First Grade!

Dominic started First Grade this week.When he got off the bus on the first day, he was all smiles and proudly told me that he didn't get in trouble at all! He didn't have any problems taking his medicine at school and he got to sit next to his (new) best friend Nathan. They weren't even disruptive or talkative all day! Dominic wants to have friends so badly, but he doesn't know how to interact with other people, and often loses friends within a day or two. Here's hoping this friendship lasts longer and is more fulfilling for Dominic.

I was so nervous for him to start school again. Last year was a bad year. Before school started Dominic was so excited to ride the big yellow bus, hang out with friends, and go to school. By the end of the year he was faking being sick, and begging me to let him stay home, and begging me to drive him to school so he didn't have to sit in the back of the bus! I am still nervous about this year. Dominic is supposed to have an IEP set up, but the school is procrastinating on it. Because he started on medication over the summer, they want to wait and evaluate him to see if he still "needs" the IEP.

We saw Dominic's psychiatrist yesterday, Dr Rubin. Dominic has been clearing his throat incessantly and blinking his eyes a lot. Dr Rubin recognized it as a vocal and facial tick. So we took him off the Risperidone and switched him to Abilify. I thought that was for depression, but apparently that is a new use. It's been used for years for ADHD, schizophrenia and bi polar disorder.  I'm starting to lose count of how many different medications/dosages we've tried so far. And the journey has only begun.


I spoke to Dr Rubin about the school waiting on the IEP. He wrote a letter saying that Dominic is in treatment for Asperger's and ADHD and he believed an IEP would greatly help him in school. I tasked Dominic with delivering the letter to the principal and he performed beautifully! I received a call from the school special education teacher who actually took the time to explain the process to me. Apparently, I need to write a letter to the school requesting a psychological evaluation. We will have a meeting where I give them permission to test him, and provide his background history. The testing can take up to a month to complete! They will be doing several tests, including an IQ test. This is to see if there is a large discrepancy between his academic performance and his IQ.

After the testing we have another meeting where the results are given. There may be a 3rd meeting to actually go over the IEP. The special ed teacher will write a draft and send it home about 48 hours before the 3rd meeting so I can review it and make changes/suggestions. I'm concerned because Dominic performs very well academically. He completes his work rather quickly, then he's bored and interrupts other students! I'm not sure if they are going to just set up a behavioral plan or do an actual IEP. Either way there are quite a few things I would like done for Dominic and I'm going to get my way eventually!


Here is an example of an IEP for a student with Aspergers:

http://www.smelena.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=6:daniels-ieps&catid=2:ieps&Itemid=5