Nov, Dec – IPRC Meeting, IEP & Christmas

I am breaking a few new posts up that I have been meaning to write for so long! Please check the one after this to totally catch up :)

Wow it has been so long since I have posted! So much has gone on and at the time I think I should post and time slips away then is doesn’t seem as important any more. But I am finally here and I will start with October, November and December here and the next post will be September :)

Not too much happen in October so I will jump to November. November started off rough. Actually it started rough Oct 31st Halloween. Seth came down with H1N1 and wasn’t able to go out for Halloween. He was pretty sad but when his little brother agreed to split his candy with him Seth didn’t seem to mind so much. Seth actually seemed to have fun staying with Daddy (while I took Nate and Lizy out with a friend trick-or-treating). He watched some movies and loved watching the kids come to the door. Unfortunately Lizy and Nate came down with it too a few days later and then I. With Lizy it got pretty scary she was having some breathing problems but finally after a few days that eased up and she didn’t have to be admitted. I on the other hand was literally down and out for 2 weeks! It was a most horrible thing I have ever had. The kids bounced back pretty fast only a few rough days with them and after a week were pretty much back to normal. After 2 weeks I was finally able to go back to work but it took about a full month before I recovered from the fatigue. So November wasn’t such a great month.



October did end on a bit of a good note though. We finally got our meeting with the school board (after about a 2 year wait!). The purpose was to meet and officially identify him and make sure he was properly placed in the school setting. So we met with the Identification, Placement and Review Committee and they identified him as Exceptional Communication-Autism. They also all agreed that his current placement (in a NT classed with shared aide) was appropriate. I am still not sure on that one yet but we are willing to give it a try. So this is supposed to help him by now being able to tap into more resources available to the school now. I also talked to the principal and let her know that I will help with anything I can to get even something simple like a sensory room in place. His school has nothing like that I am beginning to believe there is very little in place. That is going to change hopefully and I will try to change as much as I can!

So then in December we finally started talking about getting an IEP (Individualized Education Plan) put in place and are still working on the details for that. They send me a one page questionnaire asking me about his strengths, weakness, goals we have and anything else we wanted them to know about Seth. Well I sent back six pages of information LOL! I didn’t really think much of it I just wanted to provide them with as much detail as possible. It was the only real way I have even been able to feel like I was actually helping him to succeed.

That next day the head of the special education department called. She asked for me and then when I said it was me she was kind of speechless. She finally said that she received the information about Seth and was very shocked to see SO much written out! She said in all her years of doing this she has never receive something so detailed and organized. She was also apparently impressed that we even suggested some interventions (well I knew they were not going to lol). I have never talked to someone so beside themselves with emotion and it was very touching. It seemed for once I got something right when it came to Seth (I always feel I am never doing enough). She went on about the great job we were doing with him and how great of a kid he is. I was almost in tears. During this journey with Seth I have feel very venerable like every decision I make and every thing I do or don’t do could have a long lasting affect. To get a call like this helped me realize that I am trying my best and if in the end I can tell my son I at least did all I knew and could do then I would be at peace with all of this.

So they need to now pass on the information to all the right people and we will start throwing some rough drafts around. I think they have also gotten the message that I am not taking a back seat in all of this too and will do everything in my power; to get Seth what he needs to catch up and to be successful. Also if I can implement a few things that will helps some of the other ASD children in the school then all the better as well! A first start may be a better questionnaire sheet to better help parents tap into their kid’s strengths and weaknesses.

December also brought Christmas :) I had to work Christmas night so we just stayed in town instead of going home for the holidays. Seth had a great time opening his gifts and seemed to like everything he got especially the Wii. The Moon Sand was a BIG hit and I he just loves to play with it. It was so much fun to watch the excitement and the joy in all the kids faces while we opened presents and spent time together as a family. It really made me appreciate how very blessed we are!



So I just wanted to conclude with some self promotion lol. Some of you may already know that I am also a poet, not well known so no sense Googling my name lol, but I have written a few pieces as well pertaining to Seth and my feelings. It is my hope one day to publish a volume that illustrates the good and bad of ASD to hopefully create more of awareness. Also hopefully to show others that there are a wide range of feelings that other are going through too. If you are interested on left hand side there is a link called My ASD Poems. It will take you to a separate site that I have set up for this. Please feel free to read but if you share them other than sharing the link to my page please please ask me first! If you would like to comment on any of the poems feel free to leave a message too :) They can also be found at this link: http://my-asd-poetry.webs.com