Expert: Tim Runner - 11/27/2008

Question
My son is about to turn 10 and was recently diagnosed with PDD-nos.  We have had a long struggle with the school, behaviour in school, "episodes" when he's feeling stressed or upset (which have resulted in many suspensions), danger of failing report cards, etc.   He's now in the 4th grade and scholastically I'm being told he's doing well.  He even has his first friend that actually calls my SON to play.  The problem(s) that I am worrying about now is:  My son is very concrete.  He's misinterpretting things that the teacher says in class and he misinterprets some of the kid's behaviors.  The teacher has been giving them time frames in which to finish their work (5 minutes left, etc) he's interpretting that as being directed at him and telling him he's going too slow.  I talked to the teacher about it and explained to him that it was just to let him know how much longer they will be working on something and that he can go back and finish later (his IEP states he is to get extended time for assignments and tests and additional prompts and restating the directions)  I have an IEP meeting coming up and I'm asking for an occupational therapy evaluation (he says his fingers hurt when he writes and it feels like his hands are shaking.  It's a big stress for him and he's improved alot in the past couple of years) and I'm asking for social skills group (if they have one)or program.  I'm also asking for a language assessment since he has problems identifying how words are grouped and vocabulary.  He is diagnosed with a language disfunction.  What is the best way to go about this and how can it be addressed on an IEP?   The school said they would do a functional behavioral assessment but they have yet to do that so for now he is without one for the first time in 3 years.

Answer
Sherry,

You need to put your assessment requests in writing to the school and remind them of the overdue functional behavioral assessment. You need to briefly state why your son needs to have these assessments (similar to what you wrote me in your question). From what you stated, it sounds to me that he needs all of these assessments. Once the school received your letter, they have 15 delays to prepare an assessment plan or to tell you in writing why they do not feel an assessment is needed at this time. After you sign the assessment plan, they have 60 days to perform the assessments and report their results to you in an IEP.

I wish you and your son the best,
Tim Runner, Education Advocate
You can learn more at my web site:
www.special-education-answers.com
www.education-advocates.com (for DSL and phone)