Today Phoenix had "his" evaluation with the Kent School District, in preparation for the three and up program. There were no toys, no questions directed at Phoenix and the Occupational Therapist left after about 5 mins stating that she has seen all she needs to see. She colored with him - that's it. She said that kids with real sensory issues would walk in and scream. Yeah, in the right situation, my child would do that too. She also wrote his name on a piece of paper and asked him what it said. "Me-nix" he replied. She said that he was "just fine." BS lady - write your name and tell him to read it. Chuckling because she thought I was joking when I said "it was a good guess, he'll say his name for anything", she wrote Scarlett which Phoenix read as... "Me-nix" what do you know? She still left to go get her lunch though. If you are going to schedule my eval at noon the least you could do is stay with me to complete it.
Normally, the person conduction the eval will, with the parent, go through question by question and ask for examples of those behaviors. Clarifying things as you go. But instead, I sat at a table and filled out 50 pages of yes, no, maybe questions. When I asked if I am supposed to score him based on his personality at home or play group or a new situation, I was told "good question" though no one could answer it for me. I also asked how am I supposed to rate certain questions - seldom, sometimes, frequently, occasionally, etc. Phoenix throws tantrums 3 times a day so I put "sometimes" but to some that would be "frequent" and other that is "seldom" - how do I answer that? Also, the mom in me wants to down play and mark things as "seldom" when they might actually be "sometimes" and never wants to mark "frequent" knowing that it could be a lot worse.
No one wanted to hear more about him, no one asked me about specific situations. Nothing. I could see how a child with very sever difficulties would qualify based on this but tell me, a high functioning child? What happens when I drop him off at the first day of main stream preschool and he throws a fit and hurts himself or the teach. Or he's so quiet sitting in the corner by himself that, when he leaves, no one notices. Or that when a kid is picking on him and he can't say anything back because he's so shy that he withdraws even more? I also felt like I was being judged. It wasn't friendly to me. They acted like I was wasting their time.
This eval with the biggest joke ever and I'm ticked about it. To top it off, I don't even get to know any results until the 24th. Thanks for wasting my whole afternoon Kent School District - I could have done this at home. Yet again, Kent School District and the Public School System has failed my family.
3 comments:
Wow Im so sorry to hear. I took my cousin for hers and it was very long and they did all kinds of stuff. I was kind of shocked how much they did. She was born a 25 wk, so they wanted to double check to see if she had caught up and she hadnt. Boo on Kent S.D.
Make a call girl, id be ticked too!
-h
Oh Liz! (sigh) Here I am--attempting to jump back in the loop I've been out of. Jocelyn gave me the link to your blog page (thank goodness). I had no idea that your family was enduring so many issues in regard to Phoenix!
I recall the "lipoma" situation, but I didn't realize it evolved into a cancer-scare. My goodness! I also didn't know about the diabetes/prediabetis issue. And I didn't realize he was experiencing behavorial and sensory issues. (((Hugs)))
After "catching up" by reading your blogs, I must say that you are doing one terrific Mommy job! I can ONLY imagine how stressful and draining this must all be--or have been. I'm guessing there have been many times that you have wanted to have a "melt down" of your own. I hope you indulged!
I agree 100% with Heather about Kent School District! I'm tempted to send a link to your blog to someone over there! I would never want to do that without your permission though. Like Heather, I want to encourage you to make a call and demand that you and your child's needs be met! Writing a letter isn't a bad idea either.
You shouldn't have to take the time and effort to do that though. In the midst of everything else you are doing, the last thing you (or anyone) should have to add to their list is trying to get a school district to shape up and do an appropriate evaluation for your son! GEEZ!
Man, I'm fired up!
I must say, though, that I am very relieved to see that the final outcome for Phoenix is that he had swollen lymph nodes. I'm also glad to know that his blood sugar seems to be fairly normal. And I hope his behavioral and sensory issues subside in time too!
He is a BEAUTIFUL, WONDERFUL child! He is unique. We all are. You and Ethan are remarkable parents (I won't say strong...lol)! Phoenix will do well in life because of that!
Keep on keeping on!
DanaDeew
That "eval" sounds pretty barebones to me too. I suppose you'll have to see how the autism screening goes and proceed from there. Have you gotten the results from this "evaluation" yet?
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