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DD7 - dyslexic, dysgraphic, problems with visual perception, fine motor and working memory - was supposed to have an AT evaluation done in September. It was agreed to last May in a meeting with our district's Director of Special Services in preparation for our June IEP meeting. It was the first item on the agenda at that meeting and agreed to without a problem. As some of you may recall, however, that meeting ended in an epic meltdown with the principal storming out of the room and both sides turning to attorneys over the summer. DSS left the district and temporary new DSS stepped in over the summer and after many hours and a lot of expense on both sides we got the whole program put back together. Still no AT eval, though.

Every time I have asked about it I have been told "It's been assigned to "K" - she's really good!" Everyone else in the room nods their heads, makes appreciative murmuring sounds and says "Oh yes, "K" is really good!" Still no AT eval. So about 2 weeks ago I emailed the new DSS asking about it. I was told it would be done in September, here we are well into October and still no date. Can I please get a date for the eval. About a week and a half ago I get a response that she is waiting to hear back from "K". Still nothing. So after discussing with our consultant I send another email the other day saying basically It has been 5 months since this was agreed to, 4 months since it was put into an IEP. If it will take another IEP meeting to get this scheduled then I am requesting an IEP meeting for early November so we can discuss implementing the results of the eval.

Yesterday, yes on a Sunday, I got a call from the new DSS. Apparently "K" cannot start the evaluation until mid-November. When pushed I get the following explanation: After that hellacious meeting in June no one did the paperwork for the AT eval. There is generally a 6 week lead time on them which is why I was told it would be done in September - with vacations, etc it would not have been possible over the summer. However it was discovered in September that no one did the paperwork. Rather than just telling me that (remember by now they were terrified of me - I had them dead-to-rights on IEP violations, civil rights violations, Dept of Ed practically on speed dial if needed...) they just started the paperwork in September. The case was assigned to "K" - who is an OT, works for the district part-time and is someone who everyone agrees is really good. They only would have been a couple of weeks late except that on September 30 both of their full-timers who do these evaluations resigned. Both. On the same day. Remember how all summer I was saying the district was in a shambles???

Anyway, now that they have gone from 2 1/2 down to only the 1/2 time person everything is delayed. However realizing that they have now been caught in yet another violation (remember that September date that came and went?) new DSS contacted one of the former full-timers and has offered to have her come in and start the eval this week. The problem is this person is a speech pathologist - not an OT. She was employed by the district at the time the assignment was being made and it was assigned to "K" instead. My DD has a very complicated profile and while she has some speech issues that would likely complicate the use of speech recognition software they are no where near the top of the hit parade in terms of what we need to have addressed.

So I think this was actually a very smart defensive move by the district - offering to have someone come in and do the eval only a few weeks late takes away any potential claim I might have for yet another violation. However I don't know enough about these evals to know if a speech pathologist can actually do a proper eval of a dyslexic/dysgraphic kid with visual perception, fine motor and working memory issues. Yes, I am sure that she is "qualified" but can I count on her to clarify things or will we just muddy the water?

I am thinking that we have waited this long we may as well wait the extra month or so for the "really good" person who also happens to be an OT and who was assigned the case when the district actually had 3 to choose from. On the other hand if the eval isn't started until almost Thanksgiving and we start having all sorts of holiday breaks, we enter "cold and flu season", etc it may not actually be completed until January. Does that matter? It is so hard keeping the long term perspective in place - trying to balance getting DD the best I can while also keeping an eye on the larger chess game going on with the district...

So - for those of you who have had AT evals - does the specialty of the evaluator matter? Does another month or 2 matter? Are there any specific questions I should be asking? Sorry but I need to get back to DSS today because she wants to schedule the former full timer for tomorrow if I agree.

Thanks in advance.

What happened with us was that the evaluation was done, but the results had nothing to do with our dd. It was a "pidgeon hole" report... yes, she should use technology, we will give her an alpha writer. She got the alpha writer, which is an archic machine that is very difficult to read unless you connect to a computer where you can see what you have typed on the "big screen". So, why not just offer a laptop? I don't know.

It gets even better though, my dd did not have any keyboarding skills and there was no one at the school who worked with teaching typing skills. If we wanted her to do that, we would have to teach her at home...though we could not bring the alpha writer home, which was what they wanted her to use.

What ended up happening was that I rebuilt a laptop for my dd and added Dragon Speak Dictation, taught her to use it and then we went into school and she demonstrated it's use for the teacher. Then we collected samples of her writen work and her dictated work for comparison. We took this to the DES, where we FINALLY got an ipad with dragon dictation.

This process, I hate to tell you, took 3 years! Basically, I had to do ALL of the research and legwork and expense...I could have gone the legal route, but I feel atleast somewhat better that the money was spent directly on my child rather than lining the pockets of some well meaning lawyers. (not to metion the fact that we were told that if we did do something legal, they would make sure to make things HARDER for my daughter. - a threat behind closed doors.)

I wish you the best of luck. It is a frustrating time....

We haven't had an eval, but having a child with similar disabilities, I'd be cautious about the speech therapist doing the eval. I would think the OT would be much more qualified to test for this type of need. While 5 weeks feels like a lot longer to wait, I'd do it, because these results will be used for a long time.

I'm so sorry, Pemberley. You've had a year, and it's only October!

Thank you!!!! I emailed new DSS this morning with the "scope of service argument" and included MON's link. I pointed out that I didn't see anything there that made me comfortable with the idea that a speech pathologist could adequately assess AT needs for a dysgraphia kid with visual perception, fine motor and working memory issues. (Interestingly dyslexia WAS mentioned on the list...) I also asked if the eval could be moved up since this delay was the result of an error on the part of someone in the district. Frankly I doubt it will change anything but I believe it puts the issue squarely back in their lap. Hopefully I won't be interpretated as declining the service being offered in a timely manner if it comes up later.

By the way I asked my consultant about it and he confirmed that yes "K" is indeed very good, well known and well respected. It is definitely worth waiting for her. It's just frustrating the delay has to happen. Hopefully she really is that good and we can avoid the kind of situation Mamabear describes...

Success! Apparently "'K' had a a cancellation" and will be starting DD's eval next week. Thanks again for such great advice!

I filled out some paperwork a couple of months ago thinking it was a simple questionnaire. Frankly I don't even remember what I put on the form it's been so long. (Normally I would have xeroxed it before turning it in but I had no idea what kind of process we were entering here.) Apparently "K" will "meet with the team" - which does not include DH or me - and then observe DD for the rest of the morning. She will then return later in the week to do her formal evaluation. Unfortunately several members of the team feel very strongly that in 2nd grade DD should still be focusing primarily on handwriting rather than starting on keyboarding. I feel like we already can recognize that handwriting is *not* going to be her way to communicate her ideas so we should get started as quickly as possible on something that WILL work for her. Interestingly I have friends with kids in other districts who started keyboarding in kindergarten even without any LD issues. Apparently the "better" districts in the state are giving their kids a head start since there is a plan to move standardized testing online in the foreseeable future. I can't understand why there is such a reluctance to start introducing keyboarding to a kid with such significant LD issues when other districts are introducing it to mainstream kids. With her visual perception, fine motor and anxiety issues I think learning these skills is going to take longer and therefore should be started earlier. Of course, as with so much of this, what do I know? I'm only her mother...

I think this is spot-on. You'll find a way...

DeeDee

Maybe you could consider working on keyboarding at home, along the lines of what Mamabear was saying--but for those of us who wouldn't know how to start rebuilding a computer for custom use there are some programs that try to make it fun. Our DD is using Mavis Beacon at school now and likes it (but that might be because it gets her out of other stuff she likes less); we previously tried Typer Island and it had some bugs but makes games out of it (once you get past the drills, which you could 'help' her with in the interest of getting her to where it's fun). Then maybe the teachers would (eventually) let her do homework, etc. by typing, hopefully followed by better accommodations at school--not ideal, but at least it might help you move things along.

There are fun things that indirectly improve typing that can be done on the iPad too (which can be used with the keyboard onscreen or an add-on keyboard).

Doublescoop lets kids type notes to grandparents or other trusted adults.

Scribblenauts requires keyboarding to enter the item you want to create, and then does a spell-check for you.

I'm using this as pre-keyboarding skills, just raising awareness of where the keys are and how typing works-- in hopes that when we go to build fluency, some basic sense of the keyboard will already be in place.

DeeDee

We've tried Typer Island and a few online programs. I also bought her a color coded keyboard (i.e. vowels are purple, consonants are green, punctuation is yellow, etc). It's just so hard for her though. She has incredibly low visual perception and working memory along with her fine motor issues so she has trouble finding the right keys, remembering where they are and hitting the correct ones. Needless to say it's very frustrating for her which is why I think it's so important for it to be done properly by someone who knows how to teach a kid with these issues. I also bought Dragon over the summer but we haven't installed it yet. Apparently she tried an iPad with her OT at school and really liked it.

Uggghhh... it's one of those days where I feel really, REALLY beaten down by all of this.