First Steps Plan of Action Meeting - I had a meeting with our intake coordinator & service coordinator at the house this morning.  This was our last visit with the intake coordinator.  Her only job was to get us into the program & set up.  Now the service coordinator takes over. She will oversee the entire process & keep things running smoothly.

They have decided to set Bradon up with a speech pathologist once a week for 60 minutes a meeting.  The pathologist they set us up with has 20 years of experience & is very "active".  He can come off kind of odd to some people, which is why they warn parents before he comes.  But they said that with the experience he has & the fact that he has 8 kids - he is excellent & gets kids talking.  Sounds like he will fit in perfectly with us.  We signed off on the plan this morning & the doctor will sign off on the plan next.  He should start speech therapy in the next week or two.

I was a little shocked to learn some interesting news this morning.  My original impression was that Bradon would be allowed to stay in First Steps as long as he was into the program before turning 3.  Apparently they have a co-program for kids 3-5 that goes through our local school system.  My problem with the 3-5 program is that is is a Special Education Pre-School.  Now hear me out before you call me judgmental.  I know that kids are in special education for a variety of reasons and I also understand that special education can get a very negative stigma.  I have seen it be a huge benefit for kids in it & I also do NOT think that our kids are better than it or that the kids in it are any different.  If I felt like Bradon needed it - I would be the first in line for it, but I just don't feel like it would be a good fit for him.  According to the brochure it is for autism, deaf blind, emotional disability, hearing impairment, learning disability, mental disability, orthopedic impairment, traumatic brain injury, visual impairment (only to name a few).  Bradon has perfect hearing, perfect vision, & cognitively is ahead of his age group. (All have been tested by experts in the field) His only issue is the talking & he is making huge improvement on that (we are up to use 2-3 words phrases & about 15 words now).  I have personally seen, through work I have done, how hard it can be it get out of special education once you are placed in it.  I would hate to see him placed in to a special education pre-school with the school system & then have to fight to get him out of it when he starts kindergarten.  I think that the system is somewhat flawed and I don't know if my faith lies with it all working itself out.  Ultimately the decision will lie with Matt & I when the time comes.  They said that we would be able to talk to the therapist to see if Bradon has met his goals, is he still behind, but we can work at home, or if preschool is the best option.

Matt & I have a lot of decisions to make over the next 5 months & I pray for guidance to make the right decisions for his future.  I also hope & pray that Bradon continues to make huge strides over the next few months, so no decision will have to be made.  We hope that he will graduate First Steps with flying colors.

As always we welcome our friends & families opinions & thoughts.

Am I just being ridiculous about special education pre-school?  Has a few bad experiences completely ruined a good system for me?

I'm sure there will be many more posts concerning this later.

I will leave you with Bradon's phrase of the week "Mom I did it".

~Amanda