Today was another big deal day. So many days have felt like "big deals" lately. But today was special. Today we received the evaluation from the school district. Today was a big deal to me because it was the suggestion from Jack's preschool director to reach out to the school district that opened my eyes to the medical/neurological crisis my son has been in. That was 41 days ago - April 12th. I am forever grateful to the director from Jack's school for reaching out to me in a compassionate, caring manner and for helping me to help my son.
The school evaluation was 17 pages long - single spaced. I haven't read it yet. I've skimmed some parts. Similar to the medical diagnosis (14 pages long - single spaced) - I know the information, I know the test results are bad. I guess it was new to learn what percentiles Jack would be in compared to typically developing peers. Sometimes Jack was in the bottom 1%. Sometimes it was the bottom 6% or bottom 7%. It is hard news to hear.
It was also hard to hear that Jack also has gross motor development needs. Gross motor is an area of strength for Jack - but he is still behind his typically developing peers - just not as far behind as he is in other areas. I know this was especially difficult for Paul to hear. And its been on his mind all day today. Paul is a good father and I know that Paul is really trying to be there for his family, for Jack and that Paul is trying more than ever.
What can we do for the gross motor? Our goal is to spend time outside, at gyms, Pump It Up, Sky Zone, whatever. We need to expose Jack to new activities and always work on gross motor skills. I'll plan on keep bringing Jack to Nora's soccer - those are great opportunities for us to play at the playground and meet other children. And I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO excited to begin swim this Thursday. Hooray!
So I haven't read the medical reports or school reports - but I have been the one who has provided the majority of the content for the reports and I have sat through all the report-outs. At this time - I'm still not comfortable sharing the reports. But I will share this little snippet from the school report:
Jack's Skills/Behaviors
STRENGTHS:
- Supportive family
- Enjoys gross motor movement of his choice
- Functional mobility; able to access items in his environement
- Emerging verbal imitation sklls
- Uses nonverbal strategies to communciate wants and needs with emerging use of single words
- Enjoys social interactions that are of interests to him
NEEDS
- Increase gross motor skills, including imitation
- Increae ability to participate in adult directed activities
- Increase ability to find named objects and complete 1 and 2 step activities
- Increase functional expressive vocabulary to communicate his wants and needs
- Increase use of functional expressive vocabular in response to others
- Increase his coping skills
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