IEP results

The IEP meetings get smaller in attendance and the IEP itself is a third of its original size from when it began 4 years ago. They are keeping her in the social group but now her speech therapy is being reduced to once a month and "check ins." I didn't argue because she is a different person at school and as long as she is performing to standards there I can't really prove what goes on outside of school. She really does live two lives. School gives her the structure and routine she needs. She is successful there but I'm also concerned that they are overestimating her since her fierce survival skills seem to enable her to cope and blend in. Yet that can leave kids like Little Squirrel vulnerable, when given less supervision and support that they actually do need to navigate complicated social situations.

However, the progress has been huge and this is the first year I haven't had a single call or email from the teacher already by this point.

Off topic

On the way back from a playland Little Squirrel and her friend were talking about their dads. Little Squirrel's friend asked about her dad. Little Squirrel told her something really confusing about her dad being on a mountain, and being in jail, and running over someone with his car and being in trouble. Her friend responded with a story about her own dad, who lives in Florida, and is 67, and how one night someone came to the door and her dad told her to get upstairs and a man came in and fought with her dad and she described blood and then she said her dad didn't go to jail but the man did.

Then Little Squirrel replied with, "Oh, I have a funny story..."

And I tried to redirect her, "That has nothing to do with what [your friend] is telling you about..." And I asked her to hold her thoughts.

She did.

Then when [her friend] was done telling the story and it was Little Squirrel's turn she busted out with:

"I heard a funny story about a dog that was walking on a roof and then on another roof then he fell into the toilet..."

And then I redirected her again, "That still has nothing to do with what [your friend] was telling you about, and it's not even funny. And it's not even a story. Where did you hear it?"

Little Squirrel confessed, "Okay. I didn't hear it. I just made it up from my imagination."

Okay....so classic example of what we work on in speech therapy and in counseling, staying on topic during conversations, but are clearly getting nowhere.