99.57% Mainstream!

Except for once a month to check in with the school speech therapist, there are no other pull outs. Social group was 4 days a week but it will now be a 15 minute in-class one on one session. The wording here was "inclusive approach" of course. 

I do get it. She's too good at therapy. She quickly learns the target response or reaction, but it doesn't carry over to real life scenarios. This is why we get discharged from private therapies so quickly. 

Now, this all sounds great. And I'm so glad that she does so great in school and it's not a reverse situation of being perfect at home and awful at school......but seriously! It makes me wonder if I'm imagining all the trouble we have in "real life" outside of school, and leads me into a false sense of security to believe she's perfectly normal and typical. This just makes the inevitable let downs so much farther to fall. 

IEP: Now that I think about it...

it's the first time I'm disappointed with the school's handling of the IEP. Dropping the speech therapy and leaving nothing much left on her IEP to work on seems lazy to me. The speech teacher is great, but she is teaching to the test. Sure, Little Squirrel can perform brilliantly when it's scripted and expected and prompted and rewarded. I don't see the same progress they do. But I'm not sure the public school system has the capability to drill down on all the gray areas, and insurance doesn't pay for enough therapy sessions to make any long term difference either.

IEP eve

It's IEP eve once again. I guess this will be #5. I don't feel any more prepared or experienced than I did at the first one. Back then I think I even remember saying, "I'm just along for the ride." And I wondered why there was a weird silence in the room, and looks. And I thought, am I not supposed to be just along for the ride? Should I be doing more?

Then along the way I learned from others that IEP meetings are generally pretty adversarial. Thankfully, even though we are in a lower income school district, I have never had to argue or fight to get whatever I think Little Squirrel needs. And more thankfully, the early intervention served her well so she doesn't need much, not as far as school goes anyway. Also, I am aware that the school doesn't have a magic wand, or magic wallet, to fix things that could be better for us, or remove bullies (because there will always be more), etc. They have always been great at tracking the progress toward the goals, setting new goals, and overall, for caring about Little Squirrel.

Last year at the IEP meeting there was a moment I won't forget: the whole table of educators looking at me while one spoke on the verge of tears about, "the wonderful things you've done for your daughter." Really that just means sticking with it and putting her first and being involved. But I guess that's not the norm they experience from parents. I can't imagine anyone doing any less.

But it was nice to hear.

New IEP goals

I decided that even though Little Squirrel is academically advanced, as long as the school isn't trying to talk me out of the IEP, and seems to think there are still reasonable goals to be met, then I am on board.

Little Squirrel met all of her goals from last year, so now we have new ones.

1. Be able to ask for help with directions on assignments 4 ouf of 6 times
2. Be able to troubleshoot own problems without crying 4 out of 6 times
3. Use Wh- words correctly with correct word order 80% of trials
4. Follow multi-step directions accurately 80% of trials
5. DO NOT BOX SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGIST IN THE NUTS! EVER!

If I was ever undecided about still needing an IEP, my indecision was lifted after #5.