Lakewood Bd of Ed. Child Study Team Meeting - need advice

esmom

Sun, Dec 29 2013, 4:51 pm

My almost three year old son is having his Lakewood Board of Education Child Study Team Meeting coming up in a few weeks time to see if he qualifies for a Bd. of Ed evaluation to be eligible for services. Just wondering if anyone has gone through the process and can tell me what to expect so that I come prepared to the meeting. My son used to be very delayed and had gotten 6 hrs of therapy through early intervention until three months ago which stopped due to financial reasons. We plan on applying again in January after we redo our taxes so that he can get an additional two months of early intervention before his third birthday. However being that he has not gotten therapy for close to three and a half months now I don't have any recent evaluation data or therapists opinions on him to bring to meeting. So I am wondering what they actually talk about by the meeting ..if anyone can chime in with any advice it would be greatly appreciated.. thank you!

esmom

Sun, Dec 29 2013, 5:22 pm

Thanks so much for your quick reply. I just wanted to know what they discuss - do I do all the talking about my son so they can form thrir opinion abt him if he needs services or are they sitting and asking me questions sort of like an interview what he is doing developmentally in each domain? Also the letter I received in the mail specified that a social worker, phycologist, speech therapist, case manager and any other related personal are in attendance , why are they all there? Do they each have a say in the matter if he gets an evaluation or not? Is this a very long meeting? I just want to know what to expect. Thanks so much .

amother

Sun, Dec 29 2013, 5:26 pm

There are several people there--a school psychologist, speech therapist, social worker, general ed teacher, special ed teacher, evaluator, maybe an occupational therapist, and parent.

There is a protocol to follow at meetings--you will see them check off questions on a list-they put all your answers in to see if he is eligible for services. Most of it will be based on what you see at home and what his previous morahs and teachers have said that indicate he needs services.

It is not scary.

amother

Sun, Dec 29 2013, 5:29 pm

amother wrote:

Sorry, I didn't see your second post so I wrote the above. The reason they are all there is because each one will recognize where his problem comes from and they have expertise in that specific area. If it is a speech delay, the speech therapist will be able to tell how delayed he really is, etc.

They have to be there by law, even if it does seem superfluous sometimes. Be nice to your case manager bec. she is the one that ultimately decides toward services or not.

esmom

Sun, Dec 29 2013, 5:36 pm

Thanks for the reassurance. Its greatly appreciated . Is there any way to get a hold of their list of questions online so can get a feel what they ask about? or is it just standard how he is functioning? Also if he is turning 3 in less than three months and just began saying some three word sentences but many words are extremely unclear will he qualify. Up until a month ago was only saying one word phrases and just labeling objects? He has many other delays also

amother

Sun, Dec 29 2013, 5:40 pm

I brought my daughters diagnosis papers from chop. She doesn't have a real diagnosis but just what they noticed. They were very nice. They'll ask a bunch of questions and set you up with appointments to be evaluated.
Where is your son now? Where do u want him placed?

esmom

Sun, Dec 29 2013, 6:15 pm

Sorry for the delay. He is in a regular playgroup with only 6 children. Its officially an older 2 group but a few are just 2 he will be three in less than three months. The teacher is very young, clueless and inexperienced and thinks he is doing great. All the kids are talking away he just started saying three word sentences.he never comes home singing any songs and will just smile if I start singing. He can't answer questions abt what happened during his day. His standard answer is 'play" . His speech is also very unclear and I don't understand what he is saying many times. He also only engages in parallel play.. he is more than happy to play by himself and not with others..he has trouble sharing.. can be aggressive at times..can not deal with changes I.e. takes weeks to put on new coat shoes etc..won't even try on new things at all.. when he was younger he was diagnosed with failure to thrive due to extremely bad case of acid reflux...because. it lasted many months he ended up being delayed. Only started walking close to age two, never crawled normally... had problems imitating sounds...only started saying words couple of months ago meaning one word phrases.. has sensory issues which resolved with lots of OT. Now he is doing a lot better but still much more delayed than his peers. I feel that with more therapy hopefully he will eventually catch up to his peers.