Published on 12, July, 2020
My 4 year old son was diagnosed with autism last week, while it wasn't a shock, but when the neurologist told us that he does have autism it was like the wind was knocked out of me. We have been fighting for our boy since July 2021. He started Pre-K last fall and has had several behavioral issues and concerns. He has a sensory issue and keeping a mask on all day has been a consistent problem in school. The teacher says he is 'attention seeking'. He has had a SBIT since starting school, where I have had the principal tell me that there is nothing medically wrong with him over and over. I've been made to feel like I'm crazy and am making it up. Even his previous neurologist told me that she didn't believe he would not fall on the autism spectrum that he probably just had ADHD. I have brothers with ADHD and my oldest brother has what was Asperger's Syndrome, I could kind of tell the difference between the two. I have a feeling I am in for fight for my son.
As the SBIT progressed during the school year and my son's behavior seemed to get worse, the school resorted to just plain out ignoring him. He was climbing on desks and chairs, taking his mask off, and shutting down completely. There was no getting to him during these shut downs, we have witnessed them at home too and told the school about them as well. He would come out of it when he wanted to. My son has a very good vocabulary, he just cannot express how he feels and gets very frustrated easily. He cannot express feelings or what he wants/needs. He doesn't understand others feelings either, it's like he doesn't see them. The school has seen multiple signs that should have pointed them to what I was telling them. They have seen that when his teacher is out or even a assistant is out and he has a substitute his day is terrible. Minor little changes in his daily routine made him have a rough day. He has been sent to the principals office numerous times for his behavior. The last SBIT we had I was told that they have been sending my son out of class whenever they could not redirect his behavior. They would just get him to take a 'fake folder' to the office and return to class. I'm worried that this will make my son think that whenever he is disruptive in class he will be sent out and get to be out of class.
His new neurologist has referred him to so many things: speech therapy, he has been evaluated for occupational therapy, ABA therapy, autism society, genetic testing. She said that he needs a IEP and a SPED evaluation at school. With the way he has been treated so far at his school, I am scared they are going to just shrug this off and not do what he needs. His next meeting is Feb. 17 and I will bring all this information to the table, I'm just scared they will deny him SPED or an IEP. I don't know what else to do other than fight and advocate for my son like I have been doing, because absolutely no one has listened to me about my boy to this point.
I don’t recognise some of your acronyms, which country are you based in? I would hope that the school will now be able to put something in place with the official diagnosis but as Martin says if they don’t calmly point it out to them that they are not meeting their responsibilities and take it above them to whoever regulates the schools in your area. Also bear in mind that depending on the outcomes of the reports the school may not be equipped to help him in which case a suitable school should be found for him
I am in the US, I am actually employed by the local school system here. I have tried to contact the head of Special Education, but they've never returned my calls. I'm sorry, SPED is Special Education, IEP is a Individualized Education Plan and SBIT is Student Based Intervention Teams. These are all programs that our local public schools have for him and students with disabilities. They do have accommodations within our public schools for him, its just been proven that it is really hard to get a child into these programs.