got my boy retested...

For those who may not know, my youngest son, my autistic child has been homeschooled for the last 2 1/2 years. We pulled him from a completely innapropriate program that offered nothing for remediation of his autism (but was easy enough for the staff to provide) and began working with him ourselves (ok, truth be told, my wife does most of the hands on schooling, I take care of other things). We started with a boy who was completely non-verbal, listed as moderately retarded, and the general consesnsu we got from our local medical, psychological and educational communities was that we should get over any sense of hope for him, that he would never improve, and that we should begin shopping for a residential placement for him soon.

We went back to the same Dr. we saw for our “2nd opinion (the schools did not like the first evaluation because it had the “A” word in it). The first time we went to see this good fellow we had to pay out the nose for it (and indeed had just got it paid off when we scheduled this new round of tests). Came to find out later that the schools should have paid for it, as they were the ones requesting the 2nd opinion, but we will just chalk that one up to a lesson in negotiating with “the bullies”. This time they did pay for it, and I only hope they get their money’s worth (I feel we did…)

So the testing went ok, although my boy was a little uncooperative. So when we went back for the results, we expected some improvement to show up. This is what we got…

In the two years+ since he was last evaluated his non verbal IQ went from 51 to 80, which is low end average. His problem solving ability was pegged at 90, which is age appropriate. True his verbal skills were right around 70, but when you compare that to the 37 they tested at last time it still is a pretty remarkable jump. My boy can no longer be considered mildly retarded, although if the schools had tested him they would have only performed the verbal testing, and he would still be “below room temperature” IQ ranhe (one more example of them disregarding the “a” in FAPE). He gained 4 years inability in the 2 ½ years since the good Dr. saw him last, and the schools can’t take credit for one flippin nickel of it. The credit goes to where it belongs, his homeschooling and the chelation he underwent for lead and mercury poisoning.

The good Dr. will write his recommendations in such a way that the schools will be upset I think. They do not like us homeschooling my boy, because it makes them look bad. They are going to like it less when they see that we are making progress and they are not (there was another autistic child in my boy’s class who was there a year before my boy, and was still there this past spring. In the 4 years the school had him he has not gained any ground, is still non-verbal, and his behaviors make him difficult to manage at best.).

Oh to be a fly on the wall when my useless Sped Director tears open that envelope… Normally I am not one to gloat (bad karma and all that) but I think in this case I would most definitely make an exception. So much for the hopelessness of autism and the uselessness of expending effort on trying to educate them! Now to begin the process of sharing my thoughts with my peers, the parents of the other 19 autistic children I have met so far (in my county). Our children are getting cheated out of the opportunity to improve their lot in life. If we need to sue the pants off of the schools to correct this, so be it…

“Fiat justicia, ruat colelum”

Let justice be served tho the heavens may fall…