IEPs Should Not Be Like Buying a Car

Quinn has started early childhood classes. And she LOVES it!!!

The whole process setting this up sucked. We are happy that we finally got what we did; she is going to four half-days per week and then we are supplementing with private therapies, including music therapy - my girl will be a rock star - ha ha. BUT that being said, the whole process was well...I'd better not say. Let's just say I would insert a bad word greater then sucked back there. As many of you who visit here know, things have been complicated in the last year with additional diagnoses which have greatly impacted Quinn's development. This was minimized and the OFFER from the school district was two half-days a week of school. It was said that they don't do more. When we didn't immediately agree, then they still only offered three half-days a week. What is this back and forth crap, am I shopping for a new car? Then we walked out the room without signing the IEP. After I informed them that I would be getting an advocate to just make sure because her placement should be based on her individual needs and not what they tend to do in our school district, their tune completely changed. We could get whatever we wanted. Crazy, huh? I didn't even get the advocate, I just said I was going to. Kind of makes a person believe they weren't doing what they were supposed to. Anyway, we settled on four days a week versus five because then Quinn could go to just one school for all four days (if it was five, she would have to go to one school for three days and another for two).

-Karyn

Happiness and Sadness

My baby girl turned three on Wednesday. Her development has been just taking off. Two weeks ago she started saying Mama, dog and all done (all done is a little joke she says a lot, when she isn't all done she says it and then smiles when we tell her she isn't all done). She has been coming up to her brothers so much more that her brother Aidan now complains that she is getting into his toys too much - ha ha. She makes more eye contact and will thread her fingers through yours. I feel like things are better and she is just so beautiful (see her three year old photos) and then on Thursday we received the results of the neuropsychological eval that claims she has autism. I say claims because the two times I witnessed Quinn crawl right up to the neuropsychologist are not mentioned in the eval. Down syndrome is referred to as Down's Syndrome throughout the eval. And I was the one who had to tell them about George Capone, who we are now going to try to see when my life calms down enough for me to pursue that. All the neuropsychologist did after I told her about George Capone is look his photo up on the web (she actually admitted that to me). Maybe I am just not accepting the inevitable, but I don't understand this. The neuropsychologist told us TWICE that she knew how we felt. The last time she said it I basically went off on her that, as a helping professional myself, I can tell her that statements like that do not help. Now I have to contact her again to tell her that I want an addendum to the report mentioning that Down's Syndrome should be Down syndrome and mentioning the crawling up to her, and correct another error in the report. There is always something... But I do have my beautiful girl and it is so great that she is more interactive. I can't believe she is becoming more interactive just now when we receive such a diagnosis. Maybe someday I will write Autistic Disorder on the side of this blog, but for right now, I cannot stomach it.

-Karyn