At Daniel's nursery school teacher's insistence we had him evaluated by the school district. It seemed to take all summer. First they interviewed the teacher, then they observed Daniel at his school, then he was evaluated by Occupational, Speech and Physical therapists and finally by a Neurologist. I think there was a Psychologist in there too. We had to submit surveys on his behavior at home and we were interviewed by a social worker. And then on the eve of the new school year they called us in for the "Eligibility Meeting".
We had no idea if he would qualify for the program, and we didn't know what we would do if he didn't. After all, his old school didn't want him back. Around these parts you have to arrange (and begin to pay for) Pre-K the February before your child starts. So if he didn't qualify for the town's program....
On the other hand, if he DID qualify, well, that would mean that there was something wrong with Daniel. Sure he drove us all nuts, but it was just a temperament thing, right? Spirited Child and all that?
Well, they told us in the meeting that he did qualify and we had to sign a form saying that we agreed to the classification of "Preschool Disabled". We were happy and stunned at the same time. Happy that these people said they could help him, and stunned that he was now a Special Ed student.
They told us that Daniel had sensory integration issues, that he had very low core strength, that he had some social skills problems and that his adaptive grasp (of a pencil or crayon) was well, maladaptive.
My husband and I went home and dealt with our extremely conflicting feelings and finally decided that this was the best shot we had at getting Daniel to act like a regular kid in school and hopefully not be a punk the rest of his life.
So the next day he started Special Ed.
Daniel sounds EXACTLY like my son Koby!! Koby is now 10 going on 11 and all of the things that you wrote about what he does that drive you nuts and getting kicked out of school and whatnot - that all happened to Koby and us when he was just a little guy. He was diagnosed orignially at 4 with AD/HD and after researching more of his behaviours (ie - googling) I was finding all kinds of things actually clarifying that he actually had Autism - or an Autism Spectrum Disorder. We fought with the school to get another full evaluation with all of the different therapists - like you did - the speech therapist, sensory, occupational, etc. We even brought him to an outside source for testing to get a second opinion - and it confirmed it - our son has Autism. It is High Functioning Autism - otherwise known as Asperger's Syndrome. The reason I am telling you this is because we dealt with a TON of misdiagnoses with our son - and I don't know - it just sounds like you may possibly still be relatively new to the whole process - so maybe I wouldn't rule this out. There are so many other therapy's that they can do to help him if it is Autism and you would be able to get it early. Early intervention is huge. Sensory Integration Disorder is a HUGE, HUGE part of Autism Spectrum Disorders - my son has a ton of different sensory problems he deals with on a daily basis. Hearing, touch, some taste and smells and visual - not to mention vestibular and proprioceptic understanding. So, anyway - I think my email comes through with this - feel free to email me if you would like and I hope I didn't overstep any boundaries in airing my thoughts. I like to try to keep an open mind about things because we have been through hell and back trying to find out what this "thing" was that was afflicting our son and making him miserable and us miserable trying to deal with him. Things are much better now - but it is a work in progress. Best of luck and have a great night!
Posted by: Jalon | October 30, 2007 at 11:16 PM