07/06/2026
Any advice for my newly diagnosed 8yo daughter? (IEP meeting, behaviors)
Hello! My daughter is almost 8yo. She was finally diagnosed as ASD and general anxiety disorder in December 2025, but I’ve always known in my gut. She was diagnosed as “on the cusp” at her neuropsychiatric appointments at ages 5 and 6, but received an anxiety diagnosis at age 3. She was asked to leave her preschool at age 3 due to severe separation anxiety and meltdowns, and we were referred to child find. Through child find, she was diagnosed with anxiety and speech delay. At this point, I suspected Autism, as there were so many signs (sensory issues, stimming, etc.). She attended 2 years of preschool through child find, and then in first grade I was informed that her IEP was being removed because she “aged out” and was doing much better. Uhhhh…. Nope! I fought to keep it but they refused. And everything went downhill.
The thing is - my daughter is academically brilliant, so the school fought me on an IEP. But socially and emotionally, she can present as a toddler, if that makes sense. She’s top of her class and has an IQ in the “genius” range, yet will cover her ears, scream and rock if it’s too loud or if too many people are in one room. She leaves class to sit in the nurses office at least one daily, and after an incident a couple weeks ago where she ran off campus, the school is “finally” hearing me out. Sometimes her meltdowns are so huge, no one can calm her down.
All that to say - we have her IEP meeting scheduled for April 13. I have an advocate who will be attending the meeting virtually with us. My questions are as follows:
What things should I request as part of the IEP? I have no idea what to expect. When she had one in preschool, it was a standard one that she aged out of, and I hear this is much different.
Her teacher has asked for suggestions on methods to calm my daughter when she’s having an “episode”, and I’m at a loss. She’s currently on 0.25mg of Risperidone 1x daily (please no judgement- we are a scrawny family so she’s experienced no weight gain and it’s really helped her) and that’s reduced her “episodes” from daily to about once every 7-10 days. So it’s helped tremendously, but still at a loss of what to do or suggest for these moments. We don’t get them at home really anymore, likely because her social anxiety is what triggers the outbursts.
