Other Side of the Table

So, today was a very eye-opening experience for me. When I was a Kindergarten teacher, I sat in on some IEP meetings. IEP's are formal papers that are drawn up for any student receiving special services from the school. The meetings are held every so often to go over the paperwork with parents, talk about the child's progress, set goals, etc. I have sat in on several of these meetings as part of the 'educational team.' Typically there are a handful of educators on the 'educational team' and the parent(s) of the child.

Well, today I sat on the other side of the table. I have a whole new understanding of how intimidating it can be to face a group of educators talking about your child.

Michaela now has an IEP because of her speech delay. He speech, or lack thereof, has been something that we have had concerns about for a very long time now so I really went to the meeting without any hesitation or butterflies in the stomach. I knew she was behind in her speech.

Wow though! Seeing test scores in black and white can be a little startling, along with having 3 people across the table from you explaining how far behind she really is. (Although they were all soooooo nice!)

Here is the breakdown of the test results: She is a smart kid....she is understanding speech perfectly well and can problem-solve like nobody's business. HOWEVER, she scored pretty dang low in the communicative speech parts of the tests... basically, she can't be understood well at all. Granted, I knew this...still just a little shocking to hear just how much she can't be understood because I do understand most of the things she is trying to tell me. I understand "Michaela-nese."

So, she is going to start going on Monday and Thursday mornings to Willard South to be part of the Early Childhood program. While she is there, the speech teacher will pull her out of the class to work one-on-one with her in speech. Basically, Early Childhood has a curriculum like a preschool, but the bulk of the class has some type of delay. Michaela's class is overwhelmingly made up of speech delays so in teaching the curriculum, the classroom teacher will also be providing all kinds of "speech opportunities."

We are so excited that she gets to do this. They even send a bus to bring her to school and back home. Overall I think it is going to be so good for her. Hopefully she will start talking soon so that other people can understand her.

Please just say a prayer for her as she adjusts to this new schedule. Thursday is typically a day she comes to Tiger Cubs with me so that will be really different for her to be going somewhere else while I go to Tiger Cubs. And, pray for Gracie because she is kind of ticked that Michaela gets to go to "the big school" before her! :)