The Long Way Up

Well I guess it has been a long and hard road for Charlie and for us.

Charlie's IEP meeting was yesterday afternoon. I'd asked for a draft of his IEP and while reviewing it the night before and writing our Parental Statement, I paused several times to reread these sentences written by Charlie's teacher.

As noted, Charlie's progress reports are generally full of SPs and NPs, as in "some progress" and "no progress." For years, he's been hampered by behavior problems that, due to growing taller and being quite athletic, have been much more difficult to address. It's taken several months for his teacher to get to know Charlie and to understand how to best teach him; to figure out why strategies that had sort of worked in the past, had long since ceased to. In the draft IEP she had written:

"Charlie has made significant progress on his academic programs.........His social skills are an area of strength. Charlie is friendly and enjoys interacting with others, teachers and peers alike."

"He shows great interest and dexterity in pattern following and his fine motor skills are exceptional."

It's been quite a while since I've read such affirmative statements about Charlie and his learning, and his abilities.

It's true, Charlie's learning has been very much in the slow lane. And each at their own pace, so long as the rest of us understand that we need to adapt our pace to those for whom the road is longer, rockier, and uphill for most of the way

But what a view when you slow your step and stop to look around, and see what others before had missed.

This year's IEP meeting was concise and well-orchestrated. Charlie will have the same classroom next year with speech, OT, and A.P.E., and will also continue to receive home programming/parent training throughout the summer and all throughout next year.