Today is another IEP day. It'll be such a relief to have this latest meeting over, although generally each meeting brings an entirely new level of stress based on the "tricks" that the school district plays with each meeting. We've been on that rollercoaster for the last 2 months or so. It started with the bullying (really no other word for it) of threatening that Elise would be placed in kindergarten if we wouldn't commit to sending her 20 hours per week to school. We seem to have gotten around that. Just to be extra prepared in case of a surprise today, I had Elise's psychiatrist and her pediatrician write letters stating that she needs another year of preschool and that going to kindergarten next year would be detrimental for her. They both wrote wonderful, true letters. This is my level of trust in the school district's verbal statements. Better to be over-prepared although I don't think we've ever managed that state no matter how hard we try. There always seems to be some loophole or wrench thrown into the whole process.
About 2 weeks ago, I received a phone call at work from Elise's OT therapist at school. She basically told me that Elise does not have sensory issues any longer and that she will not be recommending clinic-based therapy for her. How strange, in her comprehensive assessment only 6 months ago, she had significant sensory issues. My reaction (sarcastic) was: Alleluia! It's a miracle. Elise has been healed! Only in my wildest dreams. I stayed very calm and explained that we have seen a dramatic increase in her sensory seeking behavior at home. The OT tried to make the case that Elise functions ok at school with her sensory issues and that she's not seeing the problems. I asked what kind of things would she expect to see as problems. She said jumping in class, unable to sit and participate, blah, blah, blah. I asked whether she'd ever seen Elise space out. I explained that that is Elise's primary "stim" when she hits sensory overload. The OT admitted that she'd seen Elise like this. I stated that spacing out makes Elise unavailable for learning, the same as if she were jumping or not able to sit and comply. The only difference is that a child spacing out is not disruptive to the class or the teacher. It can be overlooked. However, the result is the same, my child is not available to learn. The conversation went on like this and I was very proud that I did not get emotional at all. The next day when I dropped off Elise, the supervisory OT explained that Elise's services would not be changed next year for some lame administrative reason. Yeah right, whatever you need to say to save face. The real reason is that they could not have won in mediation and they realized we would take them there.
Enough of this bitterness. T minus 2 hours and 7 minutes until the meeting....tick, tock, tick, tock. Haha, it probably does feel like waiting for a bomb to blow.
A had his school show this morning. It was fun. I love those little kid performance shows. They all work so hard and they're so cute. I remember going to my nephew's when he was in kindergarten and longing for the time when it'd be my kid up there. I know, that's really geeky, but I love it. On that same note, Elise's show at school was yesterday. Elise loves to sing & dance. I'm sure she would have loved to attend. However, no one bothered to tell me it was yesterday. Even our nanny, who attends school with Elise on Wednesdays and has helped her practice with the class, wasn't told the show was yesterday. Elise doesn't attend school on Thursday, but the IEP is written that she attends at her parent's discretion. This means that I would have been more than happy, in fact thrilled, to bring her on her off-day for something as important as a class event. Does anyone understand why I'm so bitter with this school? They've just really not been at all welcoming. I know I'm her mother, but Elise is a darling child. Why would the school neglect her so much? Sigh...
T minus 55 minutes...I stopped writing so that I could make sure all the paperwork for our meeting is in order.
Hubby had a conversation with the school speech provider today. It sounds like they want to take away Elise's NPA speech once her block of 40 hours expires at the end of this year. That is unfortunately an automatic route to mediation for us. Speech is by far Elise's biggest deficit and dropping her outside speech services is tantamount to giving up on her. I think we won't have to worry about this until next IEP which will be this November. We definitely will have to talk to the lawyer about this before we sign as I don't want to mistakenly think that this concern doesn't need to be handled on this IEP and lose out totally.
So, hubby and I are actually dressing up for this meeting. It's unfortunate, but the better dressed you are, the more respect you are sometimes shown. I want to make sure that we're treated with respect. We can play it off that we both just took time from work today to attend the meeting, even though we both took a vacation day. Funny thing is that I'll be dressed better than I ever dress for my work. Too bad my gray roots are majorly showing right now!
Elise visited her neuropsychiatrist last week. She provided us with a new supplement called Speak. We are skeptical of supplements because frankly, Elise has had limited success with them and even some disasters. Our hope has been bolstered by the success of the L-Carnitine that she started taking 2-3 months ago. Elise is having normal bowel movements for the first time in her life. She even quickly learned how to go in the toilet once the movements stopped being painful for her. No more diapers or pull-ups for us!!!!! That is cause for major celebration.
Anyway, we decided to give this new supplement a go. It's supposedly specially formulated to help children's speech development. I know, I thought it was probably a croc too. She started taking it one week ago. The differences in her are becoming obvious now. I'm still skeptical because I don't won't to get overly excited, but I think we may have hit on something great for her. Her eye contact is noticably better and she's popping out with new words daily. I'm cautiously optimistic. We'll see what happens, but so far I'm tipping over to being a believer.
OK. It's now T minus 37 minutes. I suppose I should get dressed to go.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKSDSblPMpA
No comments:
Post a Comment