Ryan's Annual I.E.P.

Before my son Ryan's annual I.E.P occurred this afternoon, his special education teacher told me, "Oh, I can't wait for this afternoon meeting because there are so much good things to tell you." She left me pondering throughout my working day until I came to the meeting.

But I would like to tell you a little bit about Ryan. Two years ago, we discovered what was wrong with my son for not being able to use his communication or interaction appropriate at age 3. Even in addition, we learned from developmental evaluator and school psychologist from my home school district that he "would not be able to meet his academic at age appropriate." I instead was told that he was eighteen months behind. It devastated me for a while. Finally, as a mother of an autistic son, I decided to roll my sleeves up and work with excessively at home for months. I still do!

Not only working with him at home, I also fought my way through to allow my son to go in my work's school district instead of my home school district. I felt that the placement suits him well. My gut was right.

As soon he started off in my work's school district, he started off in a full time special education class. Three months later, his special education teacher wanted to give him a trial for General Education Language Art class--to see how he handles the overall mainstream classroom. Five months later, we met his annual I.E.P meeting.

At the meeting, I was told by three staff: Special Education and General Education teacher and speech therapist that they felt placing him in Language Arts is appropriate for him. Not only to learning this news, they also told me that his math level is at a grade level, too! Thus, they wanted to put him in mainstream for math. So, it means he is in his mainstream class at 47 % class. Can you image that he started 100 % in special education class last August to 53 % in special education class within five months?

Academic Skills for Reading, Written Expression and Mathematics are at Kindergarten grade level (not even 18 months delay!)

- can do patterns, knows the day of the week perfectly while other regular Kindergartens still
are struggling.

- can even tell analog time ! (I was shocked because I thought he only knew how to read digital times, but he sure fooled me)- Guess we can buy him an analog watch!

-made 13 out of 15 in Inventory of Concepts about Print (he gets mixed up between title and
author's name) - I must praise myself because I read books to him daily.

-Ryan's vocabulary is continually expanding and he often uses the more sophisticated synonyms e.g. Xmas ornament instead of Christmas ball

- even though Kindergarteners are not yet adding and subtracting, Ryan is able to add/subtract
to 5 with manipulative when given a teacher direction

- one of his journal he wrote and drew a picture independently "I like ice cream" without help in spelling. The teacher told me at the meeting, when asked Ryan, "What do you supposed to do at the end of the sentence?" He answered, "period" and did it. I was shocked that he knew what to do.

Communication Skills has changed from severe to moderate delay. He uses completely sentences, but with grammatical errors with noun/verb agreement. His articulation is developmentally appropriate. Voice and fluency are age appropriate.

Social Emotional/Behavioral: He interacts in a positive and appropriate manner with both peers and adults. He seeks the companionship of others, but also enjoys his time alone. Ryan needs reminders to make and maintain eye contact at times.


Fine Motor: His handwriting is developing. He is able to reproduce letter formation of the alphabet at 60 % accuracy. Yet, he still has some difficulty when using scissors. Cutting tasks are time consuming for him especially when cutting complex shapes: i.e. stars and gingerbread. Last Fall he couldn't cut AT ALL but now he can cut simple shapes.

Vocational: Ryan is able to follow a classroom routine with ease. He needs two teacher prompts to remain on task while completing independent work assignments. Last year, he couldn't because he used to walk outside of a table or in a circle. But this year, he made an effort including completing his assignment.

Overall after the meeting adjourned, I FELT so good that he has come a long way from nothing to age appropriate level in many areas after I started working with him at home. No more tears, ignore what others or even listening to the white collar's opinion about his cognitive skills! Clearly, I have to say I am so proud of his achievement.