glasses

Bugger - lost her glasses today. I didn't have my mobile with me. Her teachers were phoning to see if she had them on this morning - of course she did! Little bugger - her teachers and all the other kids looked - but no luck yet. Expecting the unexpected - isn't that what all kids do? She's been os good at keeping them on that none of us thought about it anymore - one pair of expensive and necessary glasses - last seen at morning tea - or about 11am. Hope they find them!

School Support

I attended a meeting tonight with our EI provider - it is a private org although gov funded and non profit. They have a programme to help kids with sepcial needs in school settings - well to help their families and offer support in parents' negotiations with schools and advocacy roles. It sounds quite good - expensive although I know they are flexible on fees for those in need. I walked out of the meeting feeling empowered - I am already feeling that the school is open to positively supporting Hannah's education albeit they don't have a lot of funding/resources or even experience etc and this programme can help them in helping us achieve set goals for Hannah. Next year is still looking so rosy to me - I sometimes wonder when the bubble will burst. We all know it isn't going to be easy - but at the moment I have the sense that it is all hands on deck - we are on Hannah's team. It's a good team.

Planning the planning meeting

I got a call from the principal today - to try and set up a planning meeting for Han next week. She is keen to include her EI spec ed teacher - let's hope that we can all be there for it. The main issues I think we need to have a plan for are:
- communication (I will try and laminate afew key signs posters for the room) and bring the pecs folder I have been developing. I also will need to establish email (or an alternative) communication with the school - and also for the ST who I am hoping will be able to come into the school once a week to work with Hannah (from about half way through term 1).
- social - Han has great play skills (I see them when she plays at home with Kit - and she is fine with older children but she tends to lack confidence with her peers. She will need some specific opportunities to interact with them and in particular to flow on class group activities to the playground. I think this needs to be a priority cos 'patterns' establish for all thekids pretty early in terms of who is their friend and who they play with at lunch and recess - I don't want Hannah to miss out.
- motor skills - Hannah may need adjusted scissors to be available. I also need to know any other skills in this are athat I can work on over the long Christmas break.
Hannah's gross motor aren't up to her peers but she does manage pretty well. We could help improve her ball skills but i'm not sure what else?
- literacy - Han loves 'reading' and can recognise her name as well as everyone elses in the family. She also recognises some other simple ones like I and can and like. We use the same phonics programme and Han can say and recognise quite a good number of them. From a speech point of view she can imitate or sound out the ones a typically developing 3 year old can.
- numeracy - Han LOVES counting. She needs to be reminded to slow down. We are refining her 1-10 - she knows it but needs massed practice to be able to use her knowledge quickly and 'automatically'.
- self help - Han is great on this. Fully toilet trained, self sufficient with food and follows routine well and is able to follow 2 step directions pretty well.

I'll have to give some thought as to what resources I have that may be helpful for her teachers - I don't want to just 'dump' stuff on them but if I have material that might help I want to share.

Not sure whether they want to cover my involvement in the class at this meeting or leave it to whent hey address it with all the other parents as they recruit volunteers from all the parents. I can't think of anything else that we'll need to cover - I'll try ad remeber to take notes so I can refer back to what we discuss and agreed upon.

I'm looking forward to a practical and caring, realistic approach - fingers crossed!

Done - what's next?

I rang the 'other school' today to let them know that we wouldn't be sending the twins there next year. I felt a bit sad just cos they'd really been so welcoming but still I feel that the decision we've made is the right one for now. The princiapl was lovely of course.

I haven't heard from the school they are going to yet - I expect to have another meeting re Hannah's transition soon. I am glad that her ST is open to visiting the school and having Han withdrawn for ST each week for half an hour. I need to tee it up with the school. If I don't hear from them soon I guess I'll have to give them a call. Han's speech is really coming along well and has inthe past 3 months. Still I feel we can't give up - it is only improving due to the drill and practice that we have been giving her.

I am starting to wonder about uniforms - when is the optimal time to buy - especially school shoes? I don't want to go too early sos those little feet'll keep growing - but I also don't want to have both brats in a shopping nightmare at peak time. Will pick up Hannah's new orthotics and go talk to the local shoe shop...

Kindy orientation at our preferred school went better than I had hoped. It was great. We were greeted by some students. Teachers came up and chatted to us. There was a welcoming feel and I don't think any parent could have felt 'lost' in the corwd - it was very well organised and although catholic schools do tend to have larger class sizes - they had split the new kindys into 2 groups over 2 days so the children could bbe individually observed more effectively.

The principal spoke to the new parents about school stuff - everyday organisational issues as well as providing an overview of the various programs available and the curriculum followed. As she spoke mentioning withdrawing kids for different things - I though of Hannah and her private ST sessions.

Last visit our ST gave us a standard letter - just getting us to think about what we may need from her as Hannah prepares for school and then next year - as starting kindy is very tiring. I don't know that she is that keen on withdrawing kids but given han's speech needs I think that it might just be a great way to continue the intensive sort of therapy that Han needs until she settles in and has greater energy for the arduous school day. I mentioned it to both the kindy teacher and the principal and both were keen for me to organise that - so I'll certainly discuss it with our ST at her next session. I also hope that just as I learn by observing Han in speech - so might her school teachers informally gain a little professional training - not that I am expecting them to do a lot of specific follow up on speech therapy - but they might be able to adapt some of the strategies in the classroom.

I showed them the homemade folder of pics we use (pecs) and they were keen to have a copy - I stil want them to let me know of ones that are particuarly useful to them - but I loved the enthusiasm evident. I gave them a copy of our current ISFP goals, a hannah's profile - which detialed her strengths, supports I thought she'd need, my concerns, info about others who work with her, Contact agencies for help and Resources. I also gave a revamped letter - which is basically pitching how to explain DS to her peers plus some simple DS Myth/fact material.

There were a million different forms to fill in. I hate forms!! and with twins - it is the one aspect that is definitely 'double trouble'.

I liked the fact that at the end of the teachers observations 2 teachers aids and one of the kindy teachers approached me to talk about how Han had gone - and I really liked the fact that the kindy teacher mentioned how Kit had gone too - cos although I angst a lot more over Hannah in formal education - he is my baby and I want to know how he is too. he is a very bright little boy - quite advanced emotionally, verbally and socially amongst his peers. He already enjoys working out simple multiplication and division. He prepares powerpoints to help Han with ehr talking using clipart correctly. He's going to love school - I want him to be challenged appropriately.

Before we left we handed in our wad of forms and bought - the school bag and hat. Hannah was so excited she put hers on straight away.

Nuffield

Have been doing a lot more drill type speech activities - often with hannah. She is amazing - so tired but still complying as she yawns through just '2 more' sheets. I think it is already helping a bit. Drill and practise - seems to be the key strategy that works for her -as well as using as many visuals/cues as I can.

So she is doing great on the drillsheets - bee/bow and boy/bow. She has almost mastered pea/bee/me. Still working on two/tea/tie and bee/knee/dee. With Ants in the Apple I have been getting her to 'slow down' so that she is being drilled in 'possums peeping' and 'apple' rather than getting away with 'po, pee' and 'pple' which she has been doing a lot of the time. Her use of the individual sounds in Ants is pretty good on the ones we have been doing - a, b, l, k, h, o, u, d, n etc.

We ready Maisy Big, Maisy Small - and I have been clapping out 'Mai/sy' so that she pronounces both parts of the name. Then trying to get her to say all parts of the describing words - like 'Maisy spots' and 'Maisy wet'

Her ST has done some powerpoints - one of action words where I have been emphasising (using cued articulation) the 'ing' sound at the end of the word - trying to help it sound more rhythymic for Hannah. There is also an 'f' word one which she is doing better on and a end sounds one which she has really improved on some of them - to the point where she doens't need to 'fix it up' after a couple of them - like 'be-d' and 'ba-g' or slee-p etc. I also made up a presentation story for her - took photoes of Hannah with an apple - for I am: getting, holding, washing, cutting, eating which she really enjoys doing.

On the weekend she was playing with lego - which she loves - and I worked out that she was telling me that she'd made a robot - although her approximation was more like 'obo' which is very hard to work out without context!! Today she came in carrying a box of made up lego - to show me what she'd made and much more clearly she said 'ro-bot' Yay!! so it seems (fingers crossed) that this is the way to go with her. It is a pot pourri of strategies - I use signed english, cued articulation, signs, pecs and anything else I can think of - but it is working.

She has also been practising her piano - just her right hand but she understands what to do - and needs to just practise so that she can get more fluent. Adding in the left hand was just too much for her - next year.

On the health front - T and A surgery happens on the second day of kindy - a bugger but hopefully it will help maximise her potential at school so worth it in the long term.