Getting Ready

The boys start preschool after Labor Day.  I think they'll love it, but it's a little stressful for me!  Some of it is just having the boys out of our house/supervision for the first time, but a lot of it is the whole hearing aid issue and not being sure yet how well the preschool is going to handle that and how well James will be able to hear in that environment. We have a parent orientation tomorrow and meet the teacher on Friday, so hopefully some of the uncertainty will start to be resolved soon. (As usual, Mike is not worried and is sure it will all be fine.  He's probably right.)

(We met with James's early intervention coordinator today, because they're starting the process of transitioning him from the Infant-Toddler program to the Preschool program, which is administered by the school system instead of the state. She said that she has heard great things about the preschool the boys are going to, including that they were really good about working with kids with extra needs.  I don't know if they've had anyone with hearing loss in particular, but still, that was very reassuring to hear!)

Our pediatrician's office (which is generally fantastic and wonderful) did not help matters for me this week.  We had to get a medical "well child check up" form for the preschool.  I picked up the forms the other day, and there's a space for "developmental evaluation" with the options of delayed and age appropriate.  For James, they had checked "delayed."  I was surprised and upset about that since every test we've had recently shows that he's not.  I hadn't looked at the forms before leaving the office, so I called and left a message in my very best calm and professional voice asking for an explanation of what information they were using to make this evaluation.  (I'm sure that despite my attempt to sound reasonable, it was probably patently obvious that I was freaking out a little bit.)  They called back right away and talked to Mike, and it turns out that one of the nurses filled out the form from looking at the medical records, and their standard decision rule is that if a child is receiving any type of therapy, then they mark them as delayed. James is still getting hearing therapy, and they had in his records that he was getting developmental therapy as well (which has been discontinued).  So, when Mike explained what the therapy was actually about, they were perfectly happy to redo the form to change the category to "age appropriate."

Even though it's only preschool, I didn't want him to start out with that kind of inaccurate label -- especially since these days, "developmental delay" is often seen as the new term for what used to be called mental retardation.

(We mentioned this whole thing to our EI coordinator, and she instantly made a "that's crazy!" face when we told her that they'd put that on the form.  When we told her it was because of the therapy, she also noted that even the term "developmental therapy" covers a whole range of things -- the therapist who James used to see works with kids ranging from those who have extremely severe mental and physical disabilities, all the way up to kids who don't necessarily have any of those kind of challenges but whose parents need help with parenting skills, and lots of things in between.  Mike also asked if we had to be worried about the school system labeling him that way, and she confirmed my intuition that the school system is not in the business of overdiagnosing conditions they'd have to provide services for!  In fact, she mentioned that for the school system, a child has to be delayed by 30% or more in at least two areas to be classified as delayed.  So, James will qualify for services simply from the fact that he has hearing loss, but I don't think we have to worry about them trying to slap any other labels on him.)

There are also some practical issues.  We'll probably need to get a new set of carseats, since I'll be taking them to school in the morning in my car, and Mike will be picking them up in the van. And we also probably need to get hearing aid insurance for James, since the odds of something happening to the hearing aids seems higher when he's with a group of kids instead of just us or N watching him.  (Since one of my main worries is the hearing aids getting dunked in water or disappearing, getting the insurance will probably be well worth the money just for my peace of mind!)