Team Geoffrey Report

I cannot, for the life of me, get out of bed before 7:30am any longer. I hate this. And because I cannot get out of bed earlier, I can't beat Doug into the shower, and thusly must wait until he's done, which is too late for me to get Geoff out onto the bus... so I'm not getting ready until 8:30. And it sucks.

I was getting up at 7, or 6:30 without fail... for months. I blame all of this on the change in time. Sure, I love the evening light. But... not making it to the office until 9:45 is a total drag.

I've been incredibly busy. I've got thousands of things I want to write about but just cannot find the time to sit down and formulate the thoughts (mostly because I can't get up in the morning and I do my best writing while Doug is in the shower and I'm waiting).

The big item on my agenda, my thought-plate is Team Geoffrey.

This week we had a Team IEP Meeting for Geoff. It could not have gone better, and could not have been more reassuring. I have this team of people, "Team Geoffrey," and they're surrounding him not with an attitude of punishment or derision, but with helpfulness, support, brainstorming and problem solving.

The district behavioral specialist was brought in to observe Geoff and offer recommendations, and she said Geoff's not a "behavior case" in the traditional sense of the term. His problems, in her opinion are not behavior based, but learning disability based, and working through issues surrounding his LD will help clear up the behavior. She had some great suggestions, and it was awesome to sit there and watch people like his aide and the Occupational Therapist (I've told you -- I love her) writing stuff down, and thinking, and planning what they'll do next for Geoff when they need to apply different strategies.

His learning disability of Nonverbal Learning Disorder is "textbook"... and if we treat him as a behavior case, it won't help him in the long run. Teaching him to work through the problems he encounters that are based in his disability will diffuse the behavior issues. Educating the staff and teachers more on what Nonverbal Learning disorder requires is essential, and she offered to "join" the team and have the IEP amended to put her in so she can work with him, and us.

As I read a lot of blogs dealing with parenting, school, learning issues, problems and the like, I've learned that the vast majority of people are suffering through their experiences with their special education teams. I can't possibly be having a more different experience unless I were to find myself on Mars. Then, things might be MORE different than what my peers and fellow parents are experiencing. For instance, following Rob's trials and tribulations in what he's trying to get done for Schuyler. What the hell is going on there?

Rob -- move here. This team wants to work with kids. Like Schuyler. Like Geoff. Like anyone with a problem. I have never seen a more willing team. Even his teacher, who back in November and December seemed like she had no desire to work on this team, is on fire for helping Geoff out. She's coming up with suggestions, trying new things for him. She's learning and we're all learning and ... it's amazing. It's scary.

It used to annoy me that they'd call and ask me "what do you do for Geoff when he is in this situation?" or "what kinds of things work at home for him?" But the more I see it now, they're looking for my guidance because they've not had to experience a kid like Geoff ever before in their professional existences. And they're including me on the team, instead of saying "We're the professionals. You go sit down over there and we'll tell you what we'll do for him."

Even within our district, talking to other parents has been slightly humbling. They're not getting the help they need or want. Why am I feeling so supported and surrounded by people who want the best for Geoff? Is it that they're not sick of him yet? He hasn't gotten on that last nerve that drives the specialists and teachers batty?

I guess I'm lucky and thanking those stars. And I can breathe easy knowing that for right now at least we're where we need to be with Geoff, and working on making it much better.

Breathe, just breathe.

There were some questions thrown to me the other day in the comments that I really want to ponder and answer... mostly surrounding how one deals with the minor disagreements one has with an organized religion. I've lived through some of them, I still have some of them. I want to really sit down and comb through my responses and make something coherent with them, instead of just pounding them out.

So that'll be an entry for another day. Hopefully soon. I also have thoughts on a different comments and email based discussion I had with Bill recently surrounding one of his entries.

I love the blogsphere -- when there is thought, discussion, interchange of ideas. It's so damn cool.

Right then -- work is cool too, and I should get over there and ... earn me some money. Have a great day, all y'all. More later.