IEP for the 2010 - 11 School Year

We're very pleased with Drew's IEP for this school year. His teachers and therapists spent the first month of school thoroughly evaluating Drew's spoken language, receptive language, auditory skills, math readiness, writing readiness, etc. Below is the summary of his evaluation:

Drew's spontaneous speech is characterized by substitutions and distortions of /f, ch, j, th, v/ according to the Goldman Fristone Test of Articulation 2. In addition, he exhibits distortions of /l/ blends. However, Drew's connected speech is usually intelligible when conversing with others. The Ling Phonetic Level Speech Evaluations indicates that he correctly produces all of the vowels of our language in single, repeated, and alternated syllables. In his conversational speech, Drew exhibits appropriate vocal characteristics, including vocal quality, intensity, ,pitch and natural intonation patterns.

Wearing his implants and using audition alone, Drew can identify common environmental sounds, repeat vowel sounds and follow directions containing two critical elements in a closed set of four choices.

Drew recognizes and names 17/26 uppercase and 11/26 lowercase letters of the alphabet. He recognizes and names 10/11 colors. Using the Get It, Got It, Go! preschool assessment, Andrew can name 19 pictures in one minute, and point to eight rhyming pictures in two minutes.

Andrew can rote count to 39, count 21 objects and name five shapes (circle, square, triangle, rectangle and heart). He can sort objects by color and shape and duplicate simple patterns using Unifix cubes (ABAB and AABA). He recognizes the numerals 1-5.

Andrew can copy 10 letters of the alphabet. He attempts to write his first name from memory, but does not form the letters correctly.

Probably the best part of the IEP is the "Child's Profile", which was written by his teacher:

"Drew is a bright child, who has a great personality. He is willing to work hard and he has a good attention span. He seems to enjoy coming to school. "

From this evaluation, Drew's team developed the following goals:

• Andrew will produce final /f/, /ch/, /j/, /v/, and /th/ in syllables and words on 8 out of 10 attempts in the therapy setting.
• In a quiet setting with audition alone, Andrew will respond in sequential order to auditory training activities in the sub-skills of phonetic listening and auditory comprehensions with in the DASL 50 out of 50 times. (nasal and non-nasal consonants in the beginning position of syllable and words (cake vs. make); the follow directions containing four critical elements in a closed set of six choices on 50 out of 50 consecutive trials).
• Andrew will independently recognize and name letters of the alphabet and frequently displayed pictures, icons, labels and words in the environment in six out of 10 attempts. Andrew will independently sequence and event or familiar story read in class in six out of 10 attempts.
• Andrew will demonstrate basic number concepts through counting, numeral identification and the use of manipulative upon teacher request in six out of 10 attempts.
• Andrew will show understanding that written symbols convey a message by attempting to emulate writing in six of 10 attempts. Andrew will use the writing process to make the intended message clear by drawing pictures and/or words, letters or symbols in six of 10 attempts.

Drew has lots to work on this year, but knowing him, I bet he'll have mastered this by the end of the year!

OT Evaluation

Drew's teacher requested permission to evaluate Drew's fine motor skills prior to his IEP meeting this fall. She had some concerns about his development in that area, and wanted to see if he was far enough behind to qualify for services.

At our meeting this week, I received the evaluation. The school used a standardized "Peabody Developmental Motor Scales - 2" test to evaluate Drew's skills. Drew scored in the 75th percentile for grasping skills, and in the 95th percentile for Visual-Motor Integration.

Drew was observed using an overhand/side approach to working with blocks. He could stack 10 blocks to form a tower and was able to copy simple three to four block patterns. He was also noted to grasp a marker with a mature tripod grasp (which shocks me!). He could unbutton three buttons in 75 seconds, and unbutton one button in twenty seconds. He was noted to be able to touch finger to thumbs in a smooth manner. In addition, he can trace a line, cut out a circle and square with accuracy, connect dots with accuracy and was able to imitate a horizontal line, vertical line, circle and a cross.

Basically, all of this is to say that he does not qualify for services for his fine motor skills. He was noted to have several strengths, including his "mature" grasp on a marker, ability to cut out simple shapes with accuracy, ability to button and unbutton and his imitations of drawing lines and simple shapes. The only weakness noted was in his printing skills of his name (it looks quite awful!). So the game plan is for him to work on his fine motor skills in classroom activities with his teachers, and for us to come up with some creative activities at home to help develop these skills.

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!