@A MyAutismTeam Member

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A MyAutis...

That's tough. I'm thinking of changing schools entirely for my son. But because his evaluations will not be done and IEP meeting till match next year, I would rather have him finish off his year there and then slowly transition them. There are transition support in place for kids that have difficulties in change. My son has the same issue and after 2 months finally cracked a smile. This is a very personal decision and you have to see it from various scenarios and weigh the good and the bad. Whatever the principal rejected, you have the right to ask why and have him explain unfortunately it is a fight. Every single piece of the IEP will be a struggle and it sucks. If you really think another program and staff would be of benefit, go request permission for tours so you can make the educated decision and weigh it out for yourself. You have that right to find the appropriate support. Now that I think about it, my son was excessively shy. Didn't talk or look at anyone but ABA surely helped. And we has home ABA and had to fight for school support but we ended up moving.

As for typical vs ASD kids, you have an option to include her part of the day. So, when you take tours, see a typical class that she will potentially go into, talk with the teacher and ask her her experience with ASD kids and see if she's willing to have your child there. Same with the current school. It's a lot of legwork. Sorry for the late reply. My son was sick for 2 days! But hey, one day at a time, ok? This is a tough one. I'm here for you!

Thanks so much Michelle! Switching school/program is something that I've definitely considered and still considering but the fact that my daughter has a difficulty transitioning and is extra shy, I'm just afraid to take away the current environment from her that she's already finally gotten used to, and that she'll shut down when we move her to new school/program/teacher/environment/etc. (even her teacher and the school speech therapist who happens to be our family friend was worried about this) at this point, so I thought the best option we have is to keep her in the same environment but bring in the ABA so she can still thrive and hopefully the ABA can also help her not to mimic or pick up her peers' negative behaviors.

Since the school's principal had already rejected the idea, I'm not sure how to approach this issue at the IEP meeting. I'm trying to get some advocate help from the regional center but we'll see how that goes. (if anyone has any advice, please let me know!!)

On a side note, I've recently had a chance to talk to a mom of ASD daughter who's now 18yrs. old, who happened to attend the same school and program and in-home ABA therapy as my daughter when she was 3-4yrs old, who was an extreme introvert and extra shy (more so than my daughter who's shy but at least very active), but followed the instruction okay and do well at school not causing much trouble or issues. However, her mom tells me that after 15yrs, seeing her daughter's symptoms have not improved much and still non-verbal, one thing she regrets the most is having kept her daughter in a classroom with ONLY ASD kids rather than exposing her to typical kids or at least higher functioning kids and is advising me that I should consider moving my daughter to a higher functioning class so she can have better models to learn language and social skills from. This mom has a good point but again, I'm just afraid of my daughter shutting down, plus higher functioning class is shorter and has much higher teacher-to-kid ratio so my daughter may be left out. What should I do?

I was in CA and was starting to battle a similar issue. You can argue that since your Home ABA is more familiar that the school district can contract with her ABA to provide school support. You or your ABA supervisor or CM can work together to stress the importance of having a consistency and team work when working with your daughter because it can cause difficulty with progression and her learning opportunities in school. I think highlighting the school environment and how it affects your daughter when the entire team isn't on the same page is critical, especially when she has transition issues.

I think it may be worthwhile having an IEP meeting to discuss her behavioral support plan or whatever supports that are listed in her IEP. Even write down forms of communication between staff who are providing the support so that they all have a snapshot of how her day was at school to carry on at home ABA. In terms of the bad behaviors, you should address that with your CM at school or support there because that can definitely manifest. Ask ways on how to decrease that. The thing about what you wrote about is that everyone's teaching style will vary. I think if she's starting to manifest the other behaviors, it may be worthwhile to switch her to the HF class. If she isn't exhibiting those behaviors and just exhibiting what you describe, it'll be easy for her to inherit the other behaviors of the children around her. If you get support from Regional Center, I would also discuss that with them.