Yay Irena - this is GREAT news!!! I am so glad that the school has completed an veal and that they've acknowledged and documented his dysgraphia etc.
I also had one of those goofy 2e parental moments of "glee" when I saw your ds was given the PAL - that was a test that was thrown into my ds' IEP eligibility review when he couldn't come up with enough words to score on the TOWL... and since it was a *school* administered eval, I couldn't get *any* info on the test from the school other than the one subtest name and ds' score... and when I tried looking for info online I couldn't find anything.
But there is always that sadness that one's child has a disability.
I am sure almost all parents who've been through this process of knowing something was up, struggling to get to the answers.. know that feeling in the pit of your stomach when you actually get those answers - even though you know in your heart and you've seen your child struggle, it's still hard to hear. I don't know if it will help, but I'd like to share something that my ds has shared with me and with his teachers this year as he's come to the end of middle school. DS absolutely *hated* being different when he was younger (actually he still does not really appreciate having to "be different" when he does schoolwork using his accommodations)... but elementary school was really hard. I am sure he would have given anything to have been able to not have dysgraphia or his challenges with expressive language. But if you ask him now if he could go back in time and change anything, he will tell you no, he would not take away the dysgraphia because it is a part of who he is, and he likes who he is. Your ds is going to be there someday too.
And yes, as my ds' mom - no matter how happy I am that my ds is self-confident and self-accepting and ok with the world - I still get angry about it sometimes. There's no getting around it - having an LD takes away a huge chunk of time from childhood that I wish could have been spent on just being a child. It also re-wrote how I spent my time as a parent - those "What to Expect When You're Expecting" etc books never include planning ahead for advocating against a brick wall. So yeah... um... if *I* could have changed his childhood, yes, I would gladly take away the dysgraphia! But really that sadness didn't stay for long, and the times I feel angry about it are just fleeting, and I try to use the energy from those feelings to help make the path a little easier for the 2e kids coming down the line. Not that there's much time for that - sadly school advocacy is still taking up too much of my time!
Thanks so much for posting your update - you are an amazing advocate for your ds - I am inspired by your successes!
polarbear
