What the panel of docs and teachers said about Smiley

In retrospect I find my Favre post, at its heart, a pretentious piece of crap. Kindly ignore it.

 

As an excuse I can say that I wrote it while waiting to leave for the final evaluation of Smiley's learning ability. I was a bit nervous. I was expecting something out of Back to School, with Lisa and I playing the role of Rodney Dangerfield facing down a hostile panel of educators.

 

Instead what we got was a friendly discussion around a conference table, with the psychologists displaying their opinions on a large projection screen in the room.

 

They were very complimentary of us, especially Lisa (for her persistence in getting him seen) and of Smiley in general. "You guys are swell," one of the doctor's said, causing a giggle in the room.

All three of the ladies that saw Smiley were there, and all gave their opinions. #1 was still critical of his overall abilities, but #'s 2 and 3 leant far more weight to the opposite side of the scale.

 

In the end here's the verdict: for the time being the assumption is his only learning problem is his inability to speak, despite an obvious interest in doing so. The cause? "We may never know," they said.

 

The solution? They're going to put him into a special education class three hours a day, four days a week, for the next (projected) two years, with a full re-evaluation in three years. The class will be of kids with 'normal' academic ability but speech difficulties, which means he won't be below or above the curve.

 

They did mention that should a more serious problem be present, it's far more likely to be spotted with daily exposure to a classroom than a few hours of testing, so in a way we're not out of the woods yet.

 

The big boss of MPS who was at the meeting go the ball rolling quickly, making a conference call then and there; he starts Monday at 12 noon at a nearby school we once toured for YaYa.

 

So my boy is going to school .  . . I'm happy and proud and I think it'll be good for him.

 

I'll update everyone after his first day.

 

Tags: Smiley