ABILITY!!!!!

Today was my six year old's IEP (Individual Educational Plan/Program) meeting. An IEP is mandated by the Individuals with Disability Education Act (IDEA). Basically, an IEP is a plan to assist educators, parents, and state and local agencies in implementing the requirements for children with disabilities (I hate that word!).

So today, my daughter's teacher (who has been wonderful) and her speech teacher met with me to go over what she has achieved this last year and what goals we were going to have for next year and her new first grade teacher.

 My daughter officially has been given the title of: Communication Disorder. While she has made great progress in her speech ability, communicating her needs with the teacher and us, standing up for herself and being more outgoing, she still has many issues that she/we need to work on.

This meeting was hard for me because I have seen so much progress with her in the last year that I was hoping they would tell me all good news-although I know, as her mother, that this is not the case :(. It is hard to admit that your child might struggle for the rest of her life in school and will always need some sort of assistance. But you have to stay positive, focus on the good and have faith that with a lot of hard work, you can make a difference in this little ones life.

So basically, this is what is going on:

• Maddie NEVER initiates play at school, not once-socially she is struggling, although she has many friends and is popular-Thank Goodness!

• She is showing NO ability to process and retrieve information. For example, if you ask her to tell you about a picture in a story, she cannot do it. She cannot produce sentences of varying length and complexity about pictured stories or how-to sequences. She cannot relate information with appropriate sequencing and enough detail to be understood by the listener by retelling four events from a story she heard, or describe in detail about daily activities. This is major. They are really concerned with this because starting next year and as she gets older, this is crucial for her to function as a student and later in life as an adult. They said it was shocking how behind she is (basically she is on the level of a 2-3 year old).

• She has NEVER joined in social interactions with peers and only does so if asked by a peer :(

This is not new news to me. Often times I have read her a story or asked her to tell me about something she has drawn and she cannot tell me anything but simple things such as who she drew.

They are very concerned for her in this inability to process and retrieve information-obviously this is a critical skill in both school and life and they have seen NO improvement over the course of 9 months...not one single improvement.

She has many strengths-she is a wiz at math, is participating in gym and music (something she never did before) and is reading (although she cannot tell you what is happening in the pictures of the stories like most kids do to figure out what the words are).

I am trying to keep positive and of course will work with her endlessly this summer to help her be the best she can be. I love my little girl and believe in miracles. She was born with a left cerebral infarct (stroke) that caused extensive brain damage (over the language part of her brain-the other side will either compensate or it won't...only time will tell) and considering that, I am so blessed and grateful at all of her ABILITIES.

They gave me some ideas of games to play with her and how to get her to talk with more detail and so forth. I know with the great community of friends and family that we have, if we all work together to help Maddie and encourage her....she will succeed :)

I will never be able to thank enough all the adults that are a part of Maddie's life. The relationships she has with you are so critical to her maturing and growing little mind. I love that she loves all of you and feels safe in your homes and with your children :) I know part of her progress is because of these relationships. xoxoxoxox

~S