The squeeky wheel is demanding the grease

So, I'm sick of making phone calls to the Special Education director in my school district about where the imaginary evaluation report is that was done for my son to get a communication device! No more Mrs. Nice Gal!! I have had it with the phone tag! It's time to start writing letters and documenting the intentional delay.

I tried calling my son's pediatrician for a referral to someone to do an AT eval outside of the school. This guy turned out to be a dead end and was so negative about the subject that I regret talking to him at all. Buddy, it's time to find a new job when all you can do for a desperate parent who is just trying to find a way to make her son's life better is to try and talk her out of pursuing it!

Outside of starting a paper trail and possibly filing a complaint with the DOE we are exploring cheaper and more accessible alternates to the traditional AT devices. My wonderful friend Jenn gave us a kids' speaking dictionary that was her son's that he no longer uses. Peeps, it is a $60 toy that has a voice output!! It is a Franklin Speaking Dictionary and can only be found online. You can type in a word or sentence and hit speak and it talks for you!! The words it has is pretty limited so we are looking at the Collegiate version which is about $100 new on ebay or cheaper if you buy it used. I will definitely let you know if the Collegiate version is worth purchasing once we get it and try using it with Stephen.

Even if we get him a more expensive AT device I worry about how difficult it would be to replace if it broke. At least if we can have him use one of these speaking dictionaries and it craps out it is much more affordable to replace!

Stephen is doing great and I think some of it is because he is using his trampoline A LOT now that it is in his room. We have it right next to his computer and he will listen to whatever he is doing on the computer with his headphones and jump on the trampoline at the same time. His legs are getting quite buff! He has broken his addiction to the Internet and is now into watching movies on his computer and likes to turn on the subtitle feature which I think will help with him learning how to type his needs and wants on a communication device.

**UPDATE**

His wonderful teacher just called me and said that she spoke with the OT and the vice principal in our district that were part of the team that did his AT eval and they are supposed to have something in writing to her by the end of the week!! They are also recommending a voice output device....hopefully not something archaic. I am optimistic but not holding my breath. I will hold off on my letter writing blitz for now....but if they don't follow through by the end of the week, look out!!

Olivia's MRI results looked fine according to her Neuro so we will just follow up with her in six months : ) She has been doing great in school and not had any more issues with the teacher since our little drama at the beginning of the school year. Yay!!

I cut of all my hair. I love it! One less thing to deal with and worry about : )