IEP update

Today, we met with a team of therapists and educators from Wakefield Schools to discuss Riley's Individualized Education Program (IEP) which is to begin after he turns three. This is the final step in transitioning Riley's speech therapy from Early Intervention to the school district. We've been anxious to hear what they would offer to provide for him within their morning preschool special education (SPE) program.

With budget cuts affecting so many schools in this current economic environment, we didn't expect them to propose the number of individual sessions that was recommended by the SLP at Children's Hospital. She had recommended 2 individual sessions and 1 group session per week. Well, we were delighted to hear that the school district is going to give him what Children's recommended. Praise God! Even our EI therapist (who was present at the meeting) was surprised at what was offered for Riley. We walked out of the meeting feeling encouraged that our son will be given the tools needed to succeed in his language development.

He will start SPE on May 24th, the day after his birthday. He will attend 5 days per week from 8:15a - 10:45a. Each day has a different main activity such as going to gym class, doing show & tell or visiting the school library to check out a book for the week. His teacher told us that even when Riley is not in therapy, all the activities within the class are language-based activities. The other 3 year olds will have varying language skills so some of them will be modelers for him. There are a number of different preschool classes geared towards a variety of disabilities, so Riley's will be one of the higher functioning classes and the language is geared towards functional communication.

So things will be changing yet again for our boy as he gears up for SPE in May and "regular" preschool in June. Three days a week, he'll be going from SPE to preschool until I pick him up after work. The other two days he will continue to join Jonathan at the office as the "Associate Chiropractor" -- providing his own special adjustments, handing out ice packs and providing general entertainment for the patients.

I'm excited to see our son get exposed to so many new things and get the opportunity to develop in ways that he can't while being home with me. And yet, there is a sadness at seeing him exit another season of life now that he is our big boy going off to school. I do cherish this time that I have with him right now as it won't happen again (yep, this IS my last maternity leave). So I guess there's an ambivalence that I feel as these changes are about to take place.

Another thought that has come to me recently is how God led us to Wakefield, which has such a good reputation in taking good care of their SPE kids and families. Riley was only 9 months when we moved here, so we had no idea what a good school district this could be for him. Our EI contacts spoke very highly of the people they have worked with in Wakefield and so far, J and I have been impressed at their commitment to giving their best for the kids.

As God has provided so much for our son in bringing us here and giving us a great team of caring educators, we believe that Riley will begin to close the speech gap between himself and his peers. We're already seeing him try and say almost everything that we ask him to, including two-word combinations and multi-syllable words. That language explosion could be just around the corner!

We wrote that he is talking, babbling and singing all day long now. Did we mention that he is now saying his name for the first time? If you ask him his name, he'll tell you it's "Rah Rah". Articulation will come later -- we're just thrilled to hear him trying out new and difficult words.

We love our Riley-boy!

Shelby