Tell me about the transition to kindergarten for a child with ASD1 and anxiety in gen ed and how to make it successful
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Anonymous
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Currently our child is in a mainstream daycare class with 12 kids and at least 2 teachers at any given time. DC is doing well academically but struggles socially so often wants to play with teachers rather than other kids.
DC will be attending kindergarten at an MCPS school with 18-20 kids in a classroom with one teacher. Due to DC's strengths and current success in school, we do not anticipate having an IEP in place before kindergarten starts. Is there anything we can do to support DC's transition to kindergarten? We're doing visits to the school playground and working on getting to know neighborhood families so DC can at least meet some classmates ahead of time. Any other advice to help DC with this transition? We've had a bad experience with this type of transition when DC was younger due to severe anxiety (for which DC received treatment and improved significantly) so just trying to be on top of things more this time. |
Anonymous
| I believe you can request an IEP now through your home school (because they have to provide those for preschool kids in district) now, so that it speeds things up for the fall. I'd also suggest trying to talk with the principal or case manager at the school to get a feel for things. I'm a K teacher and have had many kids on the spectrum in my public school classroom. Most did quite well. |
Anonymous
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Redshirt if you can. Ask for an IEP and evaluations now, if you can't hold back another year, like right now, tomorrow.
Pray. Some ASD kids do well in K but by 2nd-3rd grades social complexity increases, academic material is more complex as well and those who did OK in K are no longer OK. What I am saying is: don't be lulled by those who tell you ASD1 kids can succeed in K. It's true, but the school doesn't end in K. And if you have anxiety in the mix, stay hyper vigilant about school. |
Anonymous
| OP here. Just to clarify, schools don't tend to give IEPs to kids who are doing well in school (this is based on teacher reports, not grades). We've asked. We're already in the process of requesting the IEP but not holding our breaths. We're not going to redshirt DC. |
Anonymous
I just had an IEP meeting for my rising K with similar stuff going on. I would not let the school off the hook. A social emotional delay can be enough for an IEP. My son doesn’t have academic goals but he has communication, social emotional, and speech goals and is getting a decent amount of support. We are in FCPS. Have you done any early intervention or gotten services as a preschooler? |
Anonymous
It's a long story and not one I'm willing to share here, sorry. |
Anonymous
This is false. You can be at grade level and still need an IEP. Get schooled before clarifying on here. Schools will lead you to believe that to avoid doing an IEP. Or will tell you that a 504 accommodations plan is just as good. Get an advocate or become an expert on this, it's a long journey. |
Anonymous
Ha okay. You don’t need to share but I’m trying to help you. I asked if you’ve gotten services before because if he is already deemed for special ed services, you are over a hurdle. If I were you, I would try to get him an IEP. It sounds like he might be your oldest child in school. For my oldest, we went to every “popsicles on the playground” for new kids event we could, tried to meet other rising Ks, and really talked up kinder and her new routine. |
Anonymous
This is VERY GOOD ADVICE. |
Anonymous
+1 I'm the OP of the thread about possibly homeschooling dc-this is exactly what we are experiencing right now at the end of 3rd grade. I'm not trying to be negative-dc actually did well in K, despite the pandemic happening then. I think it's good that you're pursuing an IEP. |
Anonymous
| My ASD/anxiety kid did not have a great public K year due to bad K teacher fit (can't control this factor), a lot more stimulation, less structures & some K kids are rough with IEP/no daycare experience. Our private daycare was really structured and my kid was probably the only one with IEP in classroom. Public school was a total story. I heard 1 kid got kicked out by the end of school year due to behaviors. I heard things from my kid that some kids cut his line, who got in troubles, pushing him/ other kids, got sent to principal office etc. Kids at public school are more rough, and my ASD kid got picked by other kids a few times which ended in conflicts. We did not experience all of these at private daycare, so it was a rough transition for both my child and me. Things got better starting at 1st grade and teachers have been good fit so far. |
Anonymous
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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP here. Just to clarify, schools don't tend to give IEPs to kids who are doing well in school (this is based on teacher reports, not grades). We've asked. We're already in the process of requesting the IEP but not holding our breaths. We're not going to redshirt DC.[/quote]
This is false. You can be at grade level and still need an IEP. Get schooled before clarifying on here. Schools will lead you to believe that to avoid doing an IEP. Or will tell you that a 504 accommodations plan is just as good. Get an advocate or become an expert on this, it's a long journey.[/quote] I didn't say "at grade level" you did. I said "doing well in school" and that means there aren't currently issues at school. Please don't misrepresent my statements. |
Anonymous
I know you're trying to help, but that does not obligate me to share specific information about my child, nor does it sound like you really need it.to offer advice. |
Anonymous
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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP here. Just to clarify, schools don't tend to give IEPs to kids who are doing well in school (this is based on teacher reports, not grades). We've asked. We're already in the process of requesting the IEP but not holding our breaths. We're not going to redshirt DC.[/quote]
This is false. You can be at grade level and still need an IEP. Get schooled before clarifying on here. Schools will lead you to believe that to avoid doing an IEP. Or will tell you that a 504 accommodations plan is just as good. Get an advocate or become an expert on this, it's a long journey.[/quote] I didn't say "at grade level" you did. I said "doing well in school" and that means there aren't currently issues at school. Please don't misrepresent my statements.[/quote] I think folks are trying to help you. My DD is academically at grade level or beyond but behind in social skills. She actually loves playing with other kids but has trouble with back and forth communication with them which can be frustrating for her. She has no atypical difficult behaviors (sometimes she verbally protests but it’s not out of the range of typical and she has no aggression issues). We just did her kindergarten IEP and it’s all speech and communication skills. That being said, it’s not a ton of support (I think 2.5 hours total over the course of the week). We are planning to redshirt DD anyways since she just made the age cutoff. We are also likely to send her to a private school with small class sizes as I think she won’t thrive in public and will get overwhelmed. I will say if we didn’t have a diagnose from an outside provider with a really good report about accommodations I am pretty sure they would’ve pushed a 504. As others have said, I’d do any meetups you can. I’d read books about going to kindergarten. I write my DD social stories all the time and had success this year taking pictures when we did a classroom visit day and turning that into a story about her routine. Maybe ask parents or the school what the routine is for a kindergartener so you can turn that into a story. I also put a picture of us in DDs backpack and wrote about it in the social story saying something like, “If I get sad or anxious, there is a picture of my family in my backpack that I can look at or hug.” She never actually used it but even it just being there gave her comfort! She made sure the first couple weeks of school it was in there in the morning. |
Anonymous
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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP here. Just to clarify, schools don't tend to give IEPs to kids who are doing well in school (this is based on teacher reports, not grades). We've asked. We're already in the process of requesting the IEP but not holding our breaths. We're not going to redshirt DC.[/quote]
This is false. You can be at grade level and still need an IEP. Get schooled before clarifying on here. Schools will lead you to believe that to avoid doing an IEP. Or will tell you that a 504 accommodations plan is just as good. Get an advocate or become an expert on this, it's a long journey.[/quote] I didn't say "at grade level" you did. I said "doing well in school" and that means there aren't currently issues at school. Please don't misrepresent my statements.[/quote] I think folks are trying to help you. My DD is academically at grade level or beyond but behind in social skills. She actually loves playing with other kids but has trouble with back and forth communication with them which can be frustrating for her. She has no atypical difficult behaviors (sometimes she verbally protests but it’s not out of the range of typical and she has no aggression issues). We just did her kindergarten IEP and it’s all speech and communication skills. That being said, it’s not a ton of support (I think 2.5 hours total over the course of the week). We are planning to redshirt DD anyways since she just made the age cutoff. We are also likely to send her to a private school with small class sizes as I think she won’t thrive in public and will get overwhelmed. I will say if we didn’t have a diagnose from an outside provider with a really good report about accommodations I am pretty sure they would’ve pushed a 504. As others have said, I’d do any meetups you can. I’d read books about going to kindergarten. I write my DD social stories all the time and had success this year taking pictures when we did a classroom visit day and turning that into a story about her routine. Maybe ask parents or the school what the routine is for a kindergartener so you can turn that into a story. I also put a picture of us in DDs backpack and wrote about it in the social story saying something like, “If I get sad or anxious, there is a picture of my family in my backpack that I can look at or hug.” She never actually used it but even it just being there gave her comfort! She made sure the first couple weeks of school it was in there in the morning.[/quote] Thank you, I appreciate this. I think what some folks are missing is that ASD1 is a very broad category. ASD1 is diagnosed as late as adolescence or later for some kids because they are able to get by until that age. Many families with this diagnosis at age 5 seek IEPs and don't get them. It's not that we're not trying - there's some history here I'm intentionally not sharing - it's just that realistically, we don't expect to have it in place when she starts K. Thank you to those who have offered advice about supporting the transition to K. |