IEP

As you know, we had an IEP meeting before the school year started just to all get on the same page and for the team to learn what Oksana would need to start the year with success. They have been working hard since school started to get all of Oksana's testing done and finally today was her first "official" IEP meeting. I could not be more thrilled with how it went. First of all I'll say that I truly believe that this team has her best interest at heart. They love her and they desire to see her succeed. With that as the foundation of the team I came in expecting great things and they did not disappoint!

We started by going over all of the test results. I'll just say there were no surprises there. There wasn't much that was encouraging except that we all agreed that everyone needs a starting point and there is a lot of room for growth! Still, it all fell within the developmental limits that I thought she was at. There was MUCH said about her improvement in concentration and her ability to sit still since starting school. Her ability to focus and work hard has really impressed everyone on the team. They also all commented on how she always bounds into a room with a smile on her face. Yep, that's Oksana! Her strengths and weaknesses on testing were definitely things I had seen at home so there were no surprises there.

After going over all of the test results we got into the IEP. This was very uneventful since I agreed wholeheartedly with what they were proposing. She gets to ride the bus finally! She is SO excited. They have to get the details all worked out so it will be sometime next week before she starts. She is going to stay in regular PE and not adaptive. The PE teacher does a great job of adapting for her, and with her para helping her it is working out fine and allows her to stay with her class. She will be in the regular class 76% of the day, which I thought was pretty good! Besides that she will have some time each day in the special ed room and each week in OT, PT, and Speech. She will also do extended school year which will allow her to get some OT, PT, Speech and academic work for 2 weeks in June and 2 weeks in July.

There was one comment that really surprised me. We were discussing her inability to write. Oksana currently can not write even one letter, unless you count O because she can manage to grab the pencil and create a circle. I've had her looked at by OTs, doctors, etc. who all took her arms, hands, and fingers, moved them around and then told me that her arms and hands are not affected by CP. This team has been watching her use her fine motor skills like no one else has and they told me that her hands and arms are most definitely affected, just not to the extent that her legs are. Because of that they are going to start working with her on keyboarding. The believe that there is a possibility that Oksana may not ever be able to write legibly and that even if she can it will be very exhausting for her to get any kind of volume out of her writing. Because of that they are going to start now to prepare her for the possibility of using an assistive device of some sort (laptop, etc) for her writing. I found that absolutely fascinating. I always knew her fine motor skills were very poor but I never realized it was from the CP and just figured it would take time to catch up. I'm so thankful that they are looking ahead like that and preparing for the future. I'm also thankful that we live in time when the fact that you don't write doesn't affect your ability to communicate through the written word!

I think that pretty much sums it up. Larry and I both came away very encouraged by the experience. Oksana's best days are ahead of her yet!