Great expectations

Oct. 16, 2011

This past Monday marked the annual IEP (Individualized Education Program) meeting for Annette and myself. For many special-need parents IEP is a four-letter word, or other acronyms that aren't fit to post on the Internet. To these parents, an IEP meeting means having to scratch, claw and fight for time, money and resources from teachers, schools and therapists. It’s a time to analyze where people see the child’s current skills, review how far he/she has come over the last year and to set goals for the year ahead.

For many people it’s a painful reminder of their child being behind the “average” skill set. Having to dwell and debate over the topic for multiple hours, can make a trip to the dentist seem like sweet relief. For Annette and myself (hopefully Annette’s views agree with mine) the experience is made a little more easy knowing the people at the table, how they fight for Nathan all the time, and see more what he can do instead of what he can’t. The staff at the Nisonger Center ECE, is the primary reason Annette and I chose to go back for one more year, and we feel comfortable every school day that we made a good choice.

Being the one that runs Nathan to and from school everyday allows a strong interaction between the staff directly. If we have ideas, questions, stories to share, it’s a lot more communication than most kids have at his level. We talk about what Nathan is doing in outside therapies and how we can combine those skills with school activities and interactions with the other students.

During the meeting, we started with the PT and the OT, who seemed very pleased with the growth Nathan has shown over the past year. The goal to walk 30 feet without stopping, starting to show intention to steer the walker, engaging his hands on the walker as he moved, all almost seemed to be old-hat for Nathan. Walking isn’t included in any of his goals for this year, but working on things like self-supporting himself while bench sitting, hanging up his coat and book bag when he gets to school, using his fingers to pinch small items and isolating his fingers to use his communication device are all things we see Nathan striving for currently with a real possibility of tackling in the year ahead.

Still, the highlight of the meeting was talking with Teacher Beth. This was our third IEP with her and she knows Nathan almost as well as Annette and I do ourselves. By the time it was her turn, the other therapists had to excuse themselves to participate in other meetings and our local school rep had to leave for another meeting back on our side of town. Beth leaned in, and one of the first things out of her mouth was, “I’m excited. For the first time ever, I get to write an academic goal for Nathan. It won’t be easy, but if I write it down, I’ll be accountable to make sure he does it, and I really thing he can.”

Currently, Beth is wearing both the teacher hat as well as the role of a speech therapist, as the position is currently open at the school. As much as we don’t wish more work for Beth, I think it’s fair to say we think he’ll get farther with her, than he would have with the ST from last year. Beth has taken it upon herself to learn how to manipulate the communication device with whatever activities she’s working on with the rest of the class. Whether it’s the current book the class is reading, selecting items for art projects, having Nathan pick the color of marker, sticker, paint or glue, she’s come up with great uses, and she keeps telling us how well Nathan acts, reacts, chooses and participates with the rest of the class.

The academic goals she came up with are for Nathan to use the device to properly identify colors, properly identify numbers by name and answering counting questions. (i.e. How many apples am I holding?) She’s one of the few people out there who sees how much potential lies within our little guy. She’s never stopped seeing how much she can get him to do and prove everyone else wrong.

Of course, these goals aren’t designed to be just used in the classroom and it means that Annette and I have another set of homework to work into our time with him. With projects like this and striving for more that so many others thought would ever be possible, it’s just one more thing we can all work on together.

There are so many meetings, appointments and evaluations that Nathan goes through that we all leave with our heads down and tail tucked between our legs, wondering why things have to be so difficult. Whenever Annette is asked what her goals are or we want for Nathan, without missing a beat her answer is “everything.” It’s just an amazing feeling walking out of a meeting with a teacher who Imagines Everything’s Possible. That’s the kind of IEP every child should have, and why we love Teacher Beth so much.

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