[tri-med] Re: IEP

----- Original Message ----- 
> In a message dated 03/21/2005 9:47:56 AM, jwaite@xxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:
>
> << Have a question for everyone, have any of your triers had a NeuroPsych
> eval done by/paid for by the school district?
> If yes, how did you get them to do it? They have denied my request.
> >>

I agree with Nan. I would never let just anyone do a Neuropsych on Alex, and 
certainly not a school. This is a report that they will carry with them for 
the rest of their lives, and a test on which many people will use (and abuse 
if your not careful)

Here I had the choice of allowing the school do the test, DADHC or me paying 
for the test to be done outside of the "system". As hard as it was I paid 
for the test after choosing very carefully the tester and ensuring that they 
understood the base rule. That base rule was that the IQ test result could 
(and would) be conveyed to me verbally but was NOT to be written in the 
report.

The results of the sub tests were clearly documented along with the analysis 
but the final IQ score was not included. Many within the school system (or 
any system) like to categorise children based on that final overall score 
BUT what they should be doing is using the subtests and analysis of the 
tests to identify strengths, problem areas and needs. The final figure is 
only a summary and means absolutely nothing without the subtests. So why 
then does everyone ask for the final mark? Because they dont have a clue 
about what they are doing and are making generalisations.

To be perfectly honest the final score is totally invalid if there is a wide 
variation between verbal and performance scores. Or even if there is a score 
that falls way outside the average for that child. Yet they can still give a 
final acore and often do.

eg last year I was tossing up whether to repeat Alex in 4th grade. I felt 
that he needed it academically and socially because he had missed so much 
school due to illness and had large gaps in his knowledge base. The school 
had all the subtests, the marks for the subtest etc yet they kept asking for 
his final IQ score. When I asked why they said that it would tell them if he 
was a good candidate for repeating. When I asked why the individual results 
wouldnt do they couldnt answer. The truth is they were too lazy to even read 
through the individual results, let alone plan. They probably didnt even 
fully understand the test or results. Instead they wanted to make a huge 
assumption based on his overall IQ. Which was exactly my fear if they (or 
anyone else) got their hands on the IQ score.

So I know his IQ score, they dont, they have to plan based on his needs and 
not categorise him based on generalisations. Alex's IQ score is HIS personal 
information and as such he (and I at the moment) are the only people who 
have the right to know and to share that information selectively. It will 
never, ever be written down in any permanent file about him anywhere. I am 
also incredibly fussy about who has a copy of the results and have actually 
written on the copy that I gave them that it is not to be copied without my 
written consent. I want to know who has those test results and that they 
have a good reason for having them.

I also feel the same way about genetic results and if I could I would go 
back and have the T-18 removed from all premanent records.

The supreme happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved.
-- Victor Hugo

Keep Looking For Rainbows!!
   _--_|\
 /Karen \
 \ _.--._ /
          v Karen, Mum to Alex (10 years, T-18 Mosaic)
http://members.optushome.com.au/karens

                  Building ___ooOOoo__ Rainbows
                       www.trisomyonline.org
                  Families Helping Families On-line

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