Help me list my options

[2boyzmama]

I don't want to overlook an option for Connor's schooling, both short and long term. Here's what *I* think our options are, please tell me if I'm missing any!

--Attend school in-district with an interpreter. We supplement speech therapy and ASL instruction outside of school. [this is his current placement]

--Attend school in Dayton Public district, where they have a Total Communication classroom. We supplement speech therapy and ASL instruction outside of school [currently his school is denying my request for this placement]

--Attend School for the Deaf (over an hour away ) in the Apraxia classroom. Total Communication environment, Montessori-based, Kauffman Apraxia protocol used. [this would be ideal, but I can't get over the distance aspect]

--Homeschool with speech therapy provided by our local school and we supplement privately [I put a feeler out in the homeschool community to see if there are any Deaf/HoH or ASL users that homeschool so he can have direct communication with peers]

Are there other options? Did any of you do something different?

There is another School for the Deaf, also about an hour away from us, but it isn't as verbal-focussed, and doesn't have an Apraxia program. We DO want him verbal, but we're in no rush, as long as he progresses in some form of communication, that's all we care about. If he continues relying on ASL for several more years, that's okay with us. I just don't want his overall communication to decrease because he's being pushed too hard verbally when he's just not capable of it.

[UptownZoo]

If he can ride the bus to the school for the deaf, I'd totally consider it. If not, that would be 4 hours in the car per day for you (or would that be your DH? can't remember) and the baby and it'd be a non-starter for me unless there were no other reasonable options.

Otherwise, I'd start banging doors and getting pushy for option number 2. Why are they denying the placement?

[joyluc]

In a previous thread you mentioned moving to get closer to the School for the Deaf. Are you still thinking about that? Is there a school district closer to the School for the Deaf that has a history of placing kids at the School for the Deaf? Two hours a day on the bus seems like a lot to ask your DS.

Is there an educational advocate that could help you get into the Dayton school program?

This seems like such a hard thing to work through but I totally understand your not being happy with the current situation where he doesn't understand why people aren't signing.

[Linda on the move]

Originally Posted by 2boyzmama

--Homeschool with speech therapy provided by our local school and we supplement privately [I put a feeler out in the homeschool community to see if there are any Deaf/HoH or ASL users that homeschool so he can have direct communication with peers]

I'm wording this carefully because mothering doesn't host homeschooling debates -- homeschooling a child with communication issues *meant for us* that no one else was trying to communicate with my child. With a school option, ANY school option, there is someone other than you working every single day to communicate with your child. For my DD it was isolating and for me it was exhausting.

What would he do on the bus? Bus rides of up to 40 minutes seems totally normal to me for those kids who get on first and off last. I'm wondering if his commute might seem more normal if you thought about it that way. A lot of kids spend nearly as long, they are just stopping and starting a lot and going in circles while he'd be going in the same direction at highway speeds.

[2boyzmama]

Originally Posted by Linda on the move

I'm wording this carefully because mothering doesn't host homeschooling debates -- homeschooling a child with communication issues *meant for us* that no one else was trying to communicate with my child. With a school option, ANY school option, there is someone other than you working every single day to communicate with your child. For my DD it was isolating and for me it was exhausting.

What would he do on the bus? Bus rides of up to 40 minutes seems totally normal to me for those kids who get on first and off last. I'm wondering if his commute might seem more normal if you thought about it that way. A lot of kids spend nearly as long, they are just stopping and starting a lot and going in circles while he'd be going in the same direction at highway speeds.

Thank you for that!

There is a very active homeschool community here, including one that is actually considered public school (I have some friends who utilize that program). There also are many co-ops. So if we were to go that route (which is right now not something I look at us doing, but I Have to consider every alternative) then it would be with the understanding that we'd be very active *outside of the home* which is why I put the caveat that there have to be other Deaf/HoH/ASL users in the program. Otherwise it's actually *worse* for him than the program he's at right now.

[2boyzmama]

Originally Posted by joyluc

In a previous thread you mentioned moving to get closer to the School for the Deaf. Are you still thinking about that? Is there a school district closer to the School for the Deaf that has a history of placing kids at the School for the Deaf? Two hours a day on the bus seems like a lot to ask your DS.

Is there an educational advocate that could help you get into the Dayton school program?

This seems like such a hard thing to work through but I totally understand your not being happy with the current situation where he doesn't understand why people aren't signing.

Yes, we're still tossing around the idea of moving. And there is a bus already transporting a child from our district to the Deaf school. I work, and hubby is a student, so us transporting that far is absolutely not an option.

I have several advocates helping me actually

[2boyzmama]

Originally Posted by UptownZoo

If he can ride the bus to the school for the deaf, I'd totally consider it. If not, that would be 4 hours in the car per day for you (or would that be your DH? can't remember) and the baby and it'd be a non-starter for me unless there were no other reasonable options.

Otherwise, I'd start banging doors and getting pushy for option number 2. Why are they denying the placement?

I hope to get more clarity on why they are denying out of district placement during our meeting on Friday. I'm sure it comes down to $$.

[Lollybrat]

If I were in your situation, I would probably try to push for the program at St. Rita. Before DS got his ASD diagnosis, he had a provisional diagnosis of Apraxia and SPD. At that time we were still in MI, but were preparing for our move here (Kettering). So I got some information on St. Rita's and was very impressed with everything I saw and heard about them. I'm a big fan of the Kaufman Protocal. (Nancy Kaufman did DS's first speech/language evaluation and her findings really set us on our whole diagnostic path.)

I'm sorry you and Connor are having such a hard time getting the placement you want.

[khaoskat]

From my point of view, the more normal speech he is exposed to, the better off he is.

The key with apraxia children is the constant exposure and push to verbalize. The longer it takes for him to verbalize, the harder it is going to be for him, as those nuero paths start shutting down. That is the same reason it is highly recommended to start exposing kids to foreign languages before the age of 3.

With Aidan, we opted to put him into the private preschool, for the simple fact that he will be exposed to more children with normal speech and language patterns than he would be in the IEP program.