Round Five: Ding Ding Ding! We have a Winner!

Yes, Andy's eligibility meeting was today. Again. But this time, we won.

Andy has issues with sensory processing, fine motor control, and visual motor control, on top of having ADHD. For years we have been asking the school for support. Now we have reached a crisis. Andy refuses to write. He will flat-out shut down completely when asked to write more than a couple of words. Homework can take us the entire afternoon. We are still behind on speech (but not as much as we were). His fine motor is rapidly deteriorating. Some of the evals we had to look at today were... well, its never good to see "1%" on these things (yes, folks, that's the "first percentile". And for those of you new to this, spot-on normal is 50%/50th percentile.) An afternoon listening to your child's deficits is never fun.

But now he is in such bad shape, since so little was done before, that he qualifies for special ed.

The good news: he'll get the support he needs, services to help him cope with sensory and handwriting-related issues, and will be more likely to be placed with teachers who understand ADHD and his needs. We'll have an IEP to back us up when we head to the next school in the fall- the one that was such a disaster for Joey. And it will be written by folks familiar with him, because IEPs are usually good for a year, especially getting one this late.

The bad news: More IEP meetings for me. Woo. Hoo. Oh, and the school has 30 days to even schedule the IEP meeting, so more delay in getting school service. And it means Andy is struggling right now, which makes me sad and angry, especially since I've been screaming for help since he was four, and everybody seemed to think I was crazy.

That's the ups and downs of the special ed world. Yay, your kid qualifies for service! But boo, he's struggling enough that he qualifies for service. If you're in the SpEd world, you know what I mean.

Is this week over yet?

Good Night, Susan

We have a blow here in our comfy corner of the internet. We lost WhyMommy today.

In this little corner, we don't have a big network of thousands passing through. I have about 50 regulars, and fewer who comment. I read only a handful of blogs myself. Toddler Planet was one of those. I wish I had been reading it longer, but its really only been a couple years. But Susan's blog is lovely, and strong, and funny, and... just like her. Full of love for those two little boys. Full of intelligence and eloquence and seriously, everything that this world needs a hell of a lot more of. And as she beautifully reminded us: it's not fair.

I never got to meet Susan. I never got my butt up to DC to go over and hug her. I've never met her boys. And I am sorry. With all my heart. I missed a fabulous woman.

Hugs to you all.





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