Tuesday, January 26, 2010

IEP meeting..

We had Nick's IEP meeting last Friday. It went rather well, but what shocked me was the fact they said that he had no functional language. HUH?? They clearly saw the look of confusion on my face, and I told them "Umm, yes he does. He asks for things all the time at home." And even lately he has begun making his own choices. When I ask "Do you want milk or juice?" instead of just repeating "milk or juice?", he will think about it for a while and then say "Milk." or "Juice." So to tell me he has no functional language was quite the shock. This is a child who came to me the other day and told me to fix a car that he wanted to play with. He even brought me the car! Today he put his bowl on the counter and said he wanted fish crackers. The thing is, he may do all this at home-but in school it might be a different story. They jotted down all the notes I was providing them, and were astonished by what he does do at home. I told A (his BCBA) this and she had equal confusion. She made a note to go and visit his class and observe how he is in school, and maybe give the teachers some pointers.

Today we met with A to discuss re-vamping Nick's home program. He was breezing through so many programs in the fall, but has now seemed to hit a wall. Things are hit-or-miss with him. One day he will get it 100%, the next day it will be 10%. We are looking for more things to really motivate him. They are also going to start incorporating some of the Early Start Denver model into his programs. It is a less structured form of ABA and more natural. (from what I have been told) It goes through all the developmental phases of early childhood. Little things like following points, and being more "socially" tuned in. We hope to see a lot of progress in 2010. The best thing is right now he has already come so far! He is really starting to blossom. In HIS time.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

First week in the new house..

We have completed our first week in the new 'crib', and it is starting to feel a little homey. The first few days last week we were going back and forth between the houses which left us no time to really set up the new house. We had to clean the old house to meet base requirements(that is a huge chore unto itself). I had to work, and we had a couple of days that we were quite "overbooked". Wednesday we hired a cleaning crew to finish up what we had started. All they really had to do was wash the walls, clean the floors and baseboards, and just straighten things up a bit. They did a wonderful job and ended up finishing everything 30 minutes prior to our final inspection on Friday. Which was supposed to be at 9am. Inspectors did not show up until 10am, and I had Nick's IEP meeting at 11am. UGH. Why is my life like this?? So overscheduled. We ended up passing our inspection; and making it to our appointment. Why is my child so into doors???!!! This is not just something that happens at home now, it happens everywhere. Everywhere we go has a door. A door that must be slammed open and closed at every possible opportunity. It is quite exhausting taking this child of mine out sometimes. Yesterday's Dollar Store trip was not quite tranquil. Nick thought it was fun to knock things off the shelves and watch them fall to the floor. Then he thought my reaction was uber funny. We quickly headed out of there to Target where I could put him in a basket and not have it look so funny. (Afterall, he is a gangly/tall nearly 6yr old-whose feet nearly drag on the floor in the front seat of a cart)He now rides in the back-all sprawled out and making lots of happy stimmy noises. People look regardless, so at least they can look at a happy stimmy child rather than a rambunctious child and one stressed out mommy. Right??

Anyway, I got my pictures up on the walls last night with lots of help from happy stimmy boy. He was jumpy, flappy, and had fun lining up the frames in the hallway. As I hung one, he would slide the rest on the floor to make room for the new one he took out of the box. Did I mention he was happy-stimmy child?? There was lots of jumping, screeching, and overall giddiness. It made a boring job rather fun actually. Where does he come up with this stuff??!! Never known anyone to be soooooo happy about hanging pictures. We had a couple of good laughs.

Today, we are off to Target again. I found a few inspirational quotes to put on the walls thatI like. We have a big empty wall right when you come into the house that can use something like that. I can use a little uplifting myself every now and then.