County Evaluation and Red Socks!!

Wednesday was the county evaluation. This was the eval to see if Cooper would qualify for county services. Every county in the state offers therapy services to children who qualify, this is past the early intervention (Babies Can't Wait) that ages out at three. Okay, so we went to the eval and there were tons of people there! It was Cooper, me, a social worker, a diagnostician, an OT, a ST, a PT and I think someone else. I worked mostly with the social worker while everyone else watched Cooper play and asked him to do things. I answered 9,000 questions again in fact they used the same form that I have already filled out twice. I need to just get a copy of it and bring it with me next time!

I thought this meeting was just to see if he would qualify for therapy and then if we wanted to send him to the preschool that would be something else but I don't think it was. When I got there they were asking me about Cooper's allergies and if he carries an Epi Pen or anything so when I said that he does they went to get the nurse. Well, the nurse brought me a bunch of paperwork and said that it has to be filled out before he can come to school and then asked the social worker if we were talking about this year or next year amd the SW said next year (there is only a week left this year). So I started off the meeting like "huh??"

Well, then we go over the 9,000 questions from the SW and then the OT came over to ask me some more. After they had asked their questions they went into another room to talk for a little bit while Cooper and I waited. Oh and in the middle of all the question asking someone came and asked me if they could take Cooper downstairs to one of the classes to see how he acted with the other children. Cooper has problems with social interaction that is one of our largest concerns and part of the whole reason we were there so I said sure! Well, they walked out into the hallway and the dang fire alarm goes off!!! AAACCCCKKKK!!!! Cooper is terrified of loud noises!!!! Well, the SW keeps talking to me telling me that we do need to go outside blah blah blah I just tried to politely say "yes, that is fine but I have to go I am worried about Cooper." Sure enough he had scaled the lady who brought him downstairs and when he saw me he just lunged at me! I just held him tight and he buried his ear into my shoulder and I used my hand to cover his other ear. I was glad that they saw that though! The alarm went off pretty quickly so he was fine after a minute. I figured it a school of lots of kids like Cooper so they turn it off pretty fast.

When they got back they said that Cooper was not upset but he kept saying "I don't want to share" and he was backing up into a corner when the other kids were getting in his space trying to check out the new kid. Again, I am glad they saw that. I have found that children can often be like when you take your car to the mechanic and it stops making they noise. They don't do the behavior you are talking about when they are at the pediatrician or the evaluations!

They had told me that I would not get the results until the 27th but that they would give me an idea of what they were thinking before I left. They told me that they already knew he met the requirements of "significant developmental delay" and he would qualify for school based therapy. Now, I am a little fuzzy on what that means exactly. They were talking about him going to school either there or an elementary school with a special needs class, they said it would be most likely there though since it is less then 3 miles from our house. They were asking if he would take the bus, then they said something about if he qualifies. So I am a little unsure about all that. We are really praying that he will get into the school because that is what he really needs! He does not need speech therapy because he talks fine until he is frustrated but if he is frustrated he would really benefit from having someone there to talk him through it.

Also, we had to reschedule the DAN! doctor follow up. I made the appointment and then I realized that Jonathan had his Kindergarten musical performance that morning. There was no way to do both so I moved the apt to Monday. If you know our family picture site check out the video from the performance SO cute! If you don't e-mail me and I will give it to you if I know you;)

Okay and the red socks! Cooper wore red socks! Yahoo! Okay now to be fair I tricked him into it by putting them on when he was distracted doing something but once he realized it he kept them on!!!