Eduational Consultant in No. VA
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Anonymous
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Hello, would like to hear from parents that have hired one (names of the professional, contact info) as we need to hire someone in the No VA area (Fairfax) DD has a PDD-NOS dx, and a language delay, attends a mainstream class with support, (currently attending K-5) but we need to find other options for the 2013 year.
Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. TIA! |
Anonymous
| Ruth Heitin |
Anonymous
| Foundation for Families |
Anonymous
aren't they in baltimore? http://www.foundationforfamiliescounseling.com/ |
Anonymous
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We went with Dr.Heitin for our 4 yr ASD DD. She is very knowledgable and helped us to get the required services.
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Anonymous
Really? We had a terrible experience with Ruth Heitin. I would not recommend her AT ALL. |
Anonymous
| Beth Orloff |
Anonymous
| NP who also used Dr. Heitin http://www.educationalconsultingva.com/. We've used her for 2 of our kids and she's been incredible. I can understand that not every professional will meet the needs/expectations of every client but, for us, I'm immensely grateful to have her assisting us. I found her very knowledgeable, well connected and assertive without being aggressive or offensive. |
Anonymous
We had mixed results with Ruth Heitin. There was basically a "personality" conflict between her and the Pyramid person. It was obvious that they had battled before and each were bringing baggage from prior encounters. Things went much smoother when both were taken out of the picture. BUT, I don't know if we were able to get to where we needed to go if we hadn't had both "big guns" come, then not be there the next time we met, creating breathing room for everyone else. We also had a person from "Gatehouse" and she was FANTASTIC! She was saying everything we were saying and she was from the "inside". I think you need to ask the consultant if they have had success at your school and if they have found road blocks at your school. I am also not sure if we would have had those dynamics whomever we hired. Egos are all over the place. |
Anonymous
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10:53, were you trying to get a private school placement?
we had an awful "pyramid support procedural liaison" too. Can you believe they are paid 6 figures to sit around meetings and be useless? |
Anonymous
No we were not. Private school placement in FCPS is virtually non existent for LD, plus DC is a math and science kid and the public schools excell at that. I haven't found a private school that would even consider DC (except for Lab and they don't fit "math and science kid"). At this point, we are pleased with what is happening, but it took a long way to get there. At the moment, he has all the supports he needs to be successful. |
Anonymous
+1 |
Anonymous
| I have also heard bad things about Ruth Heitin - that's she's condescending and puts school staff on the defensive straight away. No personal experience, but I know a family who used her and felt that things were ultimately more contentious with their child's school after Ruth came on board (and she is very expensive!). |
Anonymous
19:48 here. Dr. Heitin has helped us with two kids. Perhaps one's experience with her depends on what you need. The first time we used her was for our oldest DS who was in K. We knew something was wrong because he wasn't learning. We weren't expecting him to be in the top 10% of his class but we also weren't expecting him to be in the bottom 5% with the kids who'd not been in an English speaking environment and who had limited educational opportunities. When the school psychologist observed him in class, her comment as "nothing about your child stands out" - meaning - because he had no behavioral issues and was social, we're not going to look into this any further. I was about to panic because DS was starting to struggle (and this was only K!). Dr. Heiting was able to get us an appointment within 2 weeks to see a well respected developmental pediatrician with a months long waiting list. That's when we learned DS had ADHD/inattentive - which she suspected but stated she was unqualified to diagnose. She's been assertive in the meetings we've been in and demands the school staff come prepared and on time. And, they are. Our youngest DS started in a special ed preschool. We had some issues with his preschool teacher who opined he wasn't toilet trained because we hadn't sufficiently worked on it (wrong) and she also failed to adequately communicate to the school staff our request to add speech to DS's IEP. The teacher indnicated our concerns were about articulation. DS has a diagnosed communication disorder, apraxia of speech and MERLD. Articluation is a concern but communication is the larger problem. As a result, the school SLP only did an articulation assessment which indicated words in isolation and modeled sentences were fine. In reality, DS couldn't put together more than 3 word sentences in spontaneous speech. We were at an IEP meeting when we learned the teacher had not shared our concerns with the SLP and hadn't even shared the reports from the developmental pediatrician or our private SLP. Dr. Heitin immediately stopped the meeting because there was no point in discussing his educational needs if the school had not assessed his speech. She also requested the pyramid procedural officer attend our next meeting. Dr. Heitin and the procedural officer had worked to gether on other cases and had a good professional relationship. At this next meeting, Dr. Heitin was able to review the teacher's daily observation book/notes and discovered that DS had not mastered the IEP goals the teacher had reported he had (and which I had doubted). The procedural officer was appalled, immediately removed the teacher and we had to reconvene. We've used Dr. Heitin now for 5 years and, for us, she's been amazing. I know not everyone has had the same experience, but, for us, I feel that because of her we've been able to develop and maintain and excellent relationship with the school and teachers. Meeting, especially in the beginning, could be tense and somewhat uncomfortable but she was pushing for the best for our kids. My DH and I could simply smile and nod our heads, letting her be the bulldog. We got to be the grateful, appreciative parents acknowleding the hard work the teachers did on behalf of our kids. Dr. Heitin was there to help us better understand our kids' education needs. BTW - Dr. Heitin has also helped us manage our expectations. DH and I had wanted to see about delaying our youngest's entry into K. She told us she wouldn't be able to help us with it because he had an IEP and she had no basis on which to appeal. His needs were to be met with the IEP and research indicated that in the long wrong, holding a kid back yielded little to no benefits. She told us we could try it ourselves but it liekly would be a waste of money for us to pay her because the chances of us getting it were about nil. I appreciated her honesty. At our IEP meetings now, a different pyramid procedural officer comes. Sometimes there are a few embers that spark but our meetings are always professional. This is to be expected when there are opposing opinions. For us, we love our kids' teachers but we know there are a lot of unwritten policies and politics. The teachers know we're grateful and appreciative of their efforts. I feel they don't mind us bringing our big gun in an effort to do what we can for our kids. In some ways, it give them an out. Everyone knows Dr. Heitin and rather than battle her on these things, it's better to just accept things and get through the IEP. Anyway, I do realize not everyone has the same experience and may not need what Dr. Heitin brings. We've benefitted greatly from her assistance and I no longer dread IEP meetings. I don't think the staff do either. They know they have to be on their A game but I think, in the end, that makes everyone better. Good luck. |
Anonymous
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