IEP Update

We had our IEP review yesterday with Christian's school, and I couldn't be more pleased with his progress. Christian has met all of his goals from the last review, and new goals have been set to further his success and progress. I won't go into too much detail (however if you would like to see a copy of his goals, let me know), but here is a snipet of what we are going to work on:

Pragmatic Behaviors-
-Independently produce self-advocacy phrases when verbal information is not understood in 4/5 opportunities (e.g. "I don't understand," "Tell me again,", "Say it louder").

-Will use clarification strategies including rephrasing and restating what he has said when he is misunderstood by teachers and peers in 4/5 opportunities.

Auditory Skills-
Repeat 5-6 word sentences, verbatim, in 4/5 opportunities

Language Comprehension and Use/Receptive Language-
-Answer simple why questions with 80% accuracy
-Name the correct for a group of similar items in 4/5 opportunities
-Name at least 3 similar items when a category is named by the teacher in 4/5 opportunities.

Expressive Language-
-Continued use of 5-7 word combinations to comment, request, and protest in 80% of opportunities
-Use possessive pronouns and the possessive ending "s" in 4/5 opportunities

Speech Production
-Produce all age appropriate speech sounds consistently in all positions of words at word and phrase level with 80% accuracy

Literacy Skills
-Produce Mouth Time sounds when presented with a verbal cue (this program is unique to Christian's school)
-Answer yes/no and wh-questions about books by verbally responding with 80% accuracy

We went over Christian's testing again, and learned that not only is he testing at and above age level for expressive and receptive language, his speech production is exactly on track and where it should be for a TYPICALLY hearing child. We were told that while he is 1 of 2 children with a hearing loss in the class, Christian is constantly the LANGUAGE MODEL for the typically hearing children. Of course we're happy about that, but one of the main reasons we send Christian to this private school is so he can benefit from typically hearing peers that are HIS language models. We brought that up and asked about his placement for the next academic year, and we were told that he has been bumped up into a class with kids that are a bit older than him.

Christian's teachers went on and on about how is just using new vocabulary every day and is a joy to have in class. He's an imaginative kid, who is starting to show his recall, talking about things that happened in the past, or things that he expects to happen. He's extremely social, and in their words "Loves playing with his friends".

I have NO doubt in my mind that much of this progress is because of the model that his school provides. Have an SLP in the classroom with him full-time, plus a Master's Level Educator has given him the attention that he needs. I also know that our commitment at home to constantly providing language opportunities has helped him take-off and fly. I can't wait to see how he does this August when is attending 5 days a week. I'm excited to share these goals with his county teacher, and incorporate them into his county IEP.