Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Odds and ends

I'm working on my next big post (the annual amazing trashpick!), but in the meantime, you'll have to make do with a few small items.
  1. Nea read the word "look" in a new book yesterday. HURRAH.
  2. She managed to get 19 books on her "would like to purchase" book fair list, despite an inability to talk or write. That, my friends, is talent. Getting some poor older child to write down 19 book titles for you.
  3. I'm having a rocky start to the gardening season. The bad news: apparently sprouting beets and carrots is too hard for me. The good news: the Russian quince tree is blooming for the first time, and the planted-last-year Red Rome apple tree is, too. No action on the stupid HoneyCrisp apple, also planted last year. Peach tree, as previous reported, is going gangbusters.

Friday, April 16, 2010

Should be a good year for peaches


Translation

IEP = individualized education plan
ESY = extended school year
POS = piece of shit
SLP = speech and language pathologist
ST = speech therapy
OT = occupational therapy
MIP = modified instructional program
SID = sensory integration disorder
SPD = sensory processing disorder

Thursday, April 15, 2010

IEP

The IEP was Tuesday. Nea was OKed for ESY, which I think we can agree is a POS, but it's free ST for 45 min/week for the 4 weeks, plus some OT.

She was upped in OT to 40 min/week (from 30), her SLP said ST was going well. Her MIP and mainstream teachers agreed that she's a hard worker who always puts forth 100%.


But. The really interesting part was that the OT thinks she has a touch of SPD (or SID). Now, I read the Out of Sync Child ages ago, and just didn't see where it applied to Nea, but putting together a few things (serious love of swinging, total lack of dizziness, extremely high pain threshold, and the real kicker, a profound deficit in writing), this is starting to make sense. Her letters are still made with very light pressure, are wobbly, and she's not progressing at the rate we would expect. The OT thinks it's due to her lack of sensory input with her hands. That she has to learn visually how to form the lines and curves that make up letter formation. Which is hard.


The good news is that she's rocking out on letter sounds. I think maybe we'll spend some time with Hooked on Phonics this summer. I have a pretty aggressive homework plan for the summer. Stupid ESY (extended school year) is supposed to keep SpEd kids from regressing over the summer, but it's only 2 hours a day for 4 weeks, and all therapies are half the regular minutes. So, although Nea receives 90 min/week ST and currently 30 min/week OT, she will only get 45/15 for those 4 weeks. And have you noticed how the summer isn't just 4 weeks long? No. It's not. It's 11. Yeah, verily, ESY is a joke. Last year I only sent her 2 days a week for her therapy days. We'll probably do the same again this year. I'd rather have her in camp with her sister. At least this summer it's closer to home again, only one town over.

Sunday, April 11, 2010

One of my favorite books - next up

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut is the next book club selection!

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Tonsils, adenoids, and turbinates (or how we spent our spring break)

Nea had her tonsils, adenoids, and turbinates taken out last Thursday. She's been amazing. Didn't like the taste of the Vicodin stuff, so she went with Tylenol for all her pain management needs. She's pretty much done with that, too. Didn't take a single nap, even the day of surgery, when we were at the hospital at 6 am. Went to school for a half day on Monday. Full days since. No Phys Ed until next week, though. Don't want to jar anything lose.

So, you know that little joke I made about tonsil removal curing apraxia? Well, it didn't work. But no one told me her voice was going to change so dramatically. And I'm sure it'll change more when the swelling completely clears up. And I received an email today from her modified instructional program (MIP) teacher that said, "She has been doing extremely well in class. I just assessed her letters and sounds and she made great leaps in progress! YAY! I know we are meeting next week for her IEP, but I just wanted to give you that good news. She still remains inconsistent in some areas, but she is progressing much faster than a few weeks ago." Huh, how 'bout them apples. I did some homework with her yesterday where I said the word, and she circled whether the sound it started with was a B,M, or T. And she aced it. You know what that means, right? She's practically reading. Nearly. Soonish!

Oh, and the hospital was great. They made Pink Bear a little ID bracelet. They let Nea ride on the gurney to the surgery holding area … on my lap. Yep. Didn't think they allowed that. Pink Bear went into surgery with her. She was so brave! N complimented me on how well I held it together, but that's just because it was the first time he was there for a sedation. Nea's had three other anesthesia experiences (BAER test, sedated MRI, rust ring), so I'm a pro.

So, anyway, we're all glad that's over. I haven't even mentioned the scarlet fever she had a week earlier. That's probably what Helen Keller had, which took her sight and hearing. And blinded Mary Ingalls. And killed people, back in the day. Now you just take some antibiotics, and it's no big thing. How science changes our lives, no? I like science.