ARD Meeting

The meeting today was quite productive and successful. I had done TONS of homework prior to the meeting and asked a few questions. I told Jeremy before the meeting that we were not going to sign anything until I could bring copies home and read everything - word for word. I stuck to that and I was proud of myself. The Speech Therapist said that it was totally fine that I was being thorough and I could sign the paper work when I was ready. I just didn't want to feel rushed into signing something without reading it completely first. (This was advice given to me from a website which I thought was EXCELLENT advice.)
Anyway, the Speech Therapist, guidance counselor, principal, special ed teacher, Jaydon's regular teacher, and Jeremy & I were all present. Big group!
The Speech Therapist is so nice, and she was extremely thorough. She said more than once that she couldn't wait to start working with Jaydon, and he was such a joy to work with, and he made her laugh so many times. His teacher even said the same thing a few times.
Let me back track...
Jaydon was given a few assessments. He did "okay" on all of them. Jaydon scored at the 7-9 year old level on the higher learning things. He did extremely well at story comprehension, antonyms and things with concrete answers. Remember that Jaydon is 5½ years old. Then, he didn't do as well with things that a 3 year old would know. We already knew that Jaydon was like this though, so it was not a shocker. When she first started evaluating him, she (Mrs. Wagstaff - the therapist) thought that he wasn't going to qualify for services. She said that she really thought there was no need for services when she saw how well he read, comprehended stories, etc. Then when she got to the pragmatics and communication, she started to realize that he did need help. The end result is that Jaydon does NOT qualify for resource classes, but he does qualify for speech/language therapy. Instead of pulling Jaydon out of class, she will visit with him 30 minutes per week (minimum) in the classroom. We told her that we want him to learn to do things in a group setting, and he needs to learn how to focus. She agreed and said that Jaydon does perfectly "one on one", but then loses focus in a larger group. It was SO nice to hear her reconfirm what we already knew! I have to praise her for giving me more feedback in 3 weeks of observation than any doctor has given me in 3 years! Jaydon will get preferential seating (because I asked for it) through 1st grade, the teacher is to make sure that he understands what the instructions are before he starts something, and then she is to check to see that he is doing things.
The meeting was a HUGE success, and we were quite excited about it all!
I'm just glad that my son isn't being "labeled"...yet anyway. He is above average intelligence, we just have to get those social skills on track now.

The ONLY thing that worried us is the following...
Jaydon tends to lose focus easily. Sometimes when he looks at you, it looks like he is looking straight through you. (It's really kind of scary, and something we've observed for about a year now.) Anyway, two of the people in the meeting recommended that he get in to see a neurologist. Sometimes, children have seizures and nobody knows it. When a child loses focus like that, he could be having a petit mal seizure. (Details on this found here: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/MEDLINEPLUS/ency/article/000696.htm) Scary thought, huh? Anyway, my cousin is a neurosurgeon (he specializes in Pediatric Neurosurgery if I remember correctly) in Miami, so I'm going to start with him to get some ideas, and then find a doctor in the area who can observe Jaydon through a few EEG's. The teachers can't officially "diagnose" Jaydon, but they are trying to be proactive and eliminate this as a possible factor for his lack of focus. More tests for our poor little boy who has spent his life testing. :(

Overall, we are very happy with the results...we shall see how he does the rest of the year.
Oh, and he has gotten a green dot for the past 4 school days, so we know he's starting to understand the rules.

Funny thing:
Mrs. Wagstaff asked Jaydon during one of the tests if he had any siblings. He said the following: "I have a brother and a sister, and I'm going to name her LONGFELLOW." She said that she's heard some funny things, but that was definitely one that she would NEVER forget! Jeremy and I cracked up at that. LMAO! She was questioning him having a sister and didn't realize until today that I was pregnant. YA - 5 months along and nobody can tell I'm pregnant. Pretty sad, huh?

What else...
Oh, we went to dinner with the Linder's and York's at Circle S today. I had a delicious sandwich, and I'm about to enjoy my pecan cobbler dessert in a few minutes. They (the restaurant) took 20% off our total which was super nice of them! Jacoby was incredibly fussy. This 1 nap a day isn't cutting it. He had been up since 1:00 so of course at 6:30, he was past the point of tired. Poor kiddo! It took us 35 minutes to get home because of STUPID traffic and construction, and he didn't even go to sleep in the car. I had to climb into the backseat - in between 2 car seats with a full belly and a baby in there mind you - and keep him entertained. That wasn't even working! What an end to our evening!!!

That's it from here. Sorry to make this so long, but I know there are MANY of you who wanted to hear the outcome from the meeting.

Have a good week!