Summer Break!

Alex graduated his preschool program at the end of May, and we already had his IEP meeting to get ready for Kindergarten! I have peace that we have made the best decision to go on and send Alex to school this year and not hold him back. He is such a smart little guy and it would seem so unfair to him. They are making arrangements for his class to be an "inclusion" classroom, where he will not only have a smaller number of students in his class, but they will also have the assistance of the special education teacher and speech therapist regularly. Alex will get 30 minutes of speech therapy twice a week in a small group setting. And, anytime he needs additional help, such as with reading, as some children with apraxia tend to have difficulty with, he will have the option of additional one-on-one assistance from the special education teacher regularly depending on his needs. We have already met his Kindergarten teacher, and she seems so sweet. Alex is getting really excited about Kindergarten, and I'm getting excited too!

At the end of May, we were still going regularly to speech therapy once a week. However, due to the possibility of bouncing around with therapists this summer, since we were losing our regular speech therapist, I decided it was probably just best to go to a once-a-month consult, and continue working with Alex at home. The consultation would help us monitor his progress and continue giving us ideas of how to work with Alex at home. Just to keep us on track and give us some direction. I feel most comfortable this way. So far it's been a few weeks and I am pleased to say that Alex has not experienced any regression that I can tell, which is a blessing! However, I can't say that I've seen any real progress either. I have to remind him to use sounds he has learned. The more words he strings together, the more intelligible it becomes, and the more sounds he drops. I'll gently remind him by asking, "Alex, are you using all of your sounds?" He is such as sweetheart to always give it another try.

Right now we are just enjoying our summer vacation. Tomorrow the kids begin their week of Vacation Bible School at our church. They are so excited! I really want to make the most of this summer before my "baby" heads off to school. It just absolutely doesn't seem possible that he could already be such a "big boy" and yet still my baby. I have already planned his first day of school to come home and cry ALL day. It was so different with Sarah. She's so independent and was ready long before they were ready for her. It's just so different this time. The first day of school will be here before we know it.