Em's Story – By Anonymous
At age three, my daughter began receiving outpatient services for Speech, O.T. and P.T. through Crawford Memorial Hospital. The hospital staff were wonderful; they treated us all with great respect and genuinely celebrated milestones with us.
Things changed once our daughter entered Head Start. Halfway through the year, it was decided by her teacher and the speech pathologist that she no longer needed services. As parents, we knew that this was going to be a real setback for our daughter who was diagnosed with Autism during this time.
The IEP (Individualized Education Plan) meeting that finally came was horrifying. We were told by the IEP board that “if” our child had Autism, she would be revaluated once she entered Kindergarten. We were sure that our daughter would qualify, as she still had difficulties with speech, memory challenges, and physical signs of being frustrated and overwhelmed. As parents, we did not feel supported by the school district and our hearts broke for our child who was hanging on by a thread.
In Crawford County, IEP meetings need to be structured differently. Sitting across a table from four educators who argued my child’s diagnosis from a Pediatric Specialist MD was shocking, to say the least. Parental support during any IEP meeting by a professional on the family's side and the child should be mandatory.
