Sheridan's First Year of School

I've been meaning for some time to write a post about Sheridan's first year of school. That will still have to wait... but for now, check out this quick video I made for his annual IEP (that's 4 months late).

I recommend viewing full screen so you can see better :)

Up, Down, & All Around

Nine months ago when Sheridan started at his current school he couldn't navigate the play structure independently. He couldn't climb up or down the ladders/structure with the exception of climbing up and down the stairs using both hands for balance, and walking across the bridge. 

Now he's jumping, handling a lot of movement on the bridge, and climbing all over the place independently. This video shows Sheridan working with his Physical Therapist who sees him at school once a week for an hour each visit - the first 30 minutes is just the two of them, the second half is when the other children (most of them 1-2 years older than Sheridan) are out playing, too. His skill level can vary depending on the amount of activity around him, so this combined session is perfect for helping him generalize his skills. 

I love how the other children like to get involved... little PTs in the making!

Not only are these important skills for his gross motor development, they help to increase his safety at school and, let's face it, that boy would live outside if we let him. Now he has increased confidence and ability to do what he wants to do. So proud of him!

Sheridan's Debut Performance

Sheridan's class hosted a Holiday Tea & Sing... the children sang about 10 holiday songs (plus three songs about the geography they are learning: the continents and the countries in North & South America). Two songs were in Spanish. After the singing, everyone enjoyed the cookies the children baked in class. 

The Program

This was Sheridan's debut musical performance. I mean, c'mon. This is big, y'all. He's in his element, right?! His friends, music, singing, gestures for each song. He is going to rock. it. out.

Eat your heart out. That's right. He busted out with a tie and matching chucks.

He's been singing all of these songs nonstop. Every day. It took me a couple weeks to figure out what he was singing - Up on the Rooftop is definitely his favorite, followed by Cascabel and La Pulga de San Jose (which he actually calls La Guitarra because part of the song is about playing a guitar). 

Yep, you read that correctly. Sheridan is singing songs in Spanish. Don't even get me started on how proud I am of him...

So the moment arrives. The audience is standing room only (at least 70 adults in the room?), everyone is hushed, the children walk in and take their places...

And Sheridan... just... sits there. 

Sitting in the front, fourth from the right.

When I say he sat there, I mean that's all he did. You could tell he was just taking in the sea of people in front of him. And he watched his classmates sing around him.

Originally, we tried to hide and make sure he wouldn't spot us in the crowd, thinking he might be distracted. But then Gary felt that Sheridan was trying to find us in the mass crowd of people. So, we stood up and made sure Sheridan could see us singing along. He got excited. Gave us a few waves.

I love his waves here...

And you know what? I'm very proud of him for sitting with his classmates through the entire show. Because other kids were dropping like flies. Some of the other children either had to go sit down with their families or a teacher, and a couple refused to even be part of the concert.

His teachers were proud of him, too. After the concert, one of the moms (she volunteers in the classroom one day a week) said she's seen all the children practicing for weeks, and she pointed at Sheridan and smiled and said, "I've seen you sing these songs! I know you can sing them." Sheridan laughed.

As soon as we got to the cookie part of the evening he started singing to the whole room full of people. Stinker.

Grandpa & Nanny Airplane were there. So was Nonna, but I didn't get a picture :(

Some pictures of Sheridan and his classmates...

It's a big decision: the cookie, or the pretty girl?

How about both?

I definitely need to write a post about Sheridan's school. He loves it. We love it. They love him. Can you tell?

I'll post something soon...

The First School District Report is In

I just received Sheridan's first written assessment report from the school district: the pre-academic and academic skills assessment (I provide more detailed info below for those who are curious what such an assessment looks like). In two pages I found only 4 corrections I requested be made. Not bad (but we believe they are important corrections, so we'll see how it goes). 


I appreciate that the Resource Specialist is working with me... she sent me a copy of the report to review before turning in the final report. I believe this is how it should work (e.g., if I have a question or a correction we identify it before the IEP meeting) - we're all on this team together! :) 


As far as her recommendations or any goals, she simply wrote, "Recommendations will be made at the IEP meeting." Of course, I would prefer to see her suggested goals in advance (although she did tell me verbally at the end of the assessment what she thought might be good goals and she asked for my input). Writing goals is part of the IEP so I'm fine with waiting to discuss as a team :)


What was Included in the Assessment


The pre-academic and academic skills assessment (she used the Brigance Diagnostic Inventory of Early Development II) was sort of a global assessment that covered the following areas: (keep in mind some of this was based on parent report, and his speech therapist who happened to be present for part of the assessment weighed in a few times, too, to verify I was telling the truth :) 

1. Fine-motor skills - he can squeeze a squeaky toy (that one kind of cracked me up, honestly), put objects into a container, use a good grasp and voluntarily release, take objects out of container, grasp objects easily and automatically, unwrap loosely wrapped items - think: give him a granola bar that I've already opened - he can tear through that sucker and get what he wants out of the wrapper :) - deliberately pour/dump objects from a container (oh boy, can he), stack 3-4 boring one-inch cubes (my commentary, not verbatim from the report), scribble with crayons without losing contact from the paper, hold a pencil with his fingers (not fisted), imitate scribbles in vertical, horizontal, and some circular directions. By the way, yes, this is all OT stuff, and Sheridan will have an OT eval, as well. 
2. Gross-motor skills - Sheridan can stand without support, attempts to jump without hands held but feet do not leave the floor yet, walks well, walks sideways (she wrote 2 steps, so this was correction request #1: he can walk more than 2 steps... at least 5-10 when he is skirting an obstacle), he runs with some falling - that boy thinks he's Carl Lewis, Michael Johnson, and Jesse Owens all wrapped up together... but with less coordination at high speeds :) - he walks backwards, stands on his tip-toes (holding on for balance), and walks up and down stairs with hand held. Yup, you guessed it, he'll also have a PT eval by the district.
3. Receptive and expressive language - he can expressively (meaning say) identify pictures of common objects using signs and approximates the word (correction #2 was requested here: she said 22 out of 27 objects based on Sheridan's speech therapist pointing out that he can do up to 26 or 27 of the 30 Kaufmann cards he's working on - so that's a finite number of cards, but Sheridan can say (sign/approximate) likely around 200 objects/words - he receptively (meaning he understands) identifies pictures of common objects, 20 body parts (he knew more than that but some he knows aren't on their list), he can follow three-step directions (this was correction request #3: her report only said one-step directions but I pointed out that during the assessment I asked Sheridan to (1) go get his "I Spy" book off the shelf, (2) bring it over here, and (3) sit down so we could read it together), he uses polite phrases such as please and thank you, he signs his name (correction #4: he doesn't sign his name, he says it). He'll have a speech eval, too.
4. Academic - he gives one or two objects when asked, he counts to five with one-to-one correspondence (he pointed to each of five frogs and counted them correctly), names 9 out of the 11 colors on the list (he doesn't name grey or pink much) and points to 10 out of 11 colors (he can identify pink if asked), he matches colors, identifies pictures by description, identifies about 15 sight words, when given a book he turns it right side up and turns the pages one at a time, he looks at pictures selectively, points to pictures of interest, points to pictures of common objects when asked, labels pictures of common objects using signs and approximations.
5. Daily living - Sheridan drinks from a cup/glass held in two hands without assistance, uses a straw, working on drinking from open cup, he returns the cup to the table after drinking, uses a spoon without turning it upside down with little to no spilling, uses a fork, working on using utensils with fingers (still uses fist mostly), he assists with dressing (meaning he puts his arms in, steps into pants, helps pull up underwear, etc), removes some articles of clothing and his shoes, working on putting on his shoes and socks, uses potty but may need help with clothing, lets parents know when he needs to go potty, completes toileting routine with some assistance and reminders.
6. Work-related skills - he opens doors or cabinets without knobs, can open a door with a handle, helps put things away, exhibits signs of developing independence by having the attitude that “I can do it myself” (boy, does he EVER!), watches TV for twenty minutes (he watches 1-2 episodes of Signing Time a day), engages in activities for five to ten minutes, participates in songs and finger plays during circle time activities that last about ten minutes.
7. Social skills - Sheridan dramatizes adult activities, associates objects in play, watches other children and may attempt to join, engages in domestic play imitating an adult activity (e.g., cooking, talking on the phone), gives affection to family members, shows an interest in the activities of others, shows (A LOT of!!!!) pride and pleasure in new accomplishments, explores the environment and returns to the caretaker as a secure base, watches the faces of other people for clues to their emotions or feelings, likes to perform for others (seriously, he's a performer!), and takes pleasure in doing simple favors for others.

The report/assessment does not result in a score, rather it provides a general sense of where his "academic readiness" is so we can create goals at his IEP. For example, Sheridan was not interested in the activities the she brought, so we used his own activities (and some his speech therapist had). So, one goal the Resource Specialist suggested she might write is, "increase ability to complete assigned tasks" because he didn't do much of that at her request. In his defense, he simply wasn't interested in some of her requests. In her defense, it is important to follow through (he does complete tasks when he wants to, and I'm not in to forcing him to do something he doesn't want to... BUT, he does need to increase his follow-through when needed... like clean up, complete a task he chose, etc.). So, in the end, this is a decent goal, I think. Another goal will likely be around math skills (increasing his understanding of math concepts to higher numbers - I've never been one to teach him to count to 10 or 20 simply for him to memorize the sequence... I specifically avoided that and instead have worked on lower numbers to ensure that he understands the concept and quantification of each... he can definitely do 1-5, and I'm pretty sure he can do more, so increasing it up to at least 10 over the next year is a great goal to work on early math skills). 


So, that's where we are... just thought I would throw this out there for other families preparing for, looking forward to, or in the throws of transition. As usual, I'm happy to answer questions if you have them :)