Our Journey to the Special Education Program: What to Expect During Phase 2 of Early Intervention Services

Today, Honey Graham and I had our long, second "interview" for Froot Loop's Early Intervention. It was a long 2 1/2 hours! 

For phase 1, please see THIS post. We had already filled out the forms and the paperwork and we had taken home and completed the questionaires. I did tell the specialist that it felt like I sort of overreacted with some of them, but then Froot Loop would turn around and have an epic tantrum and then my reasoning would be reinforced. She said that was normal. 

So, we spent over 2 hours talking about Froot Loop's life and his issues. We covered social situations, language development, sensory issues, autism, strange and unusual habits, motor and fine skills, and physical health. It was a lot of the same things that the questionaires covered, but we were able to explain in more detail. She told us the OT (occupational therapist) would likely have lots of follow up questions for us. 

It feels like there's not actually a whole lot to say about it because it was really just answering a lot of questions about Froot Loop: how he is now and how he used to be. Overall, it was pretty painless and the questions were easy enough to answer, but of course, it only tells part of the story. 

We talked a lot about his obsessive behavior, his speech issues, his behavioral issues, and his epic tantrums when things don't go his way or his schedule is disrupted. All of those are still red flags, but he's also got a lot of good things about his development! 

Phase 3 of this process will be next week when we take Froot Loop in for his actual observation. They will try to get him to do things like color and cut and paste, etc. and will also let him into the preschool classroom to see how he interacts with others and the teacher. I am really looking forward to seeing what we all come up with. 

I'm sorry that there's not much more to say.