getting an Asperger IEP

Posted on November 17th, 2010 at 7:02 am by admin

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I’m sitting propped up in bed with a nasty cold and and a throat clogged with laryngitis. It’ll be a long, silent day waiting for my book proof to arrive.

So the topic today is how to get an IEP for an Asperger kid. The exact procedure is different depending where you are. But here are three topics that come up where it’s handy to know in advance what you can say.

1. “He should be on Ritalin.”

Sometimes teachers, sometimes doctors and psychiatrists think everything is ADHD. If it looks like ADHD, then it’s ADHD. They can’t wrap their minds around the fact that ADHD isn’t a thing: it’s just a group of symptoms.

So listen up. I’m going to type this very slowly:

Stimulants are CONTRAINDICATED for kids with anxiety issues.

Asperger kids have anxiety issues. Think about the phobias and fears, the agitation, the dread of surprises. In neurofeedback talk, this means their high-beta brainwaves are too high and their SMR waves are too low. Betas are the concentration/focus brainwaves, and SMR are the body-senses brainwaves.

Stimulants push the betas up even higher. That’s how they work – ADHD kids have low betas. But for Aspies, the betas are already too high.

Stimulants would allow your kid to pay attention, but he’d be a complete psychobunny. Think paranoid delusions and self-harm behaviours.

So mention that to any teacher that brings up stimulants or ADHD.

2. “She can’t pay attention, so that means she has ADHD.”

Sensory issues are like white noise. Her body and senses are either clamouring to be heard or pushing at her too hard.

That’s one reason why she likesto work alone — to limit the amount of stimulus she has to put up with. She blows up when there’s too much on her plate.

So when a teacher gives her a paper of stupid questions to fill out, she can’t quite get the point. It seems ludicrous when there are such high priority things she has to deal with.

Remember: by focusing on her body, she’s making the right choice.

3. “He’s going to need accommodations.”

No, he’s not. The accommodations you’re looking for are not to help him adapt to school. They’re to help the school adapt to him.

You can’t have two inflexible people in the picture, so one of them has to give in. It’s not going to your kid. He doesn’t adapt. This is his greatest strength in life but also his greatest weakness.

So if the school starts talking about their rules and priorities and the limits on what they can “offer”, you need to point this out. They’re the grown-ups, he’s the kid. He’s chronically inflexible, so they have to be flexible.

My line has always been:

“You mean to tell me that we’ve put a man on the moon, but this school can’t let him sit on a yoga ball? That’s not can’t, that’s won’t.”

It’s a powerful line. Use it for good, not for evil.