Update: I just got a call from "K", the really good OT doing DD's AT evaluation. As it turns out the day she was supposed to observe DD Hurricane Sandy hit so school was closed for 4 days. Over the next few weeks we had several scheduled days off, a snow day and week of half days for teacher conferences so her eval didn't get started any earlier. Tomorrow should be the last day. At least it's been done, though, and by a really good evaluator. Apparently she is not a part time employee - she said she is only brought in by our district every 3-4 years. Ironically she is actually a professor of OT - dept chair at DH's university. In other words I think it was probably done right.
It looks like DD will be getting an iPad. It can do voice-to-text, text-to-voice, audio books with the text, introduce keyboarding, has math apps, etc. "K" recognized that handwriting is really not going to be DD's mode of expression (yeah!). It looks like the next couple of years we will be working towards keyboarding short answer/fill in the blanks and by middle school we will focus more on voice-to-text options. She is also going to look at having sensory integration and endurance screenings done and will be bringing in some lighting options that may help with the fluorescent lighting issues in the classroom. All in all a good set of developments.
We have to figure out how to introduce this in the classroom setting. DD WILL stand out as different - not a good thing. Hopefully it will have enough of a cool factor, though, that it can be a "good" standing out. We talked about the difference between standing out as "different" rather than "weak" or "worse" or "stupid", etc. I mentioned that it will be important to have the issue presented to the other kids in the classroom in the right way. Anyone have experience with this that can be helpful? A couple of weeks ago DD's para was out and the class had a written test. (2nd grade having a written test on community and government - crazy...) Rather than send DD to the resource room the teacher read DD's test aloud to her in front of the whole class. Apparently everyone then noticed that DD's test paper was different (multiple choice rather than fill-in-the-blank) and I had to answer a whole bunch of questions about her disabilities and why things are different for her. I want to avoid a repeat of this if at all possible.
We discussed that DD's profile is unique. "K" was clear in mentioning that it is not just her deficits that are striking but also her areas of strength. It was nice to hear but also reinforced that gut feeling I have that the district is just not going to get it. While I am grateful to have this eval and to have an evaluator who gets it I am once again struck by just how tough this is going to be. I really need to hear some BTDT stories with happy endings. Kids who were so far behind the 8 ball in the early grades but who hit their stride with the help of AT. Please. I really need to hear some of these. (Make 'em up if you have to
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Thanks.
