School Decisions

January 10, 2008

Having a child with developmental delays means constantly thinking ahead about what to do next year.  Every decision with any child regarding education is critical, but with a delayed child it is even more so.  We have to think about what her limitations are, what her strengths are and what her needs are.  Our need for Holly is speech and her delay in this area.  Ball park guess she is now at about the 2-2.5 yr level.  Which is far better then when she was tested at 2.5 and was about 1-1.5 yrs behind.  Though the delay is the same she is now able to communicate a lot of her wants and needs.  Her moments of frustration, which would result in screaming followed shortly buy “shutting down” are almost gone.  She can now ether say the work or show me the item she wants.  She has even developed her “own sign” for things that only we understand.  WE are communicating and that has made life better for all of us.

Yesterday we had our annual meeting with the special needs preschool director, her speech therapist and the director of her pre-school as well as her teacher.  We are always so nervous about the meeting.  Some of our thoughts and fears are that they will take her out of therapy to soon.  Then there is the “cafeteria” of options we review and which one do you want to follow.  This is the nerve racking part!  What if we make the wrong decision and “mess” up her life!  Every option has as many pro’s as con’s and then you factor in the equation the state funded lottery part and then you get the nott in your stomach.  Though this plan looks good she may not be picked and then what do we do?  It is so frustrating because you walk out of the meeting feeling like you still don’t know what the plan is!  This year to add to it Holly will not be able to have the same teacher she has had for the last 3 school years.  This is not necessarily a bad thing, but it is still a concern.  We also had some real concerns about the pre-K teachers and there ability to work with Holly.  You have to maintain a level of patients with her.  If you try to push her to fast to make a decision or give you an answer (especially verbally) she will shut down an not try. 

With the meeting over we do have some defanant goals and objectives.  Manly though we have to explore the 3 different schooling options she will have.  Two of which are based on a lottery system.  Of course those are the two options we want, so we have to hope our “luck” is better then usual.  However, the two best options also mean putting her in all day school and taking her out the private Christian school she is currently attending.  We love the program and have been able to allow our son to complete Kindergarten through this program.  His kindergarten teacher is such a sweet and loving women I hate that Holly may not have her as well.  However, we have to get through pre-K first and that could be a problem.  We are now going to have a meeting with director about teacher selection for Holly next year and whom might be the best fit.  The upside to not going to private pre-K and kindergarten is more $$ for private therapy, something that has greatly helped her.  We would be able in to increase our sessions (it is all out of pocket,,but that is another rant all together!)  After all these decisions and “investigating” are done we will have yet another meeting to transition her from the special needs pre-K program to the public school system.

So back to square one,,,what are we going to do for Holly next year?  To be continued……..