Sophie’s lawyer asked me to write down some concerns in anticipation of her annual IEP meeting next week. (IEP stands for Individualized Education Plan — the living legal document that guides/dictates the educational life of a kid with a disability.) I smirked. Perfect timing for an airing of grievances. I started this blog to catalog […]

We talk all the time about how tough transitions are for kids with special needs. Hard on all kids, to be sure, but particularly tough when your kid’s brain is hard-wired at the cellular level to refuse to budge when requested. Thanks a fucking lot, extra 21st chromosome. But how about how tough transitions are on […]

Dear Sophie, You know, I have been writing this blog for the last 8 years — I started it on your fifth birthday, to document your year in kindergarten — but I’m not sure I’ve ever actually written to you, only about you. So today, in honor of your 13th birthday, I thought I’d write […]

Sophie’s IEP meeting was last week, and we’re still in the throes of finalizing/reviewing/sign-seal-and-delivering, but things seem to be falling into place. It’s such a detailed process, designed to address every possible angle of your kid and her needs, but really what I find is that it lulls you (or me, anyway) into a false […]

Last night, the girls and I sat at the dining room table to do homework. Annabelle had some fancy-schmancy assignment involving decorating her spelling words (some nights it’s drawing them in a shape of pyramid or making them blocks), so once Sophie finished reading her little book, I took her spelling words off the fridge, handed […]

I should really be asleep by now. In a few short hours, I’ve got an early morning meeting with the special education teacher at Sophie’s school — I need to try to convince her that even though my kid’s got an IQ of 86, she deserves time in the “resource room” without letting her think Sophie […]