So... I'm not certain what all we will cover at this meeting, but I want to be prepared... I am planning on pushing for a full IEP (which they'd have to challenge his PDD-NOS diagnosis to refuse) which includes official accommodations for his anxiety (additional test time if necessary, a "safe" space he can retreat to when necessary), ADHD (formalized plan for getting homework assignments to/from home - right now missing assignments is the only reason he doesn't have straight A's in all classes for every 6 weeks, also preferential seating up front close to the teacher) and if I can swing it, Pragmatic speech therapy (this would be through his "home" public school)...

We currently take him to a private therapist for cognitive behavior therapy to deal with his anxiety and difficulties dealing with other kids (understanding other people's motivations/intentions).... Is there anything I'm missing? The school seems eager to work with us at the moment, now that they've seen how things can be with him, so I want to ask for things while I can!

Amy, how old is he?

He will need explicit training in organizational skills and support in that area until he's mastered those skills. For us this meant prompting to turn things in, and someone with him when he packs his backpack so that homework pages aren't left in his desk. There should be an explicit plan to fade the prompts by teaching skills for independence.

Besides pragmatic language, is there any social skills teaching/ support going on? How are his class participation skills (listening, waiting turn, raising hand, responding to others on topic)? We had pushed-in special ed support for that too.

DeeDee

Hi Amy,

I don't have any specific advice for you, but back when we were seeking our ds' IEP one thing I found helpful was looking up the SPED info on our state's department of education website - the state's SPED policy manual included a section on "typical accommodations" for various disabilities... and I found things on their list I hadn't realized I could ask for. The bonus was that anything that was *on* the list was something that our school said "yes" to without question

Good luck!

polarbear

Totally agree with Polar. Also: read back through the eval report (multi-factored evaluation or evaluation team report) that got you the IEP. That eval report is key: make sure they are addressing every need identified in the report.

Sometimes it helps to look at state standards, especially for things like social studies (which in the early grades includes things like social and class participation skills, things that people with autism typically need extra help with).

DeeDee

*sigh* So... got a call from the Psych they contract with for evals... he had follow-up questions for me for DS's eval. Apparently all they had him eval'd for was ED. God this makes me tired. I just emailed the Sp Ed coordinator to point out to her that my son has a diagnosis of PDD-NOS and ADHD and he is going to require SERVICES from the school for them... not simply 504 accommodations for his anxiety.

I am hoping we are at least moving 2 steps forward and 1 step back, instead of the inverse.