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Special Needs
mom2pottamus
member
Follow up: IEP meeting
mom2pottamus
member
Thanks again for all the advice!
We had our IEP mtg for DS yesterday, and aside from me and DH the only other attendee was the Coordinator who is also a Special education teacher. She was able to explain his delays (fine and visual motor) but didn't really touch on his sensory issues and when we asked, she told us that the OT would be able to further explain some of the methods they would be using (prompt hierarchy, heavy work breaks, etc) when she got in touch with us. DS will work with a Special education teacher 1x a week in his school setting to work on the delays. She had OT included in his services 1x/month but after speaking with us regarding his lack of imaginative play and inability to create stories while he plays she upped that to 1x a week as well, which I was really pleased with since it is a huge concern.
She also said it would be beneficial to seek out private therapy to work on his sensory concerns, and advised us that because he had an IEP we would be able to apply for medical aid (regardless of income) and to contact his pedi to get a note of medical necessity.
We were planning on bringing the IEP home before signing it, but she said she needed to revise it to include the extra OT sessions to focus on play and shift some duties onto the Special Ed teacher, as well as include specific goals about his play. So I would assume we didn't sign it but I really have no idea.....she also said it was up to us to share his IEP with his teacher (??) but given he will be receiving services at school I absolutely will.
So, I feel good that we are setting the stage to improving some things for him, but still left with a lot of questions that I hope can be answered moving forward...
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Follow up: IEP meeting
Hi Auntie,
When we sat down she said they had drawn up the IEP and wanted to review it with us and have us sign it to initiate services. The document she handed us is an actual IEP with goals and frequency of services.
I was surprised to find out it was just her, but assume given his needs seem fairly straight forward and his goals are focused on his educational needs she was ok presenting it. The school psych had a completely normal assessment of him so I can see where they didn't have anything to contribute.
The Sped teacher will pull him out 1:1 for 30 minutes weekly. She already works at the school he attends with other children and has an area where they can do this work.
I may have mixed up the OT/Sped teacher things a little; She upped the OT after I told her about the imaginative play and said she needed to allocate the services between the two by adding in additional goals specific to play.
His imaginative play is that he can't make up stories, and does not do any type of role playing even with his toys. For example, he is holding a doctors kit, stethoscope around his neck. We put something in front of him to do a check up on, say a teddy bear. He replies that he isn't a real doctor. We tell him its ok, lets pretend to be one, the teddy bear has a stomach ache can you check him out. He tells us the teddy bear isn't real. If we pretend to be the teddy bear, using a voice and a story (like hi doctor, I fell down and skinned my knee can you check it out?) he asks us to stop it because the bear isn't real. Or if he is playing with a superhero figure, its just flying around the room, it isn't going anywhere, doing anything, or saying anything. It just is a superhero flying around. There are no stories in his play, unless he takes a story from a tv show. However, he is so social and loves being with other kids that he will let them lay out a scenario and play along....even though he still won't "participate" by becoming part of their storyline as a character in the story and he won't add details or help evolve the story.
I thought it was odd for the medical aid to be mentioned, just because I have never heard of that before, but again don't really have experience with anyone going through the IU and not EI.
Thanks for the clarity on the IEP/teacher part, his teacher is aware of some of his issues (as it affects his behavior) and she has been helpful in communicating with me. She also had 2 boys go through EI for speech and sensory issues so she has a positive view of the benefit he can get. His sensory concerns are a huge part in his frustration and acting out which is why we were looking to private therapy to really address that side, since we understand his other goals are educational.
I hope it is a good start. I hate seeing how frustrating life is for him and he is starting to have this awareness that his friends can do things that he can't, and I don't want him to not realize how amazing he is
When it was just the on person, I decided that as long as she could give us the information we were looking for and explanations that we wouldn't make a fuss, he is just getting started and I do want to have a good working foundation with the people we need to help him make progress. She was pretty good so I have no qualms.
We have had no contact with the school psych at all. According to his assessment, she gave him a WPPSI-III. The Sped teacher did a BDI II, and the OT did a Peabody and we/preschool teacher did a Sensory profile and a Conners EC. Should we look for contact with the school psych who did the testing?
He doesn't have a speech delay, his speech has always been very good. His sensory is probable diff in body awareness & planning and ideas, definite difference in hearing and touch.
He has no ASD or any other diagnosis aside from the dev delays. I don't even know what route we would follow to explore having him tested or what is going on with the imaginative play...he actually seems to be aware that he doesn't know how to do this.....he will stick to safe toys like cars where he can relate to other kids. Or he brings toys out that he has that other kids are playing with to blend in, his ability to assimilate into play with other kids is pretty amazing. The other thing is DS never lies. No exaggeration, he seems almost unable to lie (which seems great on the surface but makes me wonder if he is even unable to come up with a story to explain something he may get into trouble for?)
If his sensory issues are impacting his ability to behave as expected in a classroom, they are educational in nature.
I agree completely with the above, and will make sure that we find a path to cope with these...his tactile issue affects him touching things messy, which affects arts & crafts, and feeds into his fine motor delays b/c he won't engage in messy play which develops those skills. Seems like a cycle.
Now that he is catching on we are definitely concerned about his confidence. Thankfully he is a happy confident child by nature, but we also know it doesn't hurt to have people cheer you on for all the things you can do. I told him we would be getting someone to come to his school to help him use his hands so that he would be able to do things a little easier and be less frustrated. He told me that would be cool and he would really like that, so I feel good about having an open dialogue with him on this....
With his bday and Christmas just passing we bought legos (3 different sizes), a lite bright, more playdoh, so he has been working with these lately. He gets frustrated and it stinks, we let him get to his point where he is done with it and then approach it at another time. He is trying, and since my DD is in love with the legos it ups his interest in it so he can play with her. He adores her and its been really beneficial to him to have a playmate who is doing things (feeding dolls, talking on phone, all typical stuff) because he models some of her behavior. Sometimes its like waiting for the key that fits the lock on the door of his imagination, and hoping it will happen.
I've been judged for worrying about his lack of lying and creative play, as I am pointing out things that I feel need work as a criticism of him, but it is all because I love him and people don't always get that. I just couldn't let it slide and hope for change because that wasn't working for him. It is comforting to hear your opinions and experiences that support my feeling that something isn't typical. So thank you very much for that....
That didn't happen until he was in first. It was a real whopper and I couldn't wait until he was asleep so I could call those who would understand what an amazing thing it was.
The above is awesome. I really hope to experience this one day!