Wednesday, September 13, 2006

God Sent Our Education Advocacy Team

First, let me say, Kendra - you rock. I will use those verses and search out some others, too. Thank you!

Today, Hubby and I met with The Boy's 1st grade teacher, the school counselor and the school nurse. And I have to tell you, they approached ME about this. Now, I've been reading about how you have to be the advocate for your child's education in situations where he/she might have something that will impair learning or social aspects of school. I've read horror stories about people who had to fight schools just to get their kids common-sense type help. Blows my mind and made me wonder what I'm up against. And here comes The Boy's school, asking US if we'd like to meet to discuss what plans - if any - we would like to make for him. Don't even TELL me there are no miracles these days.

And these women were so incredible. They asked questions, they let us talk, they offered their own thoughts. It was truly a discussion of people who wanted to make sure The Boy is getting the help he needs. They actually had a 3rd grader with Tourette's (sounded like maybe last yr?). That mom had brought in this documentary to share with the kid's class. It just won an Emmy - an HBO documentary called, "I Have Tourette's But Tourette's Doesn't Have Me". I've seen it. (btw - that link will take you to a site that will show you a 4 min clip of it) I was just so impressed with the idea of that 3rd grader having the guts to share it. Anyway, the counselor is ordering the DVD for the school to have. They all said they wanted to watch it just to get a better idea of what The Boy is up against. I mean, man! This is a proactive team.

So we left that meeting all agreeing that, at the moment, there really is nothing to do for The Boy but keep an eye out for signs of him having trouble learning, getting frustrated, etc. But to know that all of them will be watching out for him and reporting back to us, that's cool. They also asked us to share anything we find out either from The Boy, his doctors or our own reading. I already pointed them to the http://www.tsa-usa.org/ site.

I just felt great about it.

Oh, one more victory: Last night, Hubby read with The Boy. And The Boy didn't experience the same frustration with reading as the previous night (because of his eye movements making him lose his place). That made me think that God is listening and answering. He is definitely giving The Boy control over things for now.

2 comments:

Kendra said...

That's awesome. I like the sounds of your school! Great team, and great advocates for your child are a blessing for sure. love you -

Trish Ryan said...

God sooooo has you guys covered! Liam will THRIVE, cause he's an awesome little dude.

You are my go-to person for prayer requests now...you seem to have the speed dial :)