CrazedPhotoMom » Kid Updates

My Natey

admin — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 22:55:55 +0000

Well, it’s that time again – IEP (Individualized Education Program) time, that is. Joe and I headed to the school this morning to discuss Nate’s new IEP for the next year. ***For anyone new to the blog, Nathaniel was diagnosed on the Autism spectrum around the age of 3 and has been within the school system since he turned 3. When Nate started, he didn’t speak a word. Now, a mere 2.5 years later, he talks up a storm.***

Things went quite smoothly this time with no real surprises. Almost all of his goals revolve around speech. At our evaluation meeting last week, we discussed the results of his recent testing. They tested to see what kind of information he could process and how well he could answer the questions they asked. The findings were what we expected. His comprehension and ability to answer is quite low when he doesn’t have a visual. Both increases greatly when he has something concrete to look at (a photo, an object, etc). As you can imagine, as he progresses into the higher grades, this is going to impact him more and more. The older the child, the more dependence is put on giving verbal cues only. He’ll struggle. It’s really tough to swallow sometimes, but it is what it is. One of the things I asked today was how long will they continue to provide visuals for him…their answer: as long as he needs it. That made me feel much better.

So some of his speech goals for the year are:

After listening to a sentence and given 2 verbal options, he will answer the following “wh” questions relating to pictures, events or situations with 60% accuracy.
Given a one level command, he will increase his receptive language skills of the following concepts by pointing to pictures or objects with 50% accuracy. A. direction/position (top, bottom, into, beside, between) B. self/social awareness (boy, old, woman) C. time/sequence (finished, old, starting, beginning)
Given visual support/information, he will be able to compare and contrast quantities in 1 out of 4 trials. (This increases to 2, 3 & 4 trials throughout the year.)
Given a verbal and visual model, he will increase his expressive communication skills by using the grammatical structures to describe events, pictures or objects with 50% accuracy.

So that’s it in a nutshell. He will have a couple of occupational therapy goals in there as well but the OT was out today due to a family emergency.

We’re actually looking into adding some more therapy (outside of the school) but we’re waiting to hear from the insurance company about what/if they’ll help cover the cost.

Overall, Nathaniel is doing fabulous. He’s reading at no less than a first grade level. He loves to read and does it every single day. He also loves to draw and write, something he also does nightly. He’s just the sweetest danged kid you’ll ever meet. Just look at him…tell me he isn’t sweet! I dare ya!!

Today’s Artwork

admin — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 21:41:00 +0000

Here’s Maddie’s masterpiece – she called it “daddy”. You can totally see the resemblance; the hair, the goatee, the winking eye and the lopsided grin. Not sure about the inflamed foot though.

And Mr. Nate’s work – daddy’s Husqvarna (thus the big H on it) lawn mower with attached bagger filled with grass. And he added his John Hancock.
And Miss Lexi Lou’s beautifully colored tractor scene. I love that she colored the pigs blue.

Nate is finally holding his crayons/pencils with the correct tripod grip (mostly). His contol has MUCH improved over the last year. And in the last 2 months, we’ve really noticed the girls hand control improving as well. Both girls (especially Lexi) have perfected the tripod grasp on crayons and can do pretty well staying within the lines. Maddie, who’s leaning more and more towards being a lefty, sometimes has trouble deciding which hand she should use. She has better control with her left (in my opinion anyway) but there are times she’s insistent upon using her right. Who am I to tell her not to? So she switches back and forth!

Back To Summer School ‘08

admin — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 17:19:00 +0000

Every summer since Nathaniel turned 3, he’s gone to the summer program at the elementary school. One of the concerns with autistic children is regression but thankfully, Nathaniel’s never experienced it. Because it’s a concern for typical autistic children (there’s an oxymoron for you), Nathaniel is eligible for, and goes to, the summer program…even though, I really don’t think we’d see any regression if he didn’t attend. Nevertheless, I love that he gets to go. He’s easily bored at home unless I keep his day packed with activities and it helps break up the summer for us. He had a couple of weeks off from school and yesterday marked the beginning of the program. He goes MTW from 9:30-11am and there’s only 4 kids that are in his class. The program lasts 4 weeks. Then he’ll get about 5 weeks off before he starts kindergarten.

Apparently the hour and a half he spent at school, coupled with having friends over yesterday afternoon and playing in the sweltering heat and humidity, proved too much for the little guy. At 7:30pm last night, he started to fall asleep in the chair so I asked him if he was ready for bed (he typically goes to bed between 8-9pm) and to my surprise he said yes. After I got him all tucked in, I did a couple of quick things around the house and when I went back in not 5 minutes later, this is what I saw….he was already passed out.