Last year my youngest was in the public school system, struggling to keep up with the common core standards. Her processing issues made it difficult for her to grasp the vocabulary that accompanied the entire math program. She worked hard and TRIED to keep up, but compared to most of her classmates, she was behind- academically and physically. The school she was at did try and give her extra help (small math groups a few times a week) but with 29 first graders and 1 teacher, there was only so much they could do. She had been diagnosed with auditory processing disorder prior to that year but the district doesn’t recognize APD as a disability hence, no IEP. She was one of those who kind of faded through because she wasn’t a behavioral issue and her performance, while in the lower tier wasn’t sending any major red flags.
At the end of last year, we had her go through a psych, medical and speech evaluation to determine a diagnosis. Was it just the APD or was there something else going on? I mentioned that at school she was not a behavioral problem, however when she was at home, she WAS capable of having hour long meltdowns. Her twin brothers had an autism diagnosis from the time they were 3 years old so we knew what their autism looked like. She didn’t really match up – she was fairly social, she could carry on a conversation etc. After a month of testing (they added additional tests because she was so borderline), she was diagnosed with ASD, it would have been Aspergers under the old DSM as well as receptive/expressive/ pragmatic language deficits, dyspraxia and anxiety.
We had to decide what to do for the next school year – send her to a private school or keep her in the public school system? Â We were concerned about her having to “wear” the ASD label in order to get an IEP and how that might affect her socially. Most concerning of all, was her processing defecits and being able to succeed with the common core program. Give her a sheet of addition/subtraction and she can bust right through it. Give her a sheet with the same equations, but in a word problem, and she gets overwhelmed with the language part of it. “Addend, Sum of, difference between” was like putting the cart before the horse!
We decided to send her to the same private school her brothers have attended since Kindergarten – a school for kids with learning differences (ADHD, dyslexia, autism etc). The school has class sizes of 5-8 kids and they tailor learning to how the child learns best!
2nd – 8th grade cheerleaders
She is in 2nd grade at this school and is loving it! Instead of being in the lower tier of students in her public school, she is a rock star here and is doing things she would never have been able to in the public school. This is her cheering at her 1st basketball game. She has the “ASD” label now but here, unlike her old school she doesn’t need to be identified by her label. She is just herself!