The IEP

First, I have to say again that my Mom made this day infinitely better for us.  She brought us all lunch, did some pre-meeting prep with us and then stayed with Nea all day.  I've said it before....no one loves your kid like you do.  But Grandma, is a pretty close second.  Reports from Grandma are that they had a great day together and learned a lot about each other without the pesky parents around.  There are decorative gel eggs on our windows now and we are +10 mini dinosaurs, a tiara, Nutella dip-sticks and +4 cars.  As Grandmas go.....ours is at the top of the list.

Second, I have to give a major shout out to all of Nea's current therapists.  Every one of them came to the meeting today and spent 2 hours totally engaged.  (Yes, it was a 2 hour meeting.)  If they had not been there, I am certain the IEP would have been very different.  And because Nea's made some great strides in progress since the initial evaluation by the school, they were able to provide that info as well.  Without her therapists today, I don't believe we would have made all the progress that we did.

Okay...on with the info!

Just a recap. The IEP is Nea's individualized education plan.  The school shares their recommendations of what she will need to accomplish education goals and how they are going to go about helping her along the way.  It's stressful for many parents, and I can certainly understand why.

We walked into a board room with a table full of professionals on their computers or reading through reports, etc.  It could have been very intimidating.  Very.  But I had 4 other people with me, so it felt a whole lot better.  I also made a mental note to myself that Jon and I would NEVER be coming to one of these by ourselves.  Even if we bring friends who may not know Nea's skills, her Poppa and I need the support.  Period.

 I  don't think they mean it to be intimidating.  I just think that the table doesn't serve well in that scenario.  The table was a long board room table, much like a rectangle.  That  gives it the impression of "head" and "foot" as well as "sides."  It's a Feng Sui disaster.  A perfectly round table, with enough seats for everyone would have been far less overwhelming and much more "we're all equals here because we all have important information."  The dynamics of a room play a big role here, in my opinion.

Okay, enough about that.  But if I win the lotto some day, I'm buying my school district the biggest round table I can find.

The meeting starts off with everyone in the room giving the results of their assessment.  There were not any surprises.  There were a few things she gained extra points on because our therapists were able to fill in a few gaps.   There was a lot of rescramble on reports to reflect new information.

Sensory issues came out loud and clear from the OT person.  And both OT's were able to converse in "OT speak" about stuff.  The school's OT talked about assessment day and that when Nea was very stressed and  overwhelmed she came to her and climbed on her lap.  She hugged the OT gal tightly, and the OT gal hugged her back, giving her a big squeeze.  She told us today that she's impressed with Nea's ability to know when she needs pressure-especially in an unfamiliar environment with a stranger.  We see that at home too when Nea will bring us her helmet to put on or she asks for "squishes."  Without her sensory needs being met, the education piece will not progress.

The other loud and clear message from everyone was "on her own terms."  Which means, Nea probably has the skill they are requesting (like matching, or labeling from a field of 2) but if she's not motivated by the task at hand, she shuts down.  She will close her eyes, cover her face, turn her head, etc. etc.  And it's damn near impossible to come back from that.  They all saw it, her therapists agreed that's exactly how she works and we see it at home as well.

The first thing to decide after all the information exchange is "what makes her qualify for services?"  There was not a batting of one eye and every single one of them said, "Autism."  It was a powerful statement for me for some reason.   Maybe it was the affirmation of 14 professionals in the room all agreeing that her Autism gets in the way of her learning.  The developmental pediatrician said those exact words when she was diagnosed back in August.

So after 2 hours of talking, reviewing, gaining understanding, etc. we landed on an IEP that I believe will work for the upcoming year.  Goals are made for 12 months, which I had to keep in mind because they seemed so dang lofty.  I will jot them here (as I was taking notes) because I don't have the final one in front of me.  So many corrections had to be made, that the corrected version will be sent in a day.

OT goals:

• ease in transitions
• work on imitation
• use visual schedule
• sensory strategies/sensory diet will be used daily

Speech/language goals

• able to use simple phrases to make requests (I want milk vs. milk)
• use of personal pronouns for requesting 
• able to follow verbal 2-step directions
• increased use of who/what questions that are conversationally appropriate

Classroom goals:

• able to easily transition 4 activities
• follows at least 1 teacher directed task

Social goals:

• turn-taking & sharing
• exchange toys with peers at least 4 times in play (Mom note:  bahahahaha!) 

Play goals:

• Create 3 step play schemes 
• Play with 10 different toys in an appropriate manner

Lots right?  Wowsa.  And that's just my notes!  

So....to meet those goals she's going to need:

• Special needs classroom (1 teacher/1 aide/10 students)
• Speech/language 60 minutes/week
• OT 30 min/week

Classroom is 2.5 hours a day/5 days a week.  

Reports are sent to us quarterly on goal achievement.  

Overall, her Poppa and I were happy with the outcome of the meeting.  If she meets these goals, then we all come together again, and come up with new goals.  If there is a slot open in a special needs classroom, she would start April 9th. 

I'm happy to have this very first IEP under our belt.  It's the first of many for her entire school career.  I think we all did pretty well.