Happy Halloween

Wishing everyone a happy and safe Halloween tonight! I will post pictures of our little devil tomorrow. I am hoping I can capture a couple good shots with the horns on his head. He isn’t a fan of anything on his head so it might be a challenge. We shall see.

Have fun!

We survived.

Well the house has been cleaned up again. The wrapping paper and bags have been put in the trash. The noise of 12 children and their parents have all but disappeared from our little quiet house of 3. Tyler’s party went off without a hitch on Saturday. I was a little nervous with the kids running and walking over everything, into each other, and falling down. But when you aren’t used to that on a daily basis, that is to be expected. But I can honestly say, despite being nervous and questioning whether 13 kids was a good idea or not, it was all worth it.

Tyler was a good sport. He knew his friends were there. He felt them, laughed with them, and when he needed to be alone, he curled up and was quiet. He did amazing handling all the noise for the 4 hours people were there. We recieved many compliments on how well he did this year compared to last. I am including a couple pictures from the day. I can’t believe that in exactly 14 days, my precious little baby will be 5! Where does the time go????

 

Bad blogger

So sorry that it has been a week since I last posted anything! My life doesn’t appear to slow down long enough to get on here!

Things at school have been ok since the meeting. They started working with Tyler in his quiet room, which it appears he doesn’t like, but they are doing therapies and some routines in there as they promised. His PT had him walking out in the hallway yesterday in his walker which was totally cool to read about. I was so proud of him for that. The kids continue to say hello and talk to him. This morning when we dropped him off, this little boy who I absolutely LOVE came right over to Tyler and his aide and asked if he could please play with Tyler and his toys. IT melts my heart to hear that. He is an absolute love!

So our big thing now is prepping for 13 children, ranging in age from 18 months to 6 years old, coming to our house for a birthday party on Saturday! I think we are totally insane. But the weather looks to be good for the party. So I am going to have the kids run around outside. We have a swing-set and sandbox for the kids to use. I am going to have balls and other outside toys. We bought sand art supplies for an activity. Between all those thing, the kids should have enough to do to stay busy. I may pull my hair out by the end of the day but as long as Tyler has fun! We only had 2 people call to say they couldn’t make it. We are truly blessed to have such wonderful friends who love to be around us but more importantly Tyler.

As stressful as the day is going to be, I am truly going to cherish it. Not sure my friends know how very much it means to me that they can all come. They have no idea how much it is helping me get through my sadness that my baby is turning 5. They have no idea how much I respect them for teaching their children about differences in people. Some of them will realize it after they read this. I just hope those who don’t read it can subliminally figure it out.

And we survived the meeting…

The meeting, to give you an idea, lasted 4 hours! We couldn’t believe it. There were times we battled back and forth but I was set in what we wanted and wouldn’t budge. Here are some highlights of the meeting as overall, I think it went well:

            ~ He is staying in preschool for the rest of this year. There is no longer any talk about outside placement.

            ~ He is being removed from the preschool room when he is happy, around 9:15 to go to his quiet room to work 1 on 1 with his aide. They are hoping to get back to keeping him in the preschool room until 9:45 and then transition him to his therapies.

            ~ We are going to extend his days, starting in January, as he seems to be craving more input and things to do.

            ~ We are creating, this weekend, a communication grid that is to be used consistently with all of us, my parents, Tony’s aunt, and the school. If we add a tactile symbol, we will let school know and vice versa. It was determined we should all be presenting items to Tyler in the same manner.

            ~ We are going to work on getting him back to using and recognizing 2 different communication switches.

            ~ We are going to be having monthly team meetings to make sure we are all on the same page and that his goals are being worked on.

            ~ We are going to focus on one strength a month to build on (hold a crayon, using the switches, using a different tactile symbol, etc.) so we aren’t throwing too much at him.

            ~ All the services providers requested an additional ½ hour with him as they want to do some cross over work with one another. This too was granted.

            ~ He looks to be going into a more life skills based program for Kindergarten. It’s a specific classroom with all special need kids, each one has their own 1 – 1 aide. They do get to participate in activities with their typical peers but its more geared toward the kids and their disabilities. I am going to check it out next week. It sounds like what he needs to be honest.

            ~ Lastly, we need to reconvene in March to determine what his summer schedule will be like. I asked if he could attend 5 days, to teach him consistency, and was told by the team chair that was impossible but the other members of the team thought it was a good idea.

 

So it was a lot, and I am sure I left some stuff out, but it went well. They were pretty defensive when we first arrived but by the end, definitely had a different tune. Now we see if they actually do what they said. Here’s hoping!!!!

Tomorrow is the big day…

Well the time has come, IEP Day, is tomorrow. Please keep us all in your thoughts and prayers as it is a very stressful day for everyone. I will be sure to post a recap after we are through.

Vision Statement

I wanted to share with everyone how a vision statement should read for your child’s IEP. This was taught to me by our advocate that we just recently hired. Last year, our vision statement for Tyler read as follows:

                                 “We would like to enhance Tyler’s communication and have Tyler live up to the best of his ability.”

Sounds good. We thought that was kind of spot on as we are really trying to work on his communication skill. Well this is what his vision statement is for this year’s IEP:

“We look forward to Tyler’s continued progress over the next year as well as his transition to Kindergarten. Goals that we would love to see Tyler accomplish over the next year include:

• Communication: We would like to see Tyler develop skills to both initiate and reciprocate exchange of conversation. This will be accomplished through sign language, visual cues, and his communication switches. The ultimate goal, of course, would be verbal communication.
• Behaviors: Tyler will be more responsive to requests placed on him by parents and caregivers. The ability to express needs and desires will assist in lessening Tyler’s frustrations when he doesn’t understand or want to comply with requests.
• Walking: We would like to see Tyler get to the point of walking with his walker in the classroom setting under his own power.
• Social Skills: We would like to see Tyler continue to increase successful friendships with classmates and neighborhood children. This has been a joy to watch develop over the last year.
• Fine Motor: We would like to see Tyler return to using utensils during mealtime. We would also like to see Tyler independently hold a crayon and/or paintbrush.”

Quite a difference no??? The advocate explained to us that the vision statement and the list of parent concerns is what really drives the IEP. Can’t wait to drop this off at school tomorrow for them to see

Not going to know what hit them.

Tony and I had the most AMAZING meeting with our advocate yesterday. She was at our house for 5 HOURS!!! She reviewed all of Tyler’s paperwork from the last 2 years at school and gave us hints on how to prep for Thursday’s meeting. I will post our vision statement from last year and our new vision statement for this year. What a difference. I learned that the vision statement and parent concerns section is what really drives the IEP. Looking at all the information, she reassured us that they didn’t have any reason to be kicking Tyler out of his integrated preschool room. She pointed out how they actually haven’t exhausted all ways to try and work with him. I was not feeling good about our meeting at all last week. Yesterday put a renewed hope in my mind. I am now anxious for Thursday to not only see their reaction but to see if we do come to an agreement on Tyler’s IEP. Stay tuned

And the battle rages on.

So Monday I was a basket case all day knowing they put Tyler in his safe room after I pointed it out to them. I couldn’t stop crying all day. My heart was breaking for him, and for all the other children that parents don’t fight for. For all the little children that fall through the cracks. I can’t imagine how many parents would have just accepted the message that we got since “the team” made a decision. I was literally sick all day because of this. I lost my will to fight.

Then came yesterday. I dropped him off and the teacher was pleasant to me, more so than on Monday. When I went to pick him up, a different aide had him. She is one who has had him before so no big deal. She tells me that his current aide “threw her back out” and had to go home. I said I hoped she was ok but really was more concerned about Tyler. He had a good day. Even participated in the class. They still took him to the quiet room, why I still don’t really know other than trying to prove a point, and he really didn’t settle down in the room. I was proud of him for that

Today we drop him off and the teacher is ALL in a tizzy. His aide indeed pulled her back trying to reposition him and is out of work for a week as she can’t lift. So of course we are wondering if this really happened or if its just a coincidence. It is possible that she could have hurt herself as he is quite fidgety and if you move the wrong way, yes it could happen. But his meeting is next week!

And since we are a member of the community and people talk, we found out that it one parent that has caused all this! One parent is complaining that his screaming, which last from 2 – 6 minutes that’s it, is causing her daughter stress. Its an INTEGRATED PRESCHOOL!!! This woman knew exactly what she was getting into. It amazes me that in this day and age that people are still so ignorant and rude.

Fall Festival Fun!

Well, this weekend was a great weekend, despite of course still being enraged from the phone/email message. On Saturday the 3 of us, along with Tony’s 2 cousins and their significant others went apple picking. The orchard we go to is also a pumpkin patch and a brewery! This weekend happened to be Oktoberfest there. With the temperatures in the high 50’s, and the sun shining, we enjoyed great food, great music, and great company. Tyler had fun with the music of course! Here are a couple shots from the day:

 

On Sunday, the weather wasn’t as nice but we still had fun. We went with my parents to this HUGE pumpkin patch that is 10 minutes from our house. Tyler strolled through the patch laughing and babbling. It was a great day!

Worried sick***Updated***

 

 

As I thought, Tyler was removed from the classroom at 9AM this morning and brought to his quiet room. So coincidental don’t you think?? Friday I remind the team that he has yet to be pulled out and placed there like we discussed in June. And the day he was supposed to be removed from the room and we protest, he is conveniently sent down there!!!! My heart aches for not only Tyler but the other special needs children in that school that they just don’t give a damn about. I am on a tear now. This isn’t going to be pretty! 

Well no one from Tyler’s team responded to my email from Thursday night. We walked into school today like nothing happened. All the while, I have worried myself sick, literally so I stayed home today. I am on eggshells right now waiting for him to come home. I want to read his sheets and see what happened today. As usual, he was happy to be at school. Should be interesting!!

On a side note, I spoke with the advocate this morning and she told me to forward the email along to the SPED (special education) director and request all reports and assessments that were conducted on Tyler that would have lead the team to that decision. Unfortunately I received an out of office reply from him. I am hoping where ever he is that he is checking email! 

The saga continues. I need a big bottle of TUMS to get me through the next week!