Mastered

At Drew's IEP meeting this week, we reviewed Drew's progress to date on his current IEP (for the 2009 - 10 school year). He mastered every goal from that IEP! Here's an idea of what he can do:

• Demonstrate improved voice control and improved vowel and consonant productions on at least five out of 10 attempts in the therapy setting.
• Produce a sustained voice in response to a model on eight out of 10 attempts.
• Produce a voice of varied duration in response to a model on seven out of 10 attempts.
• Produce /00/ in syllables and words in response to a model on seven out of 10 attempts.
• Produce final /p/ in syllables and words in response to a model on eight out of 10 attempts.
• Produce /sh/ in syllables and words in response to a model five out of 10 attempts.
• Produce/d/ in syllables and words in response to a model six out of 10 attempts.
• Produce repeated sequences of contrasting consonants, such as /ba-ma/ in response to a model on seven out of 10 attempts.
• Using the school curriculum, imitate and spontaneously use the word "have" instead of "got", and "to" in infinitives. Demonstrate an understanding of the concepts "front", "in front of", "over" and "full/empty" during structured language activities (unit/circle time) and unstructured (recess/lunch) activities through the use of speech reading and oral language in an appropriate fashion during at least six of 10 opportunities.
• In a structured classroom situation using play objects and pictures, demonstrate a receptive understanding of the directional/positional concepts "front", "in front of", and "over" through manipulating objects during structured classroom activities in seven of ten tries.
• In a structured classroom situation using play objects, indicate an understanding of the quantitative concepts "full/empty" by identifying full of empty objects as requested by the teacher in seven of ten trials.
• Spontaneously use the word "to" with verbs to form infinitives: to make, to cut, to color, to write, to play and to go during structured classroom activities 70% of the time.
• During structured classroom situation, imitate a model in a 3-4 word sentence with the possessive "I have ____" instead of "I got ____" during 90% of provided opportunities.
• During structured situations, will spontaneously produce utterances using "I have ___" when made meaningful through theme related play activities with minimal cues 60% of the time.
• Show progress in the sub-skills of phonetic listening and auditory comprehension in sequential order using the Developmental Approach to Successful Listening by responding correctly in 50 of 50 attempts.
• Phonetic Listening - will discriminate between syllables and words initiated with /s/ blends and syllables and words beginning with single consonants.
• Phonetic Listening - In a set of four choices, discriminate syllables or words with initial /s/ consonant blends.
• Auditory Comprehension - will follow directions containing three critical elements in a closed set of four choices.

IEP Meeting Monday

We have our yearly IEP meeting scheduled for Monday. We will review the assessments and evaluations that Drew's teacher has conducted over the opening month of school, and update his goals as necessary. We have no reason to believe that it won't go smoothly, but with these things I guess one never really knows.

One area of interest (or concern) has been Drew's fine motor skills. We consented to an evaluation in early September, and will receive the results of the evaluation on Monday. We're not certain that he will qualify for services, but we do know that Drew is a weak in that area. If he doesn't qualify for service, we're hopeful that his teacher (and the OT) can offer some activities that we can do at home to help Drew develop his fine motor skills.

We'll update his lastest evaluation and IEP goals after our meeting.

Happy 4th Birthday!

Language Sample - Four Years Old

I've taken a little video of Drew over the past few days, to give you an idea of how Drew is doing with his language. He will turn four years old this month, and has had his Cochlear Implants activated for nearly three years, three months.

It is really hard for me to believe that this whole hearing journey began nearly four years ago. If only I would have known then, what I know now. It would have saved a lot of tears.

Across the Field

Drew attended his first Ohio State football game this weekend! We made the mistake of telling Drew on Wednesday that we had tickets to this weekends game. He was instantly excited, and has been asking each morning if it was time to go to the game. Today, when we opened his bedroom door, he simply said, "Terrelle Pryor?" To which I nodded, and Drew's grin lit up the whole room.

Drew's love for all sports is infections. His love for football is awesome. Drew's Dad and I are really enjoying sharing our love of everything Ohio State with our little boy. Today, we introduced him to "Skull Session", stadium hot dogs, The Best Damn Band in the Land, Carmen Ohio, the Buckeye Bounce and an Ohio State Victory.