Transition Stuff - Very Frustrating

I was under the assumption that all of these school district therapists that we've been meeting with for evaluations were going to be Raquel's new therapy team. Not the case. Turns out they are just the "diagnostic team" - the ones that are going to be part of the IEP in January and putting her goals in place. I also thought that I was going to have several options when it comes to picking her school, but it turns out that that will be pretty slim pickings as well.

Last Friday, we had our second evaluation with the school district. Lorraine, the district psychologist, was present along with Lynne (speech), Tim (applied phys. ed.) and Angela, a special needs teacher. Again, it didn't go very well. They confined her to a small area and then started out by giving her difficult fine motor tests - which immediately frustrated her. Once Coach Tim got there and was able to do his own evaluations - having her walk across wood beams and things of that nature - she snapped out of it. She really seems to take to the coach. They all basically told me that they don't feel that Raquel is autistic and that she appears to be affected by more of a neurological condition. Of course, they aren't allowed to make any kind of diagnosis - it's up to the doctors to do that - but they did suggest that I pursue a referral to a neurologist when I have the medical exam at Regional. But Regional is the one that denied the neurological referral the last time I was there, stating that they just didn't see the need for one.

This morning Lorraine overlapped during Cari's ABA session. She wanted to observe Raquel working in a more familiar environment. But today Raquel did not want to work and didn't score well. I don't think Lorraine got much out of the session. She's going to stop by later this week to observe one of Jennifer's sessions.

This afternoon Angela overlapped with Mary for her speech session. She was able to watch Raquel interact in a playful manner with Mary, and was able to see her in a calm setting. She wasn't very vocal today, but was playing pretty functionally with Mary. Mary was also able to discuss Raquel with Angela and give her some insight as to how she has progressed for her over the course of this last year.

At the end of the session, I started asking questions because I have many unanswered ones. I know that we have the IEP scheduled for January 5th and that this is when my diagnostic team will be providing us with their evaluation reports and putting some goals in place for Raquel. When I started asking about her class, Angela told me that it is pretty much unanimous that Raquel will not be attending the ABA based program, that she will be going to one that specializes more in motor planning delays.

When I asked about the school, I wasn't given names but was told that she didn't know if the class would be a morning one or afternoon one. I already had my hopes set on her going to school in the morning so I could have her home for lunch and naptime. The thought of her having to go to school in the afternoon instead is very upsetting to me, knowing how difficult these hours can be at times. And if she doesn't nap during the day, she wakes up - pretty consistently - at 3am. It completely throws off her sleep patterns and I am not prepared to go backwards in that respect.

I'm also pretty frustrated because if the district doesn't feel the ABA school program is a fit for Raquel, then was this whole ABA therapy a waste of time? And don't even get me started on the gfcf diet. FRUSTRATING. I know that Raquel has made a lot of progress so I'm trying not to do the would have/should have/could have stuff , but it's hard not to.

Today we scheduled Raquel's last two speech sessions. Because of the holidays, Mary is off until January, so her last day will be on Raquel's birthday. It will be really strange not having Mary any more. But she is so optomistic about Raquel going to school. She said that this is when she thinks Raquel will really start to flourish.