Back to school and more

Today was a big day for Stephanie. She went back to school today and I think she was excited about it. She knew what we were talking about for the last week and she was excited when we got there. She went right up to her teacher and gave her a hug so she definitely remembered her. We got there early since we wanted to be able to find a place to park (didn't help too much) but she would have rather gone right inside the school than wait 10 minutes til the bell rang. There is only 1 girl from her class last year and all the others are new. But she only has 6-7 kids in her class on a given day. So glad I pushed to keep her back because otherwise she would be in K4 with 20-25 other kids. Now she has 1 main teacher, 1 associate teacher plus a speech and occupational teacher who are in and out of the classroom. We are going to wait a month and possible see if she can get some PT. She still walks on her tip toes and even when you tell her "feet down" she still doesn't walk correctly. But then it's another evaluation and redoing her whole IEP (individual education program). But if it helps we'll do it.

Besides that today we got the call from the state and her number is up for her in home therapy to start. We need to finalize paperwork and have a meeting reconfirming that she still needs therapy. I had to call a leave a message so hopefully I'll know more tomorrow. Hopefully that can get done this week or early next week and then it doesn't take a long time to get her team together and we can get therapy started ASAP. She will have very busy days ahead of her but she's up for it. She'll have school in the morning (except Friday) and then home for lunch and then therapy after that the rest of the day. Since she doesn't have school on Friday she'll have therapy almost all day. I know it is going to be a slow process and some difficult times but she will be finally getting the help she needs. We have been waiting almost a year (we got the diagnosis Oct 1 last year) but heard once we get on the waiting list (that can take up to 6 months) there is a 18-24 month wait. So I am happy with less than a year. Because she is high functioning (except language) and on the border of the spectrum I'm not sure we could have gotten a diagnosis earlier. I've learned so much about all of this in the last year. So glad it's there for her now.