Elgibility results and special education, the 2nd time

Today was my meeting to find out the results of Ben's school eligibility testing...you know, the one he was so charming and cooperative for.

The overall report showed that Ben is 25% delayed in social skills and 20% delayed in speech/articulation and expressive language.  The recommonded services are that he attends 1 hour of speech at his local elementary school (where he'll see the same SLP that does speech with Liam's SPED class) and that he has a CARE (Community-based Assistance and Resources in Early intervention) team that works with him.  If he were old enough to attend preschool, the CARE team would work with his community based preschool and would provide 2 hours of special education within that setting.  As he is too young for preschool, he will attend a play group headed by a SPED teacher twice a week.

For comparison to Liam's eligibility scores and services, see this post from September 2010.

The eligibility testing was quite thorough.  A testing of his articulation showed he was 72% intelligiable to an SLP, which is considered moderately delayed as he should be almost completely understandable to an untrained person.  The two articulation areas she is most concerned about are: final consonent deletion and cluster reduction/omission.  He makes other articulation errors, but some are normative for his age (the example given is "wai" for light).

The testing on expressive vocabulary showed him a standard score of 79, or a delay of 20%.  They also did an interpretation of his expressive language and wrote down everything he said. By 2 years 11 months, most children are apeaking in 4 word sentences.  The average length of Ben's sentences is 2.9 words and 85% of those 2-3 words phrasescontained either grammatical errors or had unitelligble words.

Anchorage is considering Ben's speech to be moderately delayed.

They tested his fine and gross motor skills.  They noted his issues with sensory integration but said it was being treated through private therapy.  I need to research this, but I think they aren't supposed to consider what we do privately.  Using a test of fine motor skills, they found his pre-writing skills to be a strength.  I am not sure what to think of this.  By Ben's age, Liam could draw a circle and stick figures and not long after turning three, he could write his name.....and Liam has a known fine motor delay.  Ben cannot do those things yet.  I think I need to keep my eye on this.

They tested his pre-academic school readiness and he scored in the average name, though they oted that they could not give him credit for the things he can do that are above age level.

In the area of Behavior/Social Skills/Emotional skills, Ben scored as 25% delayed in the areas of social interaction and independence.  In order to address this, he will attend a twice a week play group (drop off play group) with a special education teacher at an elementary school here in town.

There is more to write about this, but I am in the middle of a crazy day which has involved, Liam's bus stuck in snow, being locked down on base, and fighting to get an updated ID card...in addition to IEP writing, etc.

I need 2 bottles of wine tonight....bottles, not glasses in this case.