I recently wrote out premier a letter basically telling him all about how our system sucks and is failing children with special needs, down syndrome specifically. So because I've done this it's now a formal complaint...it probably didn't help when I told them I don't need to hear a BS response from some person high up who will claim the system works lol. Anyway, I'm wondering...

What services and how often are these services available to everyone else? If I'm going to make a case I need to know what the gold standard is...

I mean seriously, if we can host the olympics, we should be able to take care of our special needs community properly.

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Mom to: Nicholas (May/02), Nathan (April/04), Charlene (June/06), Noah (DS) (May/07), Jesse Lynn (July/08 ), Tessa (Apr/10)

Amen, sista!!! It is maddening, it really is! Some places offer great services, other places offer the bare minimum...and trying to figure out which places offer which is maddening!! They all say "we offer a free and appropriate education in a least restrictive environment..." - well, DUH!! They have to! But, the trick is - just HOW do they offer this....

This kind of wording goes on for all the services...it's hard to just get a real description of any of it! So, amen sista!!

~Lauri

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In my area we are offered ST, OT, PT, EI Teacher. Austin now has all of them and I was asked how often I would like him to receive them. I'm goin once a week for 30 minutes with all. They said I could do 2 1/2 hours or 1 hour per week for all if I wanted.

And good for you for getting down and dirty. Someone has to fight for our children. You go girl

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~Christine~
Mom of 6
Brandon ADD/ADHD 17, Chelsea 14, Connor 12, Logan 6, Cody 4 & Austin 1 ( DS & Hirschsprungs pull through 12/8/08 )
http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/austinpaquin

What I have found is that services from Birth - three years old (early intervention) is somewhat similar from state to state. We, being a military family) lived in GA, NC, and Germany....and these EI services were very much alike.....
The problem is AFTER early intervention, in my opinion!! That's when the Sh*T hits the fan...every state is different - even districts within a state are wayyyy different. This is what is making me crazy right now....
Grrrrr again!

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I'll find out more for you what we get up here... I can tell you for the 0-3 (Infant development program). Paige gets ST & PT on a "as needed" basis, however.. our PT only comes up once every 2 months and there is a waitlist so you are lucky if you get once every 4 months. And we recently lost our ST, she does do some, but it's soooo varied. Alot of this is due to being in the boonies, who's crazy enough to move up here? ha ha
But I'm pretty sure our school system is good. But I'm not sure, since Paige isn't there yet.

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Kasey, mom to Paige (2!)

I recently attended a parent training on EI for our state (New York). New York offers more services than many of the other states. It may be a good model (although we are currently in a budget crisis and things may change). My son currently has OT, PT, Speech, Special Education and we have also attended two parent-child programs on top of his therapys. All of them have been at home with no cost to us and most began at 2 months of age. I learned at the training that the states are not required to have EI, but all of them offer some sort of EI program. Many require that the parents pay, often based on income level.

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Kristie
Mom to Nathan (8/2008) and Nicholas (2/2006- DS) and wife to Paul

Like in the US ( and I guess lots of countries) services in the UK vary greatly depending where you live. Where we are the services are good......once you finally get them! We have weekly Portage (developmental teacher) ST every 4-6 weeks and attend a Portage playgroup once a week. There is no PT or OT unless there is a real need Because of this we take Ethan to a private therapy centre for PT etc.

Some of our local sevices are also experiencing budget cuts at the moment and lots of children's services ( and the families!) will feel the pinch!

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Jo, Mum to Georgia 11/11/03 ( BIG High School Musical fan) and Ethan 16/12/07 (DS)

Please Don't hold Ireland up to the Gold Medal Standard for care of kids with Special Needs.
Even by Canadian standard its very poor!

Good luck!

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Linda & John
mom to Hannah Kate (Age 12 ), Robert (Aged 6 - DS)


First day at school

Nothing written on how much they can get or how little here in IL (my district). Dylans IEP he gets ST, PT and OT. You can do pull out (one on one with therapist) or push in (therapist sits with him in class). We were able to neogiate the total number of minutes during his IEP. They wanted to give him less for ST and we requested more and it was no problem. We just have to keep in mind his services are during school. He is in school 2 1/2 hrs 5 days a week. We don't want all his time with therapist, we think he learns better while in class with his classmates. We also have the option of extended school year where he could attend school during the summer, we actually choose for him not to attend school classes in the summer, but he does get to continue with his therapy sessions during the summer. As of now this is all Pre-K related, still need to do research on elemtary school level. I love our distict and our options so far.

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Sandy (Dylans_Mom)
Mom to Hailey 3/2002, Dylan (ds) 12/2005

In Pre-K, Joey started at 3 with 2 days a week for 3 hrs/day from March to June. He received ST, OT, and PT along with academics in Pre-K. This was a good tranistion for him. He then attended ESY (summer school) for the same. The next 2 school year he went 3 days a week, receiving the same services and also attended ESY. He could have gone 4 days a week but I asked to stay down to 3 to help with my schedule.

For elementary, we have full day kindergarten and he was in a typical K class and received 1.5 hrs/wk ST, 1 hr/wk OT, .5 hrs/wk PT and academic pull out and in class support. Once his label went from DD (Developmental Delay) to ID (Intellectual Disability) we had to be careful of all the pull out time (CT requires those with an ID label to ONLY be pulled out for 20% of their day, which equals 6.25 hours a week for all services ~ academic, ST, OT, PT). He receives the same this year in a typical 1st grade class and it works for him.

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~Melissa~ Mom to David (11) and Joey~Ds(6) and wife to Michael