Great News from School | Autism PDD

[QUOTE=flip]Do they do much in terms of prevention or set-up to help prevent his behaviors (Snesory activities, other modifications) or have the problems just faded away? [/QUOTE]

That's a great question, and I'm not really sure how to answer it. Some of it is maturity. I don't know if they are doing anything specific in terms of sensory activities, he just seems to be doing so much better in this classroom. I'm going to go over in a few weeks to do some observation so maybe I'll have a better picture then. I talk to the teacher all the time but I don't get to spend much time at the school.

[QUOTE=fred] How was kindergarten last year? We're in the same setup as you were last year (mainstream), and so far, so good, but it's early! Do you think that mainstream kindergarten was helpful, or, if you had to do it again, would you opt for this kind of placement he has now? Do you think the placement is helping him because it is a less chaotic environment (structured spec. ed. class as opposed to a regular kindergarten class)? Anyways, great news - how's R doing?[/QUOTE]

He did ok in kindergarten last year. Not great, but not a nightmare either. The big issues with kindergarten for C were:

1. It was only a half day and he was pulled out so much for speech, OT, social work that it was hard for him to really feel like he was a part of the class. There were also a lot of transitions.

2. He had a 1:1 aide and quickly became depended on her for prompts and visual cues in order to complete his work.

3. Doing the academic work and concentrating in such a hectic environment with alot of kids was tough for him. He did great work when he was in the learning center, but that meant he was by himself and not getting any social interaction.

4. For whatever reason, C was melting down at school a few times per month. Nothing really awful (didn't hit anyone, damage any property, etc.) but just got upset and needed to be removed from the class to calm down. This usually happened when he was forced to redirect from a preferred activity to a non-preferred activity.

In retrospect, I wouldn't have changed a thing. Mainstream kindergarten was a great learning experience for us. We got to see what C could handle and what he couldn't. It gave us the data we needed to make the right placement this year, and 1st grade matters alot more than kindergarten in my opinion. Kindergarten is still pretty preschool like in many ways whereas 1st grade starts to look more like "real school" with lots more sitting and listening and independent work required.

In regard to why better this year. I think it's a combination of 2 things. The first is definitely that the more structured and less chaotic special ed class is working really well for him. He stays regulated, so he's more available for learning. He's also doing well with the transitions and the mainstreaming for art, music, library, PE, computers, lunch & recess. Another thing, is that for the past 3 summers we've taken 6 weeks off from any kind of therapy and did 2 weeks of familly vacation followed immediately by 4 weeks of Banner Day Camp (he's on his own there, no aide, all NT kids for what I can tell). Dh and I are convinced that there is something in the water at Banner because every summer, when we do the least therapy, is when he makes his biggest leaps forward. This is the 3rd year in a row where the IEP set in May no longer seems to make sense in the fall for many of the goals.

R is doing well except he's struggling with his reading. It's not awful, but it's on the lower end for 1st grade. The teacher called today and they are going to have him spend 30 minutes/day with a reading specialist. (Note, my school district is a bit over the top - in a good way though LOL.) Whereas C is a pure visual learner, I have the opposite with R. R is a pure auditory learner. So I've basically got one kid that can do anything as long as you present it visually, and another one that can do anything as long as you present it verbally. C gets confused by all the language and R gets confused by all of the visuals. No middle ground here! The teacher also said that R is very popular, loved by the other kids and has a ton of friends. They are also going to have him evaluated for some articulation issues, though they said it's not a big concern and it may be related to the fact that he has no teeth (top two teeth fell out in May and are only now starting to come in) but they might want to give him speech anyway.

YEA!!!! I am really happy that things are going so smoothly. I also wanted to remind you that all this info is so helpful for those of us with younger kids. Sometimes I feel like I will have to make a "set in stone" decision about mainstream vs. special ed and just make it work. Thanks to you and all the others with school age kids that take the time to share their experiences.

[QUOTE=2nd round mom]Sometimes I feel like I will have to make a "set in stone" decision about mainstream vs. special ed and just make it work. [/QUOTE]

That is EXACTLY how I used to feel. When I was making C's placement decision for kindergarten I blew it completely out of proportion (hindsight being 20-20) and felt like this one decision was going to decide the outcome of his entire educational experience for the next 12 years. I lost so much sleep over it.

Then again for 1st grade trying to decide between mainstream and SpEd was another huge drama. However, somewhere along the way I eventually came to the conclusion that I need to take this 1 year at a time. Once I accepted that, I was able to be so much more relaxed about the process. We did mainstream kindy and now we're doing SpEd 1st grade. In the spring, we'll once again round up the troops, gather the data, do the rounds of observations and make a brand new decision. No idea which way it will go - and I'm going to TRY not to dwell on it until spring!

Glad you're finding the information helpful. I too like hearing from folks with kids older than mine!

Ohhhh Kristy - this is so awesome Kristy, I just LOVED reading that! It's just so wonderful to hear. I'm really
proud for you.

That's great, Kristy! Sounds like you have him in a great placement. Nice to get that kind of personal attention from the teacher. How was kindergarten last year? We're in the same setup as you were last year (mainstream), and so far, so good, but it's early! Do you think that mainstream kindergarten was helpful, or, if you had to do it again, would you opt for this kind of placement he has now? Do you think the placement is helping him because it is a less chaotic environment (structured spec. ed. class as opposed to a regular kindergarten class)? Anyways, great news - how's R doing?That is so great Kristy! It is wonderful that they are seeing the same C you see at home. Do they do much in terms of prevention or set-up to help prevent his behaviors (Snesory activities, other modifications) or have the problems just faded away?

That is fantastic lady. How cool is it to see just how far he has come!

I'm so happy for you and yours. Give him a Smooch for me!

That's great! My son is a first grader in an autism class. His teachers keep telling me how well he is doing and he is very happy-is there something in the air? the age? It's so nice to hear good encouraging things about your child. So happy for you, especially academically. It's so exciting to be one step closer to mainstreamed. Wow that is great news, sounds like the right class and the right teacher,
Its nice to hear that he is doing so well.

C's teacher called me tonight just to give an update and we talked for almost an hour (love this woman!)

She said that C is doing wonderful in school. Academics are coming along. His reading is a little behind but he's making great progress. Math is coming along too. Handwriting continues to be tough. But all in all he's within the norm for a 1st grader. She mentioned that his attention span is shorter than she'd like, but it's not awful. However, some of the most exciting things she said were around language, social and behavior. Mrs. H. told me that she was just looking through all of C's paperwork today and she was amazed. She said she reads up on the kids when they 1st start but then puts the paperwork aside for a few weeks and just gets to know the child, and then goes back to the paperwork pile again. In sum, she told me that when she looked through C's reports in detail earlier this week she just kept saying "is this the same kid?"

The teacher is amazed that C was ever in a preschool class for non-verbal kids. She said that looking at him now you would never guess how severely affected he was as a preschooler. She thinks he has very nice language.

She said that C is very social and has made great friends with his classmates. She's now seeking to help him expand his social circle, but says that he and his 2 "best friends" in class are pretty inseparable at school and play beautifully togeter. She says C has very nice social skills. He has a goal around social that says "C will exhibit appropriate social pragmatics (acknowlege and respond to others verbalizations, make eye contact, interpret non-verbal cues with 2-3 prompts." The teacher asked me "was this really a problem last year" because she isn't seeing an issue here.

However, the behavior side was where she was most amazed. C has an IEP goal of "C will utilize strategies to manage frustration and self regulate, having no ore than 3 explosive outbursts lasting no longer than 20 minutes in a month." The teacher commented that she has no idea what to do with this goal since C has been in school for 6 weeks now and has not had anything even resembling an "explosive outburst." He also has a goal of "C will exhibit verbal interruptions (babbling, self-talk) no more than 5 times during a 20 minute period of instruction and seat work with 3 non-verbal prompts" and she doesn't know what to do with this one either since he just doesn't exhibit this behavior at all. C also has a behavior plan that has been in place for 2 years and she said she was shocked about this too when she read it because as far as she's concerned it's just collecting dust because in these 1st 6 weeks of school she hasn't had to use it because C hasn't exhibited any of the behaviors that are in the plan.

In sum, until this year, C has always presented very differently at home than at school. Last year, when C was in a mainstream class with the 1:1 aide, he presented as moderately affected at school, with a number of behavior issues that we never (or rarely) saw at home. Outside of school, C presents as much more mildly affected and passes for NT most of the time. This disparity of presentation between home and school was also highlighted in the private neuropsych eval we had this summer. In her report, the neuropsych described C as very environmentally sensetive. This year C is in a SpEd class, and based on my conversations with his teacher, it appears that this difference between the way C is at school and the way C is at home has went from a pretty big difference to a negligible one. In this new school environment, at least for this 1st 6 weeks (knock on wood) C is behaving the way at school as he does at home. The teacher is seeing the same C that I do, and the behavior problems he was having last year haven't manifested themselves this year.

All in all, I'm just ecstatic with how well the school year is going thus far. I hope it continues like this!