I have my first IEP Tuesday.

[DJBounce]

Well I hope by this post BrerMom you have had a positive outcome with your IEP. I have a 6yo DD with CP (among a page and a half of diagnoses), and IEP's can be long and drawn out. But you, as it has been said earlier, do have rights outlined in a Parents Rights Handbook. If you did not rec. this..ask for it ASAP. My 5yo DS Zach is taking Speech Therapy as well. He was considered mild and the therapist present knew of our DD and knew very well that I have been through the IEP ringer before. I cannot stress how important the advice given earlier about keeping track of meetings, phone calls, and any other correspondences in a notebook. I was given the advice of a fellow parent with a special needs child that in the eyes of the State "If it's not documented, it didn't happen".
I have to re-do my DD's IEP at her new school because the first IEP (done 1.5 months ago) was shown to have flaws in it in regards to official regulations with the school district. The Admin member who pointed these out was not at the first IEP. I have requested for her to be at this new one so no gaps will occur with my DD's education, and have made it clear that it would not be done with her absent. Good luck and God bless.

 

[s&k'smom]

2nd the motion by DJBounce. Even if you run into no problems it is an excellent way to keep track of things. I know for me I can get very confused and way to emotional. But also I work with advocates and more than once they have gone back to something they have kept documented. Good luck and keep us posted.

 

[KAB13]

(Some how I ended up here accidently and saw this post...)

All three of my kids have had various degrees of speech therapy. There is a light at the end the tunnel - it's all worth it, believe me. My middle child has had speech therapy since he was 2. At one point he could not sing E-I-E-I O. Now he sings the Backstreet Boys. It is a very slow process, especially for the young ones, but it does work. In three years, my daughter has gone from unintelligible to only missing the "r" sound, which is appropriate developmentally for her age. This may be her last year of speech - I can't tell you how much that excites me!

Be patient with your child, do some reading, and asks LOTS of questions. It's their job to explain things to you. Be an annoying bug. It's for your child's well being. Find people you can share with. Special ed tends to be a big dirty secret and it shouldn't be. By sharing our kids, we can see that everyone is different in some way.

 

[BrerMom]

Thanks for the encouraging words. And it's funny - one of our "homework" assignments is to sing Old McDonald every day at least once and practice E-I-E-I-O and animal sounds.