[blindkid] help needed with IEP goals

[Doreen Franklin]

We have been on this list and the info we have been reading has been invaluable to us. Thanks! 
 
We are now looking for some help in rewriting our daughter's IEP goals. She is 4 and we have just pulled her out of the Head Start program for pre-k3 yr old kids (she has a b-day past their cut off date). Head Start was not working for several reasons, including some effects from her adoption and they have been affecting her attitude, sleep and eating. One of the problems we had was that she was not being "taught" pre-writing - how to hold a pencil and her paper, specifically for her eye conditions (born with congenital cataracts, removed in Guatemala, false lens put in in both eyes, also has nystagmus, light sensitivity, strabismus and is myopic/near sighted). I will now be home schooling her. Her TVI did not give the teacher any instructions for grip and paper, and the teacher herself told me to "let it happen" and that her grip would evolve.
 
"Developing pre-writing skills needed for writing" is her first short-term goal on the IEP. Her next 2 goals are for her to be able to IDENTIFY AND WRITE the alphabet AND her full name in capital letters with 80% accuracy thru activities. Her 4th goal is to complete tasks with 2 redirections in a 30 MINUTES span. None of the goals were much more specific than the above statements. 
 
Her next 2 goals are O&M; "using her vision, she will be able to walk up & down a ramp and steps with minimal assistance" ....but with an O&M observation, she is "doing this" so that this is NOT NEEDED as per the eval. She does not have O&M except on a "consult" only basis (meaning, that if her teacher or TVI see a problem, then he will be called in. (With us pulling her out, I am unsure how this will work.) In the meantime, we are seeing her hit/bump/trip into things for at least the last 2 months. I had been keeping a log prior to our last meeting; I have just restarted that log. She has not "seriously" hurt herself (and that is what the TVI/O&M continues to say), but I hold her hand when outside as she is only 4 yrs old. At home, she  usually bumps her shoulder into furniture or the door jams. She has hit her head a few times when walking into the wall or getting off her stool in the bathroom, she has banged her forehead. She has fallen
 over a rocker leg and hit the couch. She does not have depth perception as several times on flat surfaces with contrast (2 different colored tiles/cement), she picks up her foot as though there is a step there. She is also "right on top of you" when talking to you. These are just a few examples of why we think we need O&M. 
 
Our question though is .... what would be some "appropriate" VISION-RELATED goals for her? The goals above are not vision related and we are supposed to discuss the goals. My husband and I would like to come to the table with some appropriate vision goals instead of "learning to write her alphabet and name" with goals for a child in kindergarten (I have checked the pre-K state curriculum and the kindergarten curriculum). She is using the Handwriting without Tears curriculum at school and I already had it in my home to use with her. We will continue to work with the letters using clay and their wooden sticks to form  letters. We are looking at a goal for her to be able to identify her letters using that curriculum. 
 

I am looking at "visual memory" games so that she will be able to use her vision more efficiently as she gets older. That is one goal along with using the clay & sticks from Handwriting without Tears to form her letters. I would also like to expand on the pre-writing so that it specifically states she will be holding her pencil and paper correctly for her visual problems. I am asking for bold lined paper so that she is able to see the paper correctly instead of just the gray-lined paper she had gotten from Head Start; she had a hard time seeing the bottom line.
 
Unfortunately, the TVI and TVI/O&M people do not know how to work with a pre-k child as evidence several times in what they asked/told her (show me your house instead of show me the kitchen). 
 
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
 
Many thanks .... 
Doreen and David, Florida