parent teacher conference

(He's a good little singer, don't you think?)

Last night was Garrett's first Parent Teacher Conference. Blake and I had a nice, mostly positive conversation with Ms. Christina (one of the head teachers) and Ms. Addy (one of the assistants), and we were happy to learn that Garrett has made a lot of improvement since those dark days at the start of the school year. It was heavily emphasized, however, that there is still plenty of room for improvement. Garrett's biggest challenges are with sharing, focusing and sitting still, and handling his emotions (his scream at school is just as piercing as it is at home). His teachers also continue to have a difficult time understanding his speech, and for the most part can only recognize words here and there in mainly one- and occasionally two-word clusters. They brought up the fact that his speech and language delay has delayed other areas of his development, which can also be a challenge. A few times during the conference I felt as if they frequently forget not only that he's the youngest in the class, but also that he's enrolled as a special ed student. On the positive side, however, it was somewhat validating for me to hear that I'm not the only one who recognizes these challenges with my child.

One interesting thing they mentioned was the possibility that he might have a sensory issue. We've long known that Garrett doesn't like the feel of certain -- many -- things, especially on his hands and consequently has a tendency to flip out if he gets dirty or touches something he considers unpleasant. (Flashbacks of his first birthday party raced through my mind during this discussion.) Ms. Christina informed us that we have the option to have him informally evaluated for this which, if it is determined that there is an issue, would result in some occupational therapy to correct it. We've decided to go ahead and pursue this because at this point it seems that Garrett could only benefit.

We also met with Ms. Casey, his speech therapist. She is pleased with his progress and had nothing but good things to tell us about Garrett, both in how he's improving his speech and language skills as well as his behavior during his sessions with her. When it's time to re-evaluate his IEP, she's considering requesting that they up the amount of half-hour therapy blocks he receives each week from two to three because she believes that he'd greatly benefit from more one-on-one time with her.

Despite the difficulties, Garrett still loves school. He looks forward to it every day, and every day he comes home happy. He has made two friends in his class, whose names I was finally able to determine last night -- Matthew and Yakyah. The both ride the bus with him as well, and Garrett loves to tell me heaven knows what about how great he thinks they are. I still believe that Garrett is in a good situation at this school, and am still happy that he gets to attend.