My almost 5 year old son, could he have AS?

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I went to back to school night (Junior K) the other night. His teacher mentioned that she thinks I should have him evaluated by someone from the school district.

Since he was really young, when he would get excited or really in to something he flaps his hands. Every time I mention this to his Pediatrition he tells me the same thing. Don't worry about it, it is just a behavioral thing that will go away. He also makes an "e'ing" sound sometimes when he is concentrating on something. Other than that, nothing really out of the ordinary. He is really good with numbers & letters but is struggeling a bit on writing them. (That can be normal for his age, right?) Pretty much your average kid.

Anyway, I don't know what to think? Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Angela in California

It could very well be developmental normal for a five year old however I see little harm in a school evalutation.

An evaluation will give you more details on where your son is and compare him to the "average" five year old. The beauty of the system is that if you disagree with the schools evaluation and recommendations, you can, per federal law, request an independent evaluation at public expense.

Please remember that if an evaluation is done, a "team" is developed to make recommendations and immplement them. YOU must be a member of the team and you have an equal vote. Some districts try to steamroll over the parent. Several of the members here live in CA. I hope they can give you more of the "local" feel there.

The school people spend much more time with your son then the ped. When I was concerned about my younger son's speech delay, the ped said it was normal because he had an older brother to talk for him. Actually it developed into a lateral lisp and he needed years of speech therapy. The ped did note that my son was particularly clumsy and that his gross and fine motor skills where delayed but said to just get him outside more. Well, it turns out he needed both OT and PT and he's still clumsy. I now have a new ped....

One book I very strongly recommend is "From Emotions to Advatacy: The special education introduction" (or something like that). It was written by Peter and Pam Wright. You can find it a wrightslaw.com It goes over tests, how to read test results, has sample letters of letters you might need to write, and, in general, is a great intro to your rights and responsibilits in regards to special ed.

Good luck to you and you child. Please post back and let us know how it goes.

BeeBee

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