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

arabrab
Wed, 13 Apr 2011 12:53:04 +0000

Thumper has it absolutely right. 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 you have private health insurance, you can also go the route of private assessment – if you have a Children’s Hospital in your in-network coverage they may have a group that does this too.

It would also be helpful to find an Asperger’s parents group in the child’s area, which would both give the parents some other adults to talk with and help to quickly identify possible resources in the community, and experiences with various doctors and clinicians.

There may also be a group for parents of students in Special Education that could similarly be helpful, and Special Education Advocates who can help cut through the process if the school district is not cooperative.

There can be a lot of other issues that can lead to emotional outbursts (beyond the normal four and five-year-old meltdowns) – I hope everyone can keep an open mind to make sure that a number of possibilities are considered.

I was just talking with my sister yesterday – my nephew has some significant issues related to anything that changes routines – and she told me what a tremendous help the school Occupational Therapist has been in helping him find unobtrusive coping strategies.