Educational Goals and Progress

A retake of his annual birthday picture on the bench outside of our house.

We got a progress report in the mail today from Tommy's school. The report details each goal and provides a chart that shows nine data collection points over the current school year per goal. That way you can see trends in the child's progress. At the bottom of each page is a little description of the ways the goal is being accomplished and how the child is doing.

Here are some of Tommy's goals and a description of what he's doing to achieve them:

Goal #1
Using a prescription long cane, Tommy will travel routes of increasing complexity to make a delivery or locate an object. (Tommy is doing a good job of  learning two specific routes that involve going to a different floor. His pace is better and he is maintaining his cane in diagonal technique!)

Look at the way he holds his long white cane. With authority!

Goal #2
Tom will demonstrate the concepts of same and different to match materials/objects/items during individual lessons. (Tom has made tremendous progress labeling two different kinds of objects and is beginning to "sort" them. He clearly understands the tactile differences. We work on this goal at the water table using miniature plastic apples and bananas. The objects will change in the next nine weeks to increase his opportunities to recognize tactual differences in other materials. )

Those are just two of Tom's many goals but I think it gives a good idea of the type of work he does at school and how they are challenging him. Orientation and Mobility is very important to me. Tom is an active and adventurous child. He needs to be able to travel where he wants to go safely and independently. I am so proud of his progress!

He has been obsessed with the elevator lately and now I know why! He's taking it for O&M if he's moving between floors as part of his lesson. At home he talks about the elevator and plays a little elevator game where he acts everything out. At first we thought he was talking about an alligator but when we figured out he meant elevator it all made so much sense!

This kid can do it all!

Tactile discrimination is the foundation for Braille readiness! Getting those little fingers to think and feel and make sense of the world is just the beginning.

This Friday at school they have put together a small in service for parents of children who will be learning Braille. I have my "Just Enough to Know Better" book and many others on Braille so I have a basic understanding. I haven't taken a Hadley School for the Blind class yet but I plan to. I'll do that when things slow down I guess! I don't want to wait until Tommy passes me up in Braille to get started, but I guess that's how that usually works, right?