LOVE My Live

The meeting Thursday was a simple discussion about whether or not the team agrees that Christopher would benefit from specialized individualized instruction. We/They all agreed he would. He's eligible for Fairfax County Services. We will meet next week with the curriculum planners, they have thirty days to develop a formal IEP, but they said services could start after the first meeting. I had thought it would be just preschool, but the more I look into it, it could include other more intensive therapies, maybe in-home if it would be more beneficial. We'll see.

I met with FCPS/ChildFind yesterday to learn the results of his interdisciplinary team evaluation. It was, for the most part, an assignment of numerical value to the developmental delays we were aware of and have observed. I was somewhat surprised at the extent to which his language delay is already impacting his development in other areas. I am posting photos of the summary and recommendations from the report, you will see that his cognitive potential, fine and gross motor skills, and social-emotional development are all below normal. The only mitigating factor is that he was extremely uncooperative on test day, which surely impacted their ability to make more accurate assessments.



There is an elegibility determination committee meeting on Thursday to determine whether or not Christopher qualifies as a disabled child for county services. Without making any pre-determination specifically regarding Christopher, the school psychologist we're working with did say that she's never seen a child with scores as low as Christopher's who didn't qualify, so we are expecting Thursday to be a formality, and that he will indeed qualify for county serves. Following his elegibility hearing, they have 30 days to put together an Individual Education Plan (IEP) to address his deficiencies. Not sure what the possible broad scope of those recommended services might be, but we expect at least that he will be referred into the special needs preschool program.



Ok, here are the summary and recommendations, I will update this post with other detials as I am able, and of course will continue to post about my boy's progress through the process. Thanks for your love and support. ♥

Little Mister Christopher had a full audiological evaluation Friday, his ears appear fine upon examination and he tested normally in the sound booth and all other testing. Then two nice ladies tag-teamed him for a play-based full developmental assessment, for about two hours. JR & I were both there. Chris behaved just as I expected, participating willingly and cooperatively in what he thought was going to be fun, protesting the less fun, and no talking. He does make most vowel sounds, and a handful of the consonants, and he pairs them, but still no real words. Friday was strictly assessment, we got no feedback. Our next meetings are a parent conference on the 24th where we will receive their combined report(s), and then an eligibility determination hearing on the 27th where it will be determined whether he is eligible for county services. Then, if he is (and I assume he will be), they have 30 days to develop an Individual Education Plan (IEP), which I think goes into effect immediately upon its development. Several people within my network have already reached out to share their experiences with developmental delay, some parents, and other professionals who have offered advocacy. I will of course keep you posted.



These are Positive Vibes Streaming from Trenton, Maine! :)

I met with  FCPS Early Childhood Special Education Preschool Program's Local Screening Committee on Tuesday 11/16 and, as expected, Christopher was recommended for an initial evaluation to determine if he has a disability and requires special education. He is scheduled for three assessments, all on Friday 07 January 2011: 1) "Sociocultural" which is developmental history, family background, adaptive behavior, medical status, and educational history; 2) "Audiological" which is a complete assessment of hearing; and 3) the "Developmental"/Preschool looks at the areas of adaptive, cognitive, physical, communication, and social/emotional.



At this early stage, the process is more about determining his eligibility for county services. I'm sure later the process will shift to focus on identifying those services from which he will derive the most benefit, but in the meantime, I am wondering if we should start him in speech therapy right away through our medical coverage. I can't imagine how that would not be a good thing, but will probably check w/his designated social worker to a) make sure it won't impact his eligibility for county services, and b) to see if I can start services now with the same providers who the county might use anyway, so his therapy would continue uninterrupted.



I have a lot to learn about advocating for my "special needs" child, even if it is just in the short term. I sincerely hope that our Little Mister Christopher is in fact experiencing a temporary delay, and that therapy and treatment will get him fully up to speed quickly. While I am ready/willing/able to advocate for him, however much and for however long it takes, I do hope that his special needs will not need advocating throughout his entire schooling.

We are on the road to having Little Mister Christopher's language issues identified so we can get that boy talking! Our "case" goes before Fairfax County Early Childhood Special Education Preschool Program's Local Screening Committee on Tuesday 16 November. We are expecting he will be referred into the system for services.



My work friend, Michele, knew of a mutual contact whose child also exhibited developmental delays at about age three, so she put Dave & I in touch by email, we may meet for a bit on Tuesday if our work schedules permit. His son, also a Christopher, was diagnosed with Severe Apraxia, which of course I immediately Googled, and while I am not jumping to conclusions, many of the Apraxia indicators do seem to fit w/our Christopher's typical behavior. The Family Start Guide at Apraxia-Kids.org was a decent intro.



I told JR yesterday that his new job starts soon: he's about to become a full-time speech therapist. Whatever Christopher's particular language development diagnosis is, I feel certain he will be registered for at least speech therapy, and my initial research indicates that most parents have success with therapy at least three times per week. And of course the success of therapy depends on the willingness/ability of children and parents to practice at home. I hope therapy with a Speech Language Pathologist (SLP) includes teaching the parents, I'm thinking language therapy would be most effective done ALL THE TIME, we've got to turn language use into fun 24/7 language therapy.