Tuesday: Effective Advocating

Early Childhood Evaluations

Tyler recently was referred to Special School District for the area of language. He qualified for an IEP (Individualized Education Plan) and we were relieved. Why were we relieved? Because we knew something was up with his language, that he wasn't on track.

How did we get to this step?

1. Early Childhood Evaluation

I had been taking him every 4-6 months since he turned 3 to the early childhood center for an early childhood assessment. Every school district does these play based assessments- just call up your local early childhood center. The number can be found on your school district's website or call the local grade school your child will attend to get the number.

2. Be persistent

No matter what degree the person evaluating your child has- in my case it was a speech and language pathologist and a early childhood development specialist- both master's degrees, both very experienced with working with children with developmental delays- know this: You are the expert on your own child.

I have a masters degree in Tyler Paul Atkins.

I was persistent about the need for an eval from SSD and wouldn't let it go until they sent him there to be tested. They disagreed even to the end because they didn't see him in all areas of life like I did.

3. Educate yourself

When we got there they tested him for speech and he didn't qualify. He says all of the right sounds. I asked for a test in language. Most people think these are the same thing, but they are very different. Speech is the actual sounds needed to say the words. Language is being able to get across the meaning of your words and organizing them in a way that makes them make sense.

The testing scale ranked him below average in the area of language in all but one of the testing environments. Even that one the administrator thought he was guessing on most of it and put that in her report. If they had only evaluated him for speech, which was the order from the early childhood center, he would not have qualified for assistance.

4. Get over it already

Am I glad he has an IEP? Of course I'm not. I wish he didn't have to go through this and I really was not looking forward to more meetings at a school! I knew something was going on with his language and putting my head in the sand would not help him to grow and mature.

5. Know your rights

I knew that pushing the school district to do what they needed to do and keeping him at the front of the list for assistance would get him the help he needed during his last year of preschool. You have the right to be concerned about your child and stay in their faces until you are satisfied with the outcome. I knew he could be re evaluated every 4 months.

6. The outcome

So, my little boy is going from being at home with me full time this past year to being in preschool everyday for 3 hours- divided between two different schools! He will go to Good Shepherd Preschool- a cute Lutheran school in a near by town- MWF from 9-12 and he will go to ISC- Instructional Service Center for Parkway School District- 12:30-3:30 pm TTH. The most exciting part for him? He gets to ride the school bus to the ISC.

7. Arm your child with information

I will add one more little piece of information to this post- Tyler knew going in what he was there for. When I took him to the SSD evaluation offices he knew that doctors (that's a stretch I know, but it was a term he understood) would play with him and ask him questions and see if they could help him with his talking. He understands that his talking is not as good as his friends and he was excited to go to see if they could help. A HUGE part of advocating for your children is giving them the words to be able to stand up for themselves. When he got to the office he said "I hope you can help me talk better" and when he described why he was there he said "You doctors will help me."

That says it all.