We had Not So Little Man's IEP meeting yesterday. Because he is in middle school this year they insist that he attend so that he can learn to advocate for himself.
Interestingly enough, he also got this lecture from the doctor this summer. Advocate for yourself, learn about autism, learn about your learning disabilities...
He did not want to. He has no interest. I am the Mom and he trusts me to make sure that his school is safe for him. But I insisted and yeseterday there we were.
Myself, my lovely son, my nephew, cuz the dang hubby forgot and did not show up to take the little monkey, Teacher, Vice Principal and LA Assistant. Thank fully I invited Not So Little Man's Language Pathologist/behaviour analyst with us.
20 minute slot. They had a flipchart that for the twenty minutes they went through. We were not given an opportunity to say very much.
Mrs T (our speech/behaviour lady) finally, 15 minutes in, asked how long they had known Not So Little Man.
The Child in question answered, "5 weeks, but really that is 4 days a week minus one holiday and one pro-D day so that is 18, but only for six hours each day, so that is 108 hours and that makes 4 and one half days. That is not accurate as some of these people have never met me"
I thanked tehm for the chart, I did actually learn a few things (He reads at 175 words per minute with 22 errors?? ). I insisted that another meeting be booked where myself and Mrs T could outline what WE knew was going to be needed to assist Not So Little Man this year.
Bless his 'sweet self' he looked at me and says "Did I suffer through this one only to have another one?"
Hugs and Laughter
Smart boy! Even the best IEPs are slogs to get through. I wonder if they are for those across the table as well, no matter the content because it can go badly no matter what the expectations for the meeting are?
ReplyDeleteHAHAHAHA! That is the best after meeting response-ever. :)
ReplyDeleteMy sister is a teacher, Kim, and she dreads IEP's although she does love gathering information on 'her children'. She teaches grade 3/4 split and has 31 kids-8 have 'individual specailized requirements'.
ReplyDeleteSo, yeah, I think we dissapoint/frustrate the educators with our parental expectations.
Kathleen, yup yup, his comment made me smile the whole way home! Truly, it made the meeting all that much better, lol.