Early Stages Autism Classification

[Anonymous]

There are Early Stages team that will definitely say your kid is ASD or borderline even if the developmental pediatrician says otherwise. I think the school also has to be in agreement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We went through early stages for our 4 year old thinking speech delay and developmental delay. They want to classify him with Autism in the IEP. He isn’t currently in school and will start in the fall. I’m not sure where to go from here. Im not 100% sure he has autism. We are going to give him some time in pre k before making any decisions. I guess I’m just looking for advice or people who have been there. We’d like to start private speech but don’t know where to start. Any help or advice would be great. Thanks

In my experience, an autism label can ber an educational death sentence IF your child has severe language issues. If you had a very verbal child, getting an autism label doesn't seem to be as much of an issue. The problem is multi-fold: An autism label doesn't easily come off. It will follow your child around. It's also often an excuse to put a child in a self-contained class, which, at least in my state, is glorified baby sitting. So your child gets further and further behind. And because a language kid will typically easily imitate behaviors, they start imitating the movements and speech of their classmates, their only role models.

To find out your school's true intentions, ask them to provide you with statistics about how often a child labeled with educational autism and language difficulties is moved back into the general population.

Never blindly trust the schools -- they have their own agenda. For example, if they have a teacher who is certified in cognitive impairment, and that class isn't full, they may slide your child into that classroom so they don't have to staff and the autism ratio. This has happened to several of my friends.

OP here. I’m not going to agree to a self contained classroom. I don’t feel a kid who has never been in school should be placed in a self contained room without a medical diagnosis of autism. Thanks for your advice becuauzd it has given me the resolve to go and fight for what I think is best.

I'm all for getting the correct diagnosis and label -- HOWEVER, be aware that the fight for services and the correct placement are different from the label/diagnosis. So you have to be prepared on both fronts ... even if your child does have ASD, you wouldn't want them in a self-contained classroom if that was inappropriate.

[Anonymous]

Don't be afraid of the asd diagnosis/label in the early years. It opens up the widest range of services and placements for your child without the need for additional documentation and testing. We went from the dd label to asd in elementary school and it opened up other opportunities and therapies for our child without having to fight for them. That being said, our D.C. Was fairly high functioning and was main streamed in g. Ed classes. No self contained placements except for intensive writing assistance in sixth grade. Take advantage of everything you can in elementary school and make more fine tuned choices in middle school and beyond based on your child's strengths and weaknesses as they age.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don't be afraid of the asd diagnosis/label in the early years. It opens up the widest range of services and placements for your child without the need for additional documentation and testing. We went from the dd label to asd in elementary school and it opened up other opportunities and therapies for our child without having to fight for them. That being said, our D.C. Was fairly high functioning and was main streamed in g. Ed classes. No self contained placements except for intensive writing assistance in sixth grade. Take advantage of everything you can in elementary school and make more fine tuned choices in middle school and beyond based on your child's strengths and weaknesses as they age.

Doesn't work this way for most kids. I know, I have been there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't be afraid of the asd diagnosis/label in the early years. It opens up the widest range of services and placements for your child without the need for additional documentation and testing. We went from the dd label to asd in elementary school and it opened up other opportunities and therapies for our child without having to fight for them. That being said, our D.C. Was fairly high functioning and was main streamed in g. Ed classes. No self contained placements except for intensive writing assistance in sixth grade. Take advantage of everything you can in elementary school and make more fine tuned choices in middle school and beyond based on your child's strengths and weaknesses as they age.

Doesn't work this way for most kids. I know, I have been there.

Didn’t work as in you wished you fought for a different classifications or didn’t work because you still had to fight for services?

[Anonymous]

OP here. Went to meeting. I agreed with the autism classification. They attempted to place him in a self contained autism class. I disagreed. They refused to change the out of gen ed time. They said that is our recommendation and it will stay there. They said it was my responsibility to work with the school to change his hours. Is this right? What should I do next. Thanks for any help.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Went to meeting. I agreed with the autism classification. They attempted to place him in a self contained autism class. I disagreed. They refused to change the out of gen ed time. They said that is our recommendation and it will stay there. They said it was my responsibility to work with the school to change his hours. Is this right? What should I do next. Thanks for any help.

This is why you should not have agreed with the diagnosis. Its easier for them to lump him in with ASD and self contained ASD classroom, which is terrible for speech kids as they may not get the speech and socialization they need. You can pull the IEP and refuse services and go private or you'll have to hire an advocate and get him a more appropriate placement (but you'll need private evaluations to prove its not ASD).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Went to meeting. I agreed with the autism classification. They attempted to place him in a self contained autism class. I disagreed. They refused to change the out of gen ed time. They said that is our recommendation and it will stay there. They said it was my responsibility to work with the school to change his hours. Is this right? What should I do next. Thanks for any help.

This is why you should not have agreed with the diagnosis. Its easier for them to lump him in with ASD and self contained ASD classroom, which is terrible for speech kids as they may not get the speech and socialization they need. You can pull the IEP and refuse services and go private or you'll have to hire an advocate and get him a more appropriate placement (but you'll need private evaluations to prove its not ASD).

Yep, yep, yep, yep. The school does not want to help your child. They want to do what's easiest for them. Contrary to all the lousy advice on this board, kids with language disorders don't get the help they need being mislabeled with autism.

You need a DIFFERENTIAL DIAGNOSIS. Some on here will tell you the ADOS is a gold standard, but it's a flawed test for language delayed children. You need to go to someone who has EVERY diagnosis on the table, not just autism. Most people in the area do a checklist diagnosis.

Be prepared for the fight of your life. Get a good outside evaluation to start. Tell the dipshits at the school that your child needs a LANGUAGE RICH environment, which a self-contained class won't be. He needs the LEAST RESTRICTED ENVIRONMENT.

Search out good advocates in the area. You will need one.

[Anonymous]

OP here. So from what I’m understanding I can’t just reject the ces placement and he will be put in gen ed pre k4? We have already registered him for pre-K prior to the early stages eval. I was under the impression after telling them i was rejecting the placement and insisting they put in the notes that we would not be placed there. They refused to change the 27.5 hours of of gen ed. They told me I have to work with the school to change the hours. I’m just confused

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. So from what I’m understanding I can’t just reject the ces placement and he will be put in gen ed pre k4? We have already registered him for pre-K prior to the early stages eval. I was under the impression after telling them i was rejecting the placement and insisting they put in the notes that we would not be placed there. They refused to change the 27.5 hours of of gen ed. They told me I have to work with the school to change the hours. I’m just confused

If you have a private school that will take him, the alternative is to go private and do private services. We did that and glad we did given the lack of services we get now in public.

[Anonymous]

If you got a pre-k spot during the lottery, you have the right to place your child in that school. He will come in with the IEP, which has the special education hours but not the placement (e.g. an autism classroom vs. non-categorical classroom vs. a general education classroom with special education support). If it is a DCPS school, they will accept the IEP and you can ask for a meeting, as soon as you wish, in order to change hours. If it is a charter school, they have 30 days to accept or reject the IEP, and you can also ask for an IEP meeting. Most schools do not have all placements, so if you place your child, you will be working with what the school has, at least initially. You also have the option of allowing Early Stages to place your child, in which case it sounds like they will put him in a CES classroom.

[Anonymous]

Are the 27.5 hours in general ed weekly, monthly, or what? If it is weekly he'd mostly be in gen ed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are the 27.5 hours in general ed weekly, monthly, or what? If it is weekly he'd mostly be in gen ed.

It’s 27.5 hours specialized instruction outside genera we. Which I told them I was not accepting. I wanted him in gen ed with everyone else. They also refused to put classroom accommodations in because that’s only for kids in general ed. Early Stages is a damn mess. I don’t know why they refused to change it and told me I had to contact the school to change the hours.

[Anonymous]

I found it was easier to work with the school instead of Early Stages. The team I had was awful. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are the 27.5 hours in general ed weekly, monthly, or what? If it is weekly he'd mostly be in gen ed.

It’s 27.5 hours specialized instruction outside genera we. Which I told them I was not accepting. I wanted him in gen ed with everyone else. They also refused to put classroom accommodations in because that’s only for kids in general ed. Early Stages is a damn mess. I don’t know why they refused to change it and told me I had to contact the school to change the hours.

Yes, just switch to working on the school. Try to get a good evaluation outside, particularly a sense of your child's receptive language levels. That will tell you a lot.