IEP Meeting!!! :)

Today was IEP meeting day at our school. It was for Greyson to get his IEP in place. Let me start by saying, Yes...our son has Aspergers, but that is only part of who he is. He sometimes behaves inappropriately, but having Aspergers explains this behavior. Don't get us wrong though...it does not always excuse his behavior and we do what we have to do to find ways to help him understand how to make better choices in those moments where he slips or misunderstands people. Last year, once he was diagnosed, someone asked, "How do we know when it is Aspergers and when it is him behaving badly?" Well, he has Aspergers 24/7 and always will. He does not float in and out of it...Ignorance is always fun...especially now. Just remember when you are out there wondering why people or kids act the way they do...there may be a reason for their behavior and they may not always be able to help it. Thank goodness we have found a place that gets it...and what they don't get, they are more than willing to try to understand. Enough of my soap box...back to the subject at hand...
For the IEP meeting we met with the EC teacher, his regular class teacher, the speech therapist, the principal, and the school psychologist. What a wonderful place is all I have to say. We were there for around an hour and a half and they are more than willing to help Greyson with all of his challenges. What a loving atmosphere! The meeting was very enlightening for me and Michele since we had not had an evaluation from a speech therapist yet. What a great woman Ms Eileen is. She loves what she does, you can tell, and she is so excited about the things she can do to help Greyson prosper. I am really excited for him to be here with such a wonderful grouping of caring and loving individuals. The speech therapist explained that he has issues with pragmatics and she is really going to work on this with him. He gets 30 min once a week with her, 30 min once a week with another OT, and 3X's a week with the EC teacher to work on reading and math skills to try and bring him up to where he needs to be. They all seem to love him and think he will do well. They see what Michele and I have seen all along and that makes us feel great. He is a good boy and only has moments of inappropriate choices when he gets overwhelmed or has been triggered by something or someone. Alot of his inappropriate behaviors the speech therapist thinks, stem from his lack of pragmatic language skills. In other words he has a really hard time reading nonverbal cues. (e.g. body language, facial expressions, tone of voice and generally reading social situations) That makes his communication skills not sufficient for someone his age.

I think overall that the meeting went great and that they are on the right track as far as what needs to be done to ensure his success. They covered all things and we are extremely pleased with the outcome. Thank you CCS. What a blessing from above all of the teachers, specialists and staff are! Thanks Grandma Griffin...I know you had a hand in helping him end up at the right school this time around. One last thing before I check out tonight. Ms Susan, Greyson's EC teacher was diagnosed with breast cancer last week. Our thoughts and prayers go out to her and her family. Please keep her in your thoughts as she will be having surgery next week. This has been an emotional time for the whole school since we have a very intimate group of families.
Thank you for visiting. We love & hugs to you all...Goodnight and try to stay away form the gas pumps! It is getting full on crazy out there.