IEP time!

Last week was much the same each day with Liam. He had good days at school, but at home his fits and tantrums would repeat themselves over and over. Thursday Liam had swimming and again had another excellent class. It was so good in fact, that Miss Karen asked if Liam would be able to stick around one day in the next week to show Addy (girl who has Adaptive Aquatics after Liam) how to do swim and float. Miss Karen is hoping that the relationship Liam has made with her in passing will help her progress in swimming. To us that was a very flattering thing to hear. Jill and I both think it speaks volumes of his progress. We will find out Thursday the 29^th when Liam will be a helper to Miss Karen. Since Liam had his progress report 2 weeks ago he has started on the next phase of swimming. Miss Karen was working to teach Liam how to do the breast stroke. She noticed that Liam’s right arm was having a hard time breaking the water. She began to wonder if he was left handed. We weren’t too sure so we started to pay closer attention at home. Liam has been all over with his hand usage, so it is hard to say. It is definitely something to watch for his next swim lesson.

Friday was a busy day for Liam, Jill, and myself. Friday morning I took Liam to his therapeutic horse back riding class. Liam was all excited to start until the instructor said she was switching Liam’s horse to a smaller one that would better fit him. Liam was upset that Opie wasn’t going to be there. I had to talk him into riding “Lucy”. I ended up walking with Liam to provide guidance so he did not fall off. One thing the instructor had noticed was that Liam had a great sense of balance. He was not leaning and sliding off the saddle like most kids do. I kept telling Liam to push his feet into the stirrups. That would force his body to straighten up in the saddle. We did numerous activities that involved commands to the horse and coordination with the hands on the reins. The hardest thing I saw with Liam was when he had to use the reins to turn the horse right or left. Proper hand position on the reins is a thumb’s up position. I had to manipulate Liam’s hands to correct them. He kept going back to a thumbs down position so it was a bit of a challenge trying to guide him and the horse at the same time. Towards the end of the lesson Liam was saying “done” and “I wanna go home”. He seemed to be tired the lesson. I attributed it to that for an hour he was on a horse and he had to pay attention or he would fall off. Overall, I think this class is great for him. He was definitely tired on the way home as he was quite whiny.

Once Liam’s lesson was done, I had to rush home, change, and go with Jill up to Liam’s school to meet with his teacher, school psychologist, and speech and OT therapist. Jill and I had spent Wednesday night writing up what our goals for Liam are this school year. It was not easy. While we both working on it together we got into arguments and it was quite stressful for both of us. We ended up separating and writing our own thoughts down, then compared and combined them. It turns out we were both on the same page for 90% of the things. There were a couple things that Jill noted that I did not, she is home all day with him after all. We went in Friday expecting a battle with the school OT and speech therapist. Our experience with them last year was not the best. The same can be said from other parents in Liam’s class. For anyone reading this that has not done an IEP for their child yet, it is one of the most important things you do for your child. Jill and I went in with a plan and were just eager to see what his teacher and school therapists would say. To our amazement we were all in agreement on what needs to be done with Liam. Liam is 2 years away from kindergarten. We want to take an aggressive approach with Liam now that he is 4, and for the fact that he met and exceeded some expectations from last year. Jill and I do not want to be doing Liam’s IEP next year and be worrying that Liam has way too far to advance and be able to attend kindergarten. This is when we really take a look at his progress and see that the hard work is paying off. Liam has come a long way, and yet still has a long way to go. We are both happy with the IEP for this year. We will look at it around Christmas time and see if we should back off, or even step it up. We were quite happy to hear the OT and speech therapist agree with our assessment’s on what Liam needs work on. Written progress reports will be sent home every twelve weeks. I pushed to have monthly reports and we agreed upon meeting with the teacher monthly and talk about his progress. Twelve weeks just seemed too in frequent to accurately check Liam’s progress. Overall we left the meeting satisfied with the IEP. I again can’t stress enough how important a well written IEP is.

Friday ended up on a fun note. We took all the boys down to our friends Matt and Dani’s place in the country to hang out for the evening. Our friends Brain and Deidre also showed up. All the kids played together peacefully and had a great time. During the winter months we try to get together with all our friends to hang out, have some beers, eat, and let the kids play. Each time it turns out to be a great time.

Saturday Liam and Seamus had their soccer games. Liam’s was first and he became quite difficult and I couldn’t get him to stay on the field. He kept crying about something on the field, I could not tell what, but after Jill talked with him, it came out he wanted to use his ball. When it came his turn to play he was insistent that he hold the candy sucker Jill bought for him. We let him go and he ran around the field while holding his sucker. He ended up doing very well. He had one big kick from mid-field that just missed the goal. The rest of the time Liam was right there with the rest of the kids mixing it up. I could not stick around for the second half of Liam’s game as I had to coach Seamus’ team. Apparently Liam noticed he could pull his shirt over his face and look through the mesh holes. It looked quite comical as Liam was standing in the middle of the field and walking around with the shirt over his face! It was ok though, Liam is not the first 4 year old out there doing silly things! Seamus’ team had a horrible game. None of the kids were in the game as they gave up 3 easy goals right away. They ended up fighting back, but lost it on some more easy goals on an inexperienced goalie. Oh well, it happens. It gives us something to work on at practice.

Saturday afternoon the boys all took long naps. After all, they did have a late night Friday and were up early for soccer on Saturday. Saturday evening was pretty quiet. Some of the kids and parents in the neighborhood came over and played in our yard. The boys all were asleep by 9pm.

Sunday was pretty quiet. After the boys had a nap, Seamus and Liam went outside to play. I told Liam he had to stay in the yard and not go over Kelly’s or Brenna’s party. I watched him from the living room window and could see it really being a challenge for Liam to stay in the yard. I went upstairs to put some clothes away and when I came down Seamus told me Liam went over Brenna’s. I walked over and talked to Steve and Donna. They said Liam was fine there and to just get the rest of the kids. I was mad Liam left the yard, but glad he was well behaved at our neighbor’s house. Liam’s impulsivity is what gets him all the time. It’s going to take a lot of work to teach him how to control this as he gets older. Liam and his brothers had a great time at the party as they know most of the kids that were there. It is almost like our neighbors have become an extended family.