Jill spent eight weeks in her intensive outpatient treatment and is now back in “regular” school full-time. Technically, the last two weeks she spent only 3 and a half hours twice a week at her IOP and then the other three weekdays she would spend the entire school day at her old school. We decided to go that route so that there was a bit of a transition and not too much of a shock or burnout from going back to regular school full-time all at once.
I also contacted the school counselor before she returned to
school to set up regular check-ins with her and met with her teacher and the
principal in person about updating her 504 and giving them a summary of any
concerns and ways to be of support to Jill. However, before meeting with the principal and
her teacher I was required to meet with the Student and Family Resources
Director on the district level at the district offices who met with Jill and I (since
she’s been out of school for most of the first term) and he documented that she
did, in fact, qualify for accommodations and would be returning to public
school full-time.
I’ve never had a child who qualified for an IEP before, but
after receiving assessment results from a speech pathologist at Jill’s IOP the
last week she was there, they recommended she get some testing done and have accommodations
put in place for receptive language. So, after more testing under the direction
of the school psychologist she’ll most likely not only have a 504, but an IEP
as well. Jill has been a chatterbox
since she was preschool aged and has never had any problems with speaking or
forming sounds, but I guess things like picking up on social cues/nonverbal
communication and taking things literally rather than figuratively (indicative
of autism) can fall under the category of speech/language concerns.
I should probably be used to it by now, but when I was
looking at Jill’s discharge paperwork I started feeling a little overwhelmed
and sad because there wasn’t just one diagnosis listed- but multiple: depression,
anxiety, ADHD, and autism. I think
raising a child with just one of those challenges could be difficult,
but then when there’s several overlapping symptoms all at once it just can feel
a little . . . discouraging. Jill hasn’t
even entered junior high yet and I worry what things will look like in the future
when I use how she is currently as a baseline.
As for continuing care we can actually use the staff at her
outpatient treatment center for medication management which will be slightly
easier than working through her psychiatrist every three months or so. We have also decided to have her continue
seeing the therapist she saw for individual therapy at her Outpatient program
for ongoing therapy (for now at least) since they have a good relationship and
she “fired” her last therapist for siding too much on issues with mom and dad. Jill’s therapist at her IOP was very
knowledgeable about autism and even recommended some good books and resources
for us, including this book.
However, her therapist also suggested that we might try to
find a clinician more knowledgeable about adoption issues. I laughed when I got a list of some providers
who fit that criteria and immediately noticed that a couple of them were my
former coworkers. I have no doubt they
would be great, but that would also be slightly awkward for my child to
complain to them on occasion about how mean her parents are and how much she
hates her family, etc.
Speaking of adoption competent therapists, last month (after completing a final exam) I completed a yearlong professional Training for Adoption Competency (TAC) for mental health practitioners and other adoption professionals under the Center for Adoption Support and Education (CASE). We discussed, in detail, the seven core issues of adoption and best clinical practices for clients impacted by adoption (adoptees, birth parents, adoptive parents, grandparents, siblings, etc.) Although I currently only have one client who is a transracial adoptee, I had a lot of success in working through some of the chapters from this book with her:
I recently recommended this book to another adoptive mom as
well.
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