@ teachers referring kids to pediatrician

[kershnic]

Oct 15, 2015 12:47:59 GMT -5 @tokenhoser said:

When I was in Grade 10, the local doctor diagnosed all the girls in my class with "PCOS" and gave us birth control pills.

say what?

[Deleted]

Oct 15, 2015 22:24:48 GMT -5 kershnic said:

Oct 15, 2015 12:47:59 GMT -5 @tokenhoser said:

When I was in Grade 10, the local doctor diagnosed all the girls in my class with "PCOS" and gave us birth control pills.

say what?

We got the cream of the med school crop in rural Canada. I could tell you much more disturbing stories.

[greeneggs]

I'm surprised the school is so gung ho to have you see a doctor. In my experience dealing with my son's preschool and district's special education department pediatricians are clueless dolts who are only qualified to give shots and diagnose ear infections and are absolutely not educated enough to have any opinions about a developmental disorder. If you go farther up the food chain and visit with a child psychologist or a pediatric neurologist you'll quickly be informed that they do not spend nearly enough time with your child to possibly also rule out a diagnosis as well. Any time I've spoken about consulting with medical professionals who are not willing to make a medical diagnosis to a medical condition that the school is convinced he has I'm told that I shouldn't listen to them and should trust what the school says instead. I do wonder if the educational side's opinion would change if I found a doctor who supports their findings but since that's not likely to happen I have a few more years of being treated like an idiot autism denial mama until DS is old enough for the ADHD diagnosis the psychologist suggested off the record I prepare for.

[auntie]

Oct 15, 2015 9:16:33 GMT -5 tres3 said:

At what point do you start to wonder what's going on....

DS2's teachers have complained he doesn't pay attention and we should talk to his pediatrician.  Well this morning I had yet another conversation with a mom in DS2's class. She just moved here and she too was referred and was asking about pediatricians.  I now know of 6 boys in DS's class that have been referred to the pediatrician this year to be evaluated for ADD. 

At what point is it the school and not the boys? 

This is a personal pet peeve of mine. I've been known to ask teachers what med school they attended because this is way out of their wheelhouse.


Is this a public school? because there's a pretty good hack for this. You round up all the moms who have been referred by said teacher and you all write an identical letter to the head of district special services requesting a MFE under IDEA for all areas of suspected disability based on concerns shared with you by Ms. Actual Lastname. If you have emails or notes, copy them and include them with your request. 

Given the time and expense, the school will shut this shit down. And she will be spoken to for wasting resources. 

That said, DS's first grade teacher bitched about him constantly. She was the single worst teacher DS ever had and he's a college senior. Private school, so the above mentioned wouldn't apply.  I spoke to other moms who shared that they, too, were barraged with complaints about out-of-seat behavior, inattention, not working diligently, etc.

There were 7 kids (1 girl, 6 boys) on her radar out of 16. DS continued to struggle and we ended up at a therapeutic school for kids with LD issues and ADHD for second. Two other boys ended up evaluated by their public school for ADHD and LD and ended up getting IEP services there for second. The girl and one of the boys got afterschool tutoring; girl had CAPD and an expressive language delay and the boy has OCD, ADHD and dyslexia. The girl did really well (she's at Bryn Mawr now); the boy didn't do as well but he had more on his plate. One of the boys stayed at the school for a couple more years and ended up at DS's LD school about the time he left. I lost track of the 7th kid when we changed schools; I know that he was gone from the class when they graduated 8th grade but I don't know if he moved, changed schools or why. What I'm saying is that the teacher was inappropriate in pushing doctor referrals as a teacher. Her classroom expectations were not appropriate for sixes. And she was a rote bitch. But she was absolutely spot on that something was up with 6 of the 7 kids she fussed about. It was a coincidence that so many kids that year had issues. It would be interesting to talk to parents of kids who have had her previously. 

[auntie]

Oct 15, 2015 12:17:40 GMT -5 hopecounts said:

Oct 15, 2015 12:14:39 GMT -5 eclaires said:

this is weird. Our pediatrician specifically told us that the schools/teachers are unlikely to suggest having kids evaluated by their pediatricians and that they basically are told not to suggest it.

It seems like a teacher issue to me if she's the one suggesting it and I'd go over her head.

This varies by district.
The one my Mom taught in had this as an unofficial rule.
My local district doesn't and teachers will suggest testing.

In the U.S., under the Child Find mandates of IDEA, either a parent or educator can refer a child for a district based eval. 

In my district, I have only witnessed the district pushing for the eval rather than the parent twice. In both situations the child had aggressive behavior and an IEP was needed to get them into a behavior classroom. One of the two already had an IEP but had clearly developed new behavioral health issues with puberty.

[kershnic]

Oct 15, 2015 22:40:27 GMT -5 @tokenhoser said:

Oct 15, 2015 22:24:48 GMT -5 kershnic said:

say what?

We got the cream of the med school crop in rural Canada. I could tell you much more disturbing stories.

but what was the point? Just to have an excuse to give yiu birth control pills?

[Deleted]

Oct 16, 2015 8:51:48 GMT -5 kershnic said:

Oct 15, 2015 22:40:27 GMT -5 @tokenhoser said:

We got the cream of the med school crop in rural Canada. I could tell you much more disturbing stories.

but what was the point? Just to have an excuse to give yiu birth control pills?

Yup. I think he had good intentions, but it was weird as hell. I certainly do not have, nor have I ever had, PCOS. 

[hopecounts]

Oct 16, 2015 8:32:45 GMT -5 auntie said:

Oct 15, 2015 12:17:40 GMT -5 hopecounts said:

This varies by district.
The one my Mom taught in had this as an unofficial rule.
My local district doesn't and teachers will suggest testing.

In the U.S., under the Child Find mandates of IDEA, either a parent or educator can refer a child for a district based eval. 

In my district, I have only witnessed the district pushing for the eval rather than the parent twice. In both situations the child had aggressive behavior and an IEP was needed to get them into a behavior classroom. One of the two already had an IEP but had clearly developed new behavioral health issues with puberty.

Which is why I said unofficial
their system is if a teacher had a concern they'd speak to the counselor who will take it from there in terms of pursuing further testing.  

[milang]

The teacher can refer to special education evaluation services. When they tell you to go to a doctor they put the district at risk for being required to pay for those services.

[vadasultenfuss]

Oct 16, 2015 16:38:14 GMT -5 milang said:

The teacher can refer to special education evaluation services. When they tell you to go to a doctor they put the district at risk for being required to pay for those services.

THIS! If you really want to shut up this teacher, tell her you anticipate the district will be covering the cost of his medical exam, since she suggested it was important, and we have free and appropriate public education in America. She's a liability to the district.

[oscarnerdjulief]

That's odd. I teach middle school, and we are never supposed to mention seeing a doctor, getting medicine, or anything like that. If so many people aren't paying attention, the teacher should switch up the activities and learning strategies.

For example, I have a small class with mostly boys who love games. We spend about ten minutes each day playing spelling games; they love it and have gotten straight A's on spelling.

Maybe they're bored because the teacher is focusing too much on a certain learning style, one that is more catered to boys, kinesthetic learners, etc. ex: my kids love writing on whiteboards or playing games where they line up, s
it down when they're out...

We have a major problem in schools where the preferred behavioral style is that displayed by the compliant young girl, so we often treat our ornery boys as if they are "defective girls."