Updates, updates, updates

Good news, I’m active on Facebook again and I’m working on providing the requested updates on this blog about Wyatt’s progress. So much has happened, it’s hard to know where to start.

The issues of the IEP… All my battles with the school district paid off. With the help of The IEP Advocate, we were able to place Wyatt in the only Total Communication classroom in this county. The team at that school is amazing, and that’s a huge compliment coming from a Mom who has become a Homeschool proponent. Simply having Wyatt in an environment where other people can understand him, teachers and students alike, has made such a difference. Everyone signs, the teacher, the teachers aide, the interpreter, the students… a whole new world opened up for him. It was worth every minute of the months long battle to have him placed in that one of a kind classroom. His use of ASL signs improved almost instantly. He still modifies a lot of the signs because of his fine motor issues and we’re not having complete back and forth conversations yet but we’re moving in the right direction and he can express his wants and needs. Best of all, we don’t have to go it alone anymore.

With the start of school for Wyatt in the Spring of 2015, I also felt like I was getting my own life back. Wyatt has an amazing one on one nurse at school who stays with him every minute of the day. She took to him right away, is not scared of his breath holding episodes (that was the deciding factor whether school is an option for him), she can read his cues exceptionally well to proactively approach his behavior, and she doesn’t let him pull the sympathy card which is a top priority in my book. I want him to be challenged and I want him to exceed expectations. What most people don’t understand is that private medical insurance doesn’t pay for private duty nursing. Parents of special needs kids usually have to be the sole caretakers taking on the roles of nurse, therapist, teacher, specialist on their child’s condition, etc. So this has really been the first time someone outside the family has truly taken over care of Wyatt for an extended period of time. Strangely enough though, I wasn’t nervous on his first day of school, I was relieved. We met with his nurse at our house prior to starting school and she provided an instant calm. It’s hard to explain but I just knew, he’ll be fine.