Thursday, January 15, 2009

special


treasure hunting, originally uploaded by Sea Dream Studio.

I try to keep it light here in blogland. No burdensome posts about aches and pains, whiney stuff, personal woes. Nope! None of that!
But... this boy is my heart. W is 12 (how did THAT happen??) and my baby. He's wonderful, funny, sweet and... what's the word?... oh, yeah... special.
I am not alone in my world of acronyms... ARD, IEP, LRE and on and on. The parent of a child who receives "special services" via the public school system knows all of these and too many more. W was oxygen deprived at birth. Not a good thing. Speech, language, memory and all sorts of complex processes in the brain are not fond of doing without oxygen, not one little bit. Toss in a few seizures, just in case there wasn't enough damage done. W has had a developmental pediatrician since he was 3 days old. Talk about early intervention!
Here's the good part... W is a happy, social guy who is eager to learn, has piles of friends, is a talented young artist and posesses a very tender heart. He gets a lot of assistance in school, for which we are very grateful. If you met my boy you'd think he was younger than 12, but probably not notice anything else (except how darn cute he is!).
So, as not to bore you to death with 12 years worth of ups and downs, I will fast forward to Tuesday. ARD meeting day... a time to review previous goals, adaptations, test scores (ugh!), etc and plan for the next few months and the coming year.
The coming year... MIDDLE SCHOOL! Oh, my! W has been at his elementary school forever. He was in PPCD (an early intervention pre-school) and now he is finishing 6th grade. Oh, what a safe and loving cocoon! And soon, he'll be off to the huge middle school! He's a small guy. Will he be trampled? Lost? Stuck in the hallway fiddling with his locker??? Can I bribe the elementary school to keep him a few more years??
The meeting went well. The representative from the middle school was wonderful, reassuring. The IEP (individual education plan) looks good, thorough, thoughtful. They'll help him with his locker if need be.
Everything will be fine.
Of course.
Won't it?

5 comments:

Moongrl722 said...

Add me to the W Fan Club! Great sense of humor, sweet as the day is long and that smile? Oh, I swoon. He has a great network of friends and they will all help each other with the transition into middle school.

cindi said...

YES yes... everything will be just fine. A little adjusting here and there but W will be able to flourish in his new environment! He's so fortunate to have such a loving family! And I don't even need to tell you how lucky you are to have him in your life. You just 'beam' when you blog about him!

Tiedupmemories said...

Wow Dale...I'm going through just about the same with my 10 year old daughter. Just had her IEP meeting last week. She is extremely happy and well liked and tries so so hard. I'm scared of middle school too!I still have one more year but I totally understand what you are going through!

vivian said...

Letting our children grow up and face the world is sooo hard no matter what. But we have to do it. I bet he'll be excieted to go into middle school. I dont blame you for being worried though. But I bet you'd be apprehensive even if he didnt have some special needs. YOu just have to hold him up in prayer every day and help him learn his way in this big old world that he will need to be able to navigate on his own someday! Middle school is the hardest transition I think.. that age group of kids is tough. but your little W will be fine.. he is blessed with you for a mama!!
hugs!
vivian

Anonymous said...

hey chickadee! He will be perfectly okay! From what it looks like the lil man is super sweet and cute! I think the only thing you will have to worry about is beating those girls off with some glitter! hehehe big hugs

toodles-
sarah

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