S Club Mama

After our initial meetings with the elementary education teacher and education service coordinator, we met with the speech pathologist. Then last week was our big Multidisciplinary Evaluation Team MDT and Individual Education Program meeting. In addition to the teacher (E), the ESU coordinator (L), the speech pathologist (J), and myself, there was Mr. K (school superintendent), W (special education teacher), and my hubby. Of course Squirt and Moose were ever present. Apparently, Moose did not fare so well this time around with the speech pathologist. I pretty much knew that because he had a huge meltdown and wouldn't cooperate while she was here the first time. Average scores range between 85-115; he scored a 79 (although we didn't even finish the test, so she had to say he got the last 5 incorrect just so she could score it). His strengths were understanding quantity concepts (all, one), colors, two-step directions, and use of objects. His areas of improvement were underst...

Yesterday we met with Ellen, the early childhood education specialist (aka preschool teacher). She was really nice, but I felt like we had already done this with Lori. It was a checklist of what he could or could not do (which we really did with Lori in our first meeting). There were a few things that I hadn't thought of (I still haven't given him scissors) to do with him. I learned he can make a "house" out of blocks (3 blocks, 2 blocks, 1 block). He cannot copy a vertical line but can sort of copy a horizontal one. Etc. Some things he could do, some absolutely not. Then this morning, Lori (the ESU coordinator), Ellen (preschool teacher), her student teacher (a friend from college ironically), and the high school superintendent came to our house for a meeting. They went over evaluations (I'll spare you the details) in which he was judged as normal for his age (even if on the lower end of the spectrum in the language development). We decided to meet again in...

Today we met with Tracey, the speech pathologist. She was very nice which has helped in this process a lot. She listened to Tristan tell her about the zoo (we visited yesterday)...or tried to understand when he was saying. I caught "penguins" and that was about it. Then she wanted him to sit down, look at these pictures in this book, and answer questions about them. i.e. These kids have jackets on, can you show me her jacket? Can you point to the animals? Can you count the bears? etc Fine and dandy but he got bored/the questions got harder. She said when the questions get harder, the kids try to flee when they're this age. I also think he just hates sitting still for so long unless it's a book he's familiar with. She had some toys for him to play with and had him do some things with. i.e. The bear is thirsty (wanting him to give the bear a "drink"). Can you put some of these blocks over here? And letting him play with a wind-up toy, wanting him to ask fo...

Today was Step 2 of the speech evaluation: audiologist. Joel came to check out the boy's ears. He was so good with him, even as cranky as Moose was (due to the time being so close to his nap). Let him push some buttons on his (probably very expensive) equipment. It's not often you see a man who is that comfortable with kids. He checked a few things that he explained but I have no clue about. I did catch on that his right ear is better than his left ear. Joel said that we should watch his left ear for infection (isn't that why we put tubes in, so we wouldn't have more infections?) but that there was only about a 5% chance of that happening. So good. Step 2 down. Step 3: speech pathologist comes on Monday. {See that picture at the top? It's from Heart & Soul Reflections ; you can find other free stock pictures to use on your blog via the link}