IEP meetings, do they always suggest autism?

[Anonymous]

We had our IEP meeting recently; DC will start K next year. We've seen a developmental pediatrician and had a neuro-psych evaluation. We've gotten diagnoses of ADHD, MERLD (prior to the new DSM), and Social Communication Disorder.

I was expecting the question, and the school psychologist did indeed asked if we suspected autism. In short, no, but I realize my kid has challenges and it's hard to imagine a mainstream setting for K especially socially. Do the schools not recognize that kids can have issues other than autism? What questions/accommodations should I be asking for? This is Mont. Co. btw. TIA.

[Anonymous]

I'm new to this (student in K) and not in your school district. When we went through our IEP process, they needed to put him in a broad category to make sure that he was matched up with the right case coordinator. But the services, accommodations and goals were written specifically to my DC's individual needs based on his performance. My understanding is that they act based on behavior / performance that they observe and not the diagnosis.

[Anonymous]

We have a speech delayed kid and we have had the autism diagnosis pushed on us. We only have a few small features but not enough that we feel warrants it. Like you, the social communication disorder fits much better. Its turned into an generic label.

[Anonymous]

In short: They don't. But in order to service a child with a "Social Communication Disorder" and the other co-morbid conditions they need to choose the educational diagnosis of autism... and frankly, this combination screams autism to me.

Do not confuse the educational diagnosis with the ultimate identity of your child, I'd say if it gets him the extra support accept it and go from there. Do not buy into the myth that kids can't get rid off their label.

[Anonymous]

No, they do not always suggest autism. I have a nonverbal child and I have never heard autism suggested.

[Anonymous]

With autism, I thought one of the most important factors in evaluation is deficits in joint attention, could the psychologist have been seeing those deficits?

[Anonymous]

I kind of do think they always push autism. I had a child with merld and adhd and autism was pushed, aggressively and repeatedly. the district ultimately offered to place our child in an autism classroom, even though he was never diagnosed with autism, I know of another kid who would up being dxed with ADHD, but the district pushed autism and even threatened to take away services if they didn't accept that classification.

[Anonymous]

Not in my experience. IME, they do not suggest anything. They respond to parent requests. So the parents need to be on the ball and know what to ask and what services to request.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not in my experience. IME, they do not suggest anything. They respond to parent requests. So the parents need to be on the ball and know what to ask and what services to request.

Which would be one reason, I'm asking parents with more experience than I have.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In short: They don't. But in order to service a child with a "Social Communication Disorder" and the other co-morbid conditions they need to choose the educational diagnosis of autism... and frankly, this combination screams autism to me.

Do not confuse the educational diagnosis with the ultimate identity of your child, I'd say if it gets him the extra support accept it and go from there. Do not buy into the myth that kids can't get rid off their label.

The doctors we saw didn't suspect autism and they definitely screen for it. I'm not worried about a label, but I don't want services simply b/c they're attached to a label rather services that fit the actual diagnoses. ADHD seems to be the biggest issue.

[Anonymous]

I was told at one one point in the process that the label does not drive services, the evaluated need for services drives services. So if your child's testing shows he needs speech or OT services, my understanding is that is what the child gets -- its not about the classification. If your child has diagnosed adhd and needs services, he should get an OHI code

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was told at one one point in the process that the label does not drive services, the evaluated need for services drives services. So if your child's testing shows he needs speech or OT services, my understanding is that is what the child gets -- its not about the classification. If your child has diagnosed adhd and needs services, he should get an OHI code

Yes and no, if you have the diagnosis, it is easier to get services most commonly associated with that diagnosis.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not in my experience. IME, they do not suggest anything. They respond to parent requests. So the parents need to be on the ball and know what to ask and what services to request.

Which would be one reason, I'm asking parents with more experience than I have.

If you have a reason to think that the school is holding back on their opinion, I would suggest getting a private evaluation if you can afford it. I also suggest going to Wrightslaw.com to see what is out there and what accommodations or services your child may need. They also have an excellent tutorial about the whole IEP process.

[Anonymous]

If you have a child with MERLD, schools will always push autism in my experience. I literally know of dozens of cases across the country where this is so (I belong to several MERLD groups.) Schools do this because they don't understand MERLD, and they've dumped all their money into the autism programs, so it's easiest to mislabel a child and shove them in their autism program as opposed to creating an actual INDIVIDUAL education plan.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In short: They don't. But in order to service a child with a "Social Communication Disorder" and the other co-morbid conditions they need to choose the educational diagnosis of autism... and frankly, this combination screams autism to me.

Do not confuse the educational diagnosis with the ultimate identity of your child, I'd say if it gets him the extra support accept it and go from there. Do not buy into the myth that kids can't get rid off their label.

Oh, so you are smarter than all the folks who created the DSM 5? You just know that Social Communication Disorder is autism?

And the proper educational label for someone with SCD is a LANGUAGE disorder, not autism.