Poor Kiddo

Poor Iz, she's just been having a rough month that is turning into a rough two months!  One of the highlights of her week is her Thursday morning early intervention playgroup.  She loves going, even if she doesn't like interacting with the other kids (she's getting better, though.  Last year she didn't make a sound, this year she's been talking to me and recently talking a little to some of the other adults.  And instead of leaving the station immediately when another kid approaches, she will stay some of the time and play near another kid.  No interacting, though, if they try, she goes :p).  Beginning of March, she was too sick to go.  The next week there was no group.  Then following week she was sick again and couldn't go.  She was overjoyed to go today!  And then the next two weeks, no group because of Easter and spring break.  She is going to be so mad at me the next two weeks for not taking her :p

Growth Stats

Miz Iz had her height and weight done today :)  39.7 inches and 33.4 pounds. 

When the Busy Little B has homework, he's so excited and wants to do it right away and is so pleased with himself and can't wait to show it off.  When S has homework, he spends all his time trying to get out of it.  If he put even half the amount of effort into doing it that he puts into trying NOT to do it, he'd have a whole lot more time to enjoy himself instead of the hours long battle to get fifteen minutes of work done........

Another day at the neuropsych's office

Today it was Iz's turn to do evaluations--the geneticist had attempted to refer her multiple times during the genetic testing process but oddly enough, the NP department at the Children's Hospital never responded.  The private office that did the boys evals (and now therapy) said sometimes the hospital refers younger kids to them so if I wanted, they could do the evals.  So we had our intake a few weeks ago and went in today for the actual eval.

Iz really liked her evaluator :)  She even talked to her!  Answered questions! Played the games!  It was great :p  You never know what you're going to get with Iz and I'm just so glad she wasn't hiding and refusing to talk.  Results meeting in two weeks.

Let's celebrate!

Today was S's IEP meeting and this year we did a full evaluation because I just wouldn't leave them alone about it :p  Back when he had his first eval three years ago, the school psychologist ruled out learning disabilities.  One of his private therapists did some evaluations with him that showed him with a probable learning disability and the therapist also had some questions about the evals the school psych did since the results did not seem consistent with no learning disabilities.  The therapist recommended we try to get another set of academic evaluations through the school but they were not very willing to do it and stated that he was already receiving the top level of services so an LD diagnosis wouldn't change that.  That particular year, there was a new school psychologist and she kept saying she'd reviewed the previous psych's testing and it was very thorough blah blah blah.

Well, I don't give up easily and we had yet another private evaluation with the neuropsychologist which showed, wait for it, learning disabilities.  So I brought yet another set of results to them this year and hey, whattya know, yet another new school psychologist this year.  However, he listened, took my concerns seriously, did full and thorough evaluations, and now S has an official school diagnosis of multiple learning disabilities and his services at school are increasing to help him develop learning strategies and skills.  He tests extremely high in intelligence so he has the capability, he just has problems getting his abilities there because he's just not processing the new material very well.

LET'S CELEBRATE!!!!!!

I do find it so very sad, though, that getting a struggling student help is such a hard and long battle that when you finally get the confirmation of a learning disability, you want to celebrate instead of be sad about it.  I hate that this is one more hurdle he has in life, that it is another struggle he'll have, but at the same time, I'm so very happy that it is now recognized and it won't be just me trying to help him via trial and error--he'll have the professionally trained special education professionals working with him on all of his LD areas instead of just the reading help he's been getting.  He's already in fourth grade and has lost several years he could have been receiving extra services--I just hope we have enough time to get him caught up before middle school when things get a whole lot harder :/

The worst of it has passed.....

The stomach portion of this virus seems to have passed and that improves things quite a bit :p  However, we are still dealing with some fevers and sniffles and intermittent tummy aches so there is still plenty of misery to go around.  At least its the weekend so they have time to recover :) 

The stomach virus that is making its way through the local schools has hit us.  NOT FUN.  All three kids, one after the other.  The Busy Little B was the first to fall and he went back to school today--made him happy :p  The other two got sick yesterday within hours of each other and so we have a few days left with them, I think.  At the moment, Iz has a burst of energy and is running around singing nonsense at the top of her lungs.  Earlier, she was curled up in a miserable little ball dozing.  Just never know what you're going to get :p