My little man

I have what we feel to be wonderful news.

As many of the people who read this probably know,

Noah, our son, was diagnosed with having Developmental Delay.

Check http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Developmental_delay for more

information on that.

We took him in January of 2008 to be evaluated, and he was

deemed totally non-verbal.

He had to go for further testing,

which lead to his diagnosis.

That was in July of 2008.

His main problem was in expressive and receptive communication skills,

but he scored low enough and had problems with some of the other areas too.

So, he has been in Special Education Preschool at Robertsdale Elementary ever since.

January 2009, we had his annual IEP(Individualized Education Program)

meeting, and he was talking, just not clearly, and still had several goals to meet.

I have copies of all of the data collected from all of these meetings, as well as his low test scores from July 2008.

WELL,

Friday, January 8, 2010 was IEP meeting time again,

and Noah's teacher, his 2 speech teachers, and the LEA rep., and myself were all present,

and it turns out that Mr. Noah has met and exceeded all of his goals, and no longer requires their services!

He will still need speech though, as he is still not totally understandable,

so rather than Developmental Delay,
he has articulation problems!!!

He will go to speech at Summerdale Elementary 2 times a week for 30 minutes at a time, which is where he will go in regular, not special ed., Kindergarten next year.

This will be a great transition from where he has been at Robertsdale since March 2008 until now, into Summerdale where he will go until at least 8th grade! I am very excited.

It has been a long hard time to have a child with different ailments,

but to hear that he is better, and will continue to get better is great news!

Now, he loves school very much. He asks about his teachers all of the time.

He loves it.

But, I am thankful for the months Jan.-Aug. 2010 that he can be home with me again, until having to go to school full time next year.

So, there were mixed emotions on my part,

but 3 of the other 5 children in his class only grunt or moan to communicate.

He spent every afternoon from 11:15-2:00 with three totally non-verbal children. He was trying to behave like them for attention.

And he was way ahead of them so far as doing his school work, he is starting to spell and identify words like cat, dog, stop, off, on, go, etc. and he can count to 20, almost everytime anyway, and the other children cannot write their own name. He was having to go to school with children who are where he started. So, now, I plan on trying to take him to story times, to parks, to Chik-fil-A, whatever, in an attempt to have him around "typical peers," rather than other disabled children.

And he can still be shy, but so are typical children.

My prayer is that I will be able to have him equipped with knowledge when he starts Kindergarten, and that the other children in the class he is leaving behind will one day get better too.

They are sweet and precious children.

Jesus, help them and watch over them too!

Sorry that this is a long story. Hopefully, it makes since.

Words for Noah:

They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the WORD of their testimony.-Rev. 12:11a.

This is just part of your testimony. I don't know why you had to endure such torment, but I promise that God does everything for a reason.

He will never let you down.

You are a miracle,

and Daddy and I love you very much!