Let the Testing Begin...

As most of my regular readers know...I have a 6 year old son with Autism. He is now in the first grade and for the time being, he is in a mainstream class. Since he was 6 months of age he has been receiving intensive therapies to help him catch up to his peers. This has been both a good thing and a bad thing. Zachary has been diagnosed by 2 different neurologists as having Autism but for whatever reason, the school has refused to put his disability on his IEP as Autism. Instead, they categorize him as developmental delay and speech and language impaired. I have been fighting for 3 years to have it changed because I know that if his IEP says "Autism" then the school is required to give him more intensive therapies to keep him moving forward. They don't want to do this because they don't have enough programs available. Which of course is NOT a good reason if you ask me! They need to get on the ball and hire or train people so that as these children are coming into the schools, the needed resources are available. Well, their excuse is that they have to do their own testing to decide whether he is eligible for this diagnosis before they can put it on his IEP. Not that 2 doctors who are trained, schooled, certified and experienced-have the ability to make the diagnosis. So, the testing will begin this week. I feel that his teacher and his full time aide will help in getting the diagnosis we need but I think the speech pathologist and the others are going to be more difficult. They are always commenting on how well Zachary does in their classes and that they just don't see any of his aggressive behavior at all. They really think he is fine to stay within the mainstream with some support. The only reason they think this is because of all of the therapy he has received and his medication. This is where the therapy could prove to be a bad thing. Zachary has come a long way in his socialization, speech and occupational issues thanks to great therapy. But every time he stops these therapies for a month or more, he loses half of what he learned and reverts back to his old ways. I have proven this time and time again. This is why he needs to continue his therapies at full force to make sure he doesn't lose it and suffer in the future. But with everything combined, he could very easily test in a higher category making him ineligible for the Autism diagnosis. So much for "no child left behind". They also only see Zachary right after he has received his daily medications so he is on his best behavior. They don't see the same Zachary that comes home sick because of the bus ride, agitated by the noise, irritable to the point of lashing out at is siblings and locking himself in his room so he can roll his trains around to soothe himself. They actually expect me to be able to get him to complete homework daily which is a real joke considering the child I get off the bus in the evenings. I love him to pieces but he is not going to be interested in doing something so structured no matter how hard I try. So I have decided, be it wrong or right, to stop giving him his meds in the morning and instead give them to him in the evening when he gets home. This way he will be the sweet, willing, agreeable Zachary they have always had, when he gets home with me and the "I don't want to...no....that's just no more fun" Zachary I always have. This way there will be no way he can fail the eligibility test and he will in turn get all of the therapy he deserves! Think I am wrong or just plain crazy...I did it Friday and in lieu of the normal "he had a great day except for 1 minor incident that took a little redirecting" note, I received a "WOW..I have never seen him so agitated...he threw himself in the floor...he wouldn't use the restroom or sit still all day" note. Proves my point! I am only doing what I believe to be the best for my son.