I LOVE his new school now! | Autism PDD

That's really great. My youngest son is having the same problem finishing his lunch (he just started elementary school in August). When I ask him why, he mentions the noise-level, and one time said his arms were too tired to lift his sandwich to his mouth! I can guarantee you that he doesn't have a 6-1/2 hour day -- they wait with that till middle school here! But still, a new and crowded setting is exhausting for him.

I'm really impressed by your son's ASD teacher, who looks for his subtle signals and comes up with such good solutions.

Hope everything continues to go well.

I love teachers & principals that are really in it for the right reasons and they make all the difference in the world!

Congratulations!!

I'm glad for you. It's nice to hear some good news.

Thats great snoopywoman, Im glad theyve got such a handle on things (now anyway!) They sound like they really do care, I hope I can find teachers like that for my son!

Okay, after the losing him on the bus incident (see post from a few days ago if you're interested), the school seems to be stepping up.

The ASD teacher called me to check in and to tell me that ds seems to be anxious toward the end of the day and asking how much longer they have. She said that unless you were looking for it, it is not noticeable and a lot of the other kids (NT) are anxious too because it IS A 6 1/2 hour day. But, she wants to schedule two 10-minute gross motor breaks for ds - one in the am and one in the pm. She will have him deliver mail to different parts of the building and maybe do 2 or 3 different ones so that he gets a long walk and some time away in addition. Also, she's going to take him to the resource room to finish lunch if he doesn't get to finish. His class has a bathroom break right after lunch which is 10 minutes, so she can give him about 7-8 minutes to finish up (they only get 20 minutes to eat) and then swing him by the bathroom and go to class. All of this will not interfere and not make him stand out. She said he seems to be interacting and is following routines great and doing everything that is asked of him. She just wants to be pro-active and not have his anxiety increase. She told me she didn't want him "sent" to her room - she wants to invite him to her resource room when he needs it so he ends up being able to eventually do it on his own when he needs it.

The principal sat with he and 4-5 other kindergarteners who didn't finish their lunch today and chatted with him and made sure he was able to finish more of his lunch. He usually is able to eat in 20 minutes, but with all the noise and the kids talking to him - he just didn't budget his time well.

Anyway, she also threw out a few other ideas but said she absolutely wants him to be doing everything the other kids are as much as possible and she believes he will be able to and has been impressed with how he has done so far. He is definitely the mildest on her caseolad, she said and she said that a layperson would not pick out that he was even having any issues. She just could read it on his face that he needed a break. So, tomorrow we start doing that.

Well, I gotta go get ready for our garage sale, but just had to share that after a rocky start - the school (especially the ASD teacher and principal) seem to really have a handle on my ds - after only really knowing him for 2 1/2 days so far!) is doing good. They are WAY better than his previous school and I actually told the ASD teacher that I was floored that she was calling me to work on PREVENTING a future problem rather than waiting until one happened - because that was not my experience at his previous school. I'm hoping this continues!