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Who fills out the "teacher" questionnaire?


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We are so stoked to finally have an appointment for DS to have an ASD evaluation. I just received our packet of info in the mail with a variety of questionnaires to be filled out by a parent and a "teacher." He hasn't really had a consistent teacher for more than 2 hours once a week over a period of a couple of months. I feel these teachers don't know my son well at all. Should I still have them fill out the evaluations? 

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I made a list of all DD's instructors (co-op leaders, sunday school teachers, tutor, myself) and asked the evaluator which they wanted to complete the form.  They chose the tutor.  We had been working with her for 2 years so I felt very comfortable asking for her input.

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I did not have pre-school information to take for my son when he was diagnosed, he had been going to pre-school for about 3 weeks but his IEP was not done and we weren't able to take anything.  They would have liked to have had it, but it was okay.  

 

I totally agree -- try to ask if they want you to have the form filled out anyway, and just let them know it is filled out by someone who sees him 2 hours a week and does not know him well, if that is what you end up doing.  But I think that is a good thing to ask about, and see what they say.  Maybe they would rather have a relative or someone from an activity fill it out, it is possible.  

 

My son does act differently depending on whether I am around or not, so I am someone who does (in general) need to know what he is doing when I am not around.  But -- I didn't have him in anything for the year before he was diagnosed, and that was fine.  

 

The people were very nice and helpful where I took him, I hope it will be that way for you guys, too.  

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I filled out the teacher form myself and wrote on it that it was done by mom (homeschool teacher). Some of the questions I would change from "in school" to "in church" or "in co-op" or whatever worked best for what the question was really asking since we don't have a traditional school setting.

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A problem for me would be that, since my son did not do as well without me as with me ------ if I was there then his behavior was not the same as without me.  

 

So if I was answering questions about how he did in a group setting or social setting, how he did following directions, etc, at the time he did not do those things well at all without me.  But, he did a lot better with me.  

 

One reason is that I was prompting him a lot without realizing I was prompting him.  I did not realize until a therapist pointed it out.  It is good to do, but also good to be aware of doing it, so that I can reduce prompts so that over time he will not need them.  

 

A second reason is that he does not always generalize immediately.  For his school programs, it is written in that he has to meet various goals with 3 different people/teachers across two different environments (aka home and school, usually, but could be home and the park, or home and church, or Wal-Mart and Target, etc).  This is because for some kids they can do something in one setting or with one person, but it takes extra practice to generalize to another person or environment, and they have to practice with a few people or environments before they can generalize that skill to any person or environment.  

 

This is something I did not know about when my son was even younger, and I passed a lot of things off as being shy.  B/c when I was around, I did not see that behavior, people would just tell me about it but I didn't see it.   

 

I think it is totally possible to give the information needed, though, by a parent.  But I do know for a while I was seeing things better than they really were and I was not objective.  But ----- I do think for someone filling out both forms, I would try to watch for it and try to fill it out based on how the child does "with other people" or "in a group setting" or "outside his home"  (maybe ---- I would ask about this) instead of just "as a student."  B/c autism is not always about just student behaviors that you would see in doing school work.  I think that can be what some of the questions are going to be about.  

 

But I also really think ----- if you know how he is acting, you can fill it out.  I was in denial a little still, and I was also not aware of certain things to watch out for that I have found out about since then, that if I had known, would have been major red flags but that instead I didn't think much of.  

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We've filled out a ton of these type of things lately. For our psychologist, we had DS's gymnastic's coach fill out the teacher form, since he spends the most time in a teaching type of environment with DS. That was only somewhat helpful, because it was not equivalent to an academic environment.

 

For the NP my husband filled out the parent form, and I filled out the teacher form. Still not ideal, but I could address the academics.

 

You may want to call and ask the office what they consider acceptable.

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The last time I had one of those, I wrote "homeschooled student" on the top and sent it in blank. The parent part had a lot about academics as well, and she was very young (kindergarten) so in our case I didn't think it was too important.

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Our psych is asking us to have a sports coach or someone who sees him in another setting.  If he's in a church nursery with someone who works there consistently, that could work.  In our case, ds is taking swim lessons 4 days a week, has been all summer, and will continue into the fall.  The teacher is the head of the swim program, and I intend to ask her to fill it out.

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