I have to be grateful today.
I truly have so much to be grateful for.
I had IEP's for my triplets today. They have been involved in the ECDD program here in Port Huron Area School District. It is a kind of special education preschool/early intervention program for children with developmental delays. They have been in it for three years. And it has been a huge help. The goal is to try to help children become ready for kindgarten.
But it's time to move on.
The triplets are so alike, and yet completely different. One thing that any mom of multiples, or children close to the same age, can tell you is that they are a unit. Very inter-dependant on one another, and very close. When you throw a bunch of special needs in the mix, things become even more interesting. It is trying, at times, to discover their individual strengths and challenges. I think the schools have done a great job of doing so.
After all is said and done, I got some surprises and some confirmations.
Hope is off to transitional kindergarten, which is very exciting. It is a class that prepares children for unrestricted first grade.
Faith is going to the MICI room, as she takes her time with things, and would not be able to keep up with the transitional class.
Josh is off to the MOCI room, where he will have more intense speech therapy. With I-Pads--woo hoo!
The really interesting result is we've never really known what is up with my girls. Clearly, there is SOMETHNG up, but they were so young, who knew. Their brother was diagnosed autistic when he was three, and certified through the school. As he is considered "severely" autistic, no surprises there. School certification is an extremely rough process, and much more thorough, actually, than a clinical diagnosis. With the girls, it's been a mystery.
Not so much anymore.
The great news is they are not meeting the criteria as cognitively impaired. The other news is they meet all the Autism criteria through the school district. {{sigh}}
Not surprising. Really. But to hear it from the mouths of professionals, and then to see it on paper, it's a little rough at first. Your heart cracks a little. Get a little weepy. Then...suck it up, get over it, and realize again that nothing has changed in our world, it's just a new label tacked on. We can work with that. We'll be just fine.
So next year when you see three different buses at my house in the morning, taking my four kids to three different schools, you'll know why. Each in their own classroom to gain some independence. It's all good.
