IEP or EIP, they are the same thing. An education plan unique to the individual.
My brother had one for his speech delay and I also found that he was aggressive as a child…well I should say he’s been aggressive since childhood. He qualified for special needs education because of it and probably because he had a little bit of hearing difficulty and a speech impediment.
My sister also had an IEP for a speech delay too. She was 2 years old and not saying much. She kind of stopped professing her speech at 2 but her IEP didn’t last long and she continued to mainstream school.
Me, well I was born with mild to moderate hearing loss but I’ve never fully qualified for any hearing aid or similar devices. Honestly, I remember my mom telling me to sit close to the front when I first got glasses and to have my good ear(right ear) face the teacher as best as I could. Turns out both my ears have deafness but one hears high pitch and the other hears low pitches. I also have a speech disorder and with short sentences and words I was very hard to understand. I struggled to say what I wanted which lead to a very frustrated tot but I was very relaxed and content. In my toddler group, I rarely interacted with my peers. One report stated: “snacktime listed about 10 minutes and [Redacted] ate in silence”. I was just a toddler so the lack of socialising with those my age, communicating for long periods of time, and struggle to communicate my needs were issues that would “mature with time”. At least I was close to my teachers and adults. Do those count as friends?
It’s frustrates me though. Looking back and reading these reports and evaluations, I saw so many red flags but this was the early Y2K.
A child who couldn’t say short words to communicate thoughts and just made noises. A toddler continuing to babble and make hard consonant sounds but again, it was deemed just something I’d grow out of. Asking me to speak louder because my tone and volume where not at levels to be understood. Even repeating myself didn’t help. My records say I had a moment where I said “gance” repetitively and just smiled when I was asked to repeat myself. I don’t even know what I meant by gance. Dance? Pants? Who knows.
What I do know is that my childhood development was not at the same level as peers. I have documented proof of such. From birth to now, I have always been a very quiet and reserved person. I was never fussy and only cried when I was frustrated— that hasn’t changed.
If you saw a toddler sitting on a bench at a park watching their peers play and laugh, wouldn’t that confuse or concern you?
Am I disabled? Prior to finding my files from early childhood, I didn’t fully consider myself disabled. I have mobility issues as my scoliosis, flat feet, and limb length differences cause many challenges with standing, sitting, and walking. There are other people who have it worse than me but that doesn’t mean I’m not disabled. I have a communication disorder, I have mental illnesses, and a sleep disorder which is valid and I should be treated fairly in life but I’m not. It’s actually a struggle for me and with it being disability pride month, I want to continue advocating for myself and others. I want children to have continued monitoring of their development even after they are deemed “not disabled”. Just because you aren’t “disabled enough” doesn’t mean you should live a life in the dark thinking you’re not trying hard enough and pushing myself way beyond burn out. It hurts a child’s mental health and I am proof of such.
