Let me start by saying that the process of getting evaluated for an IEP is incredibly frustrating.
In an earlier blog post I mentioned that when my son switched daycares we caught the signs of selective mutism. I didn’t know much about it at the time. I literally googled that he wasn’t talking at all at school. That got me to learn about selective mutism.
At age 1, my son had speech therapy for speech delays. We had already worked with our state’s early childhood development program. We contacted them again to get him evaluated for SM. The goal was to get him an IEP so he could get help at daycare.
It took about a year to move through the whole evaluation process. It is the worst feeling as a parent seeing your child struggle with something and not being able to help them. That was how the process felt for me. I tried to help him but there was so much waiting. It felt like I wasn’t getting anywhere with getting him the needed support.
The process had four steps for each. There were months between each step. This made the process really agonizing. Each step felt like we were finally progressing only to have to wait months for the next step.
Step 1: Parent/Teacher Interview
This first step was a representative from CDS talking with me to understand what was going on with my son. The goal was to discuss my concerns. I also discussed the behaviors at home. They also included his daycare teacher in this conversation to best understand what was happening at school as well.
Step 2: Speech Evaluation
Next they wanted to evaluate his speech especially since he had a history of needing speech therapy. It was also to try to understand if he wasn’t talking because of difficulty with speech or comprehension. The speech therapist noticed he had really strong comprehension of what she was saying without verbally responding so the need for speech therapy was ruled out.
The speech evaluation showed no need for an IEP for speech. Given that he didn’t speak, it was not a conclusive result. The interview ahead of time made everyone feel comfortable ruling it out.
Step 3: Psychological Evaluation
The next step was to have him get a psychological evaluation. This was to evaluate him specifically for selective mutism and any other anxiety disorder. There are not many child psychologist that work with CDS near where I live so the wait between the speech therapist evaluation and this one was 6 months.
This was also a 2 part process of an extensive interview with me by the psychologist to understand what I am seeing at home for behavior and to understand how it is different when my son is with others. Then my husband took my son to an in person meeting with the psychologist.
Step 4: Debrief from the Psychological Evaluation
The last step in the process was to meet maybe a month or so after the evaluation to get the insights of the psychologists based on the two parts and determine if there is a diagnosis and if that diagnosis is having an impact on education.
After all these steps it had been about a year. We were finally at the point of determining if he qualified for an IEP. I will share more about that meeting in a separate post because there was a lot that was covered there.
This was the process for a 3 year old. I would imagine the process would be very different for a child already in public school.
Share your comments. Was the process of getting evaluated for an IEP as frustrating and long for you?