Monday, June 29, 2009

IEP tomorrow

Like it says, its tomorrow. Hopefully, things will go as planned. Hopefully, we won't have to be the total hard asses we are planning to be. I really think that with the SLP and the special education teacher we met at his evaluations running the IEP, it should be fine.

Regardless, we are prepared. We have a list of three goals for Speech, Adaptive, and Social/ Emotional development that we have come up. We are also trying to come up a Positive Behavioral Intervention Plan. Given the information about corrective actons- strapping a child into a chair designed for low tone without an explanation- we want to be sure that we have something in place.

Little Bug is humming along marveously. He is beginning to pretend in unscripted ways. Last night, his trucks had a conversation:

TRUCK 1- falls down and says- DAMMIT! (i know we need to work on that)
TRUCK 2- Help you?
TRUCK 1- Peese help!
TRUCK 2- One second, one second. (drives over rather slowly) What doing?
TRUCK 1- Fall down
TRUCK 2- It otay. Get up! (pushes Truck 1 upright)
TRUCK 1- Thank you!
TRUCK 2- Welcome! Be safe! (crashes repeatedly into our dog Frank's leg and then is carried away by his jaws of death)

Minus the swear word- which is mild considering what his daddies' have unthinkingly said- this was amazing! He didn't have anyone prompt him or help him. He just did it. Now, we just need to transfer this over to actual interaction with people- especially peers. Interaction never goes this way in real life.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Dare I say it?

Little Bug got a new big boy bed last night courtesy of the Nas-Nas. He was so excited that he shook. He ran around telling us about his big boy bed- BROWN! BIG! Yeena's!

After Nick and I got it put together- which for an Ikea piece of furniture involved very little cursing or yelling- Little Bug immediately scrambled up on to it.

He demanded sheets, which we didn't have for a twin. I managed to oragami style make the bed with a queen sheet. He asked for his pillow, a minky- that's binky to you, and a milkshake (that is what he calls his milk. It gets him to drink it, so really, I am not going to be too specific.)

He wanted to lay down in it and go to sleep. He was pretty miffed that I wasn't going to sleep with him. Yells for Daddy BAKE echoed for a while. He finally quieted down and then came back to our bed.

It seems as though we won't be co-sleeping too much longer. He is becoming more independent every day.

He has begun to sit and pee on the potty- of his volition. He has, in fact, earned two potty reweards.

He can now take most of his clothes- damn those shirts- off by himself. He can also put his pants, little swimmers, and socks and shoes on by himself.

I know that most people are excited when their kids can do these things. For the most part I am. I have to admit that with school coming in the fall and these independent actions, I feel a little lost. Little Bug has been so dependent on us for so much longer than most kids, that these bursts of independence leave me feeling a little lost.

Saturday, June 6, 2009

Little Bug's evaluations

They went amazing! The team involved were really personable and took the time to really get to know Little Bug and us. I am sure that this is built in to a certain degree- as it was obvious that they had an interview portion for the parents with a list of questions and then moved on to the evaluations- but they seem to go above an beyond with us. They scheduled our time away from the normal cattle call affair.

For cognitive, they used the Battelle test and Little Bug scored a 95 without hitting a ceiling. He was having trouble sitting, so that made all the tests take longer and they gave us the option of moving on to a new test or hitting a ceiling with him. We chose moving on because he still had fine motor evaluations and it was getting to be nap time.

For gross motor, they cancelled the evaluation based on his performance throughout the day. The PT came by, but stated that because what she had seen him do, she didn't feel an evaluation was necessary. Nick and I agreed as that has never been a concern with our little Houdini.

For Speech, they didn't hit a ceiling and he was performing with some errors into the 42 to 47 month range. She was concerned about the amount of echoing he was doing and also about some of the pronunciations of words. She also said that his utterances weren't long enough and that he wasn't forming functional sentences- more just commenting by placing two words together.

For fine motor, he aced everything at a 4 to 5 year old level except for the writing portion which he did at a 3 year old level. The OT gave us recommendations for activities to better his grip at home.

Recommendations:

The ASD Program director was with us during the interview part and made it clear that she felt an Autism Preschool would be good for Lennon because of the extended day program. She really advocated for class from hell, but we calmly and politely explained that we didn't feel it was structured enough based on our visit and that it appeared to be to made up of a lot of unstructured play time. She thought that we might wasnt to go visit another program. It was interesting that in this discussion, recommendations weren't made by her and the PT based off of the closest school, but which school they felt he would have the best peers. This was different from when the Special Education director came to our house because he stressed closest above all else. I don't think we heard him say "appropriate" without including the phrase "the closest school with"...

speech- one on one speech at school as well as group
OT- available to deal with sensory issues but no individualized therapy.

The SLP and the Special Education teacher felt that Little Bug should be placed in general special education preschool. The teacher felt that he was past a lot of the kids placed in the ASD program and that the regular special education groups would make better peers. We stated that we felt that this would be the appropriate route, however we did not feel that 2 days a week would be consistent enough for him. They said that its normally up to his teacher to make that determination, but that they could ask the director on our behalf if Little Bug would be allowed 4 days. I heard them ask him and his response was- Damn straight he needs 4 days.

Its funny how nothing turned out as badly as we thought it would. Now, Nick and I are going to focus on writing starter IEP goals as well as a positive intervention plan to bring to the IEP meeting. We are hoping to have them done so that our team can review before the meeting and give feedback.

Funny side note, I received my own set of recommendations during the meeting. They continuously asked if Nick and I were educators or therapists, and our answer was no- we read a lot of books and pay attention. The ASD director and I talked about video modeling, ABA, task analysis and she asked me, have you thought about being an educator? You could at least be a consultant to other parents. It was a huge ego boost.

They kept telling us that they were amazed at how far he had come- based off of his report from our Neurologist, his original Vineland, as well as his IFSP from the county. They stated that we must do an amazing job of following through at home and that he was lucky to have us. We said thank you over and over again and were honestly quite surprised. We were expecting the no nonsense abruptness that has been our previous contact with the school district and we treated amazingly well.

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Transition Report

As we get ready for Little Bug's IEP evaluation and meeting, we have been getting his reports in order. I wanted to share with you his transition report for his current program.

Attendance history:
Little Bug receives education services from XXXX in the form of 2 60-minute one-on-one sessions (one at home and one at the center) per week and 3 90-minute developmental playgroup sessions per week. Little Bug has excellent attendance and has only missed playgroup and one-on-one education sessions due to illness and doctor’s appointments.
Little Bug also receives 1 60 minute occupational therapy session and one speech therapy session every week. Information regarding occupational and speech therapy services can be found in separate reports.


Student’s interests & strengths:
Little Bug is an extremely bright, endearing little boy who enjoys playgroup and playing with his therapists. Some of his favorite activities include playing with play dough, drawing with markers, stringing beads, completing puzzles, and playing in the sandbox or sensory table. Little Bug loves sea life, particularly sharks, and will happily point out any shark or ocean creature that is visible to him. 

Little Bug is very social and will initiate play with adults. When he started our program, Little Bug primarily used signs (up to 60 signs were used without prompting) and single words to communicate. Currently, he uses 2-3 word utterances unprompted.

Little Bug also uses a point to request and comment. Lately, he has become extremely proficient at using a point paired with eye contact to comment.



Student’s areas of challenge & helpful instructional strategies:

Little Bug has moments where he is inflexible in his play. For example, wanting his trains to go only a certain direction on the tracks, getting frustrated when a shark is drawn on his paper without a fin or eye, or becoming upset if he gets the wrong color bowl at snack time. Little Bug has been working through these incidents with adult support encouraging him to “be flexible.” Little Bug also may become stuck on a highly preferred activity such as outdoor push cars & lawnmowers, trains, and other toy vehicles. He usually needs adult support to calmly transition to a new activity. Occasionally he needs to go take a break in a “calm down” area when these events happen. Little Bug has begun spontaneously choosing to go over to the “calm area” and look at a book when he becomes upset. He typically calms within a couple of minutes and makes a new activity choice.

Notes on IFSP goals & present levels/progress:
Little Bug will use a variety of two-word combinations to request, comment, and protest. To request, Little Bug will often use the sentence stem “want ____.” Lately, he will often self-correct himself and say, “I want ____ please.” We are now working on expanding Lennon’s expressive language to include more of a variety of commenting stems. For example, “I have ___,” “I see____,” and “It’s a ____.” Progress made.

Little Bug will use at least 5 descriptive (i.e. big, little, pretty, soft, etc.) words when he comments on an object or picture. Little Bug has independently used “big” and “little” when commenting about objects, as well as saying their respective colors if applicable, but has not expanded beyond that. He will imitate an adult who uses “pretty” or “soft.” Progress made.

Little Bug will correctly answer yes/no questions when asked. Little Bug answers “yes” and “no” to both preferred and non-preferred objects as well as answering to the identity of an object (i.e. is this a dog?) the majority of the time. Lately, Little Bug has been repeating the name of the object instead of answering “yes” or “no” to preference questions. Goal almost met!

Little Bug will receptively identify a) shapes b) colors c) actions in pictures d) attributes. Little Bug is able to identify circle, star, square, triangle, and triangle, as well as blue, green, red, yellow, orange, and purple. Little Bug has identified many actions in pictures including walking, jumping, crying, blowing, sleeping, and eating. For attributes, Little Bug is able to identify big and little independently. a) Goal met b) Goal met c) Goal met d) Progress made.

Little Bug will follow two- step directions a) with contextual cues b) without contextual cues. Currently, Little Bug needs contextual cues to successfully complete a two-step direction, although he has followed a few directions independently. Progress made.

Little Bug will interact with peers by a) initiating social interactions with peers in a variety of ways (throws a ball to another child, asks for a turn with a toy) b) maintaining a social interaction (waits for the other child to throw the ball back, waits while the other child takes a turn and then asks for another turn).
Little Bug will give peers a high five or give them an item with a verbal reminder from an adult. Little Bug consistently holds hands with familiar peers with a verbal direction from an adult. He rolls a ball back and forth or plays chase with a peer with adult physical and verbal support. Little Bug independently maintained an interaction of holding hands with one of his peers during a game of “Red Light, Green Light” and is beginning to independently seek out a peer to hold his or her hand during this game. Little Bug also maintained rolling a ball up and down the slide to a peer for multiple turns with minimal adult support. Little Bug has begun identifying familiar peers by their names. Progress made.


Little Bug will remain calm when told that it is time to be all done with a preferred activity and transition to a new activity with a verbal reminder. In one-on-one, Little Bug does a nice job of ending a preferred activity and choosing a new activity when given a warning. Occasionally, Little Bug needs help choosing the next activity and needs an adult to give him a choice, but is mostly independent in this task. In a playgroup setting, he is now doing a nice job of ending play with push toys & ride on toys during outside time, but continues to struggle with ending play with highly preferred toys like trains and vehicles during indoor play. Little Bug is given a warning that an activity will be ending and sometimes a timer is used to make it clear when it is time to be all done. If he becomes upset, he is given a chance to “take a break” or sit in a “calm down” area until he is ready to make a new activity choice. Progress Made.

Little Bug will identify objects by a) function (what the object is used for) b) feature (identifiable characteristics) c) class (i.e. animals, food, etc.). Little Bug has identified the following items by function: fork, spoon, bed, book, car, toothbrush, and chair. Feature: wheels, tail, laces, wings, and house. Little Bug has sorted the following items by class: animals, food, vehicles, shapes, colors, and people. a) Goal met b) Goal met c) Goal met!

Little Bug will demonstrate a concept of one (i.e. when the teacher holds out a handful of crackers and says “Take one,” Little Bug takes only one cracker). Little Bug does a fantastic job of taking only one item when asked to do so. He has demonstrated this skill with fish crackers, pegs, balls, and markers. He demonstrates this skill in a group setting as well. Goal met!

Little Bug will engage in turn taking exchanges a) first with adults and b) then with peers by requesting a turn, taking his turn, & giving the item back to the other person when they request a turn. a) When taking turns with adults, Little Bug has become better about waiting his turn. He sometimes needs an adult to say, “wait” and help him count (usually to 5) while the adult takes his turn. Little Bug can play a simpler version of Cariboo or Barnyard Bingo with up to 3 adults. b) With most items and simple games like Cariboo or Tic Tac Tony, Little Bug can take short turns with peers with adult support. Adult support may include verbally reminding Little Bug to give the item to his peer, verbally reminding him to “wait”, or helping him count while he waits. Little Bug struggles some with sharing highly preferred items like vehicles or sea life, but has made a lot of progress! For example, Little Bug will calmly play with trains alongside other children that are playing with trains. With an adult near him, he will play with his trains with few to no attempts to grab the trains other children are playing with. Progress made.

Little Bug will independently participate in group activities, such as snack time and circle time, by: a) sitting and attending for 5-10 minutes b)imitating adults actions with & without objects c) following routine directions. a) Little Bug sits and attends to snack times without an adult sitting behind him, but needs verbal reminders to stay seated on average three times during a 10-15 minute snack time. Little Bug and joins and participates in routine group games like parachute time & “Red Light, Green Light”. Little Bug attends to circle time without a parent sitting nearby. He sometimes needs adult support to join the beginning of circle and a teaching assistant sits a few feet away during circle time. Very recently, Little Bug has had difficulty with inflexibility during circle including crying or laying down on the floor when he gets the wrong color of circle prop or when a song is selected that he doesn’t want. If the rest of the group continues with the song, Little Bug is usually able to self calm and participate in circle time. Goal Nearly Met. b) Little Bug imitates a wide variety of routine actions at snack time and actions with and without objects in preferred circle time songs. Goal Met. c) Little Bug follows familiar directions within the context of group routines like snack, circle, and parachute time. Goal Met.

Again, Again!

That's right, Little Bug did it again! He asked to go on the potty last night and successfully went.

He won't go when we ask him- only when he wants to. I am not sure how hard core we should be about this. To me, it seems like the more casual we are about it, the more likely there will be success for him as he will feel that he is in control.

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Unbelievable!

I believe that Little Bug has a check list of ways to one up our expectations. For example, yesterday during therapy, we were telling therapist A that Little Bug was counting to 7 by himself. She congratulated him by saying, "Little Bug, I'm so excited to hear that you can count to seven!" He answer, "Eight... Nine... Ten..." very casually while playing with his toys.

Of course, that was a small feat compared to his other development. On Saturday, I was giving him a bath and he stood up and said, "Want potty!". He then climbed out of the bath tub and sat on the big potty. He didn't do anything on it, but it was super exciting to see him be interested.

Not to be outdone by himself, on Sunday, he took his diaper off, and asked for the potty again. This time, he used it. He peed in the potty! We were so excited for him.

Now, not to say that he is anywhere close to potty trained- he very much is about doing this on his terms- but this is a really exciting development. We haven't been offering or even thinking about it, so for him to suddenly be interested in it is amazing.

Wish us luck and dryness! ;)