Progress Reports

I was starting to wonder what was going on with Froggy's progress report. According to her IEP we were supposed to get one when report cards went out and that happened early last week. Then, to my surprise, it showed up in her Agenda yesterday with a note from her teacher saying that the printing program wasn't working right for some of the progress reports so they were a little delayed.

Froggy's IEP set five goals for her to meet by the next IEP meeting (in May, so basically by the end of the school year). There were two regarding playing with others, two regarding descriptive language, and one was regarding the ability to express wants and needs using at least two words.

Out of five, she has already mastered two. Keep in mind that we are only one nine-week grading period into the school year. She has three more to go! Her teacher seems to think she'll have mastered the other three before the next IEP meeting so I'm really excited. I know language is still the hold-up even though she's quite the talker these days. With her it's not just about being able to talk, it's the content of it--so much of what she says is still scripted. She's just a pro at making it fit the context she wants. That's a good start, I guess, but one day I'd like to know what she's thinking about instead of what her favorite character is thinking.

Here's the other development that has me really excited: Little Froggy is starting to spell! For a while we thought she was able to read on some level because of little things. Last year at Christmas she knew which stocking was hers without us telling her. Long before that, we thought she could read "The Wonder Pets" and "Little Einsteins" because when we'd be on the programming guide screen on the tv she'd ask for them and then yell at us as we'd scroll past them. So what I'm trying to say is that her spoken language skills are far, far behind her written language skills, as far as I can tell. And now she's able to spell certain words, like "love" and "open" and "stop". She's noticing words on signs and wanting to know what they are. For example, since she's been riding the bus this year we have made up a naming game. One of the things I ask her is what the red sign across the street says, and she says "stop". So I started asking her to spell it. With time she's started to understand that letters make up words and those words mean things. Then a week or two ago we were running errands and she saw the "open" sign next to the door on a restaurant. She started talking about the circle with the letters in it and naming off the letters. So I told her what it said and that it meant people could come inside to eat. Since then, she and I have talked about a lot of short words. Now, she can spell "Mommy," "Daddy," "love," "open," "stop," and her name without looking at the words. If she sees them written down she can usually tell you what they are. This is huge to me. Being able to read is one of the skills I value most in my life and the ability to write and express oneself follows close behind. I was afraid that with her language delay that it would hinder her ability to read, but this budding skill gives me hope that her language delay is just a disconnect between her brain and her mouth, rather than an overall language problem.

Considering she is already doing basic math, maybe I was worrying a little too much about elementary school...

So aside from the behavioral issues we've been dealing with this week has been good! I'm glad every day that putting her in school was a good move, even though I had so many reservations about it. Her classmates and her teacher have made all the difference for us, and I think that this Thanksgiving season, they are what I'm most thankful for.