I Need a Stamp

I clean out Olivia’s school backpack each evening in an effort to keep it a little lighter and to stay on top of the paper clutter , oh, I mean ART that comes home almost daily.

Friday’s clean-out found the ASQ: SE, which is a questionnaire asking about the things Olivia can and cannot or will not do. It has 33 questions I’m supposed to answer with ‘most of the time,’ ‘sometimes,’ or ‘rarely or never.’

I wish I had a stamp that I could use on some of these questions that reads: ‘does this at home but probably won’t do it for you.’

Because that’s how Olivia rolls. She does what she wants to do when she wants to do it and if she doesn’t want you, the teacher/therapist/evaluator to know that she can do something, well, you won’t know.

The only reason her teachers know she can speak in clear, complete sentences is because she’ll speak to me while I’m in the classroom with her. Oh wait, she’ll also speak to her Gram if she happens to be in the classroom for any reason.

But the teachers? She prefers not to speak to them.

She will obviously speak to her speech therapist because this is the woman who has declared that Olivia is at a typical level for her age group. I know!

Anyway, these questionnaires are frustrating and honestly, I feel like they’re a joke. What’s the point of me spending all that time filling it out when she won’t do the things I’m ‘reporting’ she does at home?

Oh, don’t worry, I’ll fill the stupid thing out, it’s the kind of complacent parent I am. I do the homework sent home to me. But I don’t have to like it. So there.