On Jan 29 I meet up with Ephriam’s preschool teacher, School OT, district representative, school speech, school PT, school pych and myself to talk about Ephriam. The teacher learned why Ephriam spills his milk off his spoon when he eats cereal (Ephriam doesn’t like milk in his cereal.) I also learned that he is doing somethings at school that he doesn’t do here. Overall I am happy with his progress and how his IEP is laid out for the next year. He has finally reach goals at school that we have been working on for months at home and private speech and OT. I am sure that there will be lots of growth with him over the next year as from year to year he gets better and better. I am sure too with us now all on the same page that we will be able to better help Ephriam master his skills. I wish that I could post all of his goals here but there are too many! So I am very happy with his IEP.
We then moved on to his kindergarten transition meeting. We, Chris and I, have three choice to choose from for Ephriam’s education next year.
1. Stay in half day preschool
2. Go to Regular Kindergarten. Having one teacher to almost 30 students. There are lots of worksheets and sitting activities.
3. Go to the Multiple Disabilities (MD) room. Where there is one teacher 2 teacher aids and only 10-15 kids. Here all their learning is hands on. They are able do lots of one and one and the lesson plan for the day is based on Ephriam’s IEP and the kid next to him has his own lesson plan. Even though they maybe working on reading they will be working on the level that they need so some are learning to know what the letters look like and other are reading sight words. They are move around a lot and play a lot. They take field trips and go to the YMCA once a month to swim for an hour.
We feel that if we keep Ephriam in preschool that he would not be getting enough of what he needs. He is needing more interaction and a full day of school verses a half day. Chris and I also feel that if he goes into a regular kindergarten classroom that he will just get lost in the suffle and not get the help that he needs. In the MD room he would be best for Ephriam at this point. It seems like the push in the right direction for him. He will also have the opportunity to out grow the room too. If he were to start talking over night then he could go to a regular Kindergarten room or even be pulled into the regular Kindergarten room for a certain subject. So it isn’t a permanent placement.
However before we can say this is where Ephriam needs to be he has to go through the standardize testing to see where he fits in. So all of us are getting back together on March 25 for and hour and make a final decision. Our goal is to do what is best for Ephriam. He needs to be where he will fit best, not feel overwhelmed, and get the help he needs.
So I will have more information on March 25th but for now Chris and are leaning on the MD room.
If you have question and know my e-mail address please e-mail them, if not please feel free to ask them here in the comments.
FW
