Curtis has always been my most lovey-dovey child. He is the only one of my three kids that has ever told me that I'm his best friend. He is the snuggliest. He loves to hug. He also says, "I love you", way more than the other two ever did at age 5. Lately, just over the past few weeks, he has started this thing where he will grab me, look me in the eyes, and say, "I love you, Mommy". He does it just about every day. He's realized that if he gets me to stop what I'm doing and if he looks right at me when he says it, it will be more powerful. And one other thing--it's not always "Mommy". Sometimes it's "Mom". That sure sign that they're getting older--that transition from "Mommy" to "Mom". Heartbreaking. *sigh*
Anyhow...my point? My boy/my little lovebug/my best friend is getting so big!
Curtis will be finishing up with preschool in June. His last day of preschool will also be his 6th birthday. It will be a miracle if I don't shed a tear on that day.
As Curtis makes the transition to kindergarten, there is so much to think about. It wasn't like this with my other kids. They just finished preschool and off to kinder they went. It's so different when you have a kid with special needs. There are so many decisions that have to be made along the way. My head has been spinning. My anxiety has been high, this past week, especially. I've tossed and turned at night. Sometimes I wish I could trust that it will all work out on its own, but I know from experience (my own and that of others) that you can't do that. It is my job to know what is going on with him and to be involved with this process. It is my duty to make sure that his plan for kindergarten is appropriate. It's a stressful task.
For the past few months, Curtis' therapists and teachers at school have been examining and evaluating him. He has been evaluated for both his triennial evaluation (his initial eval was when he entered the school system in 2011, so this eval is required since it's been three years) and for his transition into kindergarten. He's had speech, physical therapy, occupational therapy, and adaptive PE evals. He's been observed in the classroom setting and on the playground. I wasn't happy with a recent speech evaluation that they performed (or rather, with the lack or preparedness on the therapist's part), so I made sure that they had everything they needed ahead of time (doctor records, previous therapy evals, etc.). Can I just take a moment to tell you that if you have a child in the school system (any school system) that is undergoing evaluations of any type--make sure that the people doing the evaluations have the background information on your child. This can be very important! Other than that, I've just had to wait until they were done. I don't know that it will ever get easier to know that Curtis has to sit through those tests. I have been there when he has taken some of them--and a few of them we even filled out at home. It's all very unnerving. Some of it necessary, yes.
The big meeting to discuss all of this is coming up. Is Curtis ready to move on to a general education kindergarten classroom? Yes. I know he is, no doubt about it. My biggest concerns for Curtis entering kindergarten at this point are 1) safety and 2) falling behind academically due to his lack of fine motor skills. I already know that they don't want to provide him with an aide in the classroom. Am I OK with this? I don't know. Honestly, I don't! Does he need the aide for all of the little tasks in the classroom, or will this just become a crutch and prevent him from progressing on his own? I just don't know. I suppose no one really does. It's a wait-and-see game, and I hate that. I'm a planner. I don't like "wait-and-see".
If you had asked me a few months ago how I thought Curtis would fare in kindergarten without an aide, I probably would have said I thought he would be OK. But here we are, a month away from finishing up with preschool and there are still things that Curtis has difficulty with--things that "typical" kids his age should be able to do without much assistance from their kindergarten teacher. A few of my concerns: 1) He still has what I would consider a lot of difficulty with writing. He can print some letters, but he can't write them on a straight line. He has trouble grasping the pencil properly. I work on it with him and his OT works on it, but it's just coming along really slowly. 2) Cutting with scissors--straight line cutting is fine, anything else is a mess. And he gets frustrated and ends up ripping the paper. He'd never be able to do a cutting project (or any two-handed project) without one-on-one help in the classroom. Basically, any sort of fine motor skills are still an issue. He's getting better, but he still needs a lot of help. 3) Potty issues. We are still dealing with semi-frequent potty accidents. Some of this is because he has a hard time getting his pants on and off, some of it is just because. I can't get a straight answer out of any doctor as to why he still has potty issues at almost 6 years old. 4) Playground safety. Curtis+ 80 other five and six-year-olds running around like crazy people=danger. His balance is improving tremendously, but it's definitely not 100%. And he gets nervous around large groups. A bunch of little kids jumping and pushing each other on that playground structure just gives me anxiety. End of story.
Curtis IS doing really great with a lot of things, however. He is beginning to read. I am blown away by all of the sight words he knows. Socially, he has come a long way since he first started preschool. He loves to be in the classroom environment. He also loves to make friends and to be around other kids. He is SO excited for kindergarten (even though I'm not sure he understands it just yet...I'm still trying to explain to him that all of his preschool buddies won't be there). And I'm excited for him.
I don't know yet what the therapists and teachers will suggest for him. My goal? A kindergarten environment that will be both safe and that will provide the best scenario for him to succeed in the classroom. Let's see what sort of plan we can come up with. He will be getting an all new "team" since he's going to a new school next year and I'm hoping to meet a few of them at the meeting. Fingers crossed that everyone is on board to do what is right for Curtis!
No comments:
Post a Comment