Tuesday was our meeting with the public schools for Maria’s transition from early intervention (0-3 yrs) to preschool (3 yrs+). Yup, after Maria turns 3, the school takes over, gulp. It was a very large group!! Besides me, Andy, Maria, and Sue, we also had Maria’s physical therapist, early intervention/visual therapist; reps from DDD (state), Foundation for Blind Children preschool, and AZ Schools for the Deaf and Blind; school therapists, including physical, occupational, speech, hearing, and vision; school psychologist, and director of special ed for preschool. Or something close to that. The transition book I did was a hit. It was therapy for me to write and pick photos. I made extra copies and will give them to her therapists who weren’t there. Everyone was nice; Maria was a big hit, of course. She looked cute in her new outfit from Sue and she was very well-behaved. They didn’t even flinch when she did her poopy sound.
Sounds like there will be about 15 kids per class; their goal is 50:50 (special:typical kids), but this next year they’ll have only about 4 or 5 typical kids. The special kids are integrated into every activity. They work hard to keep them at the same height– Maria won’t be sitting high up in a specialized stroller, while the other kids are sitting low on the floor, for example. They said they don’t keep the kids in the strollers too much unless they have to (not sure how that’s going to work since she can’t sit independently, but I’m sure they know what they’re doing). I’m going to visit a couple classes at the public school and at the Foundation. Maria can come with. This was supposed to be an info meeting where they gave us info, but it was mostly us telling them about Maria. I didn’t feel completely free to ask a lot of questions, but that will come at future meetings–sounds like there will be several more. The team is coming to our house May 15 to evaluate Maria. That’s going to be a little rough. We see how much Maria’s progressed, and they see how she is compared to other kids her age, which I know they have to do, but it’s hard to listen to what they have to say…
I felt ok at the meeting, mostly, but I am going to be a blubbering idiot when I take her to school the first day or five. At least I’m not the only one. I heard some good stories about other mothers, so I know I’m not alone. It’ll be great for Maria to be around other kids, and not to be so micro-managed all the time, and it is only 2.5 hrs/day for 3 or 4 days/week, but it’s still going to be quite difficult to get used to.
Maria’s been very independent with holding her own bottle. She’s also been doing great with the straw sippy cups (for Uncle Andy and Sue Sue, that is). She’s been reaching out to us with both hands, turning around to look at us when we walk in the room, out of the room, etc. Today she held her hand up to the screen door w/o a prompt from me to say bye-bye to Sue.
And the laughter part–Sue told me that Clint (speech therapist) actually made Maria laugh out loud today!! She’s come close, she opens her mouth and almost emits a noise, but hardly ever more than a tiny squeak. When Sue imitated it to me, it sounded like a seal, but whatever. Wouldn’t it be great if she started LOL??? (shouldn’t it be L’ingOL?) Lots of improvements lately. She did see the chiropracter this weekend for the first time in about 6 months. Coincidence??