Moving to a new state is hard. Just with the logistics of it all, finding a house, a church, etc. But when you throw in a kiddo with some special needs...then you are talking about a whole new batch of "news."
Schooling:
So upon arriving in Texas, we first got set up with a new school for Wes. I did some extensive research about where we wanted to be...what schools would be best for her...and what kinds of programs they had for kids with special needs. So Weslie started PreK in a program here in Texas called PPCD (which I think stands for Preschool Program for Children with Disabilities.) Anyways, because she was in a similar program in Kentucky...and already had an IEP (Individualized Education Plan) in place...they HAD to accept her into this program here. So she started with the rest of the students, knowing that within 30 school days, we would have a meeting with her IEP (actually its called ARD in Texas) team to discuss her goals for the year.
Well, at that meeting...which was held about 2 weeks ago... I was informed by the principal of Weslie's school that they would need to re-evaluate her level of disability to determine if she would be able to stay in the PPCD program.
Ummm, what???
So apparently, the principal, after observing Weslie, doesnt think that Weslie needs to be in the class anymore. She even went as far as to say (in front of me!), "And why is this little girl even IN PPCD?" The principal was very flippant about Weslie's needs while being almost dismissive about her. It was infuriating to say the least. So the outcomes of that meeting were that Weslie would be re-evaluated across the board. OT, PT, speech, intelligence...all of it...to see if she will even qualify under Texas standards.
And my gut is telling me that she is not going to qualify. So it looks as though come December, she will come out of school for Christmas Break and not return in the Spring. I will be very surprised if anything other than this happens.
Therapy:
We were referred to an OT and PT by our pediatrician to continue to assess Weslie's disabilities. The OT is great. She has really been working with Wes to strengthen her upper arms and to get her fingers to work independently of one another. They are working on snapping and buttoning clothing...and Wes can now button and unbutton without actually looking at the button. The next step is to put the clothing on and have her look down at the button while doing it. We are taking clothes with us today so that Wes can work on this!!!
Also in the OT's evaluation of Weslie, she noticed that when Wes would look at a set of answers on a page (like A-D across the bottom of the page) if the answer was on the right side of the page, Weslie would tend to miss that question...only picking answers from the left side of the page. We havent gotten to a point to address that yet, but its something that was interesting to note.
The PT has also discovered some issues with Weslie's overall body perception (awareness.) In layman's terms, her brain is not aware of her right side of her body...or not as aware as it needs to be in order to help her to not fall down, or not run into things. So we have been working with her to try to stimulate Weslie's preceptory senses by using a brush to help her become aware of that right side of her body. She will also be fitted with two new braces for her legs that will not only help her to keep her toe up as she walks/runs but also will have a stimulation pad in them so that her body becomes aware every single time she steps on her feet. The brain will get a signal every time her foot hits the ground (and this will hopefully in turn remind her brain that she has a right side.
So as far as therapy goes, we could not be happier. Her therapists are demanding...but they push her to work hard to be able to achieve all the skills that she needs!!
Neurology:
We traveled to Ft. Worth on Tuesday of this week to meet with Weslie's new neurologist. There is a Children's Hospital in Ft. Worth that this doc works out of...and I was so impressed with everything from the facilities to the doctor.
He checked her out and can definitely see some of the delays that she has. He began to speculate where exactly her stroke happened...and was pleasantly surprised that Weslie has such a large vocabulary. He assumed that her language skills...while should have been affected...have just switched sides of her brain. (So that was very interesting to talk with him about.) He also assured me that if she never gets her pincher grasp...that she can totally live a full life. There are plenty of adaptive apparatuses that she could employ to help her do things like tie her shoes. He was just so encouraging and excited about how far along Weslie is. He did have a few concerns about her right foot beginning to turn in. He wants to see how her new braces fit...and if they will help with that. If not, we may look into Botox in her calf muscle. Meaning it would paralyze her calf and really make the muscles on top of her shin have to work hard to keep her foot straight and her toe up. He also said that we could possibly use the Botox in her fingers to try to isolate her pointer so that she would have to use it instead of just using those fingers as stabilizers.
All in all we have been so pleased with all of Weslie's new doctors and therapists. It seems that each new person that comes on her case is better and better than the last.
Just a testament that we are put exactly where we are supposed to be. God's plan playing out in a perfect way.
Schooling:
So upon arriving in Texas, we first got set up with a new school for Wes. I did some extensive research about where we wanted to be...what schools would be best for her...and what kinds of programs they had for kids with special needs. So Weslie started PreK in a program here in Texas called PPCD (which I think stands for Preschool Program for Children with Disabilities.) Anyways, because she was in a similar program in Kentucky...and already had an IEP (Individualized Education Plan) in place...they HAD to accept her into this program here. So she started with the rest of the students, knowing that within 30 school days, we would have a meeting with her IEP (actually its called ARD in Texas) team to discuss her goals for the year.
Well, at that meeting...which was held about 2 weeks ago... I was informed by the principal of Weslie's school that they would need to re-evaluate her level of disability to determine if she would be able to stay in the PPCD program.
Ummm, what???
So apparently, the principal, after observing Weslie, doesnt think that Weslie needs to be in the class anymore. She even went as far as to say (in front of me!), "And why is this little girl even IN PPCD?" The principal was very flippant about Weslie's needs while being almost dismissive about her. It was infuriating to say the least. So the outcomes of that meeting were that Weslie would be re-evaluated across the board. OT, PT, speech, intelligence...all of it...to see if she will even qualify under Texas standards.
And my gut is telling me that she is not going to qualify. So it looks as though come December, she will come out of school for Christmas Break and not return in the Spring. I will be very surprised if anything other than this happens.
Therapy:
We were referred to an OT and PT by our pediatrician to continue to assess Weslie's disabilities. The OT is great. She has really been working with Wes to strengthen her upper arms and to get her fingers to work independently of one another. They are working on snapping and buttoning clothing...and Wes can now button and unbutton without actually looking at the button. The next step is to put the clothing on and have her look down at the button while doing it. We are taking clothes with us today so that Wes can work on this!!!
Also in the OT's evaluation of Weslie, she noticed that when Wes would look at a set of answers on a page (like A-D across the bottom of the page) if the answer was on the right side of the page, Weslie would tend to miss that question...only picking answers from the left side of the page. We havent gotten to a point to address that yet, but its something that was interesting to note.
The PT has also discovered some issues with Weslie's overall body perception (awareness.) In layman's terms, her brain is not aware of her right side of her body...or not as aware as it needs to be in order to help her to not fall down, or not run into things. So we have been working with her to try to stimulate Weslie's preceptory senses by using a brush to help her become aware of that right side of her body. She will also be fitted with two new braces for her legs that will not only help her to keep her toe up as she walks/runs but also will have a stimulation pad in them so that her body becomes aware every single time she steps on her feet. The brain will get a signal every time her foot hits the ground (and this will hopefully in turn remind her brain that she has a right side.
So as far as therapy goes, we could not be happier. Her therapists are demanding...but they push her to work hard to be able to achieve all the skills that she needs!!
Neurology:
We traveled to Ft. Worth on Tuesday of this week to meet with Weslie's new neurologist. There is a Children's Hospital in Ft. Worth that this doc works out of...and I was so impressed with everything from the facilities to the doctor.
He checked her out and can definitely see some of the delays that she has. He began to speculate where exactly her stroke happened...and was pleasantly surprised that Weslie has such a large vocabulary. He assumed that her language skills...while should have been affected...have just switched sides of her brain. (So that was very interesting to talk with him about.) He also assured me that if she never gets her pincher grasp...that she can totally live a full life. There are plenty of adaptive apparatuses that she could employ to help her do things like tie her shoes. He was just so encouraging and excited about how far along Weslie is. He did have a few concerns about her right foot beginning to turn in. He wants to see how her new braces fit...and if they will help with that. If not, we may look into Botox in her calf muscle. Meaning it would paralyze her calf and really make the muscles on top of her shin have to work hard to keep her foot straight and her toe up. He also said that we could possibly use the Botox in her fingers to try to isolate her pointer so that she would have to use it instead of just using those fingers as stabilizers.
All in all we have been so pleased with all of Weslie's new doctors and therapists. It seems that each new person that comes on her case is better and better than the last.
Just a testament that we are put exactly where we are supposed to be. God's plan playing out in a perfect way.
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