I have to thank you all again for your support and patience as we’ve dealt with this new phase of Atti’s life. My blogging has seriously suffered on those days when I just couldn’t bring myself to face the internet but I have felt your endless support to get through it.
It’s all done now. Last Thursday we had the big meeting with every specialist ever to get Atti all set up for services through the school district. It was incredibly strict and by the book because the legal requirements in these situations are stunning. Every time the coordinator stopped the discussion to insist that no decisions had been made and that they were all pending my approval I thought of all the parents who had fought those battles for me. At one point in the meeting I actually found myself getting a little emotional as I thought about the mom who must have fought to make sure that her child had a specific number of minutes the school was required to allow them to be with the typically developing kids. I thought of those Special Ed’s of my youth, the ones that haunted me when I thought of Atti attending them, and I wanted to meet that mother so I could kiss her feet.
I’ve also made peace with the school psychologist. After crying things out with one of Atti’s therapists, she helped me understand that his role is strictly to decide which class he should attend today. That means two things – 1) these tests are not diagnostic which means they don’t predict his future and 2) the psychologist has to make the assumption that any delays Atti has are based on cognition. While I and a few of his other specialists who know him better are sure that cognition is the last thing on the list, the psychologist has to assume it’s a mental delay so that they put him in the appropriate classroom. During our last meeting the psychologist explained that he’s just too little to test for all the different variables, so they have to wait until he’s older to get more specific.
Meanwhile, I’m even more convinced that Atti’s not intellectually disabled, he’s just a bit of a butthead. After failing to answer any question put to him on the tests and completely freaking me out, the other night Bear pointed to one of his letter blocks and asked, “What’s that?” Atti didn’t even hesitate. He said, “It’s a J!” He wouldn’t do it for the psychologist, but when he feels like it, he shouts the answer out with conviction.
Atti starts school on Monday and he’s going to love it. I need to spend this week getting him ready. I have to buy him a coat, and he needs a little backpack that will probably be as big as he is. I think he’s just going to zoom and before I know it I’ll have this little kid with all these new skills.