Asperger's and Alphabet Soup

Since receiving Turkey'sdiagnosis of Asperger's I feel like my life has become a bowl of alphabet soup. But I suppose it's always been that way, there are now just more letters floating in my bowl.

Yesterday we had an IEP (Individual Education Plan) meeting for Turkey. It was a meeting to see if he qualified for services. The AS (Asperger's), ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) and anxiety (what, no acronym for this) and a rule-out written expression disorder (also called dysgrpahia, again no cute acronym); apparently do not automatically qualify Turkey for an IEP. It was implied that he needs to be "struggling"  (but after reading through the IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) statues this doesn't seem to legally be the case) in school in order to qualify. His teacher did stress that he was struggling with his handwriting (he is above grade level for all other academics), which is why they need to do additional testing for dysgraphia. And she went on to further highlight that most of this issues are behavioral, emotional and social.

For a few minutes there, I swear I had stepped into John E Robison's book Look Me In The Eye.  It really was eerie, I sat there listening to a teacher talk about my son in terms of something I just read about AS.  It was as if she read the book, and then came to the meeting.  She then talked about what a pleasure he is for adults to talk to, and one of the specialists commented about how she could imagine so because of his verbal IQ score.

Then we talked about the testing he had done and they "re-capped" the report (read one of the specialists read from the report my independent evaluator wrote), my head was spinning.  NEPSY-II, HVOT, WPPSI, WISC-IV, WRAML2. OK, is your head-spinning now?  This poor kid has gone through more testing in the last 6 months than most adults have in their lives.  (Good thing he likes going - they give out toys.)

At the end of the meeting we agreed to further testing for PT (physical therapy) and OT (occupational therapy) to address his sensory issues and his fine and gross motor issue.  And then the educational profile (which really has nothing to do with what is taught in school) for the r/o (rule out - that was a new one I learned at the meeting) of written expression disorder.

So now the school department has 8 weeks to complete testing and for us to meet again.   I have been told they will do their best to complete it early so we cna figure out how to move forward.  If there is no IEP in place we might have to look at having another DCAP (district curriculum accommodation plan) for the new school year.  Turkey has had a DCAP for the last 2 years to address his non-academic issues in the classroom.

But then someone, outside the meeting, asked me about a 504 for Turkey.  Hhhhmmmm a 504, I am vaguely familiar with that... maybe I don't know as much about it as I should because it's numbers and not letters.  Guess I've got more research to do.  I'm not looking for Turkey to be treated special, but I do need to make sure school is a place he enjoys going.  We've got a long way to go before he graduates, and I need to make sure that happens.

If you made it this far... congrats, this was one hard blog post to write (and read) with all the acronyms aka Alphabet Soup.