Pre-K almost done, IEP ready

posted by Jeff | Thursday, May 28, 2015, 9:20 PM | comments: 0

Simon is almost done with the crazy year that has been pre-K. And by that I mean his double class load. He was in a regular pre-K class in the morning, and then an exceptional class in the afternoon for more specific attention around his developmental delays. I was worried about his ability to have that much schooling as a 4-year-old, and I think he definitely had his weeks that were exhausting, but he did it. If that weren't enough, he's academically doing really well, and socially he's doing really well. His teachers this year were completely awesome.

Today we had the meeting to agree on his IEP for next year, which is a bit of bureaucratic stuff to get through (not sure how educators can deal with that stuff). He'll continue to get some individual therapy apart from the regular class, and he'll be in regular PE with his classmates. He'll have some minor accommodations, and we'll evaluate how well he fits after the first quarter, but for the most part he has made a ton of progress since last year.

This news is all a relief to me, but Simon's progress is mostly because of his awesome mother and his teachers. I certainly have my opinions, but I put a lot of trust in everyone else to help Simon out, and that trust was well placed.

There are certainly challenges ahead, but I can already see the path that one of the professionals suggested was ideal early on his ASD diagnosis. The short version is that he will acquire coping strategies and learn to operate in a neurotypical world, possibly to the point of it not being obvious that he has any challenges at all. That will take many years, but I get it. I think we're fortunate because he's a super smart kid, and he'll figure it out.

We're pretty lucky to have Simon. For me personally, I'm amazed at how much he has taught me about myself, and the challenges that I assumed were just personality things. I'm convinced that I would have been diagnosed with ASD myself, because it explains so many things about the way I've interacted with the world. I wish I had that awareness 25 years ago.

So on to kindergarten in the shiny new school next year!


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