Annual IEP Complete

First - Happy New Year, and I apologize for the lack of posts. I've promised to keep up with Raqi's blog much better this year. I don't want everyone thinking things are the same, because they aren't and she continues to adjust to her meds better and better and make progress.

A few weeks ago - before the Christmas holiday break - I met with the school district and therapists so they could do their yearly assessment of Raquel. This enables them to put new goals for her in place as well to modify the old ones as they see fit. I didn't really know what to make of the assessments because they are typically handled very poorly (for Raquel), and I struggle watching them judge, make opinions, and talk among themselves about what they feel she can and can't do. Plus, she's been out of school for quite awhile and I didn't know how she'd handle being in a classroom setting - especially with me having to interrupt her nap in order to get her there.

This year, my respite worker Christy came with me. I'm inundated with questions from a room full of people, and I really needed someone to help with Raquel so I could effectively answer all these questions. Gabby also came with us. She's come to know the school therapists pretty well, and now that she's a big-time 3rd grader, doesn't hold back on her comments. So this time, whenever a therapist would say this or that, Gabby would interject with her two cents. And they actually listened to her! At one point when the Applied P. E. teacher was trying to get Raquel to do something, then commented to the district psychologist that it was a skill that she couldn't accomplish yet, Gabby said, "No - you need to do this!" and low and behold, she did it.

Overall, the assessment went really well. Raquel was confined to doing table time and sat between two therapists going back and forth with tasks for about 20 minutes. At that point, she slipped in her chair and bumped her chin and started crying from that, and they let her out. She then roamed the room and her teacher commented on how she was remembering everything. Raquel even went to the exact spot where her name tag use to hang. She clearly remembered the classroom and everyone in the room commented on what a different kid she was since the last time they've seen her.

The day after the school assessment, the district psychologists came to the house to do their in-home evaluation. Again, Raquel was very calm and cooperative. They were very happy to see such a change in her temperament. I'm glad they noticed.

Today we had her annual IEP where all of us get together - outside of Raquel's presence - and discuss progress, goals, transitioning her to kindergarten (YES, KINDERGARTEN), etc. It's typically a tough meeting for me and Mike was working so I had to do this one on my own. I have to say that, again, it went really well. I think I've come to know these people better, and now that Raquel has a diagnosis of Landau-Kleffner Syndrome, they've acknowledged that and are much kinder with words.

Raquel will most likely be starting back to school next week, once I get all the paperwork in order and am given the green light. She won't be in the morning class any longer and instead going to the 11:30 - 2:30 time slot. I think this will work out much better since I have to give her meds in the morning, and if she was in the morning class, they would be responsible for doing that. I think that would aggitate her, and we all agreed that school needs to be about academics and not them getting her upset trying to get accurate doses into her. This will also work out much better for me with getting Gabby to school and stuff. I will no longer be rushing around to get one here and another there in a short amount of time. I have a sense of relief in that regard already.

I also think it will help keeping Raquel's morning routine as consistent as possible. The medication makes her tired and she typically doesn't wake up until 7:30am. If she is in the morning class, I would without a doubt have to wake her up each and every morning, and I don't think that would be a good thing. She needs time to wake up on her own and start her day when she's ready.

All in all, feeling pretty good about this right now. We have her neurological follow-up in a couple weeks, and will go from there.

I'll post again soon. And, yes - with pictures. :)