We have a talker….

Duhdee

Well, he is trying his hardest. Last night we went for a walk and when we got home we decided to relax in the yard for a while. For the past week I’ve been trying to get Monkey to roll around on the ground but he hasn’t been that interested in it, even when I did it…. But when Umma rolls on the ground and says “roll, roll, roll, roll….” it’s the best thing ever!!! He thought it was so great that he made up his own sign for roll and he even said the word…. within an hour he was saying “roll, roll, roll” in his raspy voice and both Umma and I were rolling towards and away from him as fast as we could. Little guy was cracking up as we were doing this and he was having an absolute ball! So looks like when he’s really motivated he can use his words.

Monkey has also warmed up to C. quite well. He’s actually pretty comfortable with all of his new providers; I’m so amazed at how quickly he’s taken to all of them. The past couple of weeks we’ve been trying to work on getting Monkey to know his colors, so on Tuesday I showed C. the signs for Red, Yellow, Green, Blue and Orange. Monkey knew how to say red and could do blue and green when he wanted. She has a toy with those colored gears that spin and she’s been making him use the signs to get the gears. He’s really starting to get his colors down!

We just got back from our visit with the PT and he really enjoys playing on the Gross Motor Room at the school. Today he sat on a scooter and scooted around on it a bit, he also went though their tunnel which is quite impressive as it’s not like any of the other tunnels he’s gone though before. It’s a dark shade of red and it a solid material, most of the ones he’s gone though have had mesh so he could peek out if he wanted. But he still went though it a couple of times, with the motivation of his blanket being tossed though it.

The PT was also impressed at how in tune I was with Monkey’s needs and being able to provide him with the deep pressure when he started to get hyper-aroused. Near the end of the session, when I was helping him to calm down with the “Monkey Burrito” and some deep pressure, she said that I’d make a great therapist…that’s like the 10th professional that’s said that.  She also said that I probably think it’s just natural to be in tune with him and to be able to calm him down as quickly as I can, but most parents are unable to do that. I have been tossing the idea of becoming an OT…. it’s just…. I don’t wanna have to go back to school to do it. LMAO.

Another roundup post.

Melissa

Things are still super busy at work and I’m trying to make it a point to get a decent amount of sleep….there’s not much time for blogging right now so you get another long update post.

This past weekend was pretty relaxed.  It was rainy and cold so we pretty much just hung out.  On Saturday Monkey’s battery operated train finally kicked the bucket.  I can’t say I’m sorry it died either.  It was really loud and used up batteries at an alarming rate.  One battery would handle about 1.5 hours of play, we’d started rationing the batteries.  He got one battery per day, lol.

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Our first week as a 3 year old…

Melissa

Hey all, not much to report really. We had a great party with our EI/BB people on Monday. Monkey actually opened some presents! It was nice to get a chance to thank them for everything they’ve done for us in the last two years. And they brought a huge birthday cookie. Yum!

Tuesday was a day off…no EI services and no CPS services.

Wednesday was supposed to be the start of Monkey’s BB 3-6 services (the extra services the school is paying for through the summer) but his new provider, C., was in a car accident on the way to the house! Fortunately she’s OK. She was rear-ended by a truck at a stop light. Wet roads are dangerous.

Thursday and Friday C. was here playing with Monkey. She’ll be coming 5 days a week from now on. He seems to like her OK. He does play with her but it takes a bit of warming up to get there. Barley is really unhappy with her though. She has a toy piano that makes this noise….a really loud beeping noise. It totally freaks him out. We’re going to ask her not to use it anymore, lol. I was reading her note last night and noticed that she wants to introduce play dough next week. Looks like Umma is making more play dough this weekend since he won’t play with the store bought stuff, lol.

The beginning of the end

Duhdee

Usually I let Umma write up most of the posts but I had to add this in. Today was the beginning of the end of the Early Intervention and Building Blocks 0-3 services. Today was our last appointment with our PT and it was fitting that her last appointment was a co-visit with B. B. and W. were the two who evaluated Monkey initially when we first started EI way back.

Today was a nice trip to the park around the corner and just letting him be the little guy he’s grown up to be. He was running around with the other kids, constantly going down the slide and babbling up a storm! Yup he was dropping “Monkey Versions” of words… he said “ball”, “bowl”, “home”, “swing”, “hill”, and it even sounded like he said “tweet-tweet” while looking at a bird. He also ran over and checked on a couple of kids who were in the play house. He’s really becoming quite the social bug. Just earlier this week at playgroup, on Tuesday, Monkey asked two other kids for toys. He walked up to them and said “For me, please”, using sign of course.

He’s really made me quite proud this past week and it’s hard to believe that in just over a week he’ll be turning 3 and this chapter in his life closes. It’s going to be weird for both of us to have different providers now; hopefully they’ll be just as good as the ones we’ve had so far. Everyone who’s work with Monkey has been fantastic and has really helped us out greatly! I feel as though we really lucked out with some of the best providers possible.

Last IEP meeting was today.

Melissa

We’re so glad it’s over and….we got pretty much everything we wanted.

Monkey is going to continue to receive in home services from Building Blocks (new providers but the same therapies) and he’ll start getting his ST, OT and PT through the school. Duhdee will have to drive him to the schools for those sessions, the schedule needs to be worked out between us and the new providers.

Starting in September he will be in a fully integrated preschool class. It’s pretty much perfect. He doesn’t have to start full days until he’s ready, they’re leaving that up to us to decide with his teacher. They don’t think he needs the transition classroom…they think he’ll do well in a regular classroom and they don’t want to force him to go through all those changes unnecessarily.

They also put in his IEP that they want him in a mainstreamed Kindergarten with whatever supports he needs but they don’t want him in a special education classroom.

We’re really pleased with the outcome!

Status update.

Melissa

We saw the substantially separate/transition classroom that CPS proposed at our last meeting. It’s OK.

There are 3 kids in there right now and 1 more starting after vacation. 3 of those 4 may be in there in the fall, 1 is being mainstreamed. There are two teachers. One is trained in sign (though possibly rusty, she doesn’t have much chance to use it according to the director.) One of the girls is non-verbal (I think), one has 11 words, the boy is on an IEP from another state b/c he doesn’t speak English so he is the one being mainstreamed. Read more →

Final school evaluations…done!

Melissa

What a relief.  This has all been very stressful and time consuming but the last of the evaluations are DONE!  Yay!

We don’t have the official results but based on what the evaluator told Duhdee I think Beverly is a real possibility for us.  She agreed  with the speech evaluator that it is essential that he be in a total communication environment.  She recommends adding a picture exchange system to his signs (which we are experimenting with) so that down the road he can transition to a device that uses pictures to form sentances and speak for him.  She said he’s not ready yet for a device like that but did suggest some software that will get us moving along that path.  Our next meeting is April 9th and we’ll discuss what sort of services Monkey will need/receive.

Since you all may be wondering, The Beverly School for the Deaf is a private school in Beverly, MA.  Despite what the name implies, it is not a school solely for kids who are deaf or hard of hearing.  They have a fantastic integrated program that serves kids with all sorts of communication problems.  They have typically developing peer models that are in the classes (these kids have no special needs.) They have kids with hearing issues but no developemental delays.  They have kids with a wide range of developmental delays.  The common theme is that these kids all need a variety of methods of communicating.

They use “signing exact english” in all parts of the school so everyone learns  and understands sign language.  They also use spoken english in all parts of the school.  They also use any other methods of communication that the kids are successful with (picture exchange system (PECS) for example.)  Research has shown that the more methods of communicating that you give a child the more likely they are to learn language/speech.  It’s really fascinating really.  I know some people believe it holds kids back and keeps them from learning to talk but experience and extensive research has shown just the opposite is true.

So that’s where we are at for now.  We’re going with his current strength (ASL) and working toward finding another way for him to communicate (speaking, hopefully, or some sort of technology.)  I suspect that at some point he’ll go to a mainstream classroom in Cambridge, that is what we want for him, but we need to make sure he has the tools to communicate, learn and make friends first !

The latest on the school situation

Melissa

Hey all, I figured I should update on where we stand, it’s been a while since I’ve commented on the situation.

First, no decisions have been made.  Duhdee and I have toured an integrated classroom at the Beverly School for the Deaf and a substantially separate classroom and an integrated classroom in the Cambridge Public Schools.  Our first choice is the Beverly classroom, second choice is the integrated classroom at Cambridge.  There is no third choice for us.

All but one of the evaluations that are being done by Cambridge are done.  We have one more on Monday for assistive technology.  The results so far are exactly what we expected since they relied heavily on our reports and on the EI reports.  Monkey just isn’t a kid that a stranger can walk in and try to test so they did few actual “tests.”   He has been determined eligible for special education, which was really a given but they have to work through their “process.”

At the next meeting we will start working on a draft IEP.  We know he’s going to need PT, OT, ST and special education (they will have to modify the way information is presented for him to learn it.)  We’ve been working with an advocate and she has been awesome.  She has walked us through an IEP so we had our own draft/outline which we presented to the team at the last meeting.  They seemed to agree with our suggestions at first glance so we’re hoping they will use our outline to prepare their draft.

After we get the “program” we want for him written THEN we’ll talk about placement.  The CPS ST and the team leader are going to visit the Beverly program next week to see what they have to offer.  We are cautiously optimistic that they (at least the ST) will be willing to send him to that school.  If not, then we will have to discuss the need for an aid and which classroom in Cambridge he’ll attend.