Ds 9 has finally got his IEP in place. In fact after weeks of drop by visits to his class, testing, meetings with us, the teacher and our son it was determined by all parties (meaning the ot, speech therapist, counselor, special ed director and district psychologist) that our sons biggest cause of his issues was in fact his teacher. Nice to have that validation that the classroom is not a good fit. In fact the teacher was very much against any kind of positive reinforcement or accommodations and the principal had to get involved at the request of one of the specialists because of her combative and rather negative stance against our son. Thankfully for us all other parties could care less if she likes them as their only concern is for the well being of our son. An IEP was put in place and since then Ds has flourished and is doing so much better. It was even brought up that Ds IQ score was flawed and lowered due to his dysgraphia and other LD they have him in the profoundly gifted area and part of the IEP is to implement more advanced work a few grade levels ahead of where he was. That has worked wonders. His ot and speech therapist absolutely adore him and state that not only is he yes very smart but he's incredibly intuitive, compassionate, dedicated, independent and a very quick learner and they aren't even concerned about his grades because in their opinion he is a "rare breed" of gifted that will do incredible things in his life no matter what he chooses to do. At this time the goal is not to "get his grades up" but to encourage him to accept himself and love himself for who he is and to understand that just because he isn't like every other kid in class doesn't mean he is worthless. I am so happy and thankful for these women brought into his life I cry happy tears instead now :-)
