for a friend

for a friend

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hi all,
im posting this for a friend of mine with the hope of some of you more knowledagable people can help.

im cutting and pasting. Here goes:

I need help with an FAS/IEP situation.

My youngest daughter, B, has fetal alcohol syndrome. She came here as a foster child 2 1/2 years ago when she was 3 years old (adoption final this past April). With her FAS she has some qualities of ADHA such as extreme hyperness, complete lack of focus, no impulse control. She also has some qualities of Autism such as self mutilation (i.e. pulling her lip till it bleeds, digging at her sides, pulling her own hair, ect), rocking motions when stressed, and repetitive movements. I also think, but am not sure, that her random babbling (talking non-stop but making no sense at all) falls under the Autism qualities.

She stayed home with me the rest of that first school year and all summer. In the fall we enrolled her in headstart. They did an IEP on her and she qualified for both speech and OT. While in headstart I was repeatedly called to come and pick her up because they couldn't control her behavior. She has no cause and effect and to say she's impulsive would be a great under-exaggeration. She literally does what she thinks. So, it was a rather dismal learning year for her as far as preschool went. At the end of the school year I requested that they do another (forgot to mention the first one I had done) evaluation to see if she qualified for our local special ed school. This time she qualified and she was put into a special ed preschool.

One thing I did discover over the summer before she started was that caffeine has a serious counter effect on her and it will calm her down. Not calm and focused like your typical student, but very calm and very focused for B who is never calm and can never focus. So, she started the SE preschool and things went very well. They have one teacher for ever two students and B thrived in that environment. The caffeine also really helped. She almost completely stopped hurting herself and she started to make sense much of the time when she talked. She still had no cause and effect, no impulse control, and she still rocked. She did calm down and was able to focus and follow directions. About 1/2 way through the year they took her off the caffeine and she maintained her behavior. At the end of the school year they informed me she had done so well that she no longer qualified for SE preschool and would be starting regular kindergarten in the fall and still get speech and OT services at the regular school.

So, kindergarten started six days ago and today I had my first parent teacher conference about her behavior and abilities. She's lost, well beyond what is normal for a new kindergartner. She can't stand in line, she won't come in from recess, she can't figure out how to get through the lunch line unless someone walks her through it, ect ect ect. I had sent a vault pop on the first day, but the teacher hasn't used it yet. She's also started doing some serious rocking on the way home from school. What the teacher would like to do is put B down to young five's. Hubby and I think this is just sticking a band aid over a serious gash and all it's going to do is postpone the problem for one year.

So, here's some of the things we are thinking and/or the school is thinking.

1) Have the teacher start using the vault pop at school and see if it makes much of a difference. If not, have her doctor look into putting her on ADHD med's (her bio brother - FAE instead of FAS - takes them and it's been a miracle worker for him - but again, his symptoms aren't 1/2 as bad) and see if they can get her calm and focused.

2) This is the school. Put her back down to a young five's program or a before K program. Possibly send her back to headstart which will take her at her age. See if in a year she's better equipped to handle kindergarten.

3) And I'm hoping Lucy can help with me this! See if she qualifies for services under the Americans with disabilties act to see if we can get her her own aid for the classroom. She CAN focus and she CAN learn if she has no more than one adult per two children. She proved that in the SE preschool.

I would like to know what you guys think, would like any and all input, and would like any and all suggestions. They are setting up this meeting and I would love to be able to walk in there confident on what I want done. Otherwise, I fear B will just get pushed off to the side. I'm really worried for this little girl. She's going to fall through the cracks in the system and I really don't want to see that. She can't keep up with a regular classroom and she doesn't qualify for a special ed classroom. I can just see her getting further and further behind while her self esteem crashes to rock bottom. We already have to worry about sex and drugs as a teenager with her because she doesn't understand cause and effect, she's gullible beyond belief, and she has no impulse control. Add absolutely no self esteem to that, and I'm just scared for her. Please help!
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