Workshop

Today Gabe and I attended the "It's your time! -A workshop for parents of children with special needs" in Grand Rapids.  It was put on by Grand Valley State University, Kent ISD, Kent county health department and supported by the Down Syndrome Association of West Michigan.  I first learned about this workshop through my boss in our special education department who saw it in our Kent ISD booklet.  She made a special point in making sure I knew about it.  DSAWM did a great job of getting the word out as well.

Aunt Brett came into town last night to help with watching the kids today while we were in Grand Rapids.  She out of the kindness of her heart agreed to watch the kids on her birthday.  Happy Birthday Aunt Brett and Thank You!!!

We went to a break out session on Wills and Trusts.  We have a lot to think about.  I am not going to claim to completely understand but I can say that it is very important to contact an attorney sooner than later.  There are a lot of rules and regulations that come along with SSI once a child hits the magic age of 18.  On top of the magic 18, it is important to save money for your child with disabilities but not in their names for the future.  If the a child has more than $2,000 in their name (bank accounts, cash, bonds, ect.) this will keep them from being able to qualify for SSI.  As I said, we have a lot to think about.

The next session we attended was a music therapy session.  Music therapy is seen as an alternative therapy.  Insurance does not cover it and schools rarely have instructors.  Being close to Grand Rapids gives us West Michigan families a special in.  We have a group of music therapists in our back yard.  Gabe and I are looking at our finances and seriously looking into enrolling Gabriel into music therapy for the summer.  He lives for music.  We will be going to Grand Rapids for feeding therapy anyway so maybe we can work out a day we just spend in Grand Rapids.  If not then we will get to make a few trips a week.  Either way I am extremely excited to see Gabriel progress with the use of music therapy.  There were several families who want music therapy on their child's IEP.  Due to music therapy still being considered an alternative therapy and the fact that districts rarely employ music therapists there is very little chance in having a school writing music therapy into an IEP.  If a parent has the right advocate, data and research they may have a chance.  The more parents who come in with their ducks in a row requesting music therapy the better chance we will have in getting a music therapist employed by the distinct and therefore available to service our kids needs.  

After a lot of debate we decided we missed the kiddo's and so we did not make it to the next session.  I did get to meet the Program Coordinator from DSAWM.  I was able to bounce my idea of meeting and doing crafts for our kids on a regular basis.  I going to go ahead and write out plans for what crafts we will do and submit them to see what they think.  I am not sure where we will meet, that may be the hang up.  If i had a larger house I would love to host the craft time.  We will see what we can come up with.  I am way excited to have a get together over here in our area!  We have a Friday lunch once a month during the school year but I am unable to attend because it is in the middle of the work day.

I am so exited to see what the future holds!

Thanks Aunt Brett for taking this picture of us today!