Special Education Heaven

Well, maybe not heaven to the child but any parents dream. When we choose Helping Hands for you the primary reason was that they are a LAMP center for excellence. LAMP is language acquisition through motor planning and is a systematic way of teaching a child language through the use of an AAC device. Given this was our largest argument in the public schools it was a major reason for us to choose this school as your new home. This system is not only completely changing the way you use your device but it is also undoing everything I thought I knew about how to teach you language.

This has increased my frustration as I have had to hand over all control, hand over your programming, and finally put trust in someone else to see the potential and to guide you in the right direction. Anyone who knows me baby knows I hate not only not being in control but not understanding what is going on. I feel lost right now in trying to support what the school is doing as honestly don't know what they do everyday and how you are acting. I know that you are being successful and that they fully know what they are doing, I am just not used to standing back on the sidelines and watching but I guess we are both growing right now, you are growing your wings so that later you can use them, and I am learning to cheer you on from the sidelines instead of being the one in control.

With handing over your programming though and all of the services Helping Hands has to offer, we have stepped into special education heaven. In the public school system you received speech therapy 2x per week and then had occupational therapy and physical therapy on a consultation basis. Not nearly enough in services but the most we could get. Now, this has changed drastically. You are receiving four days per week of speech therapy, three days per week of physical therapy, one day per week of music therapy, and two days per week of occupational therapy. That is just your one on one therapy sessions and does not include that you also receive each of these services in a group setting one time per week with your class. It is with these services that we round out your therapy needs and are "attacking" all domains at once. I am excited to see the changes over the next year with this consistency.

Your physical therapist has also recommended that you go back to orthotics. You do not mind wearing them at all, it is more of an appearance thing as why I have a slight problem with you in them but I will move past this. The new orthotics for you will cover your foot, ankle, and come about 10 inches up your leg (so they will end right below your knee). When you had your previous ones they were much smaller and only came right above the ankle. For that reason I only allowed you to have them in white as they blended in with your socks and we could hide them. This time though, there will be no way to hide them so I let you pick the design and colors. In just a few weeks you will have new black orthotics with white skull and crossbones on them with red padding and red velcro. Your choice, and at least it is a design that will grow with you since we will be in these for awhile! Below is a picture of the casts that were done this week to have them made.



Love you lil' man
Mom