Tri-annual IEP

Eden has been officially in the Special Education "system" for 3 years now. From now until she graduates school (or doesn't need any services), Eden will have a huge battery of tests every 3 years. These are done for two reasons; First, to make sure she qualifies for special education services like Speech Therapy, Occupational Therapy and her Educational Technician (in class aide). Second, to make sure they have an accurate account of progress and goals for her to be successful.

This is a lot of hard work for Eden, she has to be pulled out of the classroom for Occupational Therapy, Speech Therapy, Pshycoeducational, and Academic evaluations. With those evaluations the testing methods they used pretty close to 20 testing methods, questionnaires and classroom observations to complete the evaluations. It's pretty intense stuff. After everything is finished they put all the data into these reports that are between 5 and 13 pages long with scores, descriptions, conclusions and recommendation  Ultimately, it's from those things we formulate a plan for her teachers and therapist to use to work on her weaknesses to make her successful. Sounds like a lot for a six year old doesn't it? It really is, but she did so very well.

When all of the testing is done the whole team sits down reads through all the evaluations, talks about Eden (A LOT because it's all about her right?) and then decides what the plan is. The evaluation results were not surprising and across the board she showed strengths and weaknesses in the same areas as she has in the past. Her language skills are getting better and better every year. She has problems coming up with her own words but will use appropriate scripts to help her through situations (a BIG help when you have a communication delay) Her social skills are hit or miss depending on the day.

Her writing is a little behind or she refuses completely so we all agree it will get there (or even is there if she does it). Math is one of the things we are not sure she'll grasp well for next year so we are looking into her being pulled out for small group help as the Math program they use changes all the time and may not give her enough time to really learn concepts. Long term memory is great which wasn't a surprise but her short term memory is very below age level. We also found that across the board any testing she had with a time limit she did very poorly, this doesn't mean she can't do it. This just means she will probably perform differently than she would if it wasn't timed.

 She is a great friend and hard worker when she wants to be. It was also mentioned that Eden was caught trying to look at the answers during one of the evaluations. She was with her Occupational Therapist and doing a writing task. This is a first of all the people present and we all got a good chuckle out of it and would make sure to note for all further testing to make sure the answers were out of sight.

Also, I should mention that all of these evaluations have specific things that need to be done and the wording or process can't really be changed when giving these tests so unless she really understands what they are asking in the way they are asking it she will not receive the "full credit" for what they are testing for. This is the nature of all the standardized testing that she will need for the rest of her schooling.

There were lists and lists made of things we can use for Eden to help her in the classroom. When I get her final papers with the "signed" plan back I'll share what everyone came up with. Overall, it went well and there were no real surprises because I talk to her teachers, therapists and aides all the time. Everything is staying the same as services go but there will be more specific goals written with some therapists. Summer services were already determined and given at our last IEP meeting with speech and OT therapies as well.

There is so many other things to get to because we've been super busy when it comes to Eden lately. I'll update soon hopefully.