Pre-K Grad and IEP Plan

He did it! Noah is a Pre-K grad.

I remember his first day going in and I was so nervous it was ridiculous. I know most parents worry about their kiddo starting school, but when your child has special needs, it makes you worry even more. I was worried he would throw up all over the place, he did, I worried he would stand out and not have friends, he had lots of friends. :) I worried the other kids would think he was "gross" for eating with his tube, but you know what? His friends were amazing! His teacher, Mrs. Patterson, said they would tell her when it was time for his water/lunch, and go get paper towels ready and a cup of water for him. They cheered him on when he took bites and tastes. It was really great. He loves going to school and his friends. I am so happy we decided to put him in school, it was by far, one of our best choices and we could NOT have had a better teacher for him. She has been so kind and patient and understanding. She has spoiled us!

Going in, we knew he was behind, he has always been behind developmentally, so we thought it would help 'catch him up.' Before I get to things he needs to work on, areas he is behind in, let's start with what he is doing well with. He has came such a long way with writing his letters. He went in not knowing how to make letters, he knew his letters, just couldn't write them. Now he can write all his letters! He has a significant delay with fine/gross motor skills, so learning to write has been difficult. His letters aren't pretty and if he isn't in the mood to write them, well, you can hardly read them, but when he focuses, he can do them fairly well. His letters are squiggly, they aren't straight up and down lines, more like his hands shakes when he writes, so they curvy, he also doesn't press down hard enough.  He has a hard time with the right grasp on the pens, markers, crayons......etc. He likes the grasp it with his whole hand verses the correct pencil grasp. When  he started he only recognized 21 upper case and 15 lower case letters, but the end of the year, he knew every single upper and lower case letter. In October he didn't know any letter sounds, but by May he knows 19 letter sounds. He knows all his shapes/colors...They want him to be able to count to 20, but can only get to 14 until he starts throwin in random numbers...13, 14, 25, 12...so on, but he knows and can write 0-10. He also can finally use scissors, scissors are hard! We always used the spring action kind at home, but at school he has regular kid ones. So, he struggles with cutting things on lines and gets very frustrated that he can't do it right, but we can work on it. he doesn't have good strength in his hands, so it's a tough skill for him.

He did get screened for and IEP for Developmental Delay. His teacher met with me in March and asked my thoughts on an IEP. We were initially just going to go with a 504 plan for Kinder, but she was concerned with his motor skills, that even by March he was still pretty far behind his peers & any help we can get him now to help prepare him and get him help in Kinder, we will. So, they did his testing and he has "significant Dev. Delay (DD) in Adaptive and motor skills. Sig. DD with gross/fine motor, Sig DD self care and personal responsibility. Some we knew, self care...others we were surprised with, but nothing crazy. So, he did qualify with and IEP for DD and will have it all in place for Kinder. He will get OT once a wk for Sensory issues, and 20 mins a day, every day, he will have a Special Needs, teacher come in his classroom and work with him on fine motor and gross motor skills. He will also have an assistant to help him with the bathroom bc he has a lot of trouble with pullin his pants up and buttons, zippers, can't be having him walk out with his pants around his ankles, he totally would without hesitation.  Another thing I really wanted was for him to be able to eat his lunch, at the lunch room with his friends. I did not want him to have to go into the office and have to eat  alone, it just was important that he have the social time with his friends. So, by the grace of lunch time Gods, Noah's class eats lunch at 12:10, which is when he normally eats his lunch. It was so awesome, I about jumped for joy when his kinder teacher told me what time they ate. I know sometimes kindergartners eat really early like 11ish or even sooner, but they told me they do them last bc they are slower eaters and need more time, hence them being last. Also, since Noah has Delay Gastric Emptying (DGE) (His stomach empties really slowly) he has to have long spaces between his boluses. Normally breakfast is it 8 so, we need about 4 or sometimes more hours in between. So, lunch at 12 is a beautiful thing. They will let him go through the lunch line and get his tray of food, so he can be like his friends, and then a trained staff member will come and feed Noah at the table with his friends. So, it worked out amazingly.

Noah has come such a long way since starting school until know. He has grown so much it's crazy, but I still can't believe it's almost time for Kindergarten, it really went by fast. Things have gone so smoothly for him, from getting into prek to his IEP to his new school and them making things normal as possible for him. We are really lucky to have the team we do with him. Here's to hoping we keep with the smooth sailing!