Okay so we finally got a draft of what I guess is the IEP report for my DS7 (1st grade). The IEP is for congenital hypotonia, vision disorder (intermittent convergent strasbismus) and anxiety nos. What are my rights with this? He gets an IEP (Yay!) for the vision, hypotonia and anxiety. I love and agree with almost all of the recommendations that the report provides (she basically just lifted all of those I provided to her and put them in the report and "recommended" them). However, I do not agree with one of her recommendations. The school psych recommends that a, "behavior specialist be included in (DS)'s team to assist in determining if suggested strategies and specifically designed instruction are sufficient at the time his IEP is developed or if a functional behavior assessment should be initiated." I do not agree to this. Ds' "behaviors" are not due to ADHD, ODD, PDD NOS, or any other suspect disorder or spectrum disorders. His behaviors (past behaviors, actually - he's been doing incredibly well with his new teacher and now with everyone aware of and accomodating for his vision and hypotonia) are/were do to his having a suoerior intelligence stuck inside a body that can't see or write properly and no one knowing why he was so frustrated, stressed and anxious about it. Example (cited in report), he had to do an exercise on the computer he sat there trying to do it but couldn't (now I know that he could not find the right keys on the key board b/c he has hard time seeing thinngs like letters on a keyboard due to his vision), other students were finishing and leaving and he was still sitting there. He was encouraged to keep trying and he said "I hate this stupid thing! I am not doing it again!" Well, I can clearly see why he was upset. He couldn't see the keyboard properly. He didn't want to say that he couldn't see the letters properly (that's if he even realized he wasn't seeing right). He sat there feeling stupid and not understanding why other children who he thought he was at least as smart as, if not smarter, were doing the exercise sans help quickly and he couldn't find the letters. He was getting afraid that people would think he didn't know his alphabet and think him "stupid." (This is a huge fear of his) . His teacher and TAs had no idea he could not see the letters properly either. This seems like a "behavior" (ODD or whatever - school cited it as an example of his "defiance") but it's the result of his hidden disability, albeit unknown at the time.
Anyway, "behaviors" shouldn't even be nearly as much of an issue now that we know his physical issues are and from where the anxiety comes and he has been doing great since school has started.
But anyway, I will not agree to this recommnedation. What do I do about it?
Last edited by marytheres; 09/14/12 05:22 PM.
