Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Anticipating an IEP meeting

Tomorrow, I have an annual IEP meeting for Bubby at his school. We'll be updating his annual goals, as well as adding new ones related to his math issues.  We just had one about a month ago to add language and spelling services to his IEP.  I think I go to more meetings then a CEO.  I got a call to schedule Bean's IEP yesterday.

Today, I will be gathering all of Bubby's report cards, progress reports, ect  that I have not yet added to the monster 3 ring binder than chronicles his life.  From the very first special ed testing, to every doctor's report.  It's all there.  Sometimes, I have info that they don't and they have to take copies of MY files. lol  I have concerns about the work they're doing in speech therapy and am going to request to see data on progress.  I keep letting that area go, and I need to put my foot down.  Now that he is in the Intermediate Center (4th-6th grade or 9-12 year olds) the speech path is by far superior to the old one, so I have seen some progress in his conversational speech, particularly the ability to take more than one (even one is progress) conversational turn during a conversation.  Just last year, he would ask you 100 million very personal questions and then walk away.  If you asked him something, he would likely not answer, or if he did it would be short, without any info.  As a matter of fact, the other day we were going through the annual questions to re-qualify him for community based services (or the &^%$ wait list, since there are no services being given at this time, only space on a list) and he did wonderfully on answering questions.  Not only did I see him do well in answering the questions on topic, but he fibbed... not a big fib, but he anticipated what the socially correct answers were, and answered them that way.  I was amazed.  For example, he was asked " what do you do when you're lonely?" He answered " I find someone to keep me company." Or, "what do you do when you're bored?" He said "I find something to do to occupy my time." Which is untrue.  Both of those things would have required assistance from me and he would have gotten relatively whiny about it, too.  The thing is, he knew that on a social level it was embarrassing to say that he whines and has a fit when he's bored or lonely and needs me to redirect him.  He also told the case manager that he prepares his own food and while he can do some things, he by far still needs me to do most of it.  (and he has a huge meltdown every time I insist he try to make new things himself) It's been a slow process.  The point is, is that he knew most 10 yo boys make their own snacks and that he was different.  I really didn't think he had that concept of himself vs others, but I guess he does.

I have gotten off track on this post, babbling. :D  I will be doing lots of research on dyscalculia and the evidence based treatment options today, so I will be posting lots of link on Inner Aspie's FB page if anyone wants to know more about it, I also apologize to those of you that already follow, but don't want to know more about it if I am clogging up your feed.   Check back there tomorrow for results about the meeting.