Preparing for an Evaluation?

Ava's evaluation is less than a week away. I'm beginning to think about how I need to prepare, if I need to prepare.

Some things are mundane. I need directions. I need to know what parking will be like. I need to figure out how long the drive will take given that I will be fighting rush hour traffic. I need to make sure someone can pick up Michael from school because Ava and I won't be done in time to get him. I need to pack a snack for her because we are supposed to be there all morning.

It is silly, but I want her to look nice. I need to pick a nice, but comfortable outfit. I need to allow enough time in the morning to feed her a good breakfast, dress her, and fix her hair.

And then there are the other considerations. Here in our state, in this district I've been told that the decision will be made that morning as to whether she qualifies. If she does, we will set up an IEP date that same day. I guess that means they plan to score all their tests and come to some kind of decision that same morning while Ava and I wait. If I want to be prepared to advocate for her, I need to be prepared to do so that same morning as the testing.

I'm not sure what that means exactly. I am going to write down my observations of her speech challenges at this time. I don't want to have to think under pressure. I want to be able to read off a list. Or perhaps just share that list with the team. I am thinking I should bring the ASHA position statement on Childhood Apraxia of Speech just in case. Oddly enough, I am having trouble thinking of other things that might be useful.

Does anyone have any suggestions? What should I bring with me to this evaluation/meeting? What should I be sure to think through ahead of time? What should I say/share? What should I not say/share? Any thoughts or comments would be appreciated.

The Weekly Review: Week 38

Online Post I Enjoyed this Week

Linda Sharps wrote a post on The Stir that I really enjoyed this week. It listed some of her favorite posts about parenthood. My favorite was, "You don't really understand human nature unless you know why a child on a merry-go-round will wave at his parents every time around—and why his parents will always wave back. — William D. Tammeus."

The Weekly Holiday Tradition

I shamelessly stole this tradition from one of my aunts who did this same thing for her two children. Each Christmas of her children's lives she chose and bought a special ornament for each of them. Then, when they moved out and had their first Christmas tree of their own, she gave them all of their ornaments to use on their own tree. I've been trying to choose ornaments that represent what my little ones have really loved for the year. The ornaments of the year get a special place of honor on the fireplace mantel. Here are the children's ornaments for this year.

One of My Absolute Favorite Christmas Treasures

We moved away from New Orleans right before my eighth grade year. Every year since then, our family has traveled back to New Orleans to spend the holiday with our extended family. We didn't have Christmas trees of our own after that. One of my aunts had the most beautiful tree every year. The same aunt who bought the special ornaments for her children actually. The highlight of her tree, for me, was the beautiful handmade garland she had made for it. Every year, I would joke that she'd have to leave it to me. Her daughter would say, "No way! It is mine!" Shortly after I got married, she surprised me by making me my own. I treasure it. I love it because it is beautiful, but I also love it because it was handmade for me with love.

Ava this Week

Ava is starting to compete with her brother for conversation space. It is both beautiful and painful to watch. They'll both run up to me just brimming over with something to say. His words will spill out. Hers will often stutter and stop. For a child with motor planning problems, she's actually more fluent than usual, but in this particular high pressure situation, her fluency tanks. I love that she's trying though. If I slow it down a little bit, and make him wait quietly while she talks, she has so much to say. That part is wonderful.

The Weekly Michael

I wrote about how sensitive Michael seems lately. We've decided to try OT style brushing with him twice a day. It worked miracles with Ava, so we figured it couldn't hurt. We've only done it for a couple of days now, so it is to early to tell if it will help. He enjoys it (and the attention), so that much is good either way.

Our first try with the final /k/ pivot phrase pages

I made the final /k/ pivot phrase pages a few days ago for Ava (and shared them with you). We sat down during our after dinner at home therapy session to try them. It looked like it was going to go well. She was excited about the new pages. They were bright, colorful, and looked new. She was excited about the treat she was going to earn. A necessity, as I've discussed. Things all went downhill from there.

Here was my reasoning for trying the pivot phrases. First, she was blasting through the pivot phrase exercises in the Kaufman Speech to Language Protocol Workout Book. All of those use early emerging sounds and she's pretty much got those now. She's even starting to add final consonants on the medial words in therapy without prompting. So, doing those exercises is good practice and review, but not challenging any more. Second, she was starting to get that final /k/ in single word practice at least 60-80% of the time. I really thought we might be successful at moving up to the pivot phrase level.

Well... not so much. I don't know if she was just having an off night, but she could hardly produce the final /k/ sound at the single-word level. The pivot phrases were a complete bust. I should have taped it. It was prototypical motor planning problems. No two attempts were the same. One time the /k/ would pop in at the beginning of the phrase even though she can't actually produce initial /k/ sounds. Another time, the /k/ would pop in in the middle of the word and then there would be random /t/ sounds thrown in for fun. Everything was disjointed and there would be long pauses while her system just struggled to sequence.

After trying for several minutes unsuccessfully to get some /k/ productions at the single-word level and watching her frustration increase exponentially I shifted gears. I simply used the picture prompts on the pages and made up 2-3 word phrases with them working on getting all the final consonants in the short phrases. At that point we were in familiar territory using all early emerging sounds and she was able to experience some success. Every so often I would probe the /k/ again, but without success.

I guess I'll try again in a few days. I hope someone else had more luck with these.