Autism In Our Home - Diagnosis Disagreement

Wednesday morning was our big IEP meeting at the school. There were a lot of people there, including Mr. P (the principal), the assistant principal, his teacher, the resource teacher, the school psychologist, the speech therapist, the district Autism specialist, Josh and I, Ryan, and notes from Colton's outside psychologist.

The first thing that they did was go over all of the results of ALL of the testing. There has been testing that has taken place over the entire school year. All of those results were read aloud on Wednesday. That's some tough stuff to hear. Here is the confusion: the outside psychologist believes that Colton's main disability is Autism, with ADHD and Anxiety. The school/district staff believe that his main disability is a mixture of Autism, ADHD, Anxiety and Oppositional Defiant Disorder. The reality is that the medication will not change, and really the resources that he is given in the school will also not change. The frustration is that these tests are done in such a structured environment that I feel that they are not always going to be accurate. Either way, Colton has a disability and it is defined in legal paperwork. His IEP will address those things that adversely effect his education. The medication that he is on helps him to function to the best of his ability.

May I just once again say that church is SO HARD?!?! Please tell me that someone understands! Sacrament Meeting is a battle of keeping his legs and arms out of the air, keeping his noises to a minimum, keeping him occupied, keeping him from screeching when a baby or a small child screams out, keeping him from shouting out random words, keeping him from throwing things, etc. It's exhausting. Yesterday, it took us until there was ten minutes left to get him comfortable. As hard as it is on Josh and I, and on his siblings, I cannot imagine what it is like for Colton and that is heartbreaking.