Luckily, it turned out that the school was right up the street, the teacher was really nice and she would be their SDC teacher the following year at their new school. The boys took about a week to settle in, which was nice... we'd had a really hard time with Daniel when he started school. Anthony took to it like a fish takes to water. They loved their teacher and she really made the kiddos feel at home. It turned out that a couple of the kiddos from their first class were in their summer school class, and they would also follow to the new school.
They actually had a great 5 - 6 weeks in the class. Daniel still had ABA in the afternoon, by this time he was having two sessions a day for 2 hours, Monday thru Friday. About 5 weeks later, they started at their new school. It was awesome, even though they had not been there, they knew their new teacher. That helped so much. They still took a little while to get use to the new school, but it was the easiest transition yet.
The new teacher
was going to school to learn about and specialize in Autism and ADD /
adhd, which proved to be an invaluable resource for us as the year
progressed.
By the first part of 2012, Daniel had hit a stop sign - he was requiring one on one instruction, and was not learning at the pace he should have been. An emergency IEP was scheduled and we decided to put him in the PALS class for autistic children. The PALS class focused on both group and individual activities. The student having an aid work directly with him/her as needed.
Around this time we watched Anthony slide backwards at an alarming pace. We knew the signs, he had regressed. He still had words, but wouldn't link them, his eye contact was virtually gone, he had been playing along side other students - that too was gone. He preferred to play alone. Also, the boys had stopped almost all interaction with each other. It was heartbreaking on so many levels.
Getting Anthony reassessed proved to be next to impossible with the regional center. We scheduled an appointment with an outside psychologist. One that the regional center had generally accepted his diagnosis. Diagnosis: autism. We sent the information to the regional center... they did not want to accept it. They did, however, set up an appointment with their in house psychologist. Both psychologists had diagnosed autism, both recommended intensive ABA... But... the regional center wasn't willing to update / change his diagnosis.
We had the M-CHAT done for Anthony with the school and they agreed that he should be placed in the PALS program. With all this information, the regional center finally decided to accept his diagnosis, but not without a long struggle. It was August before we could start ABA services and he would have to wait until the next school year before he started the PALS class.. But we were finally getting him the help he needed.
By the first part of 2012, Daniel had hit a stop sign - he was requiring one on one instruction, and was not learning at the pace he should have been. An emergency IEP was scheduled and we decided to put him in the PALS class for autistic children. The PALS class focused on both group and individual activities. The student having an aid work directly with him/her as needed.
Around this time we watched Anthony slide backwards at an alarming pace. We knew the signs, he had regressed. He still had words, but wouldn't link them, his eye contact was virtually gone, he had been playing along side other students - that too was gone. He preferred to play alone. Also, the boys had stopped almost all interaction with each other. It was heartbreaking on so many levels.
Getting Anthony reassessed proved to be next to impossible with the regional center. We scheduled an appointment with an outside psychologist. One that the regional center had generally accepted his diagnosis. Diagnosis: autism. We sent the information to the regional center... they did not want to accept it. They did, however, set up an appointment with their in house psychologist. Both psychologists had diagnosed autism, both recommended intensive ABA... But... the regional center wasn't willing to update / change his diagnosis.
We had the M-CHAT done for Anthony with the school and they agreed that he should be placed in the PALS program. With all this information, the regional center finally decided to accept his diagnosis, but not without a long struggle. It was August before we could start ABA services and he would have to wait until the next school year before he started the PALS class.. But we were finally getting him the help he needed.
No comments:
Post a Comment