Unstuck and on Target Saturday Social skills group at Ivymount school

[Anonymous]

This does seem out of line. Sorry OP. Glad to hear your son is liking school more these days at least. Sounds like a series of issues compounding!

There is only one developmental pediatrician who gets so involved with schools so I think I can guess who it is.

[Anonymous]

Its not my child's developmental pediatrician. My child's developmental pediatrician is very hands off, for better or worse.

[Anonymous]

We are doing Unstuck and On target this spring too. I think Ivymount staff was absolutely lovely. They do want very cooperative, highly verbal children though. All the children at the "meet and greet" were wonderful (from this parent's perspective.) I did notice one who was not as verbal as the others, and one who was not as cooperative. So one was shy? And the other gregarious?

Luckily my child fit the profile they were looking for, but DC is a bit older too. So do not give up, I think these children were a little young for the program. Also although, curious and verbal I could see how one of the DC could be difficult to engage in a group. He just did not follow any of the instructor's instructions. He could not walk down the hallway without being redirected multiple times.

Sorry, but to be in a group you have to be able to self regulate better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are doing Unstuck and On target this spring too. I think Ivymount staff was absolutely lovely. They do want very cooperative, highly verbal children though. All the children at the "meet and greet" were wonderful (from this parent's perspective.) I did notice one who was not as verbal as the others, and one who was not as cooperative. So one was shy? And the other gregarious?

Luckily my child fit the profile they were looking for, but DC is a bit older too. So do not give up, I think these children were a little young for the program. Also although, curious and verbal I could see how one of the DC could be difficult to engage in a group. He just did not follow any of the instructor's instructions. He could not walk down the hallway without being redirected multiple times.

Sorry, but to be in a group you have to be able to self regulate better.

So why were we sent an acceptance letter after the first observation?!?

Ivymount could just have easily have rejected us or made the acceptance conditional upon another observation but they did not do that. Instead, they accepted and then rescinded the offer. What kind of school or business does that?

[Anonymous]

and instead recommend their 50K-80K school as a substitute?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are doing Unstuck and On target this spring too. I think Ivymount staff was absolutely lovely. They do want very cooperative, highly verbal children though. All the children at the "meet and greet" were wonderful (from this parent's perspective.) I did notice one who was not as verbal as the others, and one who was not as cooperative. So one was shy? And the other gregarious?

Luckily my child fit the profile they were looking for, but DC is a bit older too. So do not give up, I think these children were a little young for the program. Also although, curious and verbal I could see how one of the DC could be difficult to engage in a group. He just did not follow any of the instructor's instructions. He could not walk down the hallway without being redirected multiple times.

Sorry, but to be in a group you have to be able to self regulate better.

I think for a school that profits from tax dollars (public payments for private schools) and has a mission to teach children with autism -- it is incredibly shitty to cherry-pick the "cream of the autism crop" for your $$$$ social skills groups, and then trumpet to the world how great your social skills groups are.

What about all the children who aren't compliant and pleasant enough to make the cut? The kids who really need the social skills therapy. If they aren't getting it here, then where and how? I hate the writing off of the outliers. (And my dc doesn't even have autism.)

[Anonymous]

One of my sister's college friends worked at a private special education school in NYC after college. Part of her job was to google-stalk applicants' parents and try to get a financial picture of them before the children were admitted. The wealthier the parents, the more likely the dc would be admitted to the school-even though this was a school that took public payments.

It sounds like OP has money (she is talking about paying out of pocket for Auburn, so...) and Ivymount had space in their program--so why settle for $2500 from the family when they could get $60k+?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are doing Unstuck and On target this spring too. I think Ivymount staff was absolutely lovely. They do want very cooperative, highly verbal children though. All the children at the "meet and greet" were wonderful (from this parent's perspective.) I did notice one who was not as verbal as the others, and one who was not as cooperative. So one was shy? And the other gregarious?

Luckily my child fit the profile they were looking for, but DC is a bit older too. So do not give up, I think these children were a little young for the program. Also although, curious and verbal I could see how one of the DC could be difficult to engage in a group. He just did not follow any of the instructor's instructions. He could not walk down the hallway without being redirected multiple times.

Sorry, but to be in a group you have to be able to self regulate better.

I thought this group was for children with autism who needed help with social skills, lol. "Very cooperative, highly verbal and wonderful" are usually not the first descriptors that pop to mind.

[Anonymous]

<<Also although, curious and verbal I could see how one of the DC could be difficult to engage in a group. He just did not follow any of the instructor's instructions. He could not walk down the hallway without being redirected multiple times.>>


So what's the point of the group? If all the kids could do these things, why are they in the group (and pending $2500 for it?)

My child does not fit the above description. He needs to learn these skills. How does he learn them if he can't be accepted into a group?

(I'm not the OP)

[Anonymous]

<<It sounds like OP has money (she is talking about paying out of pocket for Auburn, so...) and Ivymount had space in their program--so why settle for $2500 from the family when they could get $60k+? >>


This sounds VERY corrupt. Do we think that's what's going on? I don't, because it does seem Ivymount MAP has an abundance of applicatants and don't need to do shenanigans like this.


<<One of my sister's college friends worked at a private special education school in NYC after college. Part of her job was to google-stalk applicants' parents and try to get a financial picture of them before the children were admitted. The wealthier the parents, the more likely the dc would be admitted to the school-even though this was a school that took public payments.>>

Would you be willing to name the school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are doing Unstuck and On target this spring too. I think Ivymount staff was absolutely lovely. They do want very cooperative, highly verbal children though. All the children at the "meet and greet" were wonderful (from this parent's perspective.) I did notice one who was not as verbal as the others, and one who was not as cooperative. So one was shy? And the other gregarious?

Luckily my child fit the profile they were looking for, but DC is a bit older too. So do not give up, I think these children were a little young for the program. Also although, curious and verbal I could see how one of the DC could be difficult to engage in a group. He just did not follow any of the instructor's instructions. He could not walk down the hallway without being redirected multiple times.

Sorry, but to be in a group you have to be able to self regulate better.

I thought this group was for children with autism who needed help with social skills, lol. "Very cooperative, highly verbal and wonderful" are usually not the first descriptors that pop to mind.

+1000. LOL! NWhy do kids who are "very cooperative, highly verbal and wonderful" NEED a social skills group?!?

[Anonymous]

We have been in social skills group for years. A good first speech social group is through a speech therapist, plus they usually take insurance and if not, are very reasonably priced.

The unstuck and on target group is for older children.

My dc could not take turns, sit still, or be patient around other children at first. We did these small social skills groups first, and they helped so much.

Just because you have a young, bright, curious, maybe immature young child does not mean this is a personal rejection to them. This means DC was great at the one on one evaluation. But once in a structured, group setting DC required too much attention from the facilitator. Maybe next year they will be ready, in the mean time a speech social group through a SLP is a good start. It is hard to find a place for an exceptionally bright, verbal, but maybe a bit impatient DC. They tend to get bored around other children and want to just talk to the adults!!

Please do not give up on Unstuck and On Target. While children are in class- the parents have a class taught by the author of the book/program. So you can use the same language/skills at home that your child learns in class. Also, it is similar to Michele Garcia Winner's social skills program.

[Anonymous]

<<My dc could not take turns, sit still, or be patient around other children at first. We did these small social skills groups first, and they helped so much. >>


NP here. Not to hijack the thread, but my DC did a few of them. At first they really did help, but then it got to the point in which he couldn't do them -- required too much attention. Does that mean that social groups don't work for my kid?

[Anonymous]

not to sound dumb, and state the obvious. I don't know.

These groups are so dependent upon the mix of kids and facilitator. You can get good results one year and bad the next. Eventually we just got tired of the same old thing from our SLP group. Yes, DC could get through the first 5 minutes of a social interaction, say hello, sit down and take your seat. Ask the person next to you their name. Answer yes when the facilitator asked if they wanted to play blah, blah, board game. But when it came to pragmatics, non scripted speech, it fell apart. Dc processing is slow, and DC is anxious so by the time they respond the NT peers are off playing with someone else.

I would say, you do not know if social groups are not for your child until you get into one and see. The unstuck and on Target one is very expensive, so that is nerve racking that $2500 would be wasted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are doing Unstuck and On target this spring too. I think Ivymount staff was absolutely lovely. They do want very cooperative, highly verbal children though. All the children at the "meet and greet" were wonderful (from this parent's perspective.) I did notice one who was not as verbal as the others, and one who was not as cooperative. So one was shy? And the other gregarious?

Luckily my child fit the profile they were looking for, but DC is a bit older too. So do not give up, I think these children were a little young for the program. Also although, curious and verbal I could see how one of the DC could be difficult to engage in a group. He just did not follow any of the instructor's instructions. He could not walk down the hallway without being redirected multiple times.

Sorry, but to be in a group you have to be able to self regulate better.

I thought this group was for children with autism who needed help with social skills, lol. "Very cooperative, highly verbal and wonderful" are usually not the first descriptors that pop to mind.

I'm the pp whose child's acceptance to Unstuck got rescinded. Last year at this time we had applied to Unstuck, filled out an application and was scheduled for an observation but decided not to do the program. Last yr the age minimum was 6 not 7 like this year:

1. My child was not having issues at school or at home

2. The program costs $2500

3. It's over an hour drive from our house.

So this year, when my kid was having all kinds of issues at school. We applied to Unstuck and was accepted and then rejected a month later. He really needs a social skills program this year but it looks like they only want the "very cooperative, highly verbal, wonderful" kids. Not the kids who really need a program like this.