We made it through the ARD process for this year!!! YAY!! Thanks for some great suggestions from some friends who have special needs children as well as some friends of mine who are special needs teachers (KB - you rock!).
We went in with some concerns - especially as it related to his progression this year. Jake really showed no sign of improvement this year. His writing and reading are still below target. The one area that he made great improvement in is his speech - that has improved tremendously! From what his speech coach had to say - Jake is doing well - he just has to learn how to make sounds in the back part of his mouth for certain words and then the other sounds come from the front (stuff you and I probably NEVER think about or even knew for that matter!!! LOL). Like when Jake means to say "fine" -it comes out as "phine" I took speech for 4 years as well - my name was Kawen Kay Patwick and my teacher was Ms. Pewwy (Perry)....so, I guess he gets it honestly.....LOL
One of the changes next year will be that he will be pulled out for 30 minutes a week for small group reading.......this is the only pull out that we are doing........the rest will be in full class participation.
He will also get Occupational therapy which will help with his letter writing.......
He will also get his aid that comes into the classroom with him 2x a day to help in center time
He will also continue to get speech
and we made a teacher request and that has passed too!!! Now, to figure out how to tell him he is repeating kindergarten................how this breaks my heart - but I know it is definitely needed.
He is turning 6 next Friday - May 29th.....so he was actually a young 5 year old in school due to his prematurity (3 months early) so I think he will do much better in kindergarten next year.....
One good thing is all the teachers LOVE him. They love helping him and watching him grow.....I know it's because I pray God's favor over him all the time! They all said that he is very expressive and has no problem telling you what he thinks or what he likes and doesn't like......I wonder where that comes from???? lol
thanks to all of you for your prayers! These ARDS are only going to get tougher - I know.
oh yeah -btw - we are having a thorough testing done with Bonnie Brookshire, Ph.D (she was recommended by our pediatrician) - she is a Clinical Neuropsychologist; Speech-Language Pathologist. She evaluates children with developmental and acquired neurological/neuropsychiatric disorders (don't worry - jake doesn't need a psychiatrist) - LOL. She consults with parents, schools, and other professionals involved in the development of appropriate interventions, educational curriculums, and life care plans. Basically - this is an extensive testing to see if all Jake has a problem with is focus. The school diagnosis is ADHD - not the hyper side - but the lack of focus. what she will do is see if there is something else there or if he is needing additional services at school to help him comprehend......I'm excited about this......we go in the summer - I'll keep you posted.
Hope you all have a great Memorial Day Weekend. Love a veteran! Show them we appreciate all they do for us.
Be Blessed.
karen
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2 comments:
If it comforts you any, many artistic/musical or better said 'fine arts' children are ADD(Trying to educate you....that's without the 'hyper side') Of course I had one with ADHD. Now with age and maturity its just ADD. ADD kids are awesome. They can multi-task so much better than the norm. They can listen to music, read, a book and hear everything said in another room. Yeah, becareful or he'll be repeating it, too! lol
Mine read books in church 'til she was 9 and could still tell you everything that was said. So see it's not all bad!!! ha You will just need lots of 'time outs' for yourself! People say the meds drug them to be zombies. We never experienced that either. I guess when they truly need the meds it doesn't have those issues. We did face difficulty with her going to bed at night until we got the dosage correct.
You'll make it!!! Jake will, too.
Karen, I haven't checked your blog for a while, so, so sorry! ARDs--I probably conducted thousands during my years as a teacher. I always felt so bad for the parents who endured them! Fight for Jake...you can get what you want in most cases. You have to be the one to push for your child!!! And will all the prayers that have gone up for Jake, he is going to do really well.
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