IEP evals and other stuff

Its been a looooong week, filled with quite a few highs and lows.

We are moving along with the preschool process, last week the school social worker came to the house to take an in depth social and medical history on Ryan, covering everything from sensory issues (luckily few except for the singer in chapel that sends him into fits of crying whenever she opens her mouth, and the whole clapping issue) and pregnancy, birth and subsequent medical issues (unfortunately long, she wasn't letting me away with my 3 line synopsis about the pregnancy and birth that i normally tell to new people, she wanted to hear all the gory details, ugh.)

This past Tuesday the school psychologist and social worker came over to carry out the cognitive, social and adaptive portion of the testing. Ryan responded really well to the psychologist, after we laid the ground rules, no clapping please. I was really nervous as they use their own toys which tend to be very very plain but he showed off most his skills, especially in shape matching, and puzzles. The psychologist mentioned that his skills are very scattered (they use the Battelle reports which are notoriously language based and as Ryan really doesn't have an expressive language yet it tends to bring down his skill level quite abit) but she was happy to see his display of cognitive abilities with the matching games she was playing. They asked really weird questions like does he play with his fingers (hes a little old to still be interested in hands) and then they jump to identifying a bird from a really complicated and busy picture. Seemed to bounce all over the place to me but I think they were just trying to get a high and low baseline, Ryan's not exactly on the borderline for qualifying for services so I guess they don't need to see exactly where he is at with every little skill. I was proud that Ryan was happy and did all their tests without complaint, he was very very interested to see what was coming out of the bag next. He really does love one on one interaction with learning stuff, even with the hardships he has when his fingers don't work the way he wants them too.

On Thursday the school PT, OT and ST came along with the SW and as I had to wake Ryan up from his nap as they gave me really short notice on when they were coming this appointment didn't go so well. Ryan was a little crankier and tired than normal and not so welcoming about having 4 strange faces firing questions at him all at once.
Schools off next week for February break and then the week after I should have the results. Oh what joy! Cant wait! If Ryan is able to show off his skills to the best of his ability in evaluations then I'm happy. Now reading the scores on paper in black and white is a whole other story. Its hard to stay in the bubble of our "normal" when the comparisons are staring you in the face. But that worry is for another day .........

PT wise he is continuing to do well in his walker and is cruising in the walker at the standing table (you can see in some of the pics below all the wheels are turned sideways from moving sideways along the table). Hes also cruising really well on his knees and even transferring from one object to another without crawling in between but he still doesn't have the balance to do this on his own in standing. All things in Ryan time.

I think we need to get some more calories into the wee man, those pants are 24months and hes having trouble keeping them up when upright.

Playing with JB's iPhone.

Ryan's PT "M" lives on a lake which freezes over each winter. Every year they have their annual White Trash Weekend where all the neighbors get together on the snowy beach and barbecue and take the quads and snow mobiles onto the lake. JB, Ryan Brodie and I went along this weekend and had a great time! I also got the opportunity to meet a family that M worked with a few years ago. Its actually the same family that owns all the therapy equipment Ryan is borrowing. The little boy is now coming 6 and just started walking and talking in the last 18 months - AMAZING. It was so nice to meet someone in real life that just gets it. Someone who has been through all the NICU stuff, and EI and school stuff and lack of a diagnosis etc etc. The great thing is that this little boy went to the same school as they are thinking of for Ryan and the mum LOVED it. This made me feel so much more comfortable after the week of evaluations we had. Now we pray they have a place for the wee man.

And who can resist a picture of Brodie :)