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Special Needs
Kindergarten vent...feel free to advise
DD1 is 5 years old and started kindergarten in September. We've gone in with an open mind, but every week I'm getting more and more frustrated. We get little to no information from the teacher, her case manager (who supposedly works with her every day) and OT. Speech emails me or sends notes home twice a week--but we've worked with her for the last 2 years as drop in.
Lydia has diagnosed SPD (the school disagrees and calls it "developmental delay" even though we saw a developmental pediatrician and she has some major sensory aversions) as well as pretty severe Apraxia of speech, receptive language delay and feeding issues (back to textural aversions and the apraxia also interferes with how she uses her tongue). She is also extremely far sighted and requires glasses.
At back to school night I talked with the teacher about Lydia's progress and she said everything was going great, Lydia was having no problems and requiring very little assistance. Behavior wise I see this as she absolutely loses it once she gets home from trying to watch her every move and reaction. Academically I questioned this assessment and felt like the teacher may not have fully grasped what Lydia deals with. I also spoke with speech who actually tracked down when Lydia had OT and who with for us since we had received NO communication whatsoever and she offered to help the classroom teacher with Lydia and transitions since we knew that was an issue (the only one according to the teacher and something she has struggled with for some time, we do a lot of prep work at home to help and no communication makes it hard for us to prep her!).
Anyway, we got her interims last week. It said that she needed to work on math and reading and that her language skills were "progressing with effort". Our private SLP laughed at that because of course its with effort,every time she opens her mouth she's making a massive effort! 2 years ago she only used sign language or PECS! We also got her goal folder. The teacher says that Lydia only knows 3 upper case letters, no lower case letters and a few letter sounds. Honestly, the testing aspect is screwed up for her. They want her to say what is on a flashcard. She knows more letters than 3, but I also know that C,D, and T all sound very similar, and how is she supposed to tell them word sounds when apraxia messes with how the muscles in the move, especially in pressure situations.
Arghhh...just not sure where to go next. I plan on talking with private slp tomorrow about this (DH handled Monday's appt) and I'm hoping to see her preschool case manager today to ask her opinion. Her next IEP meeting is in January and if they don't give us an academic diagnosis (which I don't see happening, as just about everything is related to speech) and if they refuse to acknowledge the SPD we lose the OT and probably the in class assistant. I know that they want to dial back the speech she gets, but she still isn't super intelligible to people who don't know her.
Anyway...ideas? Comments? tell me to back off and keep my mouth shut for another month or just suck it up and do more flash cards with her (honestly, they don't work for her, never have). I'm just at a loss here and DH just starting recognizing how intense she's become since school started. Thanks for reading!
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Re: Kindergarten vent...feel free to advise
Thank you. The concern about the DD diagnosis isn't so much about the terminology but that our state does not accept once you turn 6. I've tried to provide them documentation about how apraxia affects school and that many children have delays with learning to read and with math, simply because it's all in how the brain processes information and that the SPD is part of the apraxia (common comorbidity) but the school psychologist just blew me off last time. I didn't fight it because they did give her the DD dx and the services we requested.
As for BTSN I just asked a generic question to make sure everything was going well. I know when the teacher first met Lydia that she was overwhelmed with the speech delay and we wanted to make sure that the teacher had also settled in to the year with her (I was a teacher before I had kids, so we wanted to make sure that everything was kosher). I do need to schedule a conference as the regular ones are set for when the new baby is due and DH is still getting used to the whole SpEd thing. He's only been to 1 IEP meeting, but will attend all future ones!
If you could ask your friend what they did that would be great. I'm thinking about having them ask her to identify the letters non verbally (as in they say the letter, she points out the correct one--opposite of the flash cards). I have her point out letters all the time around the house and in the car, so she knows how to do that. The educational stuff wasn't addressed in her last IEP because she doesn't have an educational diagnosis at the moment and she was in private preschool so they had no backing to add it into the IEP. I have little understanding of the elementary school process, I taught high school inclusion history classes so I can do those in my sleep, but when it's your own kid, it's different.
Thanks again!
I teach Kindergarten and our state specifically mandates how various standards/skills are assessed. In our case, to assess letter recognition, we are required show the child a letter (either a tactile letter such as a manipulative or on a flashcard) and the child must independently verbalize the letter name. I cannot deviate from this mandate or I am in LEGAL violation of the testing procedures and can lose my job (which, as much as I may love your child, I am not willing to risk my employment over). Modifications in assessment can only be made if they are specified in an IEP. Depending on the state/county requirements, the teacher may be bound to the testing regulations in place.
We've been working on letter sounds for at least a year because we knew that she had a high chance of needing reading help and even yesterday she couldn't tell me what letter made the "buh" sound. She has PALS testing next week and we're actually hoping that she bombs it so she gets the extra 30 minutes of reading assistance per day and it'll help us to get her some more help when we next write the IEP. She hasn't been tested for a year, but always seems to squeak through with a passing score.
Thank you both so much for responding. I'm going to talk with our private slp about what to do next today. She's retired from a local school system, so she understands the ins and outs and part of their service is that they help us advocate for our child (I love them, it's so worth the money--they even work with the school slp to make sure that they are all doing a targeted attack on DDs speech issues).
Thanks again!
I see you already have gotten a lot of information. I am a school SLP so I just thought that I would add some suggestions from my viewpoint.
For my kids that have signification difficulties with producing words/sounds, I let the teacher do their standard assessments. But then I go back and retest the skills in a way that reduces the need to verbalize. So for letters recognition, the teacher would ask the child to say the letter name or sound. I would then present 5 letters to the child and ask them to point to the one that makes the /buh/ sound or point to the one that is the G etc. I can do this for almost everything that is expected to be verbalized. The teacher reports out her findings since they have to be standardized but also will inform the parents of my findings since those are more relevant regarding what the child actually knows regardless of their speech issues.
Hope that helps!
Due Date May 13!