Well the game plan changed. Kate's speech teacher retested her on the vocabulary that she had scored so low on and well, she did fine. So Kate's been discharged from speech. The big worry is that she no longer has that IEP umbrella to cover any special help she needs. The good news, she's making progress on her reading and I don't think it'll hurt her in the least.
*YAY*
She's still behind in her reading but what we're doing is working. She's slow but it's no longer so painfully slow like at the beginning of the year. With the motivation of a movie rental dangling before her, Kate even scored 101 (she got a bonus word) on her spelling test. I am so proud of her. Really, I've always known she's a smart kid, it's just that she's never realized she's a smart kid. So now she's catching up and we'll see what the future holds for Miss Kate.
The little boys, I just don't know. I don't recall if I posted their testing last month but they were tested and low and behold, they don't qualify for occupational therapy, all they qualify for is speech. Now the test was twofold because it's also used for EI qualifications. There's two standards that kids can qualify. Either a deficiency in two areas, which all the other kids have done or one deficiency that's really REALLY bad. I can't explain the scoring, I just know the numbers.
For the two deficiency, the number is -1.5 and for the one deficiency the number is -2 or greater (less than because it's a negative?). Both boys are extremely delayed in speech and have big negative number. So they qualify for EI. I know this because I'm not a newb with the system. I've had three children in EI so far. Every child of mine and the numbers were explained to me with Ean who qualified with a two area deficiency but would have qualified under speech alone.
My big frustration, the gal who did the test on the boys, cheerfully announced they dont' qualify for EI, which I know is wrong. She's an occupational therapist, so qualifications aren't her speciality, testing is what she does but she has told everyone associated with the twins cases that they don't qualify including their case worker. Grrrrrrrrrrrrr. Now I've heard from no less then five individuals how well the twins are doing while I know that not only do they qualify but they need the extra services.
Especially Greg. Gosh I can't even talk about it without boobin. Greg has been so frustrated with speech when he feels like he's not understood he's started pounding his head on the floor. I cannot express as a mother how heartbreaking it is to see your child inflicting pain on himself.
I'm not a newbie with speech therapy. My family has a long history, and I'm not just talking my kids here. Two brothers with extreme speech problems, my oldest brother is still virtually non-verbal as a thirty nine year old adult. Then throw in my own kids, Jane's extreme speech, lacking grammar and syntax, the jargon she inserted into words, the random order of words not to mention the apraxia, not being able to pronounce anything at the age of four. Kate's wasn't as bad but she still couldn't be understood at four, then Ean, his constant hearing problems, three sets of tubes. Throw in the classes I took at college and well as I stated, I'm not a novice here.
The usual speech techniques are not working with Greg. Modeling, games, adding words, non of it is working.
You can't tell me that speech alone will be enough for this child, he needs the pre-school environment, what I'm doing is not enough. Lord knows I'm trying and it's frustrating to know that as a mother, I cannot provide what he needs. Throw in all these people telling me that he's fine and well, I'm ready to bang my own head into the floor.
So I've been coaching myself, reminding myself that the meeting for the boys is on the seventeenth of this month. It doesn't' matter what they say, when the scores are laid out on the table, they'll both get pre-school. David doesn't have the same need, but he still is sufficiently delayed he qualifies just like his twin.
*Confessions* At Ean's IEP, I broke down into tears when the twins came up. You have to understand that Ean's head start takes place in the early intervention building and since Ean has a speech IEP (what kid of mine doesn't at this age), a lot of the same people will be there that will be at the twins qualification meeting, including the program director.
I hate losing it in front of people and it wasn't even for the child we were meeting for but the boys hair came up, cause everyone loves my three red headed boys and well, talking about when we'd meet for the twins brought all my frustrations with Greg up.
I haven't heard from the twins speech therapist in a week but when I see her either this week or the next she'll do an evaluation on the twins. I'll make sure she records her recommendation of pre-school for Greg. A note that the mother is overwhelmed might help too, just to make sure no one brushes my concerns aside.
So that's school, the good, well nothing really bad but the frustrating.
I feel like a case worker myself some days juggling every one's needs.
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