Good Points

That post yesterday, the one about the IEP feeling like a slap in the face, yeah. So, a few friends made some good points about that.

One: An IEP sets up goals for an entire academic year. So yes, half way through the year, we can’t expect Olivia to have achieved each and every goal, if she had, that would mean we hadn’t set up very challenging goals for her and we want to challenge her, we want her to work hard to achieve these goals.

Two: The IEP is a tool for us, Olivia’s family, to see to it that she gets the services she needs, deserves. If we don’t make her goals challenging, she could lose services and she needs those services, such as PT, OT and ST. As much as I’d love to hear at our next IEP meeting that she no longer needs these services, I don’t expect that to happen. But I’d really not want to hear that she no longer qualifies for the services while she still needs them.

So the IEP is a good thing. I know this. We have an amazing team working with Olivia. She has wonderful therapists that she enjoys. One of the good things mentioned in the IEP report is that Olivia is talking, actually conversing with her therapists more and more these days.

We’ve noticed at home that she will speak to me or my mom or Alyssa in front of other people more. She used to whisper or want to pull me to the side to talk to me if others were within earshot. Now, she just comes up, says what she has to say or asks her question and goes about her business. I love that she’s letting the world hear her voice.

Speaking of her voice, it is not high pitched like a lot of people seem to expect of a child with 5p- syndrome. Her voice is very similar to the voices of her peers, though it can still be on the quiet side. But hearing her argue with her sister? She’s got a set of lungs on her, that’s for sure.

I guess I just wanted to follow up my little whine about IEPs with a celebration of them. Olivia definitely benefits from hers and I know this. I just sometimes have to be reminded of it every so often by some pretty amazing friends.