More Neuropsych Results

In October (right before Logan turned 3 years old), he was evaluated by the school district to see if he would qualify for the developmental preschool program (like Carson is in). At that time, he should have definitely qualified for speech therapy at the very least. He was also tested in other areas that I felt necessary. I was stunned (with my mouth dropped open, I am sure) when they told me he did not qualify for ANY services at that time. So began my battle to get Logan the services that he needed. We had him tested by our neuropsychologist in November and just last weekend I got his testing results. He had deficits in language, motor and social/emotional/behavior areas. The neuropsychologist was so adamant about the fact that he should be placed in a developmental preschool program that she was going to personally call the director of special education at the school district on Monday. She even expected that I would hear from the district by the end of the week. WOW!!! So, after the dust settles at the district office, I would anticipate Logan being placed in the next couple of weeks. He will even be in the same classroom as Carson! Hmmmm....that could be good or that could be bad! I'm counting on the premise that this will be a good setup for the two of them...what a good place to learn how to appropriately interact with each other and to have two teachers pull them apart when all hell breaks loose!

Now, onto Carson! Back in the summertime, the neuropsychologist recommended that Carson be placed in a full day treatment program because she did not feel that he was appropriately placed in the school district. I had no success with getting the district to believe that, so I had the neuropsych's office do an observation of Carson in his developmental preschool classroom. They had a lot of great things to say about his classroom and his teachers! Carson did very well during 'work time' and appropriately transitioned between tasks, snack, circle time, etc., He did have some difficulties with social interactions during free play time and unstructured times. As you can imagine, this is not a surprise for us...this is one of the biggest areas that Carson struggles with and hence the reason why he is in a social skills class once a week! Anyway, based on the observation, they felt that he was appropriately placed at this time. YIPEE was my response!...and with a big sigh of relief that another battle was not in my foreseeable future!

Carson is doing extremely well even at daycare! He has transitioned into another classroom and it is much smaller (10-12 peers) than his previous classroom (22 peers) and it has made all the difference in the world! He has very little difficulties as long as he gets enough sleep at home! No kidding...he can completely fall apart in a lot of ways if he doesn't have the coping skills to deal with life! Hmmm...just like adults in many respects, huh?

So, while speaking with the neuropsychologist, I told her that I was highly concerned about Carson starting kindergarten. He is academically ready for it, but I am concerned about the potential class sizes. Given Carson's history of not doing well in large classrooms, what does kindergarten hold for him. Yes, our school district did go on strike this last year battling over class sizes (among other things), but there is no guarantee that they will remain that low throughout the entire school year. She said that she has seen a lot of kids like Carson lose a lot of academic and social ground by going the public school route. As a result, she recommended that we find a private school that had the small classroom sizes and nurturing atmosphere that would do him a lot of good. She felt that if we did this for kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grade that he would be better suited to then join the public school arena for the 3rd grade. I was completely stunned!! I had always heard that if you have a child with special needs that you would be best suited using the public schools due to them having more resources for our kiddos than private schools. I guess I need to change my views, huh? She recommended that we check out one of the local Montessori or christian schools.

After leaving our meeting, I was just on cloud nine! I felt like my boys were being taken care of and that we did the right thing by using the neuropsychologist! And, now's the time to check out private schools for admission in the Fall! WOW...what great timing! Now we have some open houses to attend!

On another note, back in the summer months we were also recommended to get hooked up with the Children's Autism Clinic to optimize our resources for Carson. When I called them, we were placed on a waiting list and were told that we would receive a call when it was time to schedule an appointment. I kind of pushed it out of my mind, thinking that we would never be seen...and to be quite honest, I think I even had hesitations about my son being evaluated at an autism clinic. We had been told of his diagnosis of PDD-NOS (pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified) and knew this was on the autism spectrum, but still...that is something that you have to come to terms with and being seen at an autism clinic only validates that, right? Well, we received that phone call last week...yep, they are ready to see Carson! So, I had a long chat with my hubby about this and whether this was something that we wanted to pursue or not. I didn't even know if the clinic would be covered by our insurance or not, so we were potentially even dealing with a large expense if we went this route. I at least wanted my hubby to support this idea if we did go. So, after our little chat, I called the clinic back and made an appointment with one of their developmental pediatricians for Feb 11th. We'll just keep putting one foot in front of the other and keep getting our boys the help that we feel they need and deserve!

So, I am sitting in the lobby of the Children's Therapy Center last week while Carson is in his social skills class and I start chatting with a mom sitting next to me. I had my computer with me and was trying to work on some stuff and she was doing the same. We were obviously both kind of techies and we started chatting about our phones, computers, etc., (I know, isn't that nerdy!) and she mentioned that she worked at Children's Hospital. So, I asked her if she knew much about the autism clinic there and she said, "Oh, I'm the director of the autism clinic!" Wow...what are the chances of that? So we chatted a bit about the clinic and she told me that if I ever needed anything that she was totally open to helping. We exchanged names and now I have a resourceful contact! It was a bit comforting knowing that this unknown clinic now has a kind face associated with it! Don't know where this will lead us, but we will keep putting one foot in front of another!