r/SpecialNeedsChildren

Parents with kids with learning disabilities- what ended up working better for your child ? Public school or microschooling / homeschooling?? My 9 year old son had been going to a private school since kindergarten. He's always kinda struggled in school and in fact the suggested holding him back in kindergarten. We decided to keep going and get him some tutoring help. Fast forward to 3 rd grade and he started failing tremendously. We got him evaluated for learning disabilities and come to find out he has dyscalculia and dysgraphia. The private school he was in did not have resources to support him and it was recommended that he go to a public school where he would have more support. We decided to take him out of private school and homeschool him for 4 th grade .. it lasted about a month and a half with me because he does NOT cooperate with me at all . It started driving me nuts so I put him in a Microschool . He loves it . However, I feel skeptical of micro schools. I'm also still very new so I know only time will tell. But I fear if I put him in public school and get him on an IEP and in general ed classes will they actually help him ? I always hear horror stories about public school . This has seriously been keeping me up at night and I'd love to learn from other's experiences

I’m looking for advice on how parents of special needs kids handle medical treatment. This is not for me but our friend.

Her daughter is 14 and has been diagnosed with autism but doesn’t totally fit the criteria. She’s non-verbal, making mostly “ba ba” sounds although she does say “ma” for her mother, “bump” because she likes driving over speed bumps 😀 and calls my wife “KeeKee” (her name doesn’t remotely sound like that).

“Mary” doesn’t like if things change such as having to put on a new pair of shoes because the old ones have holes. She only eats certain foods, only drinks water.

She’s been relatively healthy so hasn’t needed any medical care. For dental cleanings she has to be sedated.

Yesterday she holding her ear and saying “ow” so they went to urgent care. The mother and my wife had to actually lay on top of her and hold her head still so the doc could just look.

She has a large pimple in there. Normally it would be lanced and then give her antibiotics. Doc said she should go to her pediatrician or ENT but who knows how long until that can be done. Putting a hot compress in it might help but after 5 minutes she fights to get away.

We can’t bribe her with treats or toys because she doesn’t understand. We tried letting her use a toy doctor kit on us hoping she’d understand what the doc would do but she wouldn’t do it.

How do you parents handle office treatments for “simple” things? It’s different for more complicated things requiring an ER visit where she’d be sedated. Would your kid have to be sedated for a procedure like this?

Our friend is a single mom with no family and a limited support system so we do what we can for her. Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

UPDATE: after talking with several nursing friends they all agreed that it needed to be lanced. Because it was a “small” issue they said that giving her a shot of ketamine or IV would be too much on the kid so we basically held her down and a quick lance and it was done. The pus came out. They gave her a prescription for Bactrin. She’s no longer in pain so she should be able to sleep. A few rough seconds. Just so exhausting. It’s so hard on our friend. I don’t know how she manages every day.

Bless all of you. I wish the best to you and your kids.

Hi, awesome parents!

Our son is 3 years and 2 months old and was diagnosed with autism just a week ago. The diagnosis was difficult for us to process at first, but we’ve decided to stay hopeful, optimistic, and focus on giving him all the support we can.

We’ve already enrolled him in ABA and OT, and we’re currently waiting for his Speech Therapy schedule. We’re also considering enrolling him in a Montessori school so he can have regular opportunities to play and interact with other children.

Right now, he can say words and identify many things such as letters, numbers, colors, animals, and familiar people like Mama, Papa, and Tita. He can also sight-read some words and follow instructions such as putting his clothes in the basket, cleaning up his toys, and washing his hands.
He can drink from a glass independently and use a spoon and fork with some assistance. He can remove his shorts by himself and can put on his shirt and shorts with assistance.

Our main concerns right now are communication and social interaction. He has difficulty communicating his wants and thoughts, making consistent eye contact, and responding when we call his name, especially when he is focused on something. He also has echolalia and currently doesn’t show much interest in interacting with other children.

Despite all of this, we’re happy and hopeful about where we are starting. Our biggest goal right now is simply to help him become more communicative and better able to express himself.

One thing that worries me is whether additional challenges or behaviors might appear as he gets older, or whether some children can seem to get worse before making progress.

For parents whose children were similar to our son at around 3 years old, I would really love to hear your stories. How is your child doing now? How did their communication, social interaction, response to their name, and other skills develop after starting therapy?
Whether your progress was fast, slow, or had ups and downs, I’d really appreciate hearing about your journey. We’re still very new to all of this and would love to learn from parents who have walked this path before us. ❤️

Thank you!

Looking for some advice/experiences regarding a 14-month-old.

He seems a little behind across several milestones and was later to consistently respond to his name. He’s very active, always on the go and quite difficult to engage in sitting/playing together — he generally prefers doing his own thing rather than actually playing with you.
However, he is socially engaged in other ways. He often turns to look at you, points things out to share them, shows/brings things to people and interacts with you. He also notices other children and will offer them things (sometimes rather enthusiastically!).

His older sibling is autistic, so naturally there’s a question about whether these could be early signs or simply his individual developmental pace/personality.

For anyone with experience of autism or developmental delay at this age, what were your children like around 13–14 months? Did anyone have similar traits who later caught up, or did they eventually receive a diagnosis?

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I took over as program coordinator for a social and recreational group for disabled teens and adults. I've taught SpEd for a few years now, but only as high as eight grade, so I worry that my ideas might be a bit too "elementary" for our group who is predominantly between mid 20s and early 50s.

Please share any other subreddits that may be of help.

By removing a crucial part of the early intervention team from the equation, our most vulnerable children are at risk for missing out on beneficial early intervention, school systems may lose a vital component in the process of proactively planning for early childhood student needs prior to their entry, and communities will ultimately be impacted by limited access to an invaluable resource that allows them to thrive. Please read the information below and consider reaching out to let your concerns be known and get answers to critical questions. From a provider:

Please share with everyone!

🚨 LOUISIANA FAMILIES — IMPORTANT EARLYSTEPS UPDATE 🚨

Today, SPOEs(System Point of Entry) across Louisiana were told that their current contracts will end April 1.

This is a significant statewide change. SPOEs are the local teams that help families move through referral, intake, evaluation, eligibility, IFSP development, and into early intervention services.

When we are talking about babies and toddlers with developmental delays or disabilities, timely services matter.

During today’s meeting, staff stated that they were not aware of public hearings, stakeholder meetings, or outreach to parent advocacy groups before these changes were developed. Louisiana’s published Early Steps policy says that policy updates require broad stakeholder input, public notice of proposed changes, and public hearings for public comment.

Families may want answers to questions including:

➡️ What will replace the current SPOE system?
➡️ How will the transition work?
➡️ How will Louisiana prevent delays in services?
➡️ What happens to the experienced local staff who already know these families and communities?
➡️ What opportunity were families, providers, advocates, and the public given to participate in the process?

For anyone who wants additional information or wants to ask state officials about the changes:

📞 Rep. Barbara Reich Freiberg
(225) 342-6945
District Office: (225) 763-3500
hse070@legis.la.gov

📞 Sen. Royce Duplessis
(504) 568-2741
SEN05@legis.la.gov

📞 Bruce D. Greenstein
Louisiana Department of Health
(225) 342-9500

📞 Blake Miguez
(337) 519-8720

You can also contact your own Louisiana State Representative and State Senator and request information about the EarlySteps SPOE contract changes.

Questions you may want to ask:

“What is changing with Louisiana EarlySteps and the SPOE contracts beginning April 1? What will replace the current system? How will timely services for children be protected during the transition? What public and stakeholder input occurred before this decision was made?”

This affects the people who work within the SPOEs, but most importantly, it affects the babies and families across Louisiana who depend on timely early intervention services.

❤️ Birth to three matters.
❤️ Early intervention matters.
❤️ Timely services matter.
❤️ Local SPOEs matter.
❤️ Louisiana families deserve clear information about changes affecting their children.

I know a mother who has lost sole decision making; is looking for work, and watching her child struggle developmentally. The ex husband has sole-decision making, is high income, and has denied the following as important:

- Frenectomy, now severely impacting the 6yo’s linguistic development.
- Speech therapy in the present - constantly debating w mother about it
- Need for social interaction— frustration and difficulty w fears that are normally conquered at his age
- Ex husband seems to be an anti vaxer conservative and hands off parent from what I can tell.

These are the biggest issues that I both hear as a friend and witness firsthand. I’ve spent time w their son and there is a marked difference between his development and my own, younger son. I say this kindly, feeling her concern and trying to provide a proactive male role model for her son. Ultimately this impacts the child.

It’s pretty gross how money and lawyers get the wrong person ahead. The mother is searching for work, has had her confidence crushed, and the legal system seems run by money.

If anyone could point me in the direction of real help for her

Denver, CO
AFFORDABLE or PRO-Bono
Character witness testimony advice
Rapid results
Go-fund me or other scenarios w respect to tax and financial implications/ legality