Re: Just looked through the list of members

[Guest guest]

Patty-

Sam is 12, he'll be 13 in April.

Christie

Just looked through the list of members

Anyone out there have a child twelve years old or thirteen.

I'd like to hear from you.

A lot of members. Hope all of you are well.

[Guest guest]

HI,

I was wondering what sort of school setting your daughter attends.

What meds she takes and how it effects her.

My son as you have probably read, has many challenges. He is non-

verbal, he is mobile, not toilet trained yet(which is frustrating),

things like that.

Thanks

[Guest guest]

My daughter currently attends a state school for the deaf. It is a

residential school but I moved here so she could be with me instead

of living in the dorms. Before we moved here, she attended self

contained special ed classes in regular schools but their services

always fell catastrophically short! Not to mention I had to fight

for every little thing we got anyway.

My daughter is deaf, has MR, CP, GERD, ADD, oral/pharyngeal

dysphagia, and scoliosis. The school nurses are great about her

meds (Metadate CD, Prozac, Prevacid, Reglan, Zyrtec)....most of them

are given at home but there are a couple she gets at school. They

will put her meds in juice, milk, Ensure, even applesauce so long as

she gets her dose. The dietician/nutritionists have been wonderful

about adding calories to her foods, supplementing her meals with

Boost/Ensure (we supply that) and making sure there is always soft

foods for her (or they will chops/blend/etc what they have so she

can eat!).

We have been very happy with the teachers has been with.

They have all been great (some deaf, some hearing but all fluent in

sign) and she has loved them all. Her class has never been more

than 6 kids in the class and she has one aide as well. She was

moved a little over a year ago from the vocational program to the

academic program (she is about 3-4 years behind academically) and

has been doing well since. Of course, she experiences some

frustration because sometimes it takes her a while to understand but

her teacher is great at helping her without helping her too much.

Until we came to this school, not one teacher had any hope or faith

that the academic track was possible. They also have field trips

every week to teach them social and living skills (ordering from the

menu, making change, reading bus schedules, shopping for groceries,

etc).

Like I said, we love this school but we had our bumps/scrapes/out-

right-fights with other schools. It took packing up everything we

had and moving away from everyone we knew to get what

needed. But we weren't alone for long....my husband and I got

engaged a couple of years after we moved and he followed us out

here.

I hope you have good experiences where you live but don't be afraid

to fight. I think the school districts we came from had a parade

when I left!

Annette