IEP results

Isaiah's IEP was last Thursday.
I met the actual OT who does the evals and plans what needs to be done with the kids.
I met the new speech teacher.
All together there were: ST, OT, Special Needs Pre-K Teacher, Regular Pre-K Teacher, Pre-K Coordinator & me.
It was a 3 hour long session.
It was wonderful.
^{I know you all hate single sentences, centered, each on their own line.
Drives ya nuts, doesn't it?}

From the IEP
Plan for Kindergarten includes: Isaiah will go to regular Kindergarten and continue ST and OT. He will also continue Special Needs consult - except it won't be pull-out consult (where they pull him from class). The Special Needs Instructor will go to Isaiah's class for one hour per week and observe him. Then he will meet with the Kindergarten Teacher to help him/her help Isaiah learn to the best of his ability as well as teach the teacher how to deal with his social barriers and "quirks."

Isaiah's strength area is cognitive skills. He can count over 100. He knows upper and lowercase letters of the alphabet. He knows his personal information (name, parents names, address, birthdate) and can name more than 10 colors and 6 shapes. He can complete classroom puzzles and fine motor manipulatives. He is beginning to write more than just his first name. He can write "Mom and Dad" (and "yes") without assistance. Isaiah enjoys interactive stories and is able to answer simple questions about the story when visual support is provided. (he can only answer questions when he looks at pictures, take the pictures away and he doesn't understand what you are asking). Isaiah enjoys social interactions, and has been observed to independently initiate social greetings. His voice and fluency skills are also considered strengths.

Isaiah's weakest areas are social and communication. He has difficulities with classroom transitions. Liz Whitson (OT) recommended giving him processing time (5 minutes) before transitions. (She also suggested the trampoline in the morning). She also thinks his pulling and touching other students is due to wanting deep pressure. They are going to try small objects in his pockets to help with overstimulation. He has problems walking in long lines (does best in first three positions or in the very last position.) He plays best with 1-2 favorite peers for short (less than 5 minutes) interactions. He plays beside peers and talks but is often playing independently. He changes play centers every five minutes or so. Isaiah has problems staying out of other students' "space." He places his hands on other students and doesn't stop when they tell him or become upset. He has difficulties playing class games (shouts out answers or tells everyone during guessing games who has the hidden item.) He doesn't seem to understand the process. OT said most of these issues are due to overstimulating. (Sensory Processing Disorder)
Isaiah can talk and get ideas across most of the time. However, he cannot answer Why, when, and How questions. He cannot answer simple questions about stories. He looks for visual cues to help him answer questions such as: "What did you eat for lunch?" He has difficulty answering "How do you feel?" and emotional questions. Isaiah refers to boys and girls as "he/him". He doesn't use "she/her". He still has difficulty looking at a simple object picture and telling 2-3 things about it. He will tell one thing and staff will have to ask questions to get him to tell you more. Isaiah's language disorder makes it difficult for him to fully express his thoughts, wants, and ideas in all settings. Isaiah also demonstrates difficulty comprehending multi-step (more than one step) directions and large amounts of information given at one time without visual support.

So. Some great. Plenty not so great. He has definitely come a long way. And sadly some of these things we may never overcome. But we are working hard as a team to help him : ) and one day the strengths area with be bigger than the weakness area. We set up some great goals for the rest of this year and at the end of this school year we will set up goals for next year. It's sad that we will be moving on and leaving Sallie (pre-k special needs instructor) behind. My biggest fear is that as each year passes, less effort and attention will go into these meetings and helping Isaiah.




Next OB appointment: Unknown - switching OBs & waiting for the call.