The special kids go back to school! (2011 edition) - Page 2

[karne]

I have to say that I am anxious about school starting.  I posted in another thread that we love summer here, and part of it is the relief from the intensity of the school year.

My middle school dd w/dyslexia is actually doing very, very well in school, but adlolescence and managing an LD is a big job.  I am constantly in awe of how hard she works.  We are currently struggling with knowing when to push, when not to, etc.  It's just not that clear cut because there's a fine line where higher expectations move into the world of too much frustration.  It's like fine tuning an instrument in terms of getting the right balance, and it's really important for us to be vigilent about it.  She lo0ves school however, has good friends, and gets good grades, so that's a big plus.

My younger, high achieveing, ds continues to struggle with written output.  We have got to come to some place of understanding about this, for his sake, this year.  I am not feeling great about the situation this year, which is a change because we've previously had really good experiences.

Sorry to not have more enthusiasm.  It just feels complicated, and I personally need to be in the mindset for it.  Sun is shining, we're still on vacation, so that's where my head is at!

[proudmamanow]

my dd1, age 6, is starting school this year for the first time, after being homeschooled for JK & K. This is a big step for her, but it feels like the right decision for our family and after 2 years at home and OT for her sensory issues I think she is ready. I have the normal jitters of a parent sending her kid off to school for the first time, I think. Dd is an anxious kid, but did so well at a 1 week day camp this year, after a nervous start she LOVED it and we are very encouraged by this. Her SPD is relatively mild, though auditory sensitivity is definitely an issue. I'm not really sure how much to say to the teacher before hand b/c I'm not sure if she will need a lot of accommodation or not, she tends to be the kid who keeps it together really well in groups only to crash when she is at home. 

I'm excited for all that she is going to learn, plus she really really likes being around other kids so I think she will like this part of school.

[Thing1Thing2]

I'd like to join! DS (3) will be starting therapy this year at a pre-school for special needs children. I do feel nervous and had no intention of starting him this early, but I think he needs the help and therapy.

One issue I have is putting him on the bus. I feel nervous putting him in the care of a bus driver who I don't know. I feel that they don't have qualifications to work with children and to protect children this young. Basically, it's just someone with a bus drivers license. It's very scary to me. Wish we had another car so I could take him.

Thanks for starting this thread, Linda!

[beachcomber]

Any of your kids go to schools where uniforms are required? Our school is starting them this year. Basic stuff - just white polo shirts and navy pants. I'm worried a bit because DD really LOVES color. Everything she wears is technicolor with stripes, splashes of color and rainbow patterns. I don't know how she'll cope with day-in and day-out sameness.

[raksmama]

Ds(13) will be starting 8^th grade this September on an IEP plan. He was on one for grade 5 and 6^th and really thrived getting good grades.  We took him off the IEP for grade 7 and he still managed to get a b average.  However we recently  had him reassessed by a new psychologist who recommended he go back on one.

His case is special. I’ll try not to go into great detail here. Basically he got a late start because he was at a Waldorf school first. This went badly and around this same time we found out he had Sensory Processing disorder. The transition to a traditional school went fairly well considering how far behind he was academically; nevertheless the school still recommended a psychological educational assessment which we did. At the time I did not feel they were taking the fact that he got such a late start into consideration. Also the Psychologist did not even know what SPD was.  His evacuation was no LD but ADD which I never really found accurate for him. Nevertheless a lot of the suggestions for ADD, like avoiding distractions, placing them in the front, worked for his SPD too, so the IEP helped.

When we decided to get him a new assessment I must admit that we were really hoping they would find out he did not have anything at all, so it did come as a surprise that the new psychologist (who I had a much better feeling about) said because of the large differences in the results of the various tests including I.Q., he did indeed have a learning Disorder. For example in verbal reasoning he is up in the 93^rd percentile but his reading comprehension is way below  in the lower 10^th.

 I am somewhat confused by the diagnose of a Non Verbal Learning Disability as he has never had any trouble recognising faces of people or in directions.    Nevertheless I think it is definitely for the best that he go back on an IEP.

[KCMichigan]

We are headed to school for the first time!

I have twin DDs that will be in 1st grade on 504s (one possibly on an IEP), one for medical needs and one for SPD/gross motor delays (dx CP- presents as major fatigue and poor coordination).

They are excited and I am nervous that the school will be a good fit for them both for Spec.Needs and academically.

So far the principal seems super nice, so that has great potential.

[beachcomber]

Jalilah:

Basically he got a late start because he was at a Waldorf school first.

I had seriously considered a Waldorf school for DD because of her SPD and ASD. There wasn't one within driving distance for us and we'd have had to make a move to do it, so I looked into other options and found something I *hope* will work for her. But I'm curious to know how the Waldorf school failed your son, if you feel like sharing. No pressure, though!

[KCMichigan]

Originally Posted by beachcomber 

Any of your kids go to schools where uniforms are required? Our school is starting them this year. Basic stuff - just white polo shirts and navy pants. I'm worried a bit because DD really LOVES color. Everything she wears is technicolor with stripes, splashes of color and rainbow patterns. I don't know how she'll cope with day-in and day-out sameness.

Can you do colored socks, hair bows, etc? I know at a school I worked at there was some flexibility for accessories....a lot of girls wore fun socks, hair bows/scruncies, glittery sneakers, nail polish, shoe laces, tights etc.

They were fairly lax as long as kiddos had a white top on and navy or khaki bottoms (skirt, pants, etc).

Some places are more strict though. Ask. If not , have her lay out 'after' school clothes she can change into right away with all the color she might want! =]

[raksmama]

I don’t want to generalize because of course all schools depend on the individual staff and teachers, however that  being said, IMO Waldorf is the worst place to send a special needs child. They are not equipped for it and not up to date with all the new research. Although  it was  ironically  my son’s Waldorf teacher who handed me a copy of The Out of Sync Child, when we finally did see an OT and get a diagnose she did not want to know anything about it and would not even meet the OT!

Here are some links to some old threads concerning Waldorf:

http://www.mothering.com/community/t/368640/a-safe-healthy-haven-waldorf-questioners-concerns-thread

 http://www.mothering.com/community/t/683104/life-after-waldorf-a-support-group

Originally Posted by beachcomber 

Jalilah:

I had seriously considered a Waldorf school for DD because of her SPD and ASD. There wasn't one within driving distance for us and we'd have had to make a move to do it, so I looked into other options and found something I *hope* will work for her. But I'm curious to know how the Waldorf school failed your son, if you feel like sharing. No pressure, though!

Edited by raksmama - 8/18/11 at 4:37pm

[karne]

Originally Posted by beachcomber 

Jalilah:

I had seriously considered a Waldorf school for DD because of her SPD and ASD. There wasn't one within driving distance for us and we'd have had to make a move to do it, so I looked into other options and found something I *hope* will work for her. But I'm curious to know how the Waldorf school failed your son, if you feel like sharing. No pressure, though!

My dd has dyslexia, and the waldorf school was a disaster.  It was two fold:  the first is that they start academics so late that you have missed the chance for early intervention.  In fact, the school, and an "antroposophical doctor" failed to understand the basic, early signs of dyslexia, which in retrospect, were incredibly clear cut.  The second is that there weren't any teachers, including the remedial teachers, who understood language based LD's with any degree of competency, and therefore, could not work with kids who needed reading assistance.  The "help" consisted primarily of special "antroposophical" exercises and chants.  

The happy end of the story is that exceptional public school teachers put things on an even course, and my dd is doing very, very well.

[melissa17s]

Originally Posted by karne 

My dd has dyslexia, and the waldorf school was a disaster.  It was two fold:  the first is that they start academics so late that you have missed the chance for early intervention.  In fact, the school, and an "antroposophical doctor" failed to understand the basic, early signs of dyslexia, which in retrospect, were incredibly clear cut.  The second is that there weren't any teachers, including the remedial teachers, who understood language based LD's with any degree of competency, and therefore, could not work with kids who needed reading assistance.  The "help" consisted primarily of special "antroposophical" exercises and chants.  

The happy end of the story is that exceptional public school teachers put things on an even course, and my dd is doing very, very well.

Unfortunately, I think dyslexia could be a disaster in many schools and often it comes down to individual teachers and the systems they choose to help the student.  I felt my ds's public school was a bit slow at catching his reading issues academically because they waited until 4th grade to have an intervention.    I have read that because Waldorf is lax about children learning to read even after 8 or 9 years that it is easy for them to miss dyslexia.  Interestingly enough, my ds's Waldorf preschool teachers noted his delays in speech and recommended evaluations.  Speech delay is common amongst dyslexics, but I did not realize this until recently.  We loved our Waldorf preschool experience with both dc, but I think each school has its own unique character.  Unfortunately, we did not have a Waldorf school beyond kindergarten or it would have been a consideration for us.  

[mekat]

Update & a bit of venting- My son's IEP is still the same old, same old.  I have spent several weeks trying to get him enrolled in a school that could even handle his medical needs never mind his educational needs.  I ran into snag after snag because of school funding cuts trying to get him enrolled.  They have seriously cut back staffing for the summer.  I realize that may not be a priority normally but my county is a national disaster area because of the rampant tornado activity in April so a lot of kids are being up rooted because of displaced families and destroyed homes (my family being one of them).   I had to enroll him 3 different times at 3 different school (shesh I wish I was kidding).  Then he missed the first 3 days of schools because I didn't get his final school assignment until late afternoon of Friday last week and school started Monday mourning.   He has tons of medical needs which means the ped has to sign off on 4 different forms before the school can allow him to attend.  By the way the ped signing off on his school care is really a formality guess who fills out the entire form for her?  Yep me, the only thing I don't do is sign her name.  Tracking down his ped to sign off on them took a few days thus his first day of school was today 3 days late.  They will be calling another IEP soon though.  They didn't want to make significant changes until all the therapists and ESE teachers had a chance to interact and evaluate him.   They are still taking him from one classroom to another to find out where he will fit in best.   Hopefully the new IEP meeting won't be for a couple of weeks cause I am totally burned out on school bureaucracy at the moment. 

[karne]

Originally Posted by melissa17s 

Unfortunately, I think dyslexia could be a disaster in many schools and often it comes down to individual teachers and the systems they choose to help the student.  I felt my ds's public school was a bit slow at catching his reading issues academically because they waited until 4th grade to have an intervention.    I have read that because Waldorf is lax about children learning to read even after 8 or 9 years that it is easy for them to miss dyslexia.  Interestingly enough, my ds's Waldorf preschool teachers noted his delays in speech and recommended evaluations.  Speech delay is common amongst dyslexics, but I did not realize this until recently.  We loved our Waldorf preschool experience with both dc, but I think each school has its own unique character.  Unfortunately, we did not have a Waldorf school beyond kindergarten or it would have been a consideration for us.  

I don't think dyslexia is a disaster, FWIW.  In the waldorf school, it was more than being a bit slow to catch on to student's needs.  It was more of a systemic lack of knowledge and inability/unwillingness to utilize proven methods of working with students.  The Orton Gillangham approach is a pretty mainstream approach these days, and it was somewhat taken up by the school, but they lacked the ability and depth of knowledge to use those tools effectively.  Pursuing tutoring before 4th grade was considered in direct opposition to the waldorf method.  While we had left long before, it was not uncommon to have 5th graders with very, very poor literacy skills.

Speech delay has not been our particular issue as my dd was precociously verbal.  

[isisreturning]

DD was just diagnosed with ASD this summer. She attended special ed preschool last year (and early intervention prior to that), and she already has an IEP that includes mostly appropriate goals. She will have the same preschool teacher again this year. I wish she could get more feeding therapy/sensory processing help from OT, but our district evaluates OT needs based on fine motor skills, which are perfectly fine for her. Her biggest needs are intensive help with language/communication and social skills, which her teacher is already on top of. Hoping it will be a good year. DD has been at a GREAT daycare, and she has blossomed and developed quite a bit of language over the summer. I think her teacher will be surprised at how much progress DD has made this summer. 

Also: DD rode the bus last year. Our bus driver was very kind and had been driving the special ed bus for a long time, so she was familiar and comfortable with working with kiddos with special needs. DD was a little sad the first few weeks, but then she LOVED riding the bus. She would stand near the living room window and say, "Buh! Buh!" and run out happily when it came to pick her up. :) Pretty cute!

[earthmama369]

Quick update:

The first day of school got moved back six days because of the hurricane. We got power back the same day the school did. But the bright side of this is that we had a few extra days to hang out with the neighbor's kids, one of whom is going into the same grade and school as DS. She's totally stoked about starting kindergarten, and for the first time, DS is showing some excitement too. This is such a relief! When he doesn't want to do something, he can dig in his heels par excellence, and he often makes up his mind about something before even trying it. This could make all the difference in how he handles the transition.

We also got his teacher assignment and I had a chance to meet with her and talk a bit about DS's needs. For a kid who doesn't have an IEP, I think we may have won the lottery in teacher selection. She taught special ed for 16 years and is now in her 16th year teaching kindergarten. This year's theme is dragons, castles, knights, and princesses. The whole classroom is decorated with wall hangings and books and puppets in that line. This is DS's passion right now. DS loves nothing more than to dress up as a princess and his teacher didn't bat an eye. (He's also pretty fond of roaring like a dragon for hours on end. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it.)

She's in the process of replacing all the kids' chairs with balance balls and does yoga with them every morning. She differentiates her lesson plans for differing abilities and teaches to the highest ability in the class, so all kids are included. (DS has a scary high linguistic ability to go with everything else, and he gets bored easily in a classroom setting, so this is really good.) She also doesn't do that red/yellow/green card discipline system. She has one rule for her classroom: Use gentle hands and gentle words. She models this to the kids and it sounds like she uses really gentle discipline with them. She mentioned that she only did one time-out last year and had no office referrals.

If she's even half as good as she sounds, DS has a real chance this year. School starts the day after tomorrow. Fingers crossed!
 

Originally Posted by earthmama369 

DS is starting kindergarten in a few weeks. He has SPD (SID) but despite two tries, does *not* have an IEP. I'm pretty nervous about this. The main reason (besides school budget, which I suspect was a big one) is that he is about +7 years in language ability and has overcome an articulation disorder, so the school district is figuring that he's going to be able to manage coping skills enough to handle school. Because intelligence in one area = coping skills?? ...Yeah.

We were homeschooling, and that's still his first choice, but I've become disabled and we (dh, myself, my team of doctors) decided that it's in everyone's best interest to try public school for a semester or two. The kids need a break from my illness and I need time to rest and handle therapy and doctors' appointments, and to see if I can get on top of this. DD started in the same school last February and did a semester of first grade. Academically it wasn't a good fit, but she was safe and entertained and had a good time. She wants to go back for one more year. Despite our difficulties with the school district, I've been really impressed with this specific school -- the staff have gone out of their way to welcome our family and to accommodate my disability. When we went to kindergarten registration day in June, they seemed willing to learn about SPD and made a point of asking me about DS's needs. I'm really hoping that we can make this work even without an IEP, through cooperation and communication.

The nurse asked about any physical issues he might have, and made a note that he has a hard time eating (not interested, easily distracted, some chewing issues, overwhelmed by noise and activity levels of a cafeteria setting, drops weight really easily, is being monitored for weight gain by our doctor). She said she'll keep an eye on him and how he handles lunch and snack time, and I can go to the school and join him for lunch in the cafeteria to see how he's doing myself. I don't want to isolate him, but I'm willing to ask that he eat in a quieter setting if he starts dropping weight. I'm writing up a letter outlining what SPD is and what DS's specific quirks are -- he's variable-type, so he falls in the most unpredictable category (whee!) -- and offering some easy and affordable suggestions to help him, like putting him in the front of the room so he can focus on the teacher's voice better, since he has next to no audio filter and can have a really hard time sorting out one voice from a bunch of background noise. I'm nervous that the school nurse and the kindergarten team didn't seem to know what SPD was when I met them on registration day, but I also ran into another incoming-K mom who's an OT and she said she was putting together a packet of information for them, too. I think her kiddo also has SPD.

So basically, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this is a positive experience for him....

[SoCaliMommy]

My kids both have IEP's. My daughter is in 3rd grade and my son just started Kindergarten last month.

My daughter has ADHD Inattentive Type, auditory processing issues, speech issues.
My son has speech issues.


So far my daughters homework it's seems has only been modified in that she first few weeks of homework she was given 8 spelling words. Last week she was given a huge list of words from the speech teacher to use as spelling words.We only used 8 of the words and now I can't find the paper and she didn't come home with new spelling words for this week. My daughter brought home a behavior chart for yesterday saying Reading and not listening to teacher and below that it said " this has been happening a lot "
Interesting when last week her chart was all green= good day til Friday when she got blue=warning and it just said off task.

I need to stay after dropping my son off to find out if he's been going to speech, he says he hasn't. My daughter tells me the days she goes to speech.

[DBZ]

My youngest (3) started full day preschool :(. I hate to send her all day like that, but she gets speech 4 times a week, OT 3 times and PT is twice. 

[Linda on the move]

Originally Posted by DBZ 

My youngest (3) started full day preschool :(. I hate to send her all day like that, but she gets speech 4 times a week, OT 3 times and PT is twice. 

Think of all the driving that's saving you!

We just finished our second week of school, and all is well here.

[FarmerBeth]

Just finished week one of school, here!  Everyone at the school and the OT are so on board trying to be helpful to my son.  We just got the official ASD diagnosis over the summer and he's 11, so this is very different for us to deal with than other past evaluations and therapies because he is so much more a part of the process.  He was kind of relieved with the diagnoses, and he doesn't disagree with it, and he's mostly on board with some sensory help they are trying to give him surrounding noise, but he's high functioning enough that at 11 he is very conscious of not wanting to seem too different from classmates.  Ear buds to block out noise while working could really help prevent the meltdowns, but his cooperativeness is up and down, even though lots of kids are wandering around at breaks with ear buds.  And he is digging his heels in about accommodations on tests (like answering every other question) to make up for processing speed, because he thinks it's unfair if everyone else isn't doing the same thing. (I think it's unfair that he gets every math question right and ends up with a 60% because he can't finish the test at that speed.  He also just started SSRI's to help reduce the skin picking (it reached the point of needing medical attention this year, not to mention the social barriers it's presented), obsessing and the extreme anxiety.  I'm hoping it helps.  He was annoyed about it at first because he can't eat grapefruit on this med, but we made a deal about mangoes!   Anyway, that's where were at,  The school's being great, and DS is mostly doing well but with a lot of digging in of heels.  I'm really glad we went through with the diagnoses so that he has access to professionals who are helping to give him the terminology and understanding of some of what he is dealing with so that he can make better decisions to help enable himself.

[melissa17s]

Originally Posted by FarmerBeth 

 (I think it's unfair that he gets every math question right and ends up with a 60% because he can't finish the test at that speed.  

Have you asked his team for a no time limit accommodation or at least double time?  I know that sometimes they can not accommodate the standardized tests, but for the rest of his tests, it would allow for a better assessment of his ability.  My ds got no time limits because the he generally will not do the work if it is timed.  This is also one of the accommodations I see the most at the college level.