Question about IEP(i guess thats what it would be considered)

[am_ryan21]

I have an almost 3 year old ds. He has been having seizures since June 2011. We have a special needs preschool through the county school system here. We went for the testing today to see if he would qualify for the preschool. I was pretty much asked why I was was there as they felt he had no issues other than having seizures and being hyper active. The medication he is currently on makes him extremely hyper. They kept making comments on how hyper he is and how he will not sit still. Anyways my question is should he qualify for the preschool based on the hyper activity and seizures or would he need to have some other type of delays?

[mibarra]

To qualify for those programs, you need to have an educational impact, so learning/language/gross or fine motor delay. If the seizures are not having a significant impact on his learning, then he probably doesn't qualify. If the only issues are medical that require accommodations, like being aware of seizures, more bathroom breaks, shorter days due to poor endurance, then you don't need a special curriculum, KWIM? Without knowing more detail it's hard to say for sure.

[jac1976]

When DS was tested for the early intervention program (which gave him his IFSP, what an IEP is called before the age of 3) the guidelines were in order to qualify he had to have at least a 33% developmental delay in one area, or a 25% delay in 2+ areas. Also, once he turned 3, they wouldn't treat any delays that weren't educational in nature. For example, they insisted that DS' sensory issues (can't sit still, constantly mouthing things, etc.) had no impact on his ability to function in a classroom so they refused to give us OT.

[ktmelody]

Here it has to impact their learning. Who sent you to the district for testing? So it is hard to say. Do his seizures impact what his classroom abilities might be? Are they not controlled by medication? Will he go to normal kindergarten?


Ours is a self contained classroom with 10 SN kids and 2 typical peers. My dd qualified with a severe social delay, but they will not do OT for her since it doesn't impact her learning......which is so stupid. So we have to get that privately.

[MrsCrafty]

I agree with what the others have said. If it doesn't directly impact his learning then he probably won't qualify. Is there a reason he's in a special needs preschool?

[am_ryan21]

My MIL worked as the nurse for the school for almost 7 years so she suggested we have him tested. He does not currently attend any preschool or daycare and he is not delayed because we have worked on things he was delayed in over and over until he finally got the concept of it. The main reason I wanted to get him in was because he needs work on his social skills. There were 2 ladies in there for his testing and the one lady kept saying how hyper he was and how if that didn't change by the time he got to Kindergarten we would have to have him tested again and start an IEP program for that. I was just wondering why he couldn't start now so he would be used to being in a classroom setting instead of waiting and putting him behind in Kindergarten.

[mibarra]

Originally Posted by am_ryan21 My MIL worked as the nurse for the school for almost 7 years so she suggested we have him tested. He does not currently attend any preschool or daycare and he is not delayed because we have worked on things he was delayed in over and over until he finally got the concept of it. The main reason I wanted to get him in was because he needs work on his social skills. There were 2 ladies in there for his testing and the one lady kept saying how hyper he was and how if that didn't change by the time he got to Kindergarten we would have to have him tested again and start an IEP program for that. I was just wondering why he couldn't start now so he would be used to being in a classroom setting instead of waiting and putting him behind in Kindergarten.

Unfortunately there are often state and federal laws that specify how much of a delay you have to have in what types of areas, so it's often not necessarily up to the discretion of the evaluators, KWIM? Good luck!

[Fashionably Green Baby]

My son attends the early childhood preschool and he was put there because he has a moderate to severe (their wording) developmental delay and a moderate speech delay. He did a year of speech and oral motor therapy from 2 to 3 years old as well as OT for gross motor delays also from 2 to 3 years old. He was then evaluated for the preschool and that is when he got his developmental delay "diagnosis".

I was not in the room when they did his eval for preschool. They do a 2 day eval in a sort of mock preschool setting and watch the kids as they go about their day. I also filled out a very long questionnaire and that is how he was evaluated.

My sons speech delay was really bad (getting much better now) and I was told by his Speech therapist that he had from 2 to 3 that they probably would not put him into the preschool for speech alone. They have to have deficits in a couple of areas to qualify.

[slyeates]

Originally Posted by am_ryan21 My MIL worked as the nurse for the school for almost 7 years so she suggested we have him tested. He does not currently attend any preschool or daycare and he is not delayed because we have worked on things he was delayed in over and over until he finally got the concept of it. The main reason I wanted to get him in was because he needs work on his social skills. There were 2 ladies in there for his testing and the one lady kept saying how hyper he was and how if that didn't ichange by the time he got to Kindergarten we would have to have him tested again and start an IEP program for that. I was just wondering why he couldn't start now so he would be used to being in a classroom setting instead of waiting and putting him behind in Kindergarten.

My son is almost 5 and started with early childhood intervention at 18 months old. He is now in his second year of public school (early childhood special needs). They will only work on education related problems. You cannot get in for just social skills, they must be directly relating to education.

When they said they may need to retest him for kindergarten, I don't believe they would be holding him back. Many children here get special "allowances". They may have a 1:1 aide with them to help them to remember to concentrate, a separate quiet room for test taking, or something as simple as your child must sit at the front of the classroom and the teacher needs to have direct eye contact before giving directions.

An IEP is not a special class, it is an Individual Education Plan. This can be in a special needs setting or in a regular classroom. Early childhood programs are difficult to get into because there are not many slots and they need to make sure that the children that are there are gaining way more than just social interaction. You can enroll him in private preschool and it would likely burn off some of his energy and help him socially as well. HTH

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[MrsCrafty]

Unfortunately they don't look at things in the way of keeping up with them so they don't get behind. My DS is hearing impaired, but never qualified for speech serviced until he was behind a certain %. Basically we just had to wait for it to happen for him to get services. It's sad but just the way it usually is.
I also think it can be hard to get help for hyperactivity. My DS is on meds but doesn't get any specific services for it, its just written into his IEP that he needs help with transitions and when he gets a sensory overload.