This is what I would like to write to our school district, but probably won't:
Dear School District of Mine,
I am happy to hear you finished your evaluation on my son. I received my copy in the mail yesterday. I wanted to discuss with you several concerns I have in regards to your official opinion that he no longer qualifies to receive speech services at school.
First of all, several of his evaluators put in writing that they had difficulties in understanding my child. The only one who said he was within "normal" ranges for his age was the stinkin' speech evaluator. I would like to know why my son miraculously speaks "normally" for only one specific individual.
My son's preschool teacher mentioned he has issues with his social and emotional development. He often gets upset in social situations and is unable to verbalize what is wrong. How exactly will denying him services help this situation? What are you going to do to help my child? What happens when he enters kindergarten and another child tries to hug him? We all know what my son will do. He will push the other child away. He has sensory issues. He does not want close contact with very many people. Heck, he stopped wearing his favorite "cool dude shades" because two of his friends got too close to him so they could check out their reflections in the lenses and it freaked him out. What are you as a school going to do to help my son in these situations? How are you going to help my son with his social and emotional development?
What are you going to do to address my son's preschool teacher's concern about the difficulty she foresees with a transition to kindergarten? Are you going to just throw him to the wolves and set him up for failure?
I am thrilled to read that my son's IQ is in the "Superior" range. When that gets broken down, he has two scores that are "Superior" and one that is "Very Superior." Then there is the one that is a significant drop down to "Average." Don't you find it odd that the lowest score is in the verbal area? Was his score lower because his answers could not be understood? How can you tell me that a child who is well above average in intelligence is not having difficulties with his speech when that is what his testing shows? I could not care less that the verbal score was still within normal range. It is significantly below his other areas of testing. That alone should tell you that removing his speech services will actually interfere with his academics. Why do you think that is not the case? It's already happened.
I understand that your actual speech evaluation placed my son squarely within the "normal" range for his ability to articulate words. Believe it or not, it is actually fine with me if you choose to drop him from receiving individual speech lessons. Heck, his speech teacher flat-out told me that she can't get him to say much of anything during the lessons, but then has to tell him to quiet down in the hallway walking back to class. If he's not saying anything for her, then that time is wasted anyway. However, what are you going to do to address the social and emotional issues that your own employees seem to think is hindering his ability to say anything when he is upset? Your employees brought up those concerns, not me. Clearly, they see something isn't right. Well, what will be done about this?
Let's also discuss my son's health. He has reactive airways, and when he is congested and coughing, it turns to wheezing and many sleepless nights and miserable days. I keep him home from school quite a bit. Are you going to put him in a classroom with an air conditioner so his allergies are not as bad? Are you going to put something in writing that states he has issues with wheezing? Are you going to hold him back from one grade to the next if he has a badly congested year and spends too many days at home? How are you going to address what is clearly already an issue?
And while we're on the subject of health-related issues, what will be done to address his self-inflicted dehydration? The boy hates liquids. Even as a baby, he hated water. With his sensory issues, he avoids water like the plague. However, he is on medicine that requires a lot of water in order to work properly. The school nurse is absolutely wonderful when dealing with my middle child, who also hates to drink her water. I hope the same attention is given to my son.
Please, I beg of you. Put him in with a teacher who understands sensory issues. You might not care about them, but his teacher needs to be aware that he might freeze and cover his ears if it gets too noisy. "Washing" his hands might mean he sort of got his fingertips wet, but his hands are still filthy. Certain clothing makes him miserable. He freaks out if clothing has eyes on it anywhere. God help us all if his clothing gets wet. He requires an immediate outfit change. Please put my son in a classroom where the teacher understands where he is coming from. It would just about kill him to be in a classroom where the teacher yells, requires students to be quite close together, and who forces him to put his hands in something sticky when he is already in sensory overload.
All of my concerns really boil down to one question: What will you do for my son? And don't you worry. We will be taking him to another neurodevelopmentalist this summer. Your ignorant comments about not being able to accept his diagnosis because the report was too old will no longer be an issue. Enough school employees have seen my son in action to know that something just isn't quite right. You say his speech is "normal" despite clear evidence to the contrary. Don't just ignore my son and his needs because you are trying to show that you have students improving when you are not even addressing the fact that a number of professionals have said he has problems and delays.
And in case you thought you were getting off the hook for this one, I am a stay-at-home mom with all the time in the world to research laws, talk to other professionals, and do what it takes to prove that you need to help my son. School employees can't understand him consistently. If this is not a speech issue, according to your little evaluation, then what is it?
May you one day find yourself being helped just as well as you are currently helping my son.
Sincerely,
Murphy Brawn
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