What They Never Tell You.....

Yesterday Mr 5 had his bi annual check up at the pediatrician, he is at worse 15months delayed in some things and at best 12 months...Now the hurdles commence. His primary diagnosis is severe language disorder (SLD) which brings along with it behavioral problems associated with not being able to make himself understood; add to that Global Developmental delay, which gives you a five year old with the emotional level of a two year old, the gross motor skills no where near his peers and the fine motor skills of his 2.5 yr old brother. What a kabooosh!!!

So under Program For Students With disabilities (PSD) he does not qualify for INDIVIDUAL FUNDING unless we try got intellectual disability(he's have to score less than 68 in the cognitive part of the WISC test)...There is no denying his need of a aide at school, but the SYSTEM will not allow his behavioral issues to be allocated because they are part of his SLD. So we can hope that he FAIL the cognitive part of the test so he scores low in that area and qualifies for special school which would get him ongoing speech and occupational therapy...Sad, that you have to hope your child fail an IQ test to get what they need to get through school. If he qualifies, he'd go to special school part time and mainstream the rest of the time and gradually intergrate into mainstream.

Its a travesty that if he goes to a Catholic school and they get funding they can use it as they wish...So he may not get speech therapy, if he goes to a State school the Language Disorder Program (LDP) may not guarantee he gets speech either. Don't get me wrong...We are not welching...We have private health insurance but private health insurance covers only $600 per year for speech and at $90-$100 per session on a weekly basis it does not last long. Neither we nor Liam did anything to create this disorder and it affects many,many children...The Govt needs to take notice of the multitudes of families affected by disabilities from the severe to the not so severe, the while range.

Incidentally, the PSD application date has been bought forward to 15th JULY...Almost a whole term. Most childrens tests are organized for August/ September, so if you are up for funding again or need to organize specialists ...START NOW ( refer Section 3 and 4 of PSD 2006)