How age should achild be to check own levels without supervision?

I am just wondering due to some concern regarding my DD and the plan the school has for her. She has an IEP plan due to severe learning disability and other issues. We just had a meeting about her IEP next year and the school send me home the plan to sign. Well, in her IEP is her D care. The school wants her to be able to indepently(sp) test herself @10am and 2 pm by the end of the school year and to know when she has to retest if she is low. She is 8 yrs, going into gr.3 but is learning at a gr.1 level. She does do some testing here at home by herself (I am in the room with her) but does not know what the number means. I have spoke to the school and they told me there will be some assistance but not so much side by side asssitance. So I am thinking it is going to be, she checks her levels then goes and tells the teacher what she is. I am concern what will happen if she doesn't want to test herself, then what or if she forgets, again then what. I do plan to talk to our D team about this next week when we have her appointment but I would like all of yours thoughts on this b/c I have learn alot from all of you. So I guess Iam asking is she too young for that type of responbility?

 

We can't tell you if she is too young. Only you know her abilities and if she is ready. It sounds to me like you have a concern about it, so I would go with your gut feeling. Don't let the school dictate your daughters care. I hope they have her best interest at heart, but really, all that matters is how you feel about the situation. Decide what you think is best for her and work with the school to make it happen.

All that said, I think it is important for CWD's to become independent with their care, but it is an incredibly individual thing, there is no set age or schedule that they need to adhere to, in my opinion.

Good luck.

 

Well, it's not so much a matter of chronological age. It's a matter of whether this particular child is ready for this particular responsibility. It sounds to me like you do not think that she is.

The school should NOT be dictating her D care. At all. You tell THEM what you want for D care, and then they accommodate you. They have this bass-ackwards, to put it bluntly.

ETA: Oops. I see that you're in Canada. That doesn't change my feelings on the situation, but I understand that you may not have the legal recourse that we have in the States. Hopefully some other Canadians will chime in.

 

It doesn't sound as if she's ready. I would want my child to be consistently be able to read her numbers and respond appropriately without help under my supervision before expecting her to do on her own out and about.

If she can't read the numbers and know what they mean at this point, I wouldn't expect her to be safely independent at any point during the next school year. Her LD is trumping what would be an standardized thought of independent diabetes care. I hope your endo backs you up; I can't imagine they wouldn't.

 

This - 8 is to young to do it without supervision. This goes double with a kid severe learning disabilities.

 

Varies. My dd also has an IEP for ADHD and diabetes. We felt she wasn't ready until this past year (11 yrs and 6th grade). The school never tried to push it on us either.

My dd was pretty good about dealing with lows at least but we were afraid she would forget to recheck if she was feeling better and not necessarily be able to factor in IOB, exercise etc when dealing with numbers and treating them. Even now in middle school she texts me for assistance in making decisions if she's very low/high or unusual situations (no nurses in our schools).

They shouldn't be pushing this on you. If you don't feel she's ready, then she's probably not. If she's mentally not at her age level, then that's even worse. You say she's at a first grade level, then that is way not ready IMO. Sounds similar to my dd. She's made a TON of progress the last few years which led us to the independence. Just three years ago I was wondering if she'd ever be able to do anything without us or a highly trained adult right next to her lol.

 

I too agree - that 8 is way too young to be doing her own injections without supervision.

I was thinking 12 and upwards is probably a good age for that.

My son is 10 (and yes he was just recently diagnosed) but while he can prick himself, he still wants mommy around to supervise.

I dont expect him to be ready to do his own injections until he is ready to go to high school - and thats in 4 years.

 

My experience is with Ontario IEPs and not those from Manitoba. In ON the IEP is set in mid to late September, which gives kids a chance to settle a bit into the new school year--good in some ways but not in others, perhaps.

In ON you do not need to sign until you are comfortable with what the plan says. It is supposed to be a collaborative document and not an edict! It sounds like maybe they are just looking for some goals for her that will foster independence, and they thought that checking would be a good step for her, something "straightforward" that she needs to be able to do in the long run (and something that they might not have a person specifically designated to do...).

The school may very well not understand the full impact of what they are asking. If you do not feel comfortable with her checking herself (and I can understand why you might feel that way), then tell them plainly why that is not an acceptable goal for your daughter. If they are difficult about it, ask them what they will be doing to support your daughter in achieving this goal, how they will measure her readiness to manage independently, and what checks and balances will be put in place to ensure that she is testing and accurately reading/interpreting the results. If they cannot articulate that, then they certainly need to drop that bit or work collaboratively with you to create another diabetes (or other) goal.

Good luck, and let us know how it goes!

 

Like the other posters, I think that this is very specific to the child and the circumstances. Your OP said that the plan said that was a "goal".

I think if it were me, I would try to think about whether or not that was a reasonable year-end goal, without forgetting that the most important thing is the current plan.

My dd will be 8 in August. She can test her BG reliably and is starting to really know how much to treat (we use a lot of 1 g tablets), but is not quite there. I think a reasonable goal for the end of 3rd grade might be to test in classroom... For certain tests.... But I'm not sure where she'll be at the end of the summer.

Trust your own instincts. Presumably you can have your DC have more responsibility if that makes sense.

 

only your doctor should set those kind of medical treatment goals! An IEP should not set diabetes management goals. IEP should set academic and school related issues outside of D. An ISHP (individual school helath plan) should document medical treatment, but even that should be based on what the doctor and parent dictate.

 

I could be wrong, but I think you and the school might be having a misunderstanding?

I used to work in our school district in the special day class. It is common to give goals in the IEP meetings. For example, another child with different problems might have something about grooming in their IEP. I'm thinking this is something they want to work with her on through out the year. Not something that they expect her to do by herself. It's a process to learn these things and I am thinking they want to start the process? Due to your daughters special needs they may be thinking they need to get it started so that in two or three years she will have more independence?

Again, I could be wrong. You might want to call the school and get some clarification before you get too upset :cwds:

 

Legal requirements vary province to province and for the most part are insufficient in Canada. So we really don't want to pick a fight and have to accept the minimal requirements as dictated by law. Instead going in and negotiating with the childs best interest in mind while respecting the schools position is the way to go.

That said, an important point to acknowledge to them is that yes, the child should be able to do those things independently and for the most part will. The problem with the disease is that mental capacity is diminished when blood sugars are low. So it really isn't wise to put that amount of responsibility on the child because the time they will forget is the time they are low and need the assistance most.

I would ask the educators to continue giving some oversight to remind the child of the time to test and to followup and ensure appropriate reactions to the numbers are done, at least until the child is out of junior school.

 

Thank you all for your advice on this. I will spoke to our CDE about this next week. I had tried to explain to the school it should not be on the plan as a goal or plan. So to make sure she will be safe and have someone by side her, I will get tehe CDE to put it in a letter for them.