After a quick stop at McDonald's (just to be sure if Carson was angry this time it had nothing to do with food lol) and home to let the dogs out we made it to school 10 minutes early to see Patty. Carson seemed eager to get in the building and even pushed the button on the door to have the lady in the office buzz us into the building.
Patty was waiting for us when I signed in and immediately grabbed Carson's hand and took him to the stairs. She had an idea for having him climb the stairs, pick up a rubber rat, bat spider etc (Halloween theme) and then walk back down the stairs and put them in a bucket. He climbed the stairs fairly well but refused to pick up the critters. He then made his way down the stairs with Patty while holding onto the railing. He was doing really great. Up again to the landing and then a line of kids were coming down for recess. He walked down again and then stood at the bottom of the stairs and watched curiously as another line of children made their way down the stairs to go outside. It was really cute to see him so interested in these children. He seemed to want to follow them down the hall but stayed with me.
When we got to Amber's room I found out that we had a new student in the class! A little girl. Very cute and very tiny. I don't know what her primary diagnosis is but currently she is in a wheelchair and a body cast because of hip surgery. Her mother stayed in the room with us and we chatted a lot while the kids got busy. Jen stayed with Carson and Patty stayed with this little girl just to see what it was that she was capable of doing since she had only seen her profile in an email she had received.
Jen put Carson on a scooter board on his stomach and had him pull himself with his arms into the hallway. She grabbed a Magna-Doodle to take out into the hallway for a little fine motor as well. I decided since there seemed to be a lot of chaos going on that I would just sit and wait for them to return. Carson didn't seem to miss me too much, but I'm sure a lot of that had to do with the fact that he loves Jen-and I'm pretty sure she loves him too :)
Jen and Carson returned to the classroom and played on the floor with Play-Doh and alphabet stamps until it was time for Carson to go with LaQuita for speech.
I was really happy when we got to the table with LaQuita and she had her iPad ready to go for Carson. She had a new app called Bitsboard which is basically flash cards BUT instead of "This is the ______________" it will show 4 pictures and will ask which one doesn't match or which is an animal etc. Carson did great with this. I think it is because he gets the instant feedback from the app. In the end he ended up getting officially 6 out of 10 right but there were a few that were sort-of confusing. Pick the two that go together: It would have two pictures of fruit, a picture of a mouth and then a picture of a car. He would pick the fruit and the mouth. So while technically he got it wrong because they wanted both of the fruit pictures to match he also got it right because you eat fruit.
LaQuita then gave him his iPad and asked him to write his answers instead of touching the pictures on her iPad. He wasn't really into this but he was goofing off on it. She said something to him about being funny and he wrote "hilarious". We all cracked up at that one.
Because Patty wasn't able to work with him much because she was learning about the new little girl, she asked if we would be able to stay for about 15 minutes more so she could have some extra time with him. I said yes and was happy to sit with LaQuita and talk about Carson and my personal goals for him. She understood when I told her that I thought that he did much better working with an iPad or something similar as opposed to something that doesn't give any feedback.
Next week we have an IEP meeting before class. To save time Amber e-mailed me a copy to go over so they wouldn't have to spend a lot of time going over it with me. I have to admit it broke my heart. They have either changed the format of the way they are doing the IEP forms or I have just never paid attention to them before because this one had a LOT more information in it than I was prepared for.
Basically it states that in some areas such as speech and language he is measuring about where a 2-year-old would. Then in other areas such as gross motor he is only about where a 3-year-old is. ECO is a test they do that measures on a scale from 1-7 (7 being age appropriate with no concerns) to check for social and emotional skills (he scored a 3), Acquiring and Using Knowledge and Skills (he scored a 4), and Self-Help Skills (he scored a 3). It's heartbreaking. I know it have said it before but I swear as a mother you don't see your child's disabilities. I mean you SEE them but you don't really think about what it looks like to others, how professionals perceive your child.
Next week Carson has 3 appointments two of which are pediatrics and genetics. I think it's time that I really press them about what they think my options are regarding his future and what I should be planning for.
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