oh for christ's sake

The Good: Sean's IEP was today, and it went very well. No new goals as yet beyond introducing sign language (expressive) into his communication goals but it was good to meet the teachers, his new one-on-one assistant (lovely woman by the name of Cynthia) and see his new classroom, as well as getting everyone caught up on his new diagnoses (blind + autism + auditory processing disorder = SeanersXP). Everyone we ran into at the school is super friendly and nice. Sean went off to explore with one of the classroom aides and the secretaries at the office paged them when it was time to go home. He'll be mainstreamed for art, PE, recess and music classes and in the SPED communication-focus (all augcomm devices all the time!) for everything else.

The Bad: on the way home I tripped and screwed up my ankle and I think I at least pulled a tendon. Goddamnit. Walking the last two blocks was agonizing. Fortunately I have ankle brace, but holy paaaain.

picturepost

This is Seaners' Box of Words. Right now it has three squares programmed into it: "drink" (little purple cap that looks like a cup), "eat" (toddler fork cut down) and "stim toy" (Chewy Tube cut to fit. (The stuff around the edges is putty to keep the grid on.)

All the kids in his class (a split class with kids from K-5 - there are about eight kids, I think, and four staff members plus therapists coming in and out - he has speech and OT and vision/mobility, some kids would have PT as well.) have devices that are somewhat like this. Most of them have picture panels instead of objects though for obvious reasons.

I can hardly wait. YAY KINDERGARTEN! Seaners got off to a good start today at the IEP meeting by sucking up to EVERYONE and giving them hugs and kisses - including the SPED principal who sat in the meeting with us. I was totally amused. :-)

Chris: We should record the panels saying "SEAN EAT NOW."
Me: We do not need to give our child Incredible Hulk voice.
Chris: Why not?
*headdesk*

( more pictures: cat plus yarn )