need a little pep talk -- preschool and IEP

[Momma Aimee]

My oldest has an IEP for speech, this year he also qualifies for :literacy" but the SLP feels it is because he can't make all the sounds, so he can't match all the letters to their sounds.

We loove our SLP from the school, and worked with her in EI also.

We love our Case manager and have had her since EI also -- techinally he is early childhood ed now so we still have a case manger and the same team we've had since EI.

Both are 100% support of our desire to homeschool, not just preschool but at least elemtery. They both undertand it is an issue of our faith mainly and our feeling on child-rearing.

(our district is poor too -- but we don't need to bring that up, our faith and feeling on how and where young children should spend their time is enough)

so Thursday is his new IEP.

The pre-school teacher will be there and the principal of the "lower school" ...

in the past i have not had any issue -- it is the same team we have workled with since he was 19 months, we know each other and it is really just a nice chance to sit down, without any kids, and touch base and sign some necessary paperwork for them.

I am more "on edge" with teh pre-school teacher and there this time.

i jsut need a bit of an encouraging pepe talk.

i have NO INTENT of putting him in teh pre-school but i know that will be the teachers suggestion. we had a "home teacher" for a while while our normal one was on babymoon and she (the sub) was very pushy about pre-school ... we did go to 2 differnt "play dates" at eh classromm (I stayed) and the more than confirmed my total oppistion to him being there (any child being there). she left and that has made the team totally no-stress for me (and DH but i deal with them).

DH was going to be there tomorrow -- but he can't be due to work responilities.

jsut looking for a little shot of encouragement.

[mykdsmomy]

I'm all congested and sick right now so I may be missing something, but it sounds like everyone is supportive of your decision to homeschool and the only one that wasn't supportive will NOT be there tomorrow for the IEP? Is this right? Or am I missing something? (sorry, serious non working brain right now )

Either way, you always have our support here and remember to stay strong. Your decision to homeschool your child is based on love and solid mommy instinct. That trumps all "professionals"

[Momma Aimee]

Originally Posted by mykdsmomy

I'm all congested and sick right now so I may be missing something, but it sounds like everyone is supportive of your decision to homeschool and the only one that wasn't supportive will NOT be there tomorrow for the IEP? Is this right? Or am I missing something? (sorry, serious non working brain right now )

Either way, you always have our support here and remember to stay strong. Your decision to homeschool your child is based on love and solid mommy instinct. That trumps all "professionals"

I have never met the pre-school teacher and the principal. I have doubt they will be as support of our homeschool intents.

and they do not know us or my son -- the rest of the team has known us since Theo was 19 months and he is 4 months past 4 now.

[mykdsmomy]

Originally Posted by Momma Aimee

I have never met the pre-school teacher and the principal. I have doubt they will be as support of our homeschool intents.

and they do not know us or my son -- the rest of the team has known us since Theo was 19 months and he is 4 months past 4 now.

Got it. Well, just know, that they will most likely recommend that he does go to "school". They will give you sixty-eleven reasons why he "needs" to be in a classroom setting and how it will only benefit him to be there.
It helps to put on your imaginary "bs" filter when you go into these meetings. Just let the nonsense run through your filter
I was told that both of my sons "needed" preschool to "prepare" them for school and the real world. I was told that I was being overprotective and that they needed the "S" word (socialization).

I am so glad I didn't force my oldest son to go to preschool. He is legally blind and has some other challenges that would have gotten worse if we would have put him in preschool. I don't regret my decision AT ALL.

You can do it And just think, you can come back here and tell us all about it afterward and vent if you need to (((hugs)))

[meetoo]

How can he be behind in literacy if he isn't even eligible for kindergarten until the 2011/2012 school year?

Just stick to your guns and focus on all the improvements he has made.

[Tjej]

You'll do GREAT! There, how was that.

They're all trying to be a supportive team for you. They will come with different perspectives and experiences. You won't all agree on everything, but that's just fine.

Tjej

[Momma Aimee]

Originally Posted by Tjej

You'll do GREAT! There, how was that.

They're all trying to be a supportive team for you. They will come with different perspectives and experiences. You won't all agree on everything, but that's just fine.

Tjej

"early child hood education goals"



Thanks everyone, Tjej your words are very helpful

[Momma Aimee]

ohhhh ok -- tomorrow morning. i can do this, right?

[Alvenchrst]

IEP's can be so emotional for some reason!! I always get frantic about them and I'm not a frantic person.

Good luck. Just remember that your son isn't somehow missing socialization because he's not in preschool. Children don't lack socialization unless they are being raised by wolves. Every child is being socialized, it's just a matter of what type. And you ALWAYS have the right to choose that. The socialization you provide him (in whatever manner you decide is best) is far superior to the contrived socialization that happens in a room full of kids the exact same age most of whom's development is stunted because they haven't spent enough time with their mommies in their little lives.

Okay, off soap box, hopefully it gave you courage, good luck!

[skueppers]

So how did it go?

[Momma Aimee]

much better than i expected. I was nervous, i admit

but it was better than i expected

Miss E the SLP, Miss M the coordinating teacher and Miss C the case manager / social worker have been working with Big Brother since he was 20 months old and are now working with Little Brother. The building principal and the pre-school teacher were also there.

BUT the prinppal and classroom teacher said nothing.

No one even suggested the classrooom.

also there is a spot on the IEP for "child's main classroom" and they notes hime as homeschooled and present in the vbuilding only for special services. there other options were "main classroom" "speerate Special Ed class room" or "Other" they chose OTHER and made the above note.

We went over where he stand now.

1.
His math skills are well beyond his age peers. He can ID all his numeral from 0 to 10 and also link them to the correct set of items and he can creat sets when asked (“hand me 5 of that” or or ”make a pile of 4 here and a pile of 7 there”). Also more and less and the basics of addition and subtraction (concept if not accurate answers). This is his DADDY

2.
His literacy .. such as IDing all his letters, match letters with sounds, and matching words that start with the same sound or rhyme however is not as strong. Now a big part of this MAYBE be that he can’t actually hear / understand the sounds he is supposed to be matching. when he says “bat” and “cat” they don’t “click” to him as rhyming. They also suspect there may be some level of autorty processing “failure” that is that he is not really discrimination what he hears– thus making it hard for him to play “sound games” — all these start with / these rhyme. here he scored well below his age peers (age peers in the fall, much less now)

3.
he also did not met his age peers level in “naming pictures” in a certain time. This they attributed to focus and feel will improve with maturity as his vocabulary is beyond that of his age peers.

4.
in general his dropping of or confusing beginning sounds in words puts him at or over 2 years behind his peers in expressive speech ability. educators would expect most of his peers to be 90 to 95% clear and “understandable to a stranger” SLP is putting Big Brother at maybe 45 % and based on his recent conservation with distant family members, it may be lower.

and the plan for next year:

1.
He will go to summer session for speech but not “literacy”. 4 sessions over the summer, one hour each — 3 adults and 5 or 6 kids.

2.
he will see the SLP 2x a week from now till the end of the school year

3.
he will see the pre-school teacher onene 2x a month the rest of the school year

4.
he will see the SLP 2x a week all school year next year

5.
he will see the preschool teacher onene 2x a month till his next quarterly assessment to see how he is doing and determine if we all feel he needs to go to 1x a week or not. (I doubt it)

6.
For speech we are going to try Auditory feed back — to focuse on him HEARING what he is actually saying not just the mind in his head that he is meaning to say

Other:

1.
I am going to make a list of phrases for him that the SLP can work on. The biggest issue now if that he doesn’t generalize. he can make a sound (not all but a lot of them) in isolation, but not in a word and certainly not in a sentence. also the longer he talks the more he “mushes” and not only doesn’t make correct sound the but also just mummers and slurs speech with NO distinct sounds at all.

2.
we are going to work on auditory feedback — so he hears what he IS saying and not jsut what his head thinks he is saying. We are going to work on this at home also.

3.
the SLP gave me the names of some CDs that have kids songs, typical ones, only sung slooowly to stress each word.

4.
I am going to make him some matching / rhyme word games to play here at home.

5.
here at home we are going to push a bit more phonics — letters and the sound they match

[Tjej]

See, it went well.

WTG on Theo being a number cruncher!

Are 4yos supposed to be good at the rhyming games and whatnot? I know older kids who aren't very good at that.

Tjej

[Smithie]

Congratulations!

As these things go, you are doing VERY well by your child. My ds needed that level of intervention when he was younger, and I just couldn't get any public agency (schools, DSS) to help us It was sooooo frustrating to not be able to provide what he needed. He's doing much better now - but no thanks to my taxpayer-funded institutions.

[Momma Aimee]

Originally Posted by Tjej

See, it went well.

WTG on Theo being a number cruncher!

Are 4yos supposed to be good at the rhyming games and whatnot? I know older kids who aren't very good at that.

Tjej

i don;'t know how well they are -- as a group -- supposed to do ...but uhhhh he got NONE and his age peers should have been expected to average 16