We met on Tuesday with the PUSD Special Education Preschool team to get their full assessment on BOY. In the last two months, I had brought him in twice for a series of occupational and psychological tests, each session lasting over two hours. And, they visited his preschool four times to observe him. Once by a speech therapist, twice by the occupational therapist, and once by the psychologist. Each visit they stayed 2 hours. They were incredibly thorough. Our meeting with the team, to go over their findings, was three hours. BOY's teacher also attended for the first two hours, and we are so appreciative of her taking the time to do that.
The assessment was helpful. Incredibly beneficial and validating. In fact, we were impressed. 50 pages of documentation. A compilation of the test results, all the observations, and the summary findings of the many questionnaires that were filled out both by us and his teacher. The attention to detail, and the hours of work that went into the report, was truly amazing! 50 pages of our BOY. And they got him. Really got him. All of his strengths and gifts, how much fun he is, and the challenges that he faces.
There are 4 areas of need to be addressed. Three of them relate to Sensory Processing. Sensory Processing refers to how the brain organizes and integrates sensory information from our bodies and the environment, so that we use what we need to perform everyday activities and function in an adaptive way.**
The areas of need with Sensory Processing:
BOY has significant difficulty with drawing, tracing & writing.
BOY has difficulty with attention - inattentive, easily distracted much of the time.
BOY has difficulty using both hands, both sides of his body in a coordinated way. (Example: Although BOY uses both sides of his body, he avoids crossing mid-line, and uses strategies such as switching hands, or turning the paper around, instead of tracing or cutting continuously while coordinating turning the paper as necessary.)
The other area of need is in Communication:
BOY requires repetition of many directions, and he often ignores what he is told.
In summary...what all of this means is that BOY does meet the criteria for special education services as a student with a specific learning disability: deficit in the psychological processing area of attention. As well as additional issues related to sensory processing. The best news is that BOY's challenges can be treated with Occupational Therapy, and it can all be overcome.
Ever since BOY was born, we have had periods of challenge that seemed outside the norm, and it is validating to have an answer. As E said in the meeting, for us it is as if puzzle pieces are finally falling into place. Yet, at the same time, no one wants their child to have additional challenges. It is painful. I adore BOY so... And, adore doesn't EVEN BEGIN to cover how much I love him and treasure him.
At the end of the meeting they gave us their recommendations:
- For BOY to have Occupational Therapy for 45 minutes once a week.
- To move BOY as soon as possible from his current preschool, and enroll in a school district Pre-K morning preschool inclusion class at a local elementary school. There he would get specific help all week by teachers trained in these specific learning disability areas. And... he would be able to excel in the areas where he has strengths. An inclusion classroom is one in which you have 15 students who are general education students, and up to 5 children with special needs. There is a full-time general education teacher as well as a full-time special education teacher in the classroom. In addition, they have two full-time aides.
But, we LOVE his preschool!! Do we want to move him AGAIN?
To be continued...
**Definition of Sensory Processing taken from the report.
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