Dan and I sat in on Elijah's IEP meeting yesterday afternoon. His teachers and therapists have completely changed his goals, which is actually a really great thing. It means he has exceeded all of his previously set goals, which mostly revolved around speech and gross motor.
One concern his teacher has is that since Elijah is so very smart, it just doesn't make sense that she has to tell him something two or three times to get him to follow a directive. She says he doesn't appear to understand, but how could he not? He understands everything else.
We deal with the same thing at home. It takes us saying his name a few times and then making eye contact and telling him what needs to be done in order for him to do it. Distraction and a busy brain are my guesses.
The new goals that have been set for Elijah mostly revolve around social issues. Honestly, I think it's great that his goals have changed so greatly since April. The fact that our biggest hurdle now revolves around social skills is wonderful! That means tons of progress has been made in the "important" areas.
But it still isn't fun to hear that your son has social issues. Elijah is soooo incredibly social with adults, but he has zero desire to be social with children. His teacher said that he will enter the classroom in the morning and immediately start looking for an adult to interact with. When directed toward other children, he isn't opposed to them but he doesn't seem particularly interested and he never initiates conversation or play with them. He would rather either be alone or hang out with a grown-up. This is an area they are really going to push him in, and I am very happy about that.
The only child he has ever had true interaction with is his little friend Paige from daycare, and he has known her for two years. It took him a really long time to get to the point where he willingly was a part of genuine interaction with her.
They really stressed the importance of catching up in this area, so they want him to start going to school five days a week instead of three. Dan and I feel fine with that, so we will start this on November 17th.
They also set some new goals within the realm of adaptive and functional skills. He has a hard time putting clothes on and taking them off, although he is getting much better with this. He still is not potty trained and honestly appears to not understand the concept still, both at school and at home. Thankfully, they willingly work with him in that area, too.
He does still go to speech while at school and he still has a physical therapist to help continue to build core strength. He can by no means keep up with the rest of his class and he tires easily. They really seem to look out for him and they are open to doing anything that will help him out. I brought up his gravitational insecurity issues and now his PT seems to have a much better understanding about how much to push (and not push) him.
His teacher told us yesterday that usually she reads through each child's paperwork once and that is all that is needed. She has read through Elijah's paperwork six times and still cannot fully figure him out. I wanted to tell her there may not be anything to figure out. He has been through
a lot and he is just our awesomely unique little boy. I didn't say that, though, because it would have been followed by tears.
Anyway, we are truly thankful for the care and attention he receives while at school. It has been unbelievably positive for him in all areas.
Before we left the meeting, his teacher showed us a sheet of paper where she had tested Elijah on every letter, upper and lowercase, every number, every shape and every color. He had gotten every single thing correct. I looked at the paper like, Yeah? I think she expected us to gasp in disbelief, but
we know how sharp his brain is. Who does she think gets to hear him talk about pentagons having five sides and blue and red making purple?
