On Monday, the kids went over to Grammy and Poppy's house after school. I had a busy day of meetings at school. Jeff and I met up at the Oracle View and saw "District 9." Then, Jeff got the kids.
On Tuesday, I took the kids to school in the morning and rushed back to make a webinar at 9AM. Jeff and I went to meet with a person from the school system about Henry's entrance into their program. She had us fill out forms and explained their services. At age 3, kids are discharged from "early intervention" and the school system takes over the services.
Our son's developmental coordinator was there with results from a test that she did over the telephone with me. I wasn't keen on the test b/c it wanted yes/no responses, where half the time I felt "sometimes" was the correct answer.
I told the school district person that our concerns were primarily fine and gross motor oriented. The most pressing concerns are the continued toe-walking and holding of the right arm into the body when running.
The EI coordinator basically said that he was fine (around 50th percentile in most areas). Look at the yes/no test. Blah, blah, blah. The school district person told her that the test she had used was unreliable, especially with gross and fine motor skills.
Long story short, we have to get his hearing tested and we have to have the opthamalogist send the eye report. Once received, Lisa, the school district person, will schedule a 1.5 hour evaluation with their on-site PT, OT, and ST. Had we known that we needed the reports, we would have copied the eye exam from November. Per the EI coordinator's directions (which didn't mention the hearing or eye exams needed), we brought his birth certificate, proof of residency, and vaccination records. Turns out Lisa didn't need all of that until he is officially in their system.
We've been trying to get an OT evaluation for the past 6 weeks through our son's former OT, but her office isn't returning calls in a timely fashion. I've been leaving messages. They don't pick up their telephone. The OT's office finally got ahold of the EI coordinator to make sure that the state would pay for the exam. But the person from the OT's office insisted that we wanted a feeding evaluation, which confused the heck out of the EI coordinator, who really doesn't know Henry well. I was floored. Where did the person get that from? The OT's office was under the impression that Henry had serious feeding issues (he doesn't...that was 2 years ago; we just need a fine motor exam) and yet they've been dragging their feet making an appointment. What the heck? If a child was having serious feeding issues, wouldn't it make sense to call the parents right away? Geez. I mean, thank goodness that our son doesn't have those issues now, but I'm still frustrated that this is how "the system" works. What happens to kids whose parents aren't as proactive as we are? Do the kids just starve while the OT's office staff just sit on their behinds? I'm so disappointed in the OT's office that we decided to have the school district do the OT evaluation. Besides, it will give us a chance to have someone evaluate Henry with fresh eyes.
The school district person was very focused on speech. It truly isn't a concern of ours, which surprised her. She said that almost all of the kids that they see have speech issues. Based on their rules, he'll have to have an ST evaluation, which he hasn't had since 9-10 months adjusted. We think that he's ahead on speech, but our parental goggles could probably use a cleaning.
In order to qualify for the program, he has to be "delayed" in 2 areas. Given our specific concerns, I walked out of the meeting telling Jeff that Henry isn't going to qualify. I doubt that they will consider his issues enough of a concern to be in the program. He toe walks, but he can walk. He holds his arm in an unique way, but he *can* use both sides. He has some issue undressing (e.g. can't take off shirt consistently, doesn't take off socks by himself).
My biggest general concern is that I want to make sure that if he were to develop other issues down the road, he'd be able to get into the program. I reiterated that there was empirical evidence to suggest that micropreemie problems (or VLBW problems in general) often don't rear their ugly heads until later. The school district person seemed sensitive to that concern. Her eyes popped a bit when she saw the birth weight at 570 grams. She implied that evaluations could also be done later if there was a need. So that was good.
After the meeting, Jeff and I went to lunch and then did some Christmas shopping. We picked up Henry at school. Miss Marisa told Jeff that Miss Stephanie had reported that Henry was aggressive today (pushing and shoving). I believe that Marisa doesn't watch Henry's class until 3:30PM. She said that she hadn't witnessed any problems. In the car, Henry said that his ears hurt and he stuck his fingers in his ears. We were wondering if that spurred his bad temper. He could also be learning from others. I've noticed that a couple kids in his class are hitters.
Miss R arrived home shortly after we did. She was happy to see us. No problems there.
Today makes the official transfer date of Miss R's case from CPS to St. Nicholas. We haven't heard anything, but I suspect that a case manager hasn't been assigned yet.
Henry and Miss R didn't eat much at dinner. Henry wanted to finish watching Treasure Island. He liked the scene where the pirates are chasing young Jim. Henry landed in timeout three times. He tried to hit Miss R. After being in timeout, he tried to take an unopen snack from her. He was just not in a good frame of mind.
Miss R and I talked with Aunt Carolyn. Then it was teeth and bed.
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