eitan is in his second year in a kitat tikshoret
in horev , and when we visited teh kitot
tikshoret in teh elementary schools, we cried
long and hard that he only got his "diagnosis" in
grade 6 . the elementary school kitot
tiskshoret in yerushalaim are in ramot bet and
baka - they alternate years. both look great.

do NOT wait till the powers that be fit you in
for a psychological eval, cuz anyhow, to be
eligible for a kitat tikshoret, you need the
bituah leumi ishur (which, by the way, is
me'asher that they give you a stipend for havign
a child witha severe disability) OR at the very
least , a psychiatrist's report that the child
has a likui b'tikshoret. this can be due to
autistic spectrum disorder or PDD (as is the case
with both of our boys) or , i have just been
informed by the mefakahat of hinuch meyuhad, if
the child has a likui tiskshoret al reka rigshi (one of my students).

what you need to do first and foremost is make an
appointment with a good child psychiatrist or
ssuch a clinic. teh one in ness tziona is highly
recommended. the appoinments in the municipal
mental health clinics are free, though there may
be a wait. you can decide to go to a child
psychiatrist privately first - it is usually
worth the money in terms of the time saved. you
CAN (and usually shouldn;t wait) move a child to
a kitat tikshoret mid-year. (and when you have a
child in special education, you get income tax
breaks too, besides that school is free)

to make an appointment, look up "tahana l'briut
hanefesh" on the net, you will get a list of each
city's clinic. as i said, the one in nes ziona
is recommended and they do a lot of work with ASD
kids. could be the one in maale adumim does too,
check what they list under their "specialities".

if you wantot go privately, i have gotten the
name of a child psychiatrist in yerushalaim who
is supposed ot be very competent and thorough -
dr daniel meir. his number is 5630377. he
charges 400 sheq per eval appointment , and 350
per tipul appointment (now you know why bituah leumi gives a stipend).

our process for eitan was a 4-part eval at the
neuropsychology clinic in shaare zedek, and then
a visit to confirm the report with a local child psychiatrist.
for nehemia, we took a short cut, since the doc
already knew our family history, we brought him a
letter from his teacher,a copy of his file from
kupat holim showing that he had been in all forms
of therapy (pervasive developmental delay means
pervasive!!) , the doctor played with him, or
tried to, for a few minutes, and concluded that
his delays included communication, and wrote a letter to bituah leumi.
since eitan had a huge eval sent into bituah
leumi, they sent us an ishur immediately. since
nehemia only had a letter, they called us to a
"vaada refuit" (we got the zimun within 3 weeks
of filing for the kitsba) , where he met with a
neurologist who concluded within about 2 seconds
that he has PDD (something about his saying that
he was cold in long sleeves in ramle in july)
. he will have a re-eval in july (2 years) . it
is possible that he has outgrown the diagnosis,
it could be he has aspergers, we don't know. we
may take him for a full eval in nes tziona in a few months.

if you are eligible for the kitsba, it is
automatically given from the date of the eval.
you can request up to a year retroactive. check
out the alut website for more info.

kitot tikshoret are a wonderful opportunity for a
child to learn communication skills. since eitan
is also BH quite intellectual, his teachers at
horev have put him into a class learning math for
the bagrut (though he cannot yet take the test,
he is only in grade 8) and he is doing a
pre-bagrut history workbook. he is also
mentoring a grade 7 student in navi class and
learns parsha b'havruta with a kollel guy (horev has a kollel).

he is very happy, his language and communication
skills are greatly improved, and he is accepted
as he is with no pressure ot fit in to a group
that he cannot fit into. he is also not the
least bit ashamed of where he is, and whenever
anyone asks him where he goes to school he says
"horev, in a kitat hinuch meyuhad". his old
classmates from elementary school still like him
(they always knew he was different) and he has
been invited to bar mitzva parties (though he
calls me to pick him up after he says mazal tov)

nehemia is not in a kitat tikshoret because he is
in Kinyan hochma, and BH his (trained,
experienced) teachers have been doing an
excellent job with the 3 tikshoret children in
his class, doing much of the stuff that is done in a kitat tikshoret..

the only person i know who got help for her child
with PDD in the regular classroom got the
government regulated sayaat for ten hours a week
in grade 1, and progressively less till the end
of grade 3. i think he may have also been in a
special gan tikshoret. her son is BH fairly
with it. i can ask her for permission to give
out her name ,so you can find out her experiences.

note that he may actually need a kita rigshit,
but i dont; knwo if those exist in reality or just on paper.

much hatzlaha. call if you need anything
054-6258856


At 23:33 15/01/2007, Devra Ariel wrote:

>Does anyone have any information about options for a kid with unspecified
>communication problems (ba'ayot tikshoret)? Here's the situation:
>
>Our kid is in 6th grade in a non-public school in our town. We'd like to get
>him evaluated by the local psychological services, but this might be
>challenging since he's not in a public school. Let's take it as a given that
>he'll get the evaluation. While we're fighting that battle, I'd like to know
>what our options are. The words "kitat tikshoret" have been tossed out by
>his social worker (he's in therapy at the local mental health station - why
>this is different from the local psychological services, I'm not sure) and a
>psychiatrist at the mental health station. His problem is not physical
>speech, it's more a problem connecting to the reality of what is happening
>around him in certain situations.
>
>I guess what I'm looking for are answers to these questions:
>
>What is a kitat tikshoret, and does anyone have an experience with one in
>the Jerusalem area in any kind of dati school?
>Does anyone else have a kid with "ba'ayot tikshoret" and what are you doing
>for that child?
>Does anyone know if ba'ayot tikshoret are ever dealt with by assigning a
>supporting teacher within the classroom?
>And of course, what resources can anyone point us at?
>
>--
>Devra Ariel
>Mom to Elisheva, Akiva, Shira Rina, Chayim Zvi, and Moriyah
>
>Every day and its challenges: www.dailychallenges.blogspot.com
>
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