Yesterday Dudhee and I met with Monkey’s team. It was a chance for them to catch us up on his progress and for us to discuss any concerns.
Initially, the meeting was to be held in January and it was to discuss Monkey’s terrible morning transitions. Since we’ve been working with Dr. G, however, our morning transitions have improved a great deal. It’s not perfect but we’ve moved from 20 minutes of tears and screaming while we prepared for and drove to school each morning to just a few minutes of whining after we enter the building. HUGE improvement really in such a short time so we were less focused on that issue and more interested in how he’s doing in working toward his IEP goals.
We did make sure to address one final transition issue which is how he’s greeted at the start of the day. Any time we’re met at the door in the morning by the teacher she is very exuberent, gets down on his level and is generally very in his space which sets him off every time. She will make a joke of it “Oh you! You’re going for an Academy Award! He’s just putting on a show for Mom and Dad!” Ugh! We’ve mentioned before that this is not the best way to greet him with no luck but I do think she finally heard us. This morning she was very low key and just continued with her activities while we took off his coat.
His teacher, PT, ST, OT and the district’s behaviorist (who has been called to observe him a handful of times since September) were all present. They each took about 20 minutes to go over what his goals were, how he’s doing and to share funny stories about him. Monkey is a total clown so there were a lot of funny stories. It was a VERY positive meeting. They all gushed about how well he’s doing, how he’s met many of his goals already or is very close to meeting them. They all expressed how much fun he is to work with and how he’s doing better than they had imagined. Of course all of this made Duhdee and I feel very good.
What I’m confused about is the glowing reports! I know Monkey is a fantastic, easy going, social little boy and the daily reports we get from the teachers also indicate that but recently we asked the teacher to complete an evaluation form in anticipation of a meeting we have at the Fragile X Clinic and I just don’t know which boy is in her class! Yesterday she indicated that he’s one of the best behaved kids in the class and that he can be left to an activity with a friend for up to 5 minutes at a time without needing direction. The report indicated that he needs constant adult supervision. There were other inconsistencies as well so now I’m not sure what to think. I wish this stuff came to mind DURING meetings and not hours later. *Sigh*
Oh I hate that! I always forget what I want to say until after the meeting. Eric is the total opposite. He wants us to prepare for the meeting by sitting down and creating a list, and perhaps a sub-list if necessary. lol. When he attends meetings, I have to admit we are usually more productive. We actually have a parent teacher conference tonight for Blake, my four year old.
I hope your conference went well. What is really sad about the whole situation is that I had a list. It’s just that asking about the evaluation report was not on the list! Next time I will make a list truly in advance and not on the train on the way to the meeting…maybe.