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Parents think an evaluation is a moment of truth: you pay an expert, the expert gives you answers. That’s not what happens. Most evaluations are designed to tell you as little as possible. Here’s how it works:

1. When a school tests your kid, that’s not really testing. Even the most high-functioning autistic kid is very, very expensive for a school district, because that kid has the right to so many extra services. Schools don’t like to spend money on one kid. So schools do the bare minimum: test for a narrow range of issues and default to “your kid is fine” unless the kid is disrupting the classroom.

2. Schools don’t have to help your kid make progress. Schools have to make a reasonable effort to help your kid make progress. So schools tell you “we love your kid” and “your kid is doing great” and anything else they can say so you don’t sue. There are about ten schools in the US that make a reasonable effort. That’s why when parents sue a school for not meeting the standard, the school loses.

3. Even private evaluators don’t want to tell you the truth. It’s too much work. A private evaluation is more thorough than a school evaluation, but evaluators still won’t tell you everything, because you’ll argue. If they tell you your kid has gait problems and you’ve never noticed, they don’t want to fight with you about how gait affects school success. If your kid has pragmatic language issues, they don’t want to spend an hour teaching you what pragmatics are and why ignoring the problem means your kid can’t get help from teachers.

4. An evaluation without parent support does nothing for your kid. Research shows interventions don’t help children unless they come with support for the parents. But most evaluators hand you a report and disappear, because writing a report is 1000 times easier and more profitable than supporting a family. So why am I telling you to get your kid an evaluation anyway? Because the evaluation was never for the school, and it’s not even really for your kid. It’s for you, the parent.

5. A private evaluation is how you manage the school. The school doesn’t work for you, so you need someone who does. You cannot see your own kid’s learning profile intuitively. A kid with dyslexia has ADHD. A kid with poor working memory has gait and vestibular issues that affect attention. It’s all interwoven, which is exactly what the school doesn’t want you to know, because the costs add up fast. Your kid has a right to those services, but you can’t advocate for a kid you don’t understand.

6. The IEP preserves your kid’s rights — and teaches your kid to use them. You might think your kid doesn’t need an IEP. Consider that 20% of kids in the Ivy League got extra time on their SATs. That’s because smart parents of smart kids advocate for their kids effectively in school, and it starts with the IEP. It’s also where your kid learns self-advocacy: kids who understand they’re autistic at an early age do better in college because they understand how to manage their environment. In grade school, you model advocacy. By high school, your kid practices on their own.

7. The stakes are too high to skip this. Autistic kids are six times more likely to attempt suicide than neurotypical kids. The best protection is using the IEP to remove structural stigma at school — and you can’t remove what you haven’t identified. That learning process starts with the evaluation.

Bottom line: you don’t get an evaluation to find out if your kid is autistic. You get an evaluation so you can get an IEP, understand your kid, and model self-advocacy in a world full of structural stigma. Also, recognize that kids today are much more accepting of autism than your generation, so your fear of labels might actually be part of the stigmatization you’re trying to shield your kid from.

But remember rules 3 and 4: an evaluation is only as good as the evaluator, and an evaluation without ongoing parent support leaves you hanging.

So I’m having a live conversation with my favorite evaluator, Megan Cawlfield. I’ve worked with families all over the US, and every time a family needs an evaluation, I bring in Megan. That picture up top is Megan mid-evaluation, teaching a parent how about their kid’s movement. Megan and I will talk about how to get an evaluation so strong that it helps everyone in your family, and how to turn that evaluation into an IEP that works.

If you’re considering an evaluation or an IEP — or the school told you your kid is fine and you don’t believe it — join us Friday at 10am Eastern. It’s free if you’re a paid subscriber. Bring your questions. This is the conversation the school will never have with you.

The post Most autism evaluations are useless. Get one for your kid anyway. appeared first on Penelope Trunk Careers Blog.

Categories: Life