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Hello!!
A few weeks ago I posted on facebook that I needed a good sign. Something to let me know that I was making the right decisions. That night I ended up in the ER, hmmm, not the sign I had in mind, however, within just a few days the good news started to pour in, so now I know... our decisions as of late are the best for the family and there are more good things to come for us, yeah. I have so much good news to report that I'm afraid I may forget some of it.
We had an assistive technology meeting for Tyler the week before last. HIs teacher was the one pushing for another meeting (love it). THere were 10 ppl in the conferfence room, right away I loved that tyler was important enough to the district to have that many people in attendance. Two of the women in attendance were from the district and there were speech pathologists with a lot of experience with augmentive communication devices. I gave a brief opening of Tyler's history as only 1 person in teh room (OT) had been with Tyler since he joined the school. The woman from the district were blown away by TYler's potential as to what I told them and his teacher confirmed. They used a word for him that I can' t remember but that basically labelled him teaching himself to read. Everyone was in agreement he is a great candidate for a communhcation device and they immediately reserved one for him in the district. That set the stage for setting up goals for Ty. At first someone mentioned 5 communicative functions on the device (details will follow later) and then his teacher said, well how about 10? Hee hee, I actually mouthed "i love you" she's a big believer that motiviation has been Tyler's issue in the past, and that he very much is quite aware and knows what he's doing and it just needs to be pushed a little and with the introduction of electronics into the classroom, he's much more interested and engaged. oh that's a good story too, let me finish this one. Ty is gettign a device from the district which will be rented of sorts (we don' t pay) that can come home as well. Can't wait for him to get it, school wills how him how to use it. It's a dynavox.
Ok Ty's class this year is a joint classroom but the second classroom is sort of the more engaged and involved kids. Well they made a decision last week to have Tyler start his day in that classroom. They say there is a huge difference between last year and this year and he responds and stays engaged in circle time, makes choices, etc. This is very exciting. Also he has a new speech therapist this year and she voluntarily asked if she could go watch the private speech therapist work with Ty so they could work as a team, yeah, of course! She went last week. oh and big thanks to grandpa who takes Tyler to speech for us every Monday!
Oh..... we love the ACC, one of TYler's guardian angels, AMy works at the ACC. she called me the other day to tell me Tyler was awareded a scholarship (10 weeks) of one on one music therapy, yipeeee!! Right now we are just tryinh to work through scheduling issues. This bought me tijme to find a pediatrician...
and voila.. found a great one. Someone told me of an office that is great but they run sort of a lottery and you have to call at the beginning of the month and try to be one of the patients they accept as new. I called and got in. Upon their advice, yippee, they set up a "see if it's a good fit" meeting with the parent. Perfect for me because I had some pretty specific questions. 1) will you write a script for music therapy and 2) will you write a script for B12 shots so we no longer need a DAN doctor (this is the one that concerned me). Had the meeting this week and it went great! I loved the doctor, he was very open minded and really listened to everything and answered all of my questions great. He did tell me that he needed to talk to his partner abou tthe shots and get back to me. He called me the next day and said they'd do it! So the boys have an appt there coming up soon just so the doc can see them while they are healthy and get to know them, etc. I'm so excited and love the practice, it seems like a perfect fit.
Ok, I think that's all, I'm sure i"m forgetting something. Lots more news to report soon, lots of going on in our personal lives as well. Ben is phenominal honestly, loves his school and never wants to leave, very happy with the way things are turning out.
xoxoxo
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Saturday, October 2, 2010
October 2, 2010
We had our first parent/teacher meeting for Tyler and it was fantastic. As a reminder, this year the level one classrooms are joined and each room has unique stations, they are joined in the bathroom area. THe second classroom is set up for more dramatic play and helps the children get ready for a level 2 class. There are 3 levels of autism classrooms in the school, Level 1 is the most impaired and level 3 is the least impaired. Tyler is still in a level 1 room at this point.
His 'homeroom" teacher is Julie who used to be the speech person for the district. I spoke to hear at the open house about TYler's speech and where we shoudl focus energy, etc. and she pointed out that speech is a priority in the classroom so that made me very happy.
ANyway, back to the meeting. The teachers commented on how smart TYler is and how quickly he picks up on things and how different he looks compared to last year. THey said during circle time he's participating in all of the activities and making sure that people are watching him when last year he seemed uninterested and would only participate part of the time. They are also open to communication devices and are bringing more technology into the classroom. They currently are using an IPAD and an Itouch and also bring in a TOBY to circle time which is a communication device. We have another IEP meeting coming up in October where we will revisit his goals for the year and it was discussed that we will put a communication device into part of his goals. At this point, he still uses PECS at school and theys aid he's doing great with PECs. THey basically said whatever we choose, Tyler should have no problem picking it up since he's such a bright kid. Can you imagine, Tyler having an effective way to communicate! THey teachers did ask how we communciate with him at home and to be honest I struggled to answer. IT's a combination of things but for the most part I don' t have trouble. I know what he awnts most of hte time and also know when he's upset and why. I completely understand why other people have trouble but I pretty much understand Tyler unless he wakes up screaming in the middle of the night then I'm usually clueless. I'm so excited though that everyone is open to the idea of him getting something to help him communicate with the rest of the world. So great news on the school front, he's doing awesome.
IN terms of a pediatrician, I found an office that I think we are oing to like and will work with us on biomed scripts as well. I have an appt with the pediatrician next week to see if it's a good fit (no kids at this appt), that alone excited me. That the office as part of their standard practice has the time to meet with parents first to see if it will be a good fit prior to meeting the children, etc. I can discuss all of my questions at this time and hope that they'll prescribe music therapy, yipee!
Tyler starts back up on private speech lessons next week. We struggled to find a way to have him fit into her schedule that matched a time in our schedule when we could get away from work. Tyler is very lucky to have fantastic grandparents.... grandpa is going to be taking Tyler to speech for us starting next week. THANKS GRANDPA! I'm hoping once we get approved for music therapy and get something on the schedule that we can reduce private speech to 2 x per month and music therapy 2 x per month. Insurance won' t cover any of it but flex spending will and I can't afford to flex spend both so I'm hoping to share the $$. Thinking since speech is more a focus at school this year that he may be able to do less private speech and then do something he really enjoys, music!. This paticular music therapist, I've been in talks with for years, it's just we've never found a way to pay for it before. He starts with the piano which is TY's fav of course.
Ben is flourishing at his new school and we are so so so so so so happy we made the change. He's such fun to be around, what a great age.
A while back I commented that we are making changes to simplify our lives and without getting into detail, we've started this plan. Hopefully within the next 6 months things will get easier for our family and the lessen the stress load and also open up some funding so that we can do more with both boys.
His 'homeroom" teacher is Julie who used to be the speech person for the district. I spoke to hear at the open house about TYler's speech and where we shoudl focus energy, etc. and she pointed out that speech is a priority in the classroom so that made me very happy.
ANyway, back to the meeting. The teachers commented on how smart TYler is and how quickly he picks up on things and how different he looks compared to last year. THey said during circle time he's participating in all of the activities and making sure that people are watching him when last year he seemed uninterested and would only participate part of the time. They are also open to communication devices and are bringing more technology into the classroom. They currently are using an IPAD and an Itouch and also bring in a TOBY to circle time which is a communication device. We have another IEP meeting coming up in October where we will revisit his goals for the year and it was discussed that we will put a communication device into part of his goals. At this point, he still uses PECS at school and theys aid he's doing great with PECs. THey basically said whatever we choose, Tyler should have no problem picking it up since he's such a bright kid. Can you imagine, Tyler having an effective way to communicate! THey teachers did ask how we communciate with him at home and to be honest I struggled to answer. IT's a combination of things but for the most part I don' t have trouble. I know what he awnts most of hte time and also know when he's upset and why. I completely understand why other people have trouble but I pretty much understand Tyler unless he wakes up screaming in the middle of the night then I'm usually clueless. I'm so excited though that everyone is open to the idea of him getting something to help him communicate with the rest of the world. So great news on the school front, he's doing awesome.
IN terms of a pediatrician, I found an office that I think we are oing to like and will work with us on biomed scripts as well. I have an appt with the pediatrician next week to see if it's a good fit (no kids at this appt), that alone excited me. That the office as part of their standard practice has the time to meet with parents first to see if it will be a good fit prior to meeting the children, etc. I can discuss all of my questions at this time and hope that they'll prescribe music therapy, yipee!
Tyler starts back up on private speech lessons next week. We struggled to find a way to have him fit into her schedule that matched a time in our schedule when we could get away from work. Tyler is very lucky to have fantastic grandparents.... grandpa is going to be taking Tyler to speech for us starting next week. THANKS GRANDPA! I'm hoping once we get approved for music therapy and get something on the schedule that we can reduce private speech to 2 x per month and music therapy 2 x per month. Insurance won' t cover any of it but flex spending will and I can't afford to flex spend both so I'm hoping to share the $$. Thinking since speech is more a focus at school this year that he may be able to do less private speech and then do something he really enjoys, music!. This paticular music therapist, I've been in talks with for years, it's just we've never found a way to pay for it before. He starts with the piano which is TY's fav of course.
Ben is flourishing at his new school and we are so so so so so so happy we made the change. He's such fun to be around, what a great age.
A while back I commented that we are making changes to simplify our lives and without getting into detail, we've started this plan. Hopefully within the next 6 months things will get easier for our family and the lessen the stress load and also open up some funding so that we can do more with both boys.
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