5 year old on the spectrum, where should Mom begin?

missypie
Wed, 27 Apr 2011 08:08:50 +0000

Your public school district will have a “Child Find” office, often within the Special Ed department, and their sole purpose is to help identify kids with special needs and to help make sure that the child gets the necessary resources AND that supplemental services (developmental preschools, OT, PT, …) are provided AND that there is coordination for when the child enters public K-12 schooling. None of this should be at any charge to the parent. (This is a federal mandate.)



If it’s a federal mandate, I guess there may be a little office somewhere, but with the present state of public school funding, schools have every incentiive to NOT identify kids who need special services because special services cost money. Don’t rely on the school district. For five years we heard that Son’s issues were “characteristics of giftedness.” Maybe…but also of Asperger’s, extreme ADD and Executive Function Disorder with a bit of disgraphia and speech impediment thrown in. In my experience, school kids who are behavior problems get attention but well behaved kids don’t.