Finding our way...

This last week we did a "pre" transition meeting for our son River, who, for the last 2 1/2 years, has been looked after by "Early Intervention", because he was born with Down Syndrome. What Early Intervention does is support the child and family in getting the best head start for the child if they have special needs. They coordinate getting speech therapy, occupational therapy, physical therapy, etc.. They also alot of times have a Early Interventionist (Special Ed. Teacher) who will also come out to the home and do play therapy with the child, and sort of give the parents some guidance, and support. River is being transferred out of this program because he is turning 3 in a couple months. At 3 years of age children are transferred into the public school system to start preschool if the parent chooses to do that. For children who have a diagnosis of Down Syndrome there is a common belief that the earlier the start with schooling, the better. We, as Rivers parents, happen to agree with this approach. And so we will continue with this path.

But, OH the choices... When yor first learn that you have a child who will more than likely have special needs you don't really know what to expect. And thankfully, in our case, we have just treated River like we would any child, and that has worked for us. But as far as what we originally thought we would want for River when it was time for him to go to school, it wasn't like how we think now. Our first instinct was to wrap him in bubble wrap, and follow him everywhere. We felt that way about our daughter too, and so I didn't send her to preschool, and chose to just do preschool type activities with her at home. But hind sight being what it is, I now wish I would have had her involved in some sort of class. Ahh... but I digress... Very quickly though, we shifted our thinking where River was concerned, and we thought we definately wanted him mainstreamed (in with "typically" developing peers, whatever that is, because to us he IS pretty typical). But now, in our school district we are learning that children with River's diagnosis are ONLY placed in "Special Education" classes.

We are not sure how we feel about this new piece of information. When I first heard this, I immediately turned to my Community of Friends on Facebook who are connected by that magiacal little 47th Chromosome. They are spread out across the world, and I just wanted to hear what they were doing, and what worked for them. Don't you know that each parent chose to do something a little different. Ha! Some really like the inclusion approach, and some really like that in their area their child was in a special education only class. Some were lucky to have very small class sizes, and others didn't feel concerned by that.

We just want to make sure that River reaches his full potential. We want to be proactive, rather than reactive. What that will look like, or where we will go from here, I am not sure. We have lots of things to consider. We need to place all of our options in front of us. In the mean time, River has been in a private preschool class since last September. It has "typical", and "developmentally delayed" children in it. He has been doing great! He loves it so much, and he makes us so proud.

I am sure I will be revisiting this subject again, in the near future. But until then, I leave you with this...