Anyone with ARD/IEP experience?????

I used to be an advocate for children with disabilities in Colorado and would recommend that you visit: http://www.nichcy.org/stateshe/tx.htm.,as well as :

Protection and Advocacy Agency
Mary Faithfull, Executive Director
Advocacy, Inc.
7800 Shoal Creek Boulevard, Suite 171-E
Austin, TX 78757
(512) 454-4816; (800) 252-9108 (In TX)
E-mail: [email protected]
Web: www.advocacyinc.org

The advocacy groups are a great resource and in some instances will actually attend your child's IEP or at least give you guidance on what you should expect, options and most importantly the law surrounding what school must provide for your child. Hope this helps and know that you are not alone in your journey.

My son (3YO) has Down Syndrom and we just finished his first IEP. He had a conductive hearing loss for his first 2 years which was corrected with tubes in his ears. His speech is VERY delayed.

I'm not an expert, but if your son has a speech disorder, shouldn't the IEP participants use a different type of test? Maybe administer the test by ASL or the picture card system (forgotten the name of this) so your son can offer his best response?

Not to be nosey, but does your son sign at all or use any alternative to speech? There's so much out there, it seems odd that verbal is the only form of communication they're pushing. Speech isn't the beginning and end, is it?

Thomas suffers from Apraxia which is a resolvable issue with INTENSIVE oral motor therapy. His speech is progressing but like I said he gets very frutrated and therfore has melt downs since he knows what he should be saying but he knows he isn't saying it = hence noone knows what he wants. We tried the picture card when he was 3 and it just didn't click with him. He is independant and he just wants to be "normal" like his sister. He knows a few signs but not much - he knows he suppose to talk and resists other options.

Our private speech therapist attended the meeting with me and she and I agreed on asking for assistive technology - not knowing the teacher was also asking for the same thing. So maybe in September after that evaluation he'll receive some eletronic device to help him but at this point it's all on him to verbalize. And yes, all his testing should be that of using pictures to produce his REAL IQ level whereas a verbal test will only continue to show his weakness - verballizing. The lady that I am not happy with unfortunately is the person who does the testing/labeling.... and that is where my concern is. She and even he teachers admit to not having experience with Apraxia but unlike the teachers she isn't willing to learn how to test a child like Thomas. At the meeting she heard me telling his teacher that his surgery for adenoid removal went fine and she pipes up and says something to the effect "Thomas has some other physical problem that has yet to be addressed". Every person from the speech therapist to teacher to his pediatrician says he isn't autistic which is what I believe she was implying. This lady spends maybe 2 hours a year with Thomas and she's making judgements on him without spending time with him and I'm suppose to let her do the testing on him... Our other concern is that his current teacher is being forced to another school and the incoming teacher may be unduly influenced with this lady's opinion on what Thomas needs.

My husband and I agree that if they ask for testing for autism or other areas, we will NOT let the school test him and will pay for a non-partisian professional to test him. I just think that when a school requests such tests they have already unduly influenced the results as they bring in their people who already hear from them what the "problem" is.

Need to vent this is a major stress on me.... doesn't help being 25 weeks pregnant either and not able to do much to help alleviate the stress other then crying. It's heartbreaking to take him to a park and see some 4yo come up and ask him to play and Thomas knows he isn't able to talk with this little child so he goes off and plays by himself. He only plays with his sister and the little friends in his class who understand his problem and have found other ways to communicate with him. This whole situation is just heartbreaking for me....

Thanks for you help and advice on the advocate. we've found a few advocates and lawyers here in Houston and will speak with them if we don't get results from speaking with the VP and other school people and go from there.

Cathleen