A break to celebrate

It seems like all I've been doing lately is talking about Dimples.

It's true, a lot of my concern lately has been centered around him- for good reason, but I do have 5 other kiddos..

So I figured I'd break into the Dimples- OMG series to share a little bit of good news about Southern Darlin.

You might recall that I fought for a while to get her tested & designated "special education" but I kept at it.   And they gave in and tested her.

The school psychologist did the normal testing, her teacher did a report, I did a report, her reading recovery teacher did a report and the speech teacher tested her due to some quirks in her language.

We had our official meeting a week or so ago.  

It seems an odd thing to celebrate but they have qualified her "special ed".  I felt like jumping up and cheering!  Yipping & doing a little happy dance! 

In the report, they were able to accurately capture my child.  The psychologist was able to show that although she did appear to do well on some tests it was only because it's very difficult to show the delay in 1st grade.  She felt that she tested much better than she actually is.   For example, she had a good score in math because she could write numbers and count.  However, she cannot add or subtract unless she can use her fingers and then has to touch her face with said fingers to do it.  Anything over 10 is too difficult.  In addition if she adds 3+2 , at this stage most kids would say 3 and then continue to count their fingers- 4, 5.  She instead holds up 3 fingers on one hand & 2 on the other and then proceeds to count all 5 fingers.

It was very interesting to listen to the teachers realize that their testing showed different things and at times contradicted each other which once again proved that some days she knows things and others she doesn't.   The one thing everyone could agree on was that she tries her absolutely hardest and is always happy to put in a good effort.

Regardless, she is in!  She gets to continue onto 2nd grade and will have additional help.  She now gets a parapro in the classroom for 20-30mins a day, plus goes to speech for some language quirks (ironically qualified under language delay & other health impairment) & still gets to keep Reading Recovery til the end of the year.  

The special education teacher said that she normally only writes in one-two goals in an IEP. 

Southern Darlin' likes to excel at things. She has 4 goals for math and 2 for language.  Overachiever.. ha

I'm happy.

I know we've won..

And yet I'm worried.

I'm worried that 20-30 mins with one on one time with her parapro won't be enough.  Her teacher already spends at least that much one on one time with her throughout the day.  Plus she has another student's parapro that works with her when his student is doing ok.    The school feels putting her in an actual special needs classroom would be too restrictive and I feel that 20-30mins of one on one time is not going to be enough.  But we shall see.

Time will tell.   Until then, my fingers are crossed.

                    xoxo,