"Professionals"

I have been working on Junior's IEP with his teacher. Dealing with the IEP time of year is extremely stressful and to be honest I hate IEP's. This year we don't have a bunch of evaluations taking place so that takes away a little of the stress. In a typical year I get calls from several people who want to come out and evaluate Junior. Now these people are supposed to be professionals who work with children like Junior on a regular basis. This "professional" has either never met Junior or last saw him prior to the last years IEP. After spending this half hour with him they then use that to decided what he should get as far as school services go and what he is capable of. My child is not a puppy who sits up and does tricks. If he doesn't know you he is not going to "perform". If you must see it for yourself before believing he can do something then you are going to have to show up on a regular basis. If you can't/won't come for visits then go visit his blog and get to know him. Please do not tell me my child is incapable of something when you know nothing about him and refuse to put any effort into getting to know him.

Okay I will jump off my soap box now and say I am hoping this new year brings a whole new attitude. An IEP team who are there to help Junior reach his full potential. His teacher is phenomanal and we are truly blessed with that.

After saying all this I will get to my point. When I hear all this negativity about Junior's abilities
during this time of year it makes me stop and think. Am I missing something? Where is the child they are describing, it certainly can't be this child in front of me. Then I sit and "chat" and giggle with him and quickly know that I am not missing a thing. If you get to know Junior it doesn't take long to see that he is capable of and understands so much. The IPAD has made that even more clear then ever before.
Yesterday he was upset and quickly was able to tell me his tummy hurt. Then he told me he wanted to sit in his wheel chair, play with his solar system, and listen to a story, of course he knew exactly the story he wanted as well.
I asked him what Abigail was doing and he looked at me like I was nuts(Abby was not here), he then quickly looked at the "I don't know" symbol on the ipad and started to giggle. He clearly thought I had lost my mind.
Junior telling me I Don't Know

Today I have nearly finished Junior's games boards and here are some of them.
The home page
Choosing games takes Junior to these choices
I am not going to show every choice, just the first set of 4 with each game type, scrolling down would give him more choices if does not want what is shown.
Choosing computer gets him these choices
Choosing Board games
Junior has several types of memory games so choosing memory would take him to a secondary board allowing him to choose which memory.
I won't post all his boards but if he chooses active games he gets a board showing an indoor version of basket ball, bowling, and asteroids.
The Wii board I am still working on.
Here is what he gets if he chooses puzzle
Choosing Board Puzzle gets him this board
and choosing Floor Puzzle gets him to this board

I apoligize for all the board pictures but this blog helps me to journal what we are working on with the ipad. It also helps me keep track of when we started using certain boards along with how Junior is doing with them.