PreK Student, Mary

At Mary's IEP meeting last year, I pushed and won to hold Mary back a year.  She is getting an extra year of PreK before starting Kindergarten next year.  My reasons were because she has a fall birthday and she was still getting adjusted to her new home.  She was also still immature in a lot of areas, but I don't really think they took that into consideration since she is a person with a disability. She is doing real well so far this year, I think.
In the 6 weeks or so that she has been in school, I feel she has made many accomplishments!  She is in a regular ed. PreK class in her home district.  She has a 1:1 nurse who rides the bus and stays with her for the 2 1/2 hour afternoon program.  Mary has made friends and we have even seen some out in the community!

Mary sits in this rifton chair during Centers and during Snack

Mary has learned how to color using a specially made glove, made by her OT.  Because Mary's fingers do not bend, she cannot grasp anything.  This glove has a hole in it to hold the markers.  

coloring at school - sorry about the quality, disposible camera












Mary is having great success coloring independently.

We had Open House several weeks ago and Mary was so excited to show me all around her classroom and show me her projects.  She did a Green Monster project that she loved the most.  She also has done projects about emotions and they had just started learning letters.

outside her classroom at Open House
After the concept of Open House was explained to her, Mary was excited to take me there!

Mary is learning a letter a week and she really enjoys this!  She always has enjoyed letters and reading.  To help her, we put a letter 'worksheet' on her DynaVox.  She can work with this page to answer questions in class and to practice the letter, including the sound the letter makes!

I also sometimes give her 'homework' on her lightbox. 

 She can use one switch to activate the DyanVox and one switch to work the light box.

Mary has a few different options for sitting at school.  She also has time to play on the floor, when she usually lies down with friends - they even try to dance/shake sillies like she does!  When she is sitting, she is in the Rifton Chair, her wheelchair or in the chair that I got at a yard sale.  It is her floor-sitter for circle time.  Here she is trying it out for the first time.

we made some adjustments for saftey and support after this trial
Overall, she does very well with this, though.

Her class went on their first field trip of the year recently.  They went to a local farm and had a wagon ride, picked pumpkins and petted animals.  Mary LOVED it.  They were real good about getting the bus for her to participate, but I think next time they will also remember to include her peers on her bus.  (I am pushing for the full inclusion experience.) 

Mary continues to choose to listen to stories at the Listening Center every week.  She really gets into her books.  Apparently, one day the story had a part where the character was sad about the mother leaving and Mary got real sad.  Then she was happy when the story ended happily.

In vision, Mary continues to improve her tracking ability and increase her response time to lights in different environments.  She also is working on color identification.  Her vision therapist is helping us with using picture cues when her DynaVox isn't avaliable.  She also reminds us about glare on what Mary is looking at.

In PT, Mary is doing Outstanding!  She can stand for more than a half hour at a time in her stander and she can stand in a pony walker - she has even moved it independently 2x!!!

Mary is also practicing sitting on a platform swing.  She is belly crawling for up to 6 feet.  She is rolling up a hill.  Mary has gotten very strong lately! :)

Well, I guess that's the scoop on my girl!  She is having a good year so far and I (knock on wood) hope she stays healthy to have a good rest of the year!