hello, this is my first time here altho i’m not new to being a parent of children with learning disabilities.
i’m having a major problem with their current school and teachers. i’m the parent of twin boys age6 who will be 7 next month. they were born at 29 weeks and we had a lot of problems with them both.
one of the twins has had 3 surgeries including 3 sets of tubes and adnoid and tonsil removal. the other doesnt seem to have as many probs. the one who had the surgeries didnt hear or speak till he was 3 after his first surgery.
anyway my current problem is the way the school is handling the situation.
jeremy(the one with hearing probs) is still not fully potty trained and my suggestion is to give him hourly reminders to use the bathroom(which works at home) his teacher suggested putting him in diapers during school because she does not have the time to do the hourly reminders and the school does not have an extra ed tech to assist him. needless to say i got my childs dr to call the school and get the point across that he will not wear a diaper at school and they have to do his hourly reminders.both boys are having problems with reading and math. they are in the 1st grade and have different teachers.
even i have a problem with some of their math problems
eg: I have 11 turtles and frogs. how many of each do i have?
it took me 2 hours to get them to understand it. how ever i do normal math problems such as 1+1 and so on and they understand it just fine they whiz right thru the pages i print out. i made the suggestion to the teachers bout this and they only said”if the school psychiatrist suggests it then and only then will we go with it” i felt like my opinion on my child doesnt matter. we had a pet meeting at the end of september which didnt go so well. i had 8 people throwing papers at me left and right to sign as well has taking care of my 3 children in that same room. they were spitting things out faster then i could understand. at the end of the meeting i found out that most of the paper work i signed was for my boys to be tested for adhd and other things like that. they also did ot evals on jeremy . and another speech eval. i just got the ot eval and the speech eval results yesterday and from my reading it i really dont understand it. it doesnt have any recommendations on it it just says will discuss the results at the next pet meeting. sorry so long but i’m just really confused on what to do. jeremy’s teacher puts him in a 3 walled cubicle to do his work because she says he cant concentrate. and brandons desk is right in front of the whole class right beside the teachers desk.
any advice would be greatly appreciated.
dee
It sounds like you could use an advocate
at those meetings. I have never hired one but I know others have been able to make great strides in dealing with the school once they did. Maybe someone else can tell you how to find a good advocate in your area.
It does sound like these boys need to be tested in order to get services from the school. Once they are classified things like having them remind him to go to the bathroom every hour could be put into the IEP which they would legally have to follow.
Are they receiving speech or OT? Testing will also help you get them those services.
Hang in there.
Re: It sounds like you could use an advocate
i would love to have an advocate but not sure where or how to find one. and it is on their iep to do hourly reminders for the bathroom. per order of the dr.
jeremy has been getting speech therepy since he was 3.
from questioning around to other parents that have children in this school district. the adhd issue is constantly pushed and once dx the teachers and school push the parents to put thier child on medicine. one of the meetings is today at 315 will keep u posted
thank you for the replys.
dee
Re: If it is on their IEP...
You might look at thread on next page started by Carol about teacher not following IEP. They legally bound to follow it.
Beth
Re: If it is on their IEP...
Dee-Anna,
We have done bathroom reminders before. What I usually do is create a chart, divided into the appropriate time slots, and ask the “reminding” teacher, aide, etc. to initial the appropriate block each time the reminder is given.
We send the chart home at the end of each day. I would insist on some documentation that the IEP is being followed.
And I agree…see the thread about holding teachers responsible for complying with the IEP.
B.
Re: a little advice needed
Dee-Anna,
I would agree with all the advice given. But I’d make one more suggestion. Get a babysitter to keep your kids while you have your next meeting. You cannot focus on all the issues related to your children’s education when you are so distracted. It is important that you are able to participate in the meeting as well as being fully aware of what you are signing. You should never leave a meeting without knowing what is on every single page. Do not be embarassed to ask for an explanation if there is something you do not understand.
If you’d like to post the speech test results, I’m sure some of us here could help you understand them. But that is what they should do in the next meeting…explain the scores.
Janis
http://www.ldanatl.org/StatePages.html
we got one from the local Learning Disability Association.
check:
http://www.ldanatl.org/StatePages.html
Re: a little advice needed
well here goes. we had both meetings and from what i gathered they failed to follow brandons iep in regards to his potty training issues. that stated in all of the paper work that he had bowl problems(which i corrected several times that he does not) they also want thyroid testing done and allergy testing done on brandon to rule out any “medical problems to his hyperness in school”
they also took the emotionally disturbed part off his iep as a reason for special education . so brandon does not have a diagnosis or specific reason for special ed so there for no reason for further ieps.
jeremy however is a different situation. at his meeting this morning i requested that the children be brought to a different class room so we could concentrate on the meeting at hand instead of paying more attention to the children.
first off jeremy was found to be borderline adhd. no definate dx but still.
his speech was good from what his therepist said so they are decreasing his speech time from 120 minutes to 90 minutes. according to the speech therepist, the school psychologist, and the OT they all concluded he had a problem with short term memory.
they also want jeremy’s pediatrician to run further testing to rule out medical reasons as to why he’s having bowl problems.
so for testing on jeremy the school is requesting is for bowl problems,
we also have to have a repeat hearing test, thyroid test and allergy testing to rule out possible reasons for his problems. we will be meeting again in january to go over any possible medical reasons if any.
they also mentioned something called the alphasmart but they said they dont want to do it at this point that they might want to wait till he is in the 3rd grade to implament that. i’ll keep u posted all the goings on. thank you for all your help and advice. i’m checking into all the possibilities for my children.
if anyone has any web sites they think would be helpful to my children
for things like print outs for them to work on and the such it would be greatly appreciated. again thank you
dee-anna
Re: Calling Socks or anyone. How does one find an advocate?
The “advocate” I used was an educational therapist. Besides attending IEP meetings, she also reviewed prior testing, recommended and performed any tests I felt might be helpful, and helped insure that all my son’s needs were met.
The educational therapist I hired was recommended to me by another parent, but her phone number was listed in the phone book under… I believe it was educational testing. Try checking under a few different headings (education, educational testing, therapists, etc…).
Dee-Anna, I’m so sorry to hear of your problems. It sounds as if the teacher is branding your kids. She is setting them apart from the norm. They must feel embarassed or ashamed. Some teachers may not know how to deal with ADHD children and YOU have got to be an advocate for your kids. You need to have them tested independently of the school. Take them to a reputable psychiatrist that your pediatrician knows.They seem very bright from what you have said and they may be having some problem with reading problems because of a learning disability or it could be they aren’t mature enough to understand certain concepts yet. All kids learn at different paces and some concentrate on learning 1 skill at a time.Please get them out of the situation they are in now before it hurts their self esteem. Good Luck, Jan