PDD-NOS and school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:16:36, do you mind sharing some broad strokes about types of services and number of hours per week

16:36 here. My son receives 12 hours per week (combination of pull out services and in classroom). He also receives OT & ST.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:16:36, do you mind sharing some broad strokes about types of services and number of hours per week

16:36 here. My son receives 12 hours per week (combination of pull out services and in classroom). He also receives OT & ST.

Very helpful, PP. Thank you!

[Anonymous]

My DD goes to a DC public school and has an IEP and is doing amazingly well. I am so happy we avoided, for now, the special school. She has neighborhood friends and receives OT, speech and PT in school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DD goes to a DC public school and has an IEP and is doing amazingly well. I am so happy we avoided, for now, the special school. She has neighborhood friends and receives OT, speech and PT in school.

Thank you, PP; I'm so grateful for the info! I won't ask you her school, I don't want to intrude on her privacy. If you wouldn't mind sharing either her age and/or her grade, and her service hours per week I'd really appreciate it.

In any case, I'm very encouraged to hear that there's at least one more kiddo out there on the spectrum with an IEP who's succeeding in DCPS. Good luck to her! (& you! )

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DS does not have PDD-NOS. His delays are in processing, ADHD, and sensory. Rejected at St. Andrews, waiting to hear from McLean.
Deiner claims that they do not take any kids on the spectrum, yet I saw many there that seemed to be on the spectrum. Not at all a criticism, just an observation. Deiner seems to be a fantastic school, and very therapeutic.

Deiner does have kids 'on the spectrum'. I know of at least two. Often when it's PDD or mild, parents do not share the diagnosis, or do not have confirmed one for that EXACT reason--schools claim they don't want to have anything to do with kids 'on the spectrum', yet many are there. Deiner is not a utopia. Communicating and partnering with parents remains a struggle for them.

[Anonymous]

Do you have a developmental ped? Ours was helpful regarding school to explore, though we will probably stick with public when the time comes. Dev ped said Diener is for a child with more special needs than our child-very small teacher student ratio-self-contained style. Before speaking with our ped we thought it was a possibility since our child is bright with PDD-NOS and Diener's website says they take kids with expressive and receptive delays, social pragmatics delays and sensory issues. Sounds like ASD to me, but by phone it's a different story. We spoke to many other schools (mentioned here) that were open minded toward a child on the spectrum who tests well and we didn't feel like we had to hide the ASD part. Wish the tuitions weren't so high!

[Anonymous]

PP AGAIN...went back to your question and it looks like you are hoping to go public (like we are). I got lost in all the other posts. I do know people in FC and MC schools who are pleased, though they get outside supports/therapies to supplement the free services in the school since they don't feel it's enough. Sorry I don't know how things work in DC, though years ago we knew a family who got DCPS to pay for their kid to go to a special needs private school. I've heard DCPS has a much better program for dealing with learning issues so that might not be needed anymore. Good luck!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DD goes to a DC public school and has an IEP and is doing amazingly well. I am so happy we avoided, for now, the special school. She has neighborhood friends and receives OT, speech and PT in school.

Thank you, PP; I'm so grateful for the info! I won't ask you her school, I don't want to intrude on her privacy. If you wouldn't mind sharing either her age and/or her grade, and her service hours per week I'd really appreciate it.

In any case, I'm very encouraged to hear that there's at least one more kiddo out there on the spectrum with an IEP who's succeeding in DCPS. Good luck to her! (& you! )

We are in Kindergarten and receive 1 hour of OT, 1 hour of speech and a half hour of PT per week.

[Anonymous]

My nephew has PDD-NOS, but they don't live around here. He has always gone to public school. He is now in 3rd grade and gets about 12 hours of service a week: ST, OT, PT and special education support for writing. He has made progress in that he can read and his speaking is now much clearer and more cohesive. But his processing speed is very slow and it affects gross and fine motor skills. He likes to play baseball, but cannot hit the ball without it being on a tee and he has problems catching it also. The time is actually coming in which he is going to need to go to a special school because he is falling further behind the regular kids. His comprehension in receptive language and reading is significantly deficient that he is not understanding more complex ideas. I think the real issue is how serious is the PDD. Unfortunately, it took my brother and sister-in-law a long time to acknowledge there was a problem because they mistakenly thought that PDD meant - "he's just delayed" and not understanding that my nephew never would "catch up" since he has pretty severe deficits.

I feel sad about this and have encouraged them to get him to play baseball with Special Olympics since he can't cut it with the other 3rd graders, (the coach has been very patient, but the child cannot play) but my brother is still with head in the sand. He's got a twin brother who doesn't have these issues and feel pressure to treat them equally - but they had different needs and strengths.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My nephew has PDD-NOS, but they don't live around here. He has always gone to public school. He is now in 3rd grade and gets about 12 hours of service a week: ST, OT, PT and special education support for writing. He has made progress in that he can read and his speaking is now much clearer and more cohesive. But his processing speed is very slow and it affects gross and fine motor skills. He likes to play baseball, but cannot hit the ball without it being on a tee and he has problems catching it also. The time is actually coming in which he is going to need to go to a special school because he is falling further behind the regular kids. His comprehension in receptive language and reading is significantly deficient that he is not understanding more complex ideas. I think the real issue is how serious is the PDD. Unfortunately, it took my brother and sister-in-law a long time to acknowledge there was a problem because they mistakenly thought that PDD meant - "he's just delayed" and not understanding that my nephew never would "catch up" since he has pretty severe deficits.

I feel sad about this and have encouraged them to get him to play baseball with Special Olympics since he can't cut it with the other 3rd graders, (the coach has been very patient, but the child cannot play) but my brother is still with head in the sand. He's got a twin brother who doesn't have these issues and feel pressure to treat them equally - but they had different needs and strengths.

Thanks for sharing PP, that's a very illuminating story. Do you mind my asking if your nephew as at grade level in terms of academics. In other words, despite (or in spite of) his diagnosis and within the structural facilitators of his teachers, can he read and do math at grade level?

[Anonymous]

14:26, I don't think I can share the name of the D.C. charter because it would be obvious who the child is. And it doesn't matter too much because this charter does not accept new kids after age 4 so you probably wouldn't be able to enroll specifically in this charter. But I wanted to share the story because it shows that it CAN be done, that kids on the spectrum can be included and thrive in a mainstream classroom given some support.

[Anonymous]

18:22 here. My nephew can read on the 3rd grade level and he can also write at grade level with support and help with organization. However, beyond simple addition and subtraction - first grade level - he cannot do more in math. It is just too abstract. This year, since he is also reading more complex stories and non-fiction materials, he can read them, but he isn't always understanding the content. He reads and re-reads and often memorizes, but it doesn't mean he understands. But public school has been good for him so far. He used to be unintelligible and would take forever to answer a question when he was 4. Now he is engaged and interacting, asking questions etc, but you do have to simplify the answers and wait for his replies. That's why I think his public school days are numbered. He is partially mainstreamed, but the time is coming when he won't be able to join the regular classroom, just as I also think this will be his last year in regular baseball. Kids do want to win and it's hard to play with a kid who watches the ball, but forgets to run towards it.

Watching his cousin, my DS in 4th grade this year, I think this switch to a fully special ed classroom is just around the corner. He is not understanding the concept of multiplication, and is still struggling with money and time. He's understanding the plant unit and bugs in science, but I can't see him doing 4th grade social studies with history dates and geography. This isn't say that it won't come, but he won't be able to keep up with the mainstreaming for much longer. He's going to need a slower paced curriculum. And he still needs the therapies. He started public school in Pre-K when the daycare he was in said they felt they couldn't handle him with the other kids, so that was a blessing in disguise. He's blossomed with the support. As I said, he has fairly severe deficits, but it has been wonderful to see the progress. He himself has tried so hard to keep up and the other kids have motivated him to try to match them.

[Anonymous]

Hi,
We just moved here from MO and our son will be attending HMS, in what I like to call the "Potomac Hood". We live near Ivymount School off of Seven Locks Rd. I'm wondering what people think of the school/staff. My first impressions of the school have been ok so far. But we've just gotten him registered/sent off mountains of paperwork to Spec. Ed. Coord.
Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hi,
We just moved here from MO and our son will be attending HMS, in what I like to call the "Potomac Hood". We live near Ivymount School off of Seven Locks Rd. I'm wondering what people think of the school/staff. My first impressions of the school have been ok so far. But we've just gotten him registered/sent off mountains of paperwork to Spec. Ed. Coord.
Thanks.

Ivymount is a private school which has a wonderful reputation. They have several different programs there. If you are asking about Hoover, the principal is supposed to be amazing and there is a program specifically for kids with IEPs called the bridge program (not sure what gets a child into the program but I believe it is like a self-contained school within a school). We aren't at Hoover yet but another parent at our elementary school told me that things were much better for her child at Hoover than they were in elementary school. Welcome to the area.

[Anonymous]

The Bridge program is officially for kids with emotional/behavioral issues. Because they don't deal with kids with aggressive/explosive behavior (those kids are places at other schools) they also end up with a fair number of kids on the spectrum who need a lot of support but don't quite fit into the HFA or autism programs, and many of those parents are happy with the services.