Andy's IEP Meeting

Andy's IEP meeting took place last Friday. At first I was wondering how this was going to go since he was all upset about not going to the bus after they put him in the wagon and brought him out to the hall. Seeing me, having the computer all to himself and sitting in the wagon playing with it wasn't enough to stop him from crying. His routine was changed, so he got upset. He did calm down after about 10 minutes and me holding him for a bit. I was finally able to meet the wonderful speech and occupational therapists that have been working with him for the past year. Andy has made great progress this year. He is starting to use a few words. I've heard him say "eat", "go", and "tickle", at school they've heard him say "dah" for milk. I've noticed him saying the words for the last 3 weeks. He uses a voice output machine at school. His is much simpler than Eric's. He has learned the eat and go buttons on that machine. One day when he wasn't feeling well he kept pushing the go button, saying he wanted to go home! They have "hi friends" programmed into the machine so when he sees the other kids at that school that love him so much he can say hi to them! Andy is very popular at school. The older kids will look him in the eye and talk to him, sincerly. At first he was uncomfortable with this attention. Now he eats it up! Life is great when you're so cute :-D Andy now sits with his friends during circle time and snack time. During snack they stopped trying to get him to drink out of a cup and try different foods. They are letting him eat cheerios or crackers for snack so he will sit with his classmates and eat. The focus on the social training is important here, along with him tolorating sitting for a short while. The other issues can be dealt with at home or at the feeding clinic. There are very few changes being made to the IEP itself. There will be a different structure to the Early Childhood classroom at that school. This is going to change into an integrated classroom with a regular and special ed teacher, one assistant and a larger number of kids in the class. There will be 30 minutes added to the school day. It is still a half day, 4 days a week so it's not much of an increase. That extra year will help him.I hope he will be able to handle this okay. He's impressed me with how quickly he's adjusted to school and the great progress he has made. I don't want to underestimate him so I will not make an issue of this unless problems develop. Next year he will be going into the pre K class. He really has an advantage with the late September birthday. His speech will be be increased from 45 min a week to 60 min. I know, still not much but it's the best the school can provide. There were a couple of issues that were debated a bit...

Andy loves this wagon. At first it was needed for transport because he had problems walking around the school for any distance. He would get frustrated and drop to the floor. He's too heavy to carry. This is not needed as much for transport, but it makes it easier to get him to and from the bus since it's such a long walk. He uses this wagon as his place of comfort when he needs a break. The occupational therapist would like him to go to a corner of the room or find another source of comfort. She would like to wean him from the wagon. The teacher, and I don't want to push the issue. It will be available for him if he needs it, just not right out there all the time. I really don't see why there would be an issue for him using this for comfort. He is also recieving very little OT because his tolerance is low. I would really like to see more than 60 min a month. It doesn't seem that they are doing much sensory integration work with him. She wants to focus on fine motor skills, writing and coloring in particular. These are needed skills, but I don't think the whole focus should be here. He will be starting ABA within a year, they can focus on self care and some of the sensory stuff. With the limited time they have, I guess I can't expect much. The meeting went well. With all of this we were in and out in a little under 45 minutes. We are now ready for the new school year for Andy :-)