Monday, June 28, 2010

Why Special Needs Parents Have to be Pushy

After reading Sams functional assessment wherein he is missing half of his visual field and has very low acuity (legally blind), I am again struck by how huge this is for Sam. At the end of June 09, we were told he would receive a functional visual assessment (I still have the email) through the school and nothing--not even the recommendation that we go to UC Berkeley, happened until THE END OF HIS KINDERGARTEN YEAR. How much I wish I had insisted on the entire Access team as I requested at the middle of Sam's second year in preschool, but I was told that he did not need that. I was also told, though not on paper, that during his speech sessions, he did not exibit understanding of cause and effect and generally given the crazy mother brush off. Some of the "proof" of Sam's lack of understanding was that when the icon of choice was moved, he did not correctly choose it again. Of course he could not see to do so, so he was choosing from memory of location or color. What a huge difference this knowledge could have made to his learning in his Kindergarten year. I hope that nobody else falls through the cracks.

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