So shortly after Oliver turned 2 years old we had him evaluated for a speech delay, as we expected he had a slight speech delay and some sensory issues. Through infants and toddlers we had weekly in home therapy and some fun classes.
I have to say that I was very sad that he would no longer be in this program and recieve these services when he turned 3 - I was very anxious for my little man, tearful at times wondering what was going to happen. Had he come far enough that he wouldn't qualify for services anymore? Would he do well in a school environment?
Turns out that my worries were very quickly put to rest when he did qualify for services through MCPS and I did a tour of some of the classes that he might be put into. At that point I started to get excited!
This is gonna get a little long so hold on- just for those who are interested this is the official description of what PEP is~
"PEP is a special education program for children who have educational disabilities. All children in PEP have an Individualized Education Program (IEP) with learning goals and objectives based on needs identified through formal testing. The goals and objectives are guides to help the staff help the child acquire skills that other children of their age already have learned. PEP is a noncategorical program, which means that it serves children with a variety of disabilities. Most children who participate in PEP classes have moderate learning delays in more than one area of development, and many of the children receive related services such as speech/language, occupational, and/or physical therapy. Parent education is also a part of the program."
This is the description of the class that he is in~
"Inclusive setting taught by a special educator and paraeducator. PEP PILOT classes have up to 12-13 children; up to 6 students have IEPs and the remainder do not have IEPs and pay a small fee to attend the class. Students served in PEP PILOT have more mild disabilities and do not require a four or five day per week special education program in order to make progress on their IEP goals and objectives. PEP PILOT is 2 1/2 hours per day, two days per week."
Oliver started his class on his 3rd birthday :) Because he was going to ride the bus to school I was a little apprehensive, thankfully the coordinator and teachers were nice enough to let us go in for a day the week before so that he could see his school and meet his teachers and classmates. He did awesome and has loved every second of school and can't wait to go again in a few short weeks! Now onto the pictures.
On our visit Oli got to participate in the snacktime craft- he loved making and eating this spider
Oliver on visiting day after school
Me and the man waiting for the bus
Backpack Oli picked out- ofcourse Lightning!
Getting on the bus and ready for a great first day!
After posting this I went back and read some of my old blogs and lo and behold I did blog about Oliver's speech evals and intakes- I may have been more on top of this thing than I realised- yay me!! If your interested in reading them they are in my 2008 blogs.
