Merry Christmas

Someone has questions.....

After reading Holly Claus, A Christmas Princess, Gretchen asked me if she's real. I told her I don't really know but it's possible. She said well I guess that's one more question for tomorrow. I hope Santa's ready because I have a lot of questions that I need answers for! ..... Well I hope Santa is ready today to answer her questions!

No Common Decency

Evan has decided he is going to do the Advent calendar every day even though the kids are taking turns... Sean could care less but he's doing it because it's his turn.  Gretchen set her alarm clock early today to get up and do it BEFORE Evan could since it's her turn.  When Evan tried to do today (and it was already done), Gretchen declared Evan has "no common decency whatsoever"..... Sigh....  

She's being good Santa

New Beginings

We had our meeting today with the neuropsychologist regarding Gretchen's testing.  Apparently Gretchen is through the roof on the verbal components but equally and oppositely low on the non-verbal.  We got a lot of info that boils down to these labels:  non verbal learning disability, math learning disability and ADHD.  The doctor is still writing the report for us.  Once we have it we will see our pediatrician regarding the ADHD and what kinds of options there.  We are considering medication but will be watching that very carefully.  We obviously don't want it to change the essence of who she is but we really want to get some help with the ADHD component because it's likely affecting her behavior in class (and her grades in reading and math).  If some wins in the classroom result of better focus, it would really help her confidence. 

Once we have the report, we'll let the school review it in anticipation of the IEP meeting we have scheduled in January.  The doctor did not feel that she had dyslexia but rather spatial processing that had her flipping words, skipping lines and substituting.  Gretchen saw an opthamalogist in Sept for a thorough examination so we know it's not a vision issue.

So.....  oddly enough, I feel some peace now than before.  I guess because we have confirmation on what the issues are...  And hopefully very soon some strategies for how to help her at home.  I'm hoping that rather than walking aimlessly down roads that look like the "right" one, we can start on a path that will really help her!