Ah, the 'letters' of special needs families. We had Ayden Jane's IEP yesterday. It was pretty uneventful as all it deals with is speech services since I choose to use a private setting for preschool. I did request OT for next year, however. What does that mean? It means a few forms and then Ayden Jane will be evaluated for Occupational Therapy services. Basically, the difference between OT and PT is that OT is working primarily on fine motor skills such as handwriting, cutting....
Let's just say I see handwriting as a HUGE battle on the horizon. We have been working on it off and on for a while already. Jen has spent some PT time on it as well and with improvement. Problem is, Jen would basically have to give up all the great things she does for Ayden Jane's gross motor skills (big muscles) in order to work on things like writing. Just not gonna work.
Mrs. J, Ayden Jane's preschool teacher and I chatted about it the other day. She told me that there were a few others that could still not write their names yet either. Of course, they were almost a year younger than AJ or just had no interest. What screams out at me is that Ayden Jane is totally interested, is trying really hard, has had time spent with a skilled therapist... and still cannot make any of the letters independently. AJ was actually crying that she tries so hard but can't do it and all her friends can.... Here we go.
Being 'typical' in so many ways is awesome! Ayden Jane knows most of her letters, many of the sounds, knows the shape of all the letters in her name hands down... she just can not make her hands cooperate. That is frustrating enough, but when you first begin to realize that things are different for you than others... It is hard that she is at a point where she is beginning to see there are differences, you know, not a totally level playing field. Problem is she is not really old enough to comprehend why, let alone process how to deal with it.
Let's just say I see handwriting as a HUGE battle on the horizon. We have been working on it off and on for a while already. Jen has spent some PT time on it as well and with improvement. Problem is, Jen would basically have to give up all the great things she does for Ayden Jane's gross motor skills (big muscles) in order to work on things like writing. Just not gonna work.
Mrs. J, Ayden Jane's preschool teacher and I chatted about it the other day. She told me that there were a few others that could still not write their names yet either. Of course, they were almost a year younger than AJ or just had no interest. What screams out at me is that Ayden Jane is totally interested, is trying really hard, has had time spent with a skilled therapist... and still cannot make any of the letters independently. AJ was actually crying that she tries so hard but can't do it and all her friends can.... Here we go.
Being 'typical' in so many ways is awesome! Ayden Jane knows most of her letters, many of the sounds, knows the shape of all the letters in her name hands down... she just can not make her hands cooperate. That is frustrating enough, but when you first begin to realize that things are different for you than others... It is hard that she is at a point where she is beginning to see there are differences, you know, not a totally level playing field. Problem is she is not really old enough to comprehend why, let alone process how to deal with it.
That must be so frustrating for her (and for you). :( Before Dean could run, he realized that he couldn't keep up with kids who could and he would look at me and cry. It was so hard. Hard to know how much we can encourage them that they will be able to be like others and how much they just won't. :/
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