21268; 04/28/15 11:15 AM.
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    Seriously, at what point do you just cut bait? My friend (who has 2e daughter) talked to our other friend (who is SPED process coordinator who thinks I should just get him out of that school.

    She said the most important thing is that the teachers haven't meshed with him and it's too stressful for him to be there.

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    Originally Posted by eco21268
    Seriously, at what point do you just cut bait? My friend (who has 2e daughter) talked to our other friend (who is SPED process coordinator who thinks I should just get him out of that school.

    Our family has chosen to stay and change the environment. It has been a boatload of work. I do think DS was happy not to change schools.

    We really looked for alternatives-- both elsewhere in district and in other local districts. We did not find schools that were clearly better in dealing with our particular profile, so we would likely have been starting over wherever we went. Once we started fixing, we just kept on because starting over in a new school would have been A LOT of work.

    A 2E is going to be a problem fit in most places-- in most places you will have to figure out something unconventional. There is no fairy palace to move to, at least not of which I am aware.

    I believe that most of the teachers in your situation are acting out of ignorance of disability, with a side dish of "we don't want unusual people in our program; they're too much work." This strikes me as a place where-- if the administration on some level is amenable--you could change the situation by educating people and incentivizing them to value each student. This pays off not just for your kid, but for all the kids. Again, it's work. It's what we did, and in our case it paid off.

    In your shoes, I'd be looking at gifted options elsewhere while also trying really hard to solve the problems where DS is now. Know what all the options are. At some point, it will become clear which path is more straightforward and will yield the better fit.


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    Originally Posted by DeeDee
    [A 2E is going to be a problem fit in most places-- in most places you will have to figure out something unconventional. There is no fairy palace to move to, at least not of which I am aware.

    I believe that most of the teachers in your situation are acting out of ignorance of disability, with a side dish of "we don't want unusual people in our program; they're too much work." This strikes me as a place where-- if the administration on some level is amenable--you could change the situation by educating people and incentivizing them to value each student. This pays off not just for your kid, but for all the kids. Again, it's work. It's what we did, and in our case it paid off.

    I hope. He REALLY wants to stay there and I think there has been a constellation of issues that have made the whole year difficult--family, insurance changes, doctors, meds, school--just all of it. I don't think it's the curriculum that's the problem--I think he's failed to assimilate.

    Last night I noticed a bunch of his band friends interacting with him and it seemed like they really like him. He was always pretty popular with elementary kids, and he's told me all year his friends like him--I just wasn't sure he was right. That helped, somewhat.

    Reading that OT report made me feel like I am in a parallel universe. All the adults in my child's real life think he is adorable.

    Last edited by eco21268; 04/28/15 11:36 AM.
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