I Need Help.......Fast

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Tomorrow the autism team will be observing my son at school. He is on concerta I’m trying to decide if I should give him his med’s while they observe him, do I give him the true child or the medicated one? What do you think? I’m glad this is getting started, but I’m upset that they didn’t tell me anything about when they were going to do this. His teacher just mentioned she got an e-mail saying they were coming. I would of liked to been notified.

Ask the team which they would like to see.

Also - what is their intention?

To determine how he is going?
To determine whether or not to accept him?
To allocate funding?

The purpose of the meeting will determine whether you need them to see the best or the worst.

I would give them the true child.

i think it depends on how much stress this will cause your child to not be on his meds.

It won't be stressful, he might not get all his work done.
This is the first step of his FIE, they didn't even tell me they were starting today. I think I"m not giving it to him, I fought for a year for a FIE and I'm giving them the true child.

DEFINITELY DO NOT give him his meds. You want them to see what your child is really like. Also, you want services. You can always limit services later if you want to, but right now, you want as much as you can get.

When we were taking our son in for evaluation at age 5, and we were having a rough time getting the school to acknowledge that he had needs, we didn't have him on any meds, AND we probably allowed him to eat whatever breakfast might exacerabate the situation. We WANTED him to show whatever struggles he may have as obviously as possible -- we wanted to make a BIG impression.

If the evaluator(s) only see a calm kid, they may miss his needs. This is the day to give him Fruit Loops for breakfast, if it helps your cause.

Thanks, I sent him without his med's, told his teacher to forgive me but, I fought for a year just to get a FIE done and they are going to see my real child. I'm still upset the special ed dept. didn't tell me about them coming today. I called them last week and asked them to let me know when they would do all this.

why would you give him meds if he changes hes caracter by that?
wups...this is parents discusion

It helps him focus and finsh his work, also he not as forgetful. It doesn't change him that much, but these people can see he can't finsh his work and he might need extra time on his papers.

As a parent, you just try and do what you think is best for child. I know I have three doctors that say I should give him his concerta.I'm just trying to help him make it in school, it's always been hard for him. My question was not if I should ever give him his med's, but if I should give him his med's today while the autism team was at his school watching him.

I forget where you live, but that makes a difference. And I'm not sure I know what an FIE is ...

ANYWAY, since services depend on qualifying factors, I would say, "see the true child." Medication may mask the qualifying factors. So, I agree with your decision for the one day.

I think it is all our hopes for our kids that they can acquire the skills to never need medication if they are not on it, and to move off medication someday if they are on it. The experts cannot help with that if they don't know the child as his true self.

I live in Texas.

A FIE is a Full Independent Evaluation.

Yeah I wouldn't give him his meds. And unfortunately more times than not, they don't bother telling you anything. But in order for them to observe him properly he cannot go on his meds.

Do let us know how it goes.

I went through this dilemma with my son last year when he was being evaluated for his first IEP. This was before he'd been diagnosed with HFA (before he was incorrectly diagnosed with ADHD, chronic motor tics and dysgraphia). He was on Concerta at the time, but I decided not to have him take it during the evaluation because I wanted them to see what he was like without the medication. Turned out to be a good thing, since we took him off the Concerta not long after that because it was increasing his anxiety. The IEP was very disappointing, BTW, since we didn't really know how to push for services and we hadn't finished having him re-diagnosed.

I have the first meeting for his IEP evaluation tomorrow at his new school. I will make sure this time to push for the services he needs.

Good luck!