Services? We'll see!

So, I'm at that place now. Right before the evaluations, meetings, and other processes for Eden to give her that "check up" to see how she's doing. The dreaded IEP is going to happen in February and as any parent with a child on the "higher functioning" end of the spectrum you just wonder what the years successes and triumphs will actually mean for her. I am seriously freaked out.

The last evaluation for speech that Eden had was about 2 years ago, she was a little over 3. At this time she only barely put two words together, like "Drink please." Wouldn't answer you when you called her name. She would grab your hand to show you what she wanted and when requested to speak she would say the name of the item and sometimes add a please at the end. She could sometimes follow directions, but was distracted easily. And during her speech evaluation Eden did not say a word. Not one, which wasn't unusual, but when I showed up there it was to prove she DIDN'T have a speech issue and that bothered me most. She was evaluated between the ages of 7 months-18 months old in the categories in her speech evaluation then.

Now, she speaks clearly in 3-4 word sentences. Has some scripted sentences but can come up with some on her own. When you ask her a question she does repeat the question back to you, but I think it's her just trying to buy time to process her response. She has come such a long way. She converses with peers at school. She requests, asks questions, points out interesting items and is working very hard on identifying emotions of herself and others. I'll update you when I get a copy of the actual evaluation, but in my opinion, she has probably progressed to about a 3-4 year old developmental level.

I don't think I'm nervous about her losing services for speech, I do think she's still delayed enough to receive services. I'm not confident that they will stay at the level they are at for speech (She currently receives 2 hours a week). I'm going to guess they will cut it down to 1 hour a week. I sure won't even try to guess until I see her evaluation that is being done this month.

The service I'm really worried about losing is our Occupational Therapy(OT). Eden has been receiving OT services one day a week at school (this will be called school OT just to make it easier) and I've acquired additional OT outside of the school for an additional one hour a week (I'll just call it my private OT as it is paid first by my private insurance). I'm not quite sure if I've gotten into this too much here but OT at school has been a little difficult for me. I'm not sure why, she is a wonderful therapist, but for some reason we aren't on the same page when it comes to Eden, and that's ok with me. I've had issues like this before in this journey and I let them to their job and I'll do mine.

On the other hand, my private OT and I really are on the same wave length. We both have a good understanding of what Eden's strengths and weaknesses are. We communicate often, she offers suggestions to help with our life at home (she suggested the "break spot" we still use everyday). I'm not sure if she understands Eden because of the first time they met (It was an event for sure here is the blog about the second "big" panic attack Eden ever had). I'm sure it was as traumatizing to her (my OT) as it was the rest of us. In other words, we work very well as a team and are in agreement about Eden's needs, progress and the goals we are trying to reach.

At the time of the OT evaluation and at the last IEP meeting we had, I was told that the Department of Education (you could call them the school system but when you are not school age your in the lovely hands of CDS and let me tell you that's a treat LOL ) would not cover OT services for Eden strictly for sensory issues. For whatever reasons "they"(whoever "they" are) don't think that sensory issues are not considered educational issues. I know, and you don't have to tell me, but I can't change what "they" say. I think on a fine motor standpoint Eden is doing just fine and will not need OT for that anymore. The only think I can think of is if they will squeak her by to even be able to see an OT during the day once a week and they can do both fine motor and gross motor work. And that's where I think we will have some issues with the transition to kindergarten, but I'll have my private OT do up her paper work and submit it as well, so I'll at least know where she stands on the OT issue.

Those are the two things I'm worrying about with the up coming IEP, so far. The transition to kindergarten will require more meetings, observations and such and I'll keep things posted as they progress. There are going to be big choices for us also when it comes time for registering her for kindergarten also. I'll talk about those another time.