A month of changes

God has been so good to us during this season of changes. Liam being in school was always a bad idea when we first considered it and having a team on board that thought he could do it along with the positive changes we saw take place in Liam over the last year brought us to the decision that we should try it.

I am truly ecstatic to see Liam loving it. Liam only goes 3 1/2 hours a day and last week when I picked him up, wheeled him out to the truck, and opened his door, he started crying. He had full on tears with the rumpled up face. Liam pretty much never cries so I asked him if he was upset about leaving school and if he wanted to go back inside. He immediately stopped crying and looked at me. I told him he could have five more minutes and I wheeled him back inside where we surprised everyone by showing back up.

The staff was so happy to hear the story and it makes this momma's heart glad to know that he loves being there as much as he does and they love having him there. To know that your child is loved on by others is such a gift and when dealing with the needs Liam has, it's a special soul that looks past it all and loves on him anyway. Honestly, we have been truly blessed to have a lot of caring people in Liam's life, from church, to friends, to school, Liam's challenges have been overlooked by many an adult and they have loved on him in spite of them.

Math lesson

Circle time around the board for math

Liam's awesome one to one mentor Ronnie. He LOVES her.

I had Liam's annual IEP yesterday and it went really well. I think the goals they have are well thought out and the amount of interaction between therapists looks promising. One of the biggest changes for us is that because of Liam's success in the room and his desire to be there we are increasing his time to 4 hours 15 min a day.  Liam will start his day at 8:45 and end at 1:00.  I am really happy about the increase because when I would pick Liam up at 12:30 he would be in the middle of the math lesson and I always feel bad about having him leave before it's over. I would be taking him out of the circle and interrupting his lesson. It's probably part of the reason he got so upset at me the other day.

 

Liam's stamped tree

Liam was really proud of this cat mask.  He chose brown ears and the orange for the face and whenever I talk to him about it he just grins his silly grin. His teacher wasn't sure he really wanted brown because everyone else was choosing black but he told her twice that that was what he wanted and I think he's super proud of himself for making his own choices and seeing the results of it. 

Liam is having a great time. He's learning a lot. He's engaged with his teachers, therapists, and peers and he loves being there.  I'm so grateful for the support we are receiving and for the mentor God provided. It's truly been a wonderful season of change.

Bye Bye Preschool

Liam is hitting a big milestone this month. He is finishing up his preschool years and will be leaving behind the slew of therapists and teachers we've come to know and love over the last few years. We will be saying good-bye and starting a new adventure with new therapists and new teachers when he starts KINDERGARTEN this fall.

We have had some tough decisions to make as to what is in the best interests of Liam for his education. I have felt pressure to put Liam in the school setting for numerous reasons, with the most important reason being that he would be able to learn (which he loves to do) and be visited by therapists better than what he could receive at home. If we decided to homeschool Liam like we do our other kids, Liam would only be able to receive minimal services from already overloaded therapists who would have to take their primary caseloads first then fit Liam in if they could. UNLESS Liam would be determined medically unfit for school, then he would be a primary student for them and would receive proper amounts of services.

Liam isn't medically fragile though. It can be said that there is a definite safety concern because he does have an airway issue that remains a high concern for me. He also has a tiny issue I might have mentioned here before: he throws up a lot. Last year, I felt that the teachers and therapists didn't feel Liam needed a one on one and was told it's very unlikely he would get one (that it's very rare) which had me very, very concerned about sending him off to kindergarten. After that IEP I let the school year transpire with out much concern about kindergarten. I knew I wouldn't feel safe leaving Liam without a one on one and figured I would be telling them as much when the end of this year came around.

We are now gearing up for a final big meeting to prepare everyone for Liam's arrival. There are a lot of reports to go through. His file is huge. He isn't a simple placement. He could honestly go either way: home bound or in a special needs classroom. We could surely have the airway concern and vomiting issue be such an issue that it allows Liam to be home bound. Or, we could insist on the one one one so that Liam is getting the proper care while receiving an education that Liam deserves.

However we decide, there has been numerous therapists, teachers, psychologists, and us parents going over all of his files and wanting to do what's best for Liam.

IEP 2011

The dreaded 3 letters in a special needs school year, IEP (individualized education plan), took place for Liam last week.  They are typically awful for parents because the school tries to put in perspective the child's disabilities, abilities, how they can best work with your child, and what they think our child needs. Usually it falls short of the parent's expectations and can be heart wrenching seeing on paper what they think your child is or is not capable of doing..

Liam's went pretty well, considering. We get the descriptive moniker of multiply disabled which helps encompass the fact that Liam is blind, has cp, and can't communicate well because of his motor limits and vision issues. We luck out that Liam's birthday falls in Nov. He will only be 4 in two weeks. It means he gets an extra year of preschool at home before starting kindergarten so we didn't have to work in to this years IEP preparation for kindergarten. He'll be going on 6 before he actually gets there.

This year we had some changes at the beginning of the year; a new preschool teacher and a new occupational therapist.  I'm not one for change when it comes to Liam because it takes such a long time to get to know him. But we lucked out with our preschool teacher this year. She's amazing. She is energetic, not afraid of trying to get 'inside' Liam and she is always figuring out what to do to best achieve goals for Liam. 

At the IEP you have to have everyone involved with Liam's services there. So we had:

• occupational therapist
• physical therapist
• speech language pathologist
• preschool teacher
• vision teacher

The parent has to agree with the IEP. If you don't you can voice your concerns, what you would like to see, or what you think needs to be done different.

They decided that Liam should have extra services this year which is a great thing because it means he is 'doing things'*. They have upped his preschool time and upped his speech by an additional hour each week. I love it because whatever it takes to get to Liam I'm willing to do. And because it means he's doing things worthy of more education.



*Liam nailed his colors two weeks in a row. I told them a while back that he knows them but he has to prove it to them in order for it to be documented on his goals.

Individualized Education Plan or IEP for short

Because Liam is delayed he has received services through our early intervention program starting when he was just a few months old. Therapists come to your home and work with you and your child in order to help them get a good start and get your child the assistance they need to progress developmentally.

This last year we decided to take Liam for private therapy in a clinic setting because he finally qualified for Medicaid and they wouldn't allow us to do private and in-home services at the same time. By going private we were able to give Liam consistent therapy on an ongoing basis 5 times a week (3 sessions on Wed. and 2 sessions on Fri.). With early intervention we were lucky to get 3 in a week. Having medicaid and being able to go the route we have has been a big blessing for Liam. He has blossomed in the last 6 months.

Because he is globally delayed, when he turns 3 he has the right to start receiving services through the school district instead. And Liam will be 3 in just a few short weeks!

To get Liam ready, the school contacted us a while back and I met with them to make sure they had all of the proper info about Liam. Then we set up a time for me to bring Liam to school and have an entire team meet with him (OT, PT, SLP, LEA teacher, psychologist, and vision teacher). Liam did ok at this assessment but I knew and they knew that they didn't get a good picture of who Liam is and what he can do with his limited skills. So I was thrilled when the PT asked if she could come to the home and see him in his world.

*Totally irrelevant picture

When the PT came to the house, I showed Liam off as best I could. He was having a great day that day and I knew she was getting to see the real 'Liam'. She said it would really help them in writing the IEP now that she had come to his home.

Well, we finally met today at the school for the big IEP meeting. I had been nervous about it but excited at the same time. I knew that by getting services through the school it would open up new experiences and opportunities for Liam that he doesn't receive right now in the clinic. But I was afraid of what the IEP goals would be/wouldn't be and if they would just say 'Liam's too complicated' (I'm pretty sure they wouldn't say that but I was still nervous).

At the meeting today we went over Liam's strengths and weaknesses and what kind of goals we were looking at making for him in this next year. He is right at the next stage/level for so many things and those were all written into the IEP for him. But the biggest thing for Liam is that they are going to work with him in his world. The OT, PT, SLP, vision, and LEA teacher will all come to our house to help Liam. Not only does that save me time in driving him back and forth to the school for therapy, but it keeps Liam in his environment where he works the best. And the greatest thing of all is that we are still able to keep our private clinic therapies for Liam through medicaid.  So, that means Liam will be receiving some form of therapy/services almost everyday of the week! While I know this may sound like a lot, it's really not. And it's going to be so good for Liam to be receiving so much attention and therapy. He really needs it.