First IEP Scheduled

Our first IEP meeting will be tomorrow morning. My original guesses about placement options were incorrect. As it turns out, we are going to be served by a different school district than I expected. Essentially, since Ava is not old enough to be enrolled in the optional preschool program in our home district, they assigned her to the school district her daycare is in.

The district she's being served by is larger than our home district and so is able to offer a special program for speech-only preschool children. Essentially they have intensive 45 minute speech sessions offered from 2-4 times a week. There are no more than 9 children in a class and there are two certified SLPs and one speech assistant. The children are separated into three groups (high, medium, and low) and the program is run according to a Hodson's Cycles Phonological Approach. One target is chosen per week and worked on intensively. Each session begins with auditory bombardment and data is taken daily. Another placement option would be for an SLP to see her individually at daycare. That would probably be once a week for an hour, but I could try for twice a week for 30 minutes each. In this district, word of mouth says that they feel a special education preschool classroom is too restrictive for a speech only student, although that wouldn't be determined without a full team at the IEP meeting.

I like the sound of the intensive speech sessions. I'm not sure what their criteria are for recommending two vs. four sessions a week, but I'm going to argue that Ava could certainly benefit from four sessions a week. I think I would prefer to have her participate in that program to less time spent individually. I feel like she would benefit from a well-organized cycles approach in addition to the intensive, individual motor-planning style therapy she's getting from me. Logistically it is going to be challenging. I'll be responsible for transportation which means I'll have a two hour round trip to fit into our schedule 2-4 days a week. Even the thought of that makes me cringe, but you do what you need to do. I can't turn down this kind of opportunity even if the logistics are difficult.

So, that's the story at the moment. We'll see what actually happens at the meeting.