Monday, April 5, 2010

Great Expectations for Jake

Tomorrow is an important day in our household.

I have a meeting at Jake's school with his Speech Therapist, Occupational Therapist, and his teacher. This is the annual IEP meeting where they will tell me the strides he has made and where he still needs improvement.

Fingers crossed, they will tell me that they think he will be ready for Kindergarten next year. That has always been a possibility, that they will hold him back a year b/c socially he isn't ready. I'm honestly unsure myself if he is ready. I'm hoping another year, this his last year of intensive therapy, that he will be ready.

I probably wouldn't be THIS worried about it if he wasn't a twin. But what I fear is that they will hold him back and Grace will go on to Kindergarten on time. Then, forever, the stigma will be placed upon him. Questions like "you have a twin sister, but your in a different grade? why??" I sooo don't want that for him. Kids can be very cruel and I just don't want to start him out on a negative footing.

Intellectually, he is off the charts! He can spell and write his own name and he isn't even 4 yet! That is awesome! He knows soo much, but socially is where he struggles. It is REALLY, and I mean REALLY, hard to get him to sit still and not jump around.

We have friends that have a cabin in Tahoe who invited us to come up with them and spend the weekend. We did, and honestly, we decided that trips as a family should be just kept to that for now. Jake has outbursts and they aren't things we can control. And when a kid wakes up at 5:30am every morning and can't sit still and is REAL loud, it gets real old and we felt really bad for our friends. I know they said, 'don't worry about it". But that is so hard to do when it is your kid. When we are home, it is a different story. We are use to his outbursts and such and can tolerate them better than an outsider.

So, hopefully this last year, he will learn how to sit still and listen a little better.

Wish us luck tomorrow!

2 comments:

Jenny said...

Good luck Jenn, have faith in your self that you will be able to provide him whatever he needs. I hope they tell you he is ready, or that you decide he is ready, but if he is not...get on board with that and run with it. He WILL be okay. Kids are resilient and it is best when he goes whenever he is the most socially ready. Loving you mama! Good luck. I'll be praying for you and Jake and that you can have peace about where ever he is. You are a great mom and you'll be able to work through whatever he needs, even if that is just more time. Hugs!

Jenn said...

Jenny, thank you so much for the kind and inspiring words! I'll let you know how it goes!
Thanks again!