New from Louisiana

[Guest guest]

Just wanted to introduce myself and say " Hi " . My name is Tushanna

Boaz. I'm new to the group, and live in Metairie, LA (suburb of New

Orleans). My son was diagnosed with AS on Monday of this week. He's

11 years old and in 6th grade public school near Baton Rouge (lives

with his Dad). That's middle school (Jr. High) for him. He's in

mainly regular classes, but has gifted math and reading. Up until

this year he was honor/banner role. Jr High was a tough transition

for him, and his grades fell dramatically. Additionally, all the

behavior problems of early middle school began to resurface (talking

to self, being distracting, crawling on floor, not paying attention,

rocking desk on 2 legs, etc) so his trachers recommended an

evaluation for ADHD. (We always knew he had autistic tendenacies, but

had some bad medical advice along the way to disuade us from

testing.) After over a week of extensive educational testing, the

final diagnosis was Asperger. This is all pretty new to us, so we've

spent the last week reading anything we can get our hands on related

to AS, and also trying to get the ball rolling at school with the

special ed dept. Also have private appointments for him next week

with a speech therapist for social language evaluation, and an

occupational therapist for handwriting and sensory integration

evaluations. Insurance has been a pain to navigate, and I'm sure you

all have personal horror stories in that area too. Right now I'm

pretty much on information overload, and trying to put together some

logical plan of attack to start doing something tangible to help him.

If anyone has any advice on navigating the special ed dept at public

school, or can point me in another direction to start something

productive, please let me know.

Thanks,

Tushanna

[Guest guest]

The group in Mandeville I read about on a flyer at Ochsner hospital.

I'm sure if you call Ochsner they'll have the information in full. I

think it's a social group for the kids. I'm not sure of the parent

participation part. I'd never have the time to get out that far so I

didn't check into it any further.

Best wishes,

> >

> >

> >

> > We here in the New Orleans area are looking for local groups to

> attend. I

> > know of one in the Mandeville area but we can't make that one on

> time during

> > the school year. We are going to try that one when summer

> approaches.

> >

> >

> >

> >

> >

[Guest guest]

Tushanna, glad to see you here. Below see information about your local

Parent Training Information Center. They are located right in your town. If

you

call them, they should be able to help you navigate the special education

system and also coordinate community supports, support groups,

workshops/presentations, etc. Pam

PARENT TRAINING AND INFORMATION PROJECT

Leah Knight, Director

Project PROMPT

4323 Division Street, Suite 110

Metairie, LA 70002-3179

(504) 888-9111; (800) 766-7736 (in LA)

E-mail: fhfgno@...