IEPs

Alayna's IEP is finalized as of last week, it officially starts this Monday. The assessment results were the hardest part to swallow. We've always known Alayna was delayed, she had 3 years of Kindergarten and no supportive services before this year. Her previous OT said that she'll need an IEP in school especially as she gets older and academic demands become harder. But, to see it all on paper in plain black and white was a little hard. She's scored in the "below average/slow" range almost everywhere, however it was the high part, just barely below average.

Her IEP is going to allow for adaptive PE, extra time on tests, homework, and big projects and a scribe available for big tests (like the state testing). The adaptive PE isn't really an issue right now, but come next year when middle school starts it's definitely going to be a problem. But, that's a hurdle we'll cross when we get there. The PT at the school is great, and is going to observe Alayna's PE class once a month to be sure everything is going well. We're not sure if she'll really need a scribe (which is someone to write down her answers word-for-word), but it's nice to know it's available should she need it. She'll also be getting specialized learning time with the special education teacher each week. We'll have to re-evaluate everything for next school year,  but there are some concerns that being in all general ed classes may be too much for her.

Aiden also has an IEP. He's almost always had a stuttering problem. Maybe we should have gotten him into speech therapy for it before now, but we didn't want to make a big deal out of it and he was never bothered by it. Anyways, he's getting 30 minutes of speech therapy every week. The speech therapist at the school is GREAT, and she's been giving me a lot of tips to help him with his spelling as well.

See, Aiden had chronic ear infections from 6 months to 21 months and has a result had about a 75% hearing loss when they finally took his tonsils and adenoid out and put tubes in his ears. This effected his ability to hear things properly, and as such has made it difficult for him to spell. Seriously, that makes me feel like crap. It makes me WISH that I had requested that Aiden get ear vent tubes long before he did. The ENT wanted to get him as close to two as possible as he didn't want to do two surgeries (one for the ear vent tubes and another for the tonsils and adenoid). There's no going back now, so we just have to work on what we can.

We are STILL waiting on Brooklyn's IEP. I'm anticipating a lot of issues there though. She's not having any academic issues or any serious behavioral issues at school. She's still very much withdrawn in the class, but according to her teacher does very well when she's in a small group with just a few other kids and an adult. I think I need to contact the advocacy group I have the information for just in case. The one thing that's on our side here is that she does have a diagnosis of ADHD, which should at the very least qualify her for a 504 plan, as I doubt she'll qualify for an IEP. We're asking for some type of one-on-one or small group teaching everyday, and so far the school has told me no way.

We got in to see her pediatrician at the end of December for her 6 year check up (HOLY CRAP! My baby is almost 6!!) so we'll discuss some more things then. I'm really hoping that the school has their crap together by then so I can run it all by him.

Brooklyn's situation is just unique compared to the average kid with an IEP or 504 plan. She's not delayed anywhere (except socially) she doesn't have ANY poor behavior issues at school. But, I want her to get help socially. I want her to be encouraged, and I seriously want her to freaking LEARN things! She's already passed all of the end of year goals. Hell, she was passed them BEFORE she even started Kindergarten. I just don't want her to end up hating school because she's bored all the time. So, I guess we'll wait and see. I'm hoping they get us in for a meeting before the 18th, otherwise we'll have to wait until January.

Big updates, sorry, I've been slacking!

OK, updates for Miss Brookie. She is LOVING school and doing awesome at school, ZERO behavior or academic issues. She's really thriving on the routine and structure of school. Downside, her teacher is not so great. The one time I tried to talk to her about Brooklyn's skill levels she brushed me off. Her only response was that the math Brooklyn is doing at home is much too hard for a 5 year old. Um really? Then how come she  can get the answers correct? It's not like she's doing multi digit multiplication. She's just doing double digit addition to 99 and subtraction from 19.

Because she's not having any issues with school (behavior or academic) our hands are kinda tied. She wouldn't qualify for an IEP or 504 plan which would be the only way for us to force the teacher into giving her harder course work. Our other options are to keep doing more complicated work with her at home and try to get her evaluated for being moved up to 1st grade, or to to keep doing more complicated work at home and wait for her to get bored and have issues at school.

Updates about Alayna! OK, so LOTS of appointments coming up. Physical therapy evaluation today, occupational therapy evaluation on October 4th, followed by an IEP meeting that same afternoon. Casey Eye Institute eye check on October 15th, and an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon at Shriner's Hospital on October 25th. This makes for a VERY busy family. All that doesn't include all of Brooklyn's appointments (weekly behavior modification and HOPFULLY soon bi-weekly OT).

Alayna is doing OK in school. She's made some friends, a few who live in the same apartment complex as us. She's struggling a bit with the homework. She often needs help with the spelling assignments as they are multiple steps and she gets lost after 1-2 steps. She has struggled with double digit multiplication, I'm not sure she learned it last year as she had no idea how to do it and I had to teach her this year. Her teacher is REALLY awesome. She's been great every time I've had to speak with her about how Alayna was doing in class. She's going to attend the IEP meeting, so it'll be nice to get her take on how Alayna is progressing.

Alayna is joining the "friendship" club at school. I think it should help as she really struggles with friends. She's just not at the same level as kids in her peer group (2 years behind her age group) and it causes issues with maintaining friendships.

So, those are the updates for now. I will update again once we know anything from any of the many appointments.