Stop before her skills are rated, ranked, and assigned a developmental age incompatible with the birthday we will celebrate this summer. Before we will be forced to downplay her abilities in order to maximize her therapies. Before we start wondering how much extra money we can - how much we should - put toward private therapy. Before we start feeling around blindly in the dark for the line, that may or may not exist, between simply loving and enjoying our child and pushing her to her "fullest potential". If we sit very, very still it will all be OK.
I was going to write about the vocabulary list I filled out for her evaluation but I'll save that for later. For now, just Shhhhhhh.....
love the photo.
ReplyDeletehate the evals. blerg.
Your daughter and mine are right around the same age, because I had our pre-planning meeting for Maybelle's transition into IEP-world just a week ago. Evaluations are happening this summer, and like you, I am skeptical about the numbers they're going to assign her.
ReplyDeleteI specifically said I don't want an IQ test, because this semester I learned that the IQ test originated out of the eugenic practices of the late 19th-early 20th c. And I don't want that number hovering over Maybelle, or lodging itself somewhere weird in my consciousness.
I specifically want to avoid the numbers - am especially particularly spectacularly leery of them. Alison - Go check out Amy Silverman/Girl in a Party Hat. I was thinking of her recent IEP mtng when I wrote this. Also, obviously, my life spent being on the short end of the statistics.
ReplyDelete