Well, I am pleased to announce that the Old Man and I made it through another IEP--a fairly successful one, if I must say so. We walked out of there with 30 MORE minutes of speech a week (for 60 minute total) as well as an hour of OT and an hour of adaptive PE--the adaptive PE isn't in his IEP , but a few kids have it in their IEP, so the teacher just takes the whole class over there and they all get to benefit, which I think is cool. I'm a big proponent of PE--especially if it wears him out and makes for longer naps!
But the Old Man made an observation that I couldn't agree with more. He said about 15 minutes into the meeting, he became aware that he really had to work at just paying attention and getting all the information. And he's right. This isn't some board meeting that you can be bored at--you are getting a year's worth (if the teacher & therapists are good) of information piled into an hour meeting, plus suggestions, plus new goals, plus questions being answered. And that doesn't even count the times when you have to be a biotchnit and demand services from recalcitrant state workers. Even though this was a really good IEP, we still walked out of there exhausted.
And did I mention his teacher talks REALLY FAST and with an ACCENT? I'm getting tired now just thinking about this meeting.
I will say, I am glad this meeting is over for the year, and that our little man is receiving the lion's share of services. He met all his goals for last year, and has some pretty attainable ones for this year. I'm not wishing for it and putting any hopes into it, but there is a possibility he will join a mainstream Kindergarten class in two years. That didn't seem feasible a year ago. Now, its one of the 25 scenarios I've set aside for the future. (remember--Autism means you live in the now, but you gotta be prepared for whatever the future will bring. I'm glad to add one more possibility)
Also, and this came directly out of the teacher's mouth--even though Ben hit her last week (a rare occurance) she would still love to teach him for 4 more years if she could. He has been dubbed her "sunshine". When he gets off the bus, she says "who is my sunshine?" and Benji raises his hand and says "Benji!"
Can't get much better than that! *wipes a tear*
