Venting post

Haven't been on here in a while, which seems odd considering I haven't been at work since May 18! You'd think I'd have all kinds of time now that summer vacation has rolled around, but somehow I've managed to keep myself quite busy cleaning the house, doing laundry, shuffling kids to summer school, attending PD events and, most importantly, entertaining Lorin and Levi! Sounds easy, yes?! It's actually been a bit of a downer. Having the kids at home has given me ample opportunity to see areas of strength and weakness in Levi. Unfortunately, I've been hung up on the weaknesses lately and am having a hard time getting past it. His language continues to be a major challenge. So much of what he says is still echoing. When he does offer spontaneous speech, most of what he says is unintelligible. Ugh!!! It's so frustrating to not be able to understand your own child! He has come up with a variety of strategies to help us understand him, but I wonder how effective these strategies will be when he's in the classroom. He's so smart, but how is he going to show others just how smart he is if he doesn't communicate with them? Our local school district has been great in providing him with services and working towards goals, but is this setting truly what's best for him? Is being mainstreamed the best thing for him? Would he be better at a facility that works solely with special needs students? Somewhere where he can get one-on-one help? But if we do that, then he learns how to function in an environment full of people like him and that's not "real life". I hate this "work in progress" thing that he brings to the table with him. I want to see positive results RIGHT NOW! I want some sign that says "you and Brad are doing the right thing". I want to ask my son "how was school today" and get an answer rather than him repeating back to me "how was school today". Ugh!!!