I keep waiting to write and update about Kindergarten. I keep thinking that I haven't given it enough time to really give an accurate picture on how it is going. I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop. Shame on me.
John is doing exceptional in Kindergarten. While being denied at our final IEP (about 2 weeks into the school year) with the public school district, words such as "exceptional", "fantastic", and "wonderful" were being used to describe my son. The evaluators said that he got to parts of the test that they normally don't administer (usually a child will "top out" on a section of the test when they get 3 wrong in a row, or something similar to that---they keep administering that section until he tops out.) Many sections, John was able to get into 5th grade material. I never doubted his intellectual ability. I've never questioned his academic ability. We always knew he was smart, even brilliant in some areas. Now we had some testing that showed that. Needless to say, these test results were showing us that his "issues" were not interfering with his ability to learn. In fact, he was accelerated in many areas.
As far as Kindergarten itself, John has integrated well. He is focused, attentive, wants to please, and keeps up with the daily demands placed on him. He is well behaved and socially at the level he needs to be. He has made a best friend and has a group of buddies. He is reading 5th grade level words and his reading comprehension is at a 3rd grade level. He is highly interested in math and doing 1st grade level skills. He is struggling with his writing and drawing as it relates to spacial relationships. He is still going to OT and working on fine motor skills, sensory processing, and eating. He is now one third of his way through the school year and everything is going better than we could have even hoped for, considering that when he was 2 and a half, they told me he was only functioning at a 10-17 month old developmental level. He was only functioning at one third his chronological age. They had prepared me that there was a chance he may never function at the appropriate age level of his peers. There were so many unanswered questions and "what if"s back then.
John is an amazing little boy who has worked so hard to be where he is at. I am so proud of him. I cannot tell you how relaxed and at peace I have become on this journey. I owe it all to faith, prayers and hard work.
John goes to a private school and on Fridays they go to mass. One morning, the priest was asking the children where God is. John raised his hand. Into the microphone, he said that God is in his heart. The priest turned to John and said, "what is he doing in there?". John replied, "He helps me to stay good".
Showing posts with label IEP. Show all posts
Showing posts with label IEP. Show all posts
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
NeuroPsych Evalutation Report
We received the evaluation report from Dr. Seibert regarding John's evaluation from Feb-April.
At the time of this test, John is considered 3 years, 2 months old.
Listed below are some of the highlights from the 12 page report:
Areas of concern defined by parents:
1.He needs to be taught certain things that other kids seem to pick up naturally
2. Demonstrates some echolalia (repeats the ends of some questions when asked)
3. Preoccupations with narrow areas of interest and focus (in phases)
examples: clocks, lining up cars, left-turn arrows, train tracks,& reading clothing tags
4. Frustration tantrums -- problems managing anger
5. Craves sensory stimuli (specifically with hands/touch, chew non-food items)
6. Trouble with eating (messy eater, prefers to use hands, overstuffs mouth)
Areas of concern Socially:
1. Limited eye contact
2. Unable to show comfort to others in distress
3. Some pretend play
4. mostly parallel play
Areas of Concern defined by Current Teachers:
1. Little Attention Span
2. Easily Destracted
3. Limited Spontaneous Speech
4. Limited to no interaction with other children
5. Loves sensory activities (finger painting, eating with hands, feet in sand)
6. Limited interest in classroom when given free time (lines up cars or 'reads' a book)
7. Delayed academically
8. No eye contact
Things the teachers did not notice:
1. No strange or odd preoccupations
2. No behavior problems
3. No transition tantrums
Observation In the Clinic over 2 observation days:
1. No tantrums or upsets
2. mild mannered
3. Reduced eye contact
4.quiet most of the time, with only one-word utterances
5. Poor intelligibility of speech
6. Fairly distractible, but was able to maintain focus if sitting on lap, bounced, or squeezed
Observation at School:
1. John did not remain on carpet square during storytime and had to sit on teacher's lap to maintain focus
2. Wandered room
3. Responded to yes/no questions
4. Kids lined up to wash hands, John consistently wandered out of line; needed re-direction
5. Food placed in front of him, told to wait, kept putting hands in spaghetti; needed to be reminded to wait multiple times
6. Facial expression blunted most of the time
7. Complied with verbal instruction but never made eye contact; appeared not to be paying attention, but would respond appropriately
8. Messiest eater in the class
9. After lunch, wandered over to line up cars
10. Wandered to book area, opened book, sat down, and "read" it
11. On playground, rode tricycle alone most of the time
12. Smiled at girl who climbed on "caboose" of tricycle
13. Stopped bike purposely to have 2 other girls crash into him; all giggled; John repeated again
14. Gravitated to outskirts of playground most of time
15. Seemed to be "in his own world"
ADOS test (Austim Diagnostic observation Schedule):
1. John responded to name by turning toward examiner
2. Poor eye contact; used eye contact to get the examiner to do something again
3. Showed some shared enjoyment with examiner, but not consistent; interested mostly in having sole control over a toy; needed to be re-engaged to play with examiner
4. Did not spontaneously give objects to examiner; but would comply after repeated requests
5. Could show functional use of toys when prompted but did not demonstrate any symbolic play on own
6. Did not initiate any social interactions, but did not mind the examiner playing alongside him
7. Produced single word utterances, most not intelligible
8. Showed only occasional, unusaual sensory behavior -- objects in mouth
9. According to ADOS, fell within the spectrum, but not autism, per se
GARS test completed by parents scored an 81 -- meaning "possibly" has autism
Other Tests Administered:
1. Parents should request an IEP (Individulaized Educational Plan) from Bonita Unified School District based on this second opinion requesting:
3. Parents should seek additional play and social opportunities and instruction for John with peers close in age; John needs facilitation to initiate and sustain engagement with other children and verbal cues to help him play
4. Seek parent education and support services
At the time of this test, John is considered 3 years, 2 months old.Listed below are some of the highlights from the 12 page report:
Areas of concern defined by parents:
1.He needs to be taught certain things that other kids seem to pick up naturally
2. Demonstrates some echolalia (repeats the ends of some questions when asked)
3. Preoccupations with narrow areas of interest and focus (in phases)
examples: clocks, lining up cars, left-turn arrows, train tracks,& reading clothing tags
4. Frustration tantrums -- problems managing anger
5. Craves sensory stimuli (specifically with hands/touch, chew non-food items)
6. Trouble with eating (messy eater, prefers to use hands, overstuffs mouth)
Areas of concern Socially:
1. Limited eye contact
2. Unable to show comfort to others in distress
3. Some pretend play
4. mostly parallel play
Areas of Concern defined by Current Teachers:
1. Little Attention Span
2. Easily Destracted
3. Limited Spontaneous Speech
4. Limited to no interaction with other children
5. Loves sensory activities (finger painting, eating with hands, feet in sand)
6. Limited interest in classroom when given free time (lines up cars or 'reads' a book)
7. Delayed academically
8. No eye contact
Things the teachers did not notice:
1. No strange or odd preoccupations
2. No behavior problems
3. No transition tantrums
Observation In the Clinic over 2 observation days:
1. No tantrums or upsets
2. mild mannered
3. Reduced eye contact
4.quiet most of the time, with only one-word utterances
5. Poor intelligibility of speech
6. Fairly distractible, but was able to maintain focus if sitting on lap, bounced, or squeezed
Observation at School:
1. John did not remain on carpet square during storytime and had to sit on teacher's lap to maintain focus
2. Wandered room
3. Responded to yes/no questions
4. Kids lined up to wash hands, John consistently wandered out of line; needed re-direction
5. Food placed in front of him, told to wait, kept putting hands in spaghetti; needed to be reminded to wait multiple times
6. Facial expression blunted most of the time
7. Complied with verbal instruction but never made eye contact; appeared not to be paying attention, but would respond appropriately
8. Messiest eater in the class
9. After lunch, wandered over to line up cars
10. Wandered to book area, opened book, sat down, and "read" it
11. On playground, rode tricycle alone most of the time
12. Smiled at girl who climbed on "caboose" of tricycle
13. Stopped bike purposely to have 2 other girls crash into him; all giggled; John repeated again
14. Gravitated to outskirts of playground most of time
15. Seemed to be "in his own world"
ADOS test (Austim Diagnostic observation Schedule):
1. John responded to name by turning toward examiner
2. Poor eye contact; used eye contact to get the examiner to do something again
3. Showed some shared enjoyment with examiner, but not consistent; interested mostly in having sole control over a toy; needed to be re-engaged to play with examiner
4. Did not spontaneously give objects to examiner; but would comply after repeated requests
5. Could show functional use of toys when prompted but did not demonstrate any symbolic play on own
6. Did not initiate any social interactions, but did not mind the examiner playing alongside him
7. Produced single word utterances, most not intelligible
8. Showed only occasional, unusaual sensory behavior -- objects in mouth
9. According to ADOS, fell within the spectrum, but not autism, per se
GARS test completed by parents scored an 81 -- meaning "possibly" has autism
Other Tests Administered:
- DAS-II - Differential Ability Scales - Verbal & Non-Verbal Cognitive Development; John scored in the 66th percentile for Verbal Comprehension (average) and 58th percentile for Naming Vocabulary (also average); For the Non_verbal section, he scored in the average for Picture Similarities, but scored mildly impaired on Pattern Contruction; His total scores for this test was a 96, and fell within the average range (39th percentile)
- Although the examiner felt that the scores need to take in account that John had a very low attention span, needed frequent re-direction to the tasks at hand, cues to remind him to persist in his effort, prompting to consider the full range of answer chocies before responding, etc.
- PLS-4 - PreSchool Language Scale - measures comprehension and expressive language skills; John's auditory comprehension scored of that of a 2-year 11 month old child (average range for his age) Most advanced skills he showed was the ability to distinguish activities that were day from activities at night. He could understand picture analogies, identified objects, identified colors and common activities, understood quantitive concepts (one vs. all), and descriptive concepts (big vs. small) Could follow 2 step commands, but COULD NOT show spatial concepts (on, off, in, out of), pronouns (I, me, you) or negatives (show me the baby that is not crying) His scores resulted in that of a 2-year 8 month old, which is on the low average for his age range.
- VABS-II - Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scale - questionnaire filled out by parents; day-to-day functioning;
- Communication scored low at 1 year 11 months;
- Expressive Language scored at 2 years, 10 months;
- Written Language was HIGH at 4 years, 3 months - able to recognize upper and lowercase alphabet, own written name in printed form;
- Daily Living Skills ---
- Personal Care-2 years 9 months,
- Domestic Care - 2 years, 2 months;
- Community Functioining HIGH at 4 years 5 months
- SOCIAL skills - low at 1 year, 7 months;
- Play behaviors -1 year, 10 months
- Coping - 2 years, 7 months
- Fine Motor - 3 years, 5 months
- Basic Language skills have caught up to low average-average range, he still shows delays in speech intelligibility, as well as in pragmatic use of language in social/communicative ways
- Delays in age-appropriate social and play behaviors
- Shows some atypical restricted and repetitive behaviors
- Falls short of Autism Diagnosis at this time
- However, meets criteria for PDD-NOS, Pervasive Developmental Delay, Not Otherwise Specified, otherwise known as "atypical autism"
- He has shown signs that intervention boosts his progress
1. Parents should request an IEP (Individulaized Educational Plan) from Bonita Unified School District based on this second opinion requesting:
- Placement in a classroom with a better teacher-to-student ratio than a typical educational classroom; Should have curriculum appropriate for average-range overall intellectual level, but with resources that meets his needs for supervision, assistance, difficulties for sustained attention, and facilitation for social activities OR in a regular classroom with a one-on-one aide
- John clearly needs speech therapy to address intelligibility and language pragmatics
- John should receive an OT evaluation to address sensory issues and motor skills concerns
3. Parents should seek additional play and social opportunities and instruction for John with peers close in age; John needs facilitation to initiate and sustain engagement with other children and verbal cues to help him play
4. Seek parent education and support services
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
John's Services Updated
I have lots of news today and it may take more than one topic to cover all the news on John. I'll start with the IEP.
Today, we had John's IEP (Individualized Educational Plan) with the school district. It was a bittersweet moment as we learned that John no longer will qualify for services. This is a very good thing because it means that the progress John has made since May has been so overwhelming that he does not need Special Education. The school district determined through their assessments that, although John has showed developmental delays in the past, his scores in all areas of development fall within the average range. He doesn't show a need for continued service, whether it be special ed pre-school, speech, or occupational therapy.
Hopefully, the early intervention will serve as a deep enough foundation for John to integrate into regular pre-school and naturally develop alongside other children/peers. I am disappointed that occupational therapy and speech could not be continued. I learned today that to qualify for occupational therapy, he would have had to meet the requirement for special education. Then, it would be determined if it was necessary for OT. However, speech is a little bit different. It is a standalone service, meaning that if he meets certain criteria, he could qualify for speech, even if he did not for special education preschool.
Hopefully, John will continue to develop his attention so he can engage in a classroom setting without too much re-direction. As far as skill levels, he has caught up in every catergory, which I will get into in the next blog topic with regards to his latest Casa Colina evaluation. His largest problem area that his current educators see is his willingness to participate, along with his attention and engagement with little re-direction.
Today, we had John's IEP (Individualized Educational Plan) with the school district. It was a bittersweet moment as we learned that John no longer will qualify for services. This is a very good thing because it means that the progress John has made since May has been so overwhelming that he does not need Special Education. The school district determined through their assessments that, although John has showed developmental delays in the past, his scores in all areas of development fall within the average range. He doesn't show a need for continued service, whether it be special ed pre-school, speech, or occupational therapy.
Hopefully, the early intervention will serve as a deep enough foundation for John to integrate into regular pre-school and naturally develop alongside other children/peers. I am disappointed that occupational therapy and speech could not be continued. I learned today that to qualify for occupational therapy, he would have had to meet the requirement for special education. Then, it would be determined if it was necessary for OT. However, speech is a little bit different. It is a standalone service, meaning that if he meets certain criteria, he could qualify for speech, even if he did not for special education preschool.
Hopefully, John will continue to develop his attention so he can engage in a classroom setting without too much re-direction. As far as skill levels, he has caught up in every catergory, which I will get into in the next blog topic with regards to his latest Casa Colina evaluation. His largest problem area that his current educators see is his willingness to participate, along with his attention and engagement with little re-direction.
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