Today was the first step in figuring out Molly’s future once
she turns 3 in May. We met with the school system so they could get to meet us
and Molly and answer any questions we may have. Molly greeted them by screaming
and crying. They said that was a good developmental reaction. We were thinking “her
heart…get her to stop crying” (half joking).
They couldn’t get into too many specifics because they didn’t
know too much about her, just what Early Intervention had told them which wasn’t
much. They hadn’t even seen her medical plan, or maybe they had and thought “holy
crap this is too long. I’ll just have the parents tell me when I get there”. We listened to what they had to say and went
over our concerns which the most important one being germs. We told them how
nervous we were about the germs in the class room and her getting sick. Because
of her delays she would be in a very tiny class room, only 5 kids or so. The
teacher to student ration would be 1:1 unless another student signed up. We
liked this and we didn’t like it. We liked it because of the germ factor. This
classroom is for kids that are very medically fragile and complex so they are
very careful about germs. Lots of Purell, lots of Lysol wipes, she would even
have her own bag of balls for the ball pit. She could have all of her therapies
right in the class room if that’s what we chose or if we wanted her to go to a
music class or circle time in the integrated classroom she could do that too
(which she won’t be…boogies). It’s all according to Molly’s needs and what she’ll
tolerate. Because each kid in the class is so different each teaching method
would be different for each kid. This really excited us and peaked our interest.
Now the part that I wasn’t all that excited about. I had told EI ahead of time
that I wanted her to be in a class room with kids that were medically
challenged but not so challenged that they wouldn’t motivate Molly to walk and
talk. I liked the idea of an integrated classroom because there were “normal,
healthy” kids and kids that needed a little extra help. I figured the kids that
were developmentally on target would motivate her to walk and talk and meet the
milestones that she is struggling with. EI agreed with me. Well, unfortunately
Molly needs too much attention and help and that is not an option right now.
She would be in a class or 5 kids that also need a lot of help. Mostly kids
that will never walk or talk and that’s fine because she will get the help that
she needs and who knows, maybe she will help them in some way. I don’t know
what way that is but she’s really good at saying “go” and getting her way all
the time. Our other option is to sign her up just for therapy to start off with
and once we feel comfortable she can start preschool. The next step is to take
a tour of the school and in March she will have an assessment so they will know
her needs and then we will go from there. She will definitely be starting an
outpatient rehab program in May which I’m really excited about. I think she’ll
love it and thrive and I think it’s what she needs. So while everything is
still up in the air I’m very excited to be planning her future because there
was a time that we wouldn’t dare make a plan for the next week and now week are
talking about sending her off to school!
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