The aftermath of the diagnosis

Since my last post I've spent a lot of time reading about bipolar, talking to various agencies and organizations, working with school to make a plan for her, etc.  It's been busy.  The behavior therapist came out last week.  Although her mood and behavior is still up and down, even with the Risperdal added in, Oksana is emotionally stable in our home at this time.  I talked to the behavior therapist about the few issues we still have and how we handle them.  The decision was made that we do not need her at this time.  I appreciated her honesty.  We are on their radar now so if anything changes all we have to do is make a call and we will pick up where we left off.  It's good to know that option is there. 

We are still looking into things like respite and various programs we can have access to through grants and such.  There is a lot out there but not all of it is the right fit for our family.  The biggest recent changes are in Oksana's schooling.  We had an IEP meeting last week that was pretty incredible. 

I know I have mentioned here before that I have felt for awhile that Oksana needed to be pulled from the regular classroom.  I could see that it was a source of stress for her, as were many other aspects of school, and I felt that in order for her to learn we needed to reduce stress where possible.  While our team agreed with me to some degree, they also had been reluctant to give up on the regular classroom.  We compromised last year.  She was still in there more than I wanted but less than they would have probably wanted.  By the end of last year it became apparent that Oksana being in the regular classroom was a joke.  It became a major issue just to get her through the door at points. 

I don't know if it was that, the behaviors, the bipolar disorder, the fact that she has made no educational progress at all since Kindergarten, or a combination of all of those things but when we walked into the meeting this week we were all 100% on the same page!  Not only have they pulled Oksana almost entirely out of the regular classroom, but they have recognized that she is not going to benefit at all from a traditional academic curriculum.  It was time for everyone to be honest and realize that Oksana is never going to college.  It is time to prepare her for life.  Because of that we are transitioning her to a functional curriculum.  I didn't know much about that, but when they presented it to us I almost did backflips.  This is just what Oksana needs.  If you aren't familiar with it, the basic concept is that Oksana will still learn but she will do it in a way that helps her to function in society and her learning will all be done through real life skills.  Here are a couple of examples they gave:

-Oksana will still learn sight words but while other second graders are learning words like "green", "these", and "what", Oksana will be learning "men", "women", "exit", etc.  That certainly doesn't mean that when the word green comes up in a situation she won't be learning it but her education takes a different focus now.

-Oksana will still learn math but it will be done through "jobs" for the school.  An example I was given is that if the nurse needs 10 bandaids put in each baggie she would be given that "job".  She would even have a work station where she would sign in, do her job, and sign out.  Through that job, which gives her education meaning, she will be learning counting and one to one correspondence.

-Oksana will no longer be required to write anything but her name (so she can sign documents although she still can't spell or write her name).  This is a place where it is just time to be honest.  The chances that Oksana will ever spell and write are slim to none.  So now the focus is on finding out how to give her the power to "write".  This will be done through technology.  To make it functional she will "write" things like birthday cards, thank you notes, party invitations, etc.  She will still be learning through all of this but it has purpose and the focus is on preparing her for life, not college.

Does that make sense?  This is new to me so if you know more about it I'd love to hear from you.  We also now have a behavior plan in place as well as a crisis plan for when she "snaps".  I think this was one of the most positive and exciting things I've done regarding Oksana in a LONG time.  We are all hopeful that this will help her finally start to learn and thrive in school.