Parent/Teacher Conference

On Wednesday of this week we had Joshua's parent/teacher conference with his teacher from his Developmental Preschool.  The awesome part about it was that his teacher offered to do in-home conferences (which we gratefully accepted) so she came to our house for the conference.  Joshua had a great time showing her around, especially his room and all his toys. 

We could tell right away that Joshua is very bonded to his teacher and that they have a very special relationship.  He was even sitting on her lap for part of the conference - so cute.  We really like his teacher a lot and she even allowed us to educate her on the diet a little more (we showed her ketocalculator!). 

The report we got from his teacher was some very positive things, but that she also has some areas of concern.  Regarding the positive, she said Joshua is a changed boy from the end of last school year when he first started attending.  Last year he did not participate in any of the activities, didn't play with the other kids and just sat back and watched the other kids. She said just being there stressed him out last year, but this year is totally different.  She said he comes off the bus happy and ready to learn and that he engages in all of the activities they do every day and has fun with the class.  She said he is now able to sit in circle time and keep with the activity for up to 20 minutes now where at the beginning of the year he couldn't even sit for 5 minutes.  She also said that Joshua has improved in following directions and can follow many 1-step directions (they are still working on 2-step directions).  She said Joshua is a joy to have in class, has an infectious smile and that he loves to dance in circle time!  It made me happy to hear all of these good things about him and that he is enjoying preschool. 

She also mentioned some areas of concern and they are all in the academic area (she has no concerns about him socially -LOL).  She has concerns with his short term memory and his inability to focus for very long.  She said he has difficulty concentrating on a task at hand for very long and following through on it without help from a teacher.  If he thinks that a task is going to be too difficult, he will either say doesn't want to do it or he will just shut down and not try.  She said he also has some fear of movement and fear of trying new things.  He would much rather watch his peers first before trying something new.  She is working on his self esteem to get his confidence up so he will realize he can do things.  She said Joshua does not know any of his letters or numbers and has a hard time retaining things they teach him.  For example, they sit in the same spot at the table every day when they come into class and each spot has the child's name written on it and the child is to find their name and sit down.  She said Joshua has sat in the same spot since the 1st day of school, but he still cannot find his name or his spot to sit.  She said it is as if he has to go through the whole process of trying to figure out where his name is as he walks around and looks at all of them, instead of remembering that he sits in a certain spot.  She said he is well behind his normally developing peers for his age so it is good we have him in Development Preschool so he can get the help he needs. 

Towards the end we started talking about what will happen next year when he is supposed to go to Kindergarten.  She said that we will discuss that and decide as a parent/teacher team what course he will take for Kindergarten, but we have 3 options:  1) He attends general education kindergarten, but he will still have an IEP for any services he will require, 2) He can attend Developmental Kindergarten if we feel he won't be able to make it in general education Kindergarten or 3) We can keep him in Developmental Preschool for 1 more year and hold him back so he as more time to prepare for Kindergarten.  She said her goal is to get him ready for general education Kindergarten by the end of this school year, but that he may not get there and thus we may need to discuss options.  The bottom line I got from the conversation is that if the school year were to end right now, he would not be promoted to general education Kindergarten because it would be too difficult for him.  We talked about all the expectations of general education Kindergarten and how fast everything moves and that they don't get much help (at least not like they do in Developmental Preschool) so he would be pretty lost and overwhelmed and academically would not be on par with his peers.  So, we will have a lot to think about in the Spring when it comes to figuring out what to do for Kindergarten and we will work with him as much as we can in the meantime to get him prepared for it. 

Apparently I was dis-illusioned about how far he was behind academically because I kind of expected her to tell me that she had no concerns and that he would roll onto Kindergarten with no issues.  I guess sometimes living in denial can be good and I kind of enjoyed it, but she snapped me out of it (darn it).  It just fuels my anger at Doose Syndrome even more as it has taken so much from him!  A year ago he was developmentally on target with his peers and then bam!, these damn seizures hit and assault his brain and I'll never know how much damage has been done.  The one good thing is that it has fueled me even more to get these damn seizures eliminated so I can stop the assault on his brain and hope he can recover some of the cognitive function he has lost.  Doose Syndrome and epilepsy is infuriating!!!! 

Overall it was a very good experience - having her here at our house was just great and I have so much respect for her offering in-home conferences to all the families she works with every day.  I feel very lucky that she is Joshua's teacher and I know he is in good hands.  For now, we will continue to work on his skills and wait until the Spring to decide where he will go next year.  The most important thing is that he is a happy kid and he is indeed that so that is something to be thankful for!