Whoa! Stuff!

Wow! It's been forever since I posted here. It's even been awhile since I posted anything important on Facebook. It's been a super busy summer and is shaping up to be a super busy fall as well. Aidan did Cub Scout summer day camp, he had a camp-in at a Science Museum (they had full run of 4 stories!! Including the shark tank!!), played a day at the beach, spent time in Chattanooga with Mawmaw and Pawpaw, and even got to go visit Papa and Grandma Holly twice before Grandma Holly passed away this month.


In June Aidan was officially diagnosed with ADHD and the doctor started him on Intuniv which is a non-stimulant medication that was adapted from an old blood pressure medication called Tenex. Now that we've got the dosage figured out, Aidan takes 2mg a day in the morning. The difference is amazing. He has a much easier time communicating with us, he has found his volume control instead of being at the top of his lungs most of the time, he has a much better control of his temper, and is finding it much less of a problem to focus on his work at school and at home. It's actually really fun to be around him now that he's staying out of trouble and doesn't get aggressive so easily.


School started back in the middle of August and since then Aidan has only had ONE stick pulled (it's like a check mark on the board, or one time of getting in trouble). It was for talking when he wasn't supposed to, which every kid is going to do at some point. Last year he did that at least once a day it seemed like. His first progress report shows he has 2 A's and a B - the B is in English. He loves Math! He's making friends and doing great at the new school. Friday we got to go on a field trip to see Disney on Ice (how is that educational?) which he was so-so about. Most of it he wasn't interested in but we made it through.


Last night he had a Cub Scout Pack meeting. They gave out all the awards earned over the summer, and I'm pretty sure Aidan earned more than any of the other boys there!!! Here's a list of what he got:

-BB shooting belt loop

-archery belt loop

-hiking belt loop

-kickball belt loop

-art belt loop

-science pin

-one year service pin

-wolf badge (which requires a LOT of work to earn!)

-1 year service pin

-Outdoor Activity Award

-Gold Unit award

Seriously guys, the kid is amazing. Now he'll start working toward his Bear Badge and of course all the other stuff that he can find to get into and earn. Plus he's selling popcorn on top of everything (let me know if you're interested and I'll post the website for you to order or if you're local to me then I can put your order down). We're so proud!!!

Stay tuned, I'm sure there will be even MORE amazing things to brag about on this kid.

Bullying? Maybe, maybe not...

So I think there may have been some bullying at school today - I've emailed the teacher and she's going to talk to everyone involved. Here's what I know: I know Aidan got sent to the principal's office today for throwing mulch at TJ. The reason I'm writing is because of something he said happened in PE today that other students prevented him from telling the coach.

Aidan says that: Boy 1, while they were playing football, was "not playing fair" and when Aidan said something to him about it, Boy 1 "flipped" him onto the ground (he says this happened twice). When Boy 2 tried to defend Aidan from Boy 1 hurting him again, Boy 2 got pushed down. Aidan was going to tell coach, who wasn't available, then Boy 1 got him to the ground again and when Aidan was trying to get up, Boy 1 held him down, and Boy 3 "slid past" Aidan and Boy 2 kicked Boy 3 in the neck. Aidan left the situation at this point which ended the whole thing.

This is what Aidan told me, and granted he can be hard to understand, and I'm not sure if this all happened today or if this was split up over different times, or how much was exaggerated. And honestly, Aidan could have left out any hitting, pushing, etc that he did. Aidan didn't want to tell the teacher because he was afraid that he would get in trouble with the boys for telling (or maybe because he thought he would also get in trouble with the teacher?).

What's your take?

Aidan's first semester of 1st Grade

Aidan got AB honor roll last semester! He receives an award for it tomorrow. His weak spots are Reading and English, as well as some obvious behavioral issues.

He also had a STAR reading test, which is skewed by his receptivity to computer based testing of course. His Grade Equivalent for reading is 1.3 (so the first half of first grade), he's right in the average range with students his grade.  His instructional reading level is still at the Pre-Primer level, but he's working on improving.

We also got the Annual Goal Progress report for his IEP. He's got a 2 in both progress and extent on both of his major goals (staying on task without interrupting or talking back, and tying his shoes).

Of course, we're VERY proud!

Other fun things - Aidan gets to earn a free pizza this month if he reads 15 books. He says he's going to read 16, but that we have to go buy more Magic Treehouse books for him. Also, between now and April he has to do his first science project. His will just have to be a poster explaining or showing his project. Hopefully he doesn't get too overwhelmed. I'm thinking weather (duh) will be the topic. I'll leave it up to him.

First Nine Weeks! Success!

We've had a few bumps in the road over the past few weeks, but we've successfully navigated the first 9 weeks of school. Today Aidan got his report card both for his general ed class AND for his IEP. Figured you guys would all want to know what's up with him so far!

So for his Annual Goal report based on his IEP, Aidan is making some progress and mastery is anticipated on both goals. Goal one is that Aidan would be able to stay on task for 15 minutes, not interrupt or talk back to teachers --- the report card says that "Aidan is able to stay on task for 15 minutes but has to be reminded to stop talking out of turn. We are working on not interrupting and talking back to the teachers."  He is also working on tying his shoes without prompts, but he's having difficulty with the steps following making the first loop. We're still working on it at home and they're working on it at school, he's just struggling with it. I'm sure we'll have figured it out soon!

On his General Ed report card Aidan did great! HE'S ON A HONOR ROLL!!!!!!!! Congrats to Aidan! He's got a 92 in Reading, an A in Conduct, a 97 in Math, a 92 in English, a 100 in PE, a 100 in Art, and a 100 in Music! I'm super duper proud! 

A couple of weeks ago Aidan also read 8 books in one day so he could get a free pizza. The kid is just too smart!

Oh, AND he got a 100 on his practice spelling test today so he doesn't have to take it tomorrow. But that's usually what he does. He's just that darn smart. So there. :)

20 Exclusion no-no's for teachers with autistic students in their mainstream classroom:

School is starting back! For the kids this can be an exciting time, but if your child has autism both you and he could be a bit worried about what's to come this year - especially if your child is moving into a mainstream classroom! Aidan's going to be in first grade this year, starting out with an aide with him in the mainstream classroom all day.

Here are twenty "obvious" rules for the mainstream teachers out there:

1. Try not to use metaphors or sarcasm - “it's a piece of cake,” or “let's put our thinking caps on” are things don't make sense to me and it will take you a while to explain. Sarcasm is even harder to understand!
2. Don't make jokes about clumsiness or difficulty speaking, even with the neurotypical children – it can make me even more self-conscious.
3. Don't dismiss me as having nothing to say or refusing to participate or not paying attention just because I don't speak up.
4. Don't give long strings of verbal instructions. Offer one step at a time and make sure to give me written or visual instructions or rules no matter how “simple” the instructions may be.
5. Don't assume that because I refuse to look you in the eye that I have an attitude or am lying about something. Make sure neurotypical students understand this about their autistic peers. Don't force a child to make eye-contact!
6. Don't assume that I will understand the gist of your rules or be able to apply them in a different way to other situations. I think of rules as literal, to be specifically followed to the letter in the situation in which they were presented. Generalizations are often useless to a child with autism.
7. Try not to plan class parties or field trips in situations that are loud or noisy.
8. Don't focus on a my disabilities, focus on my abilities. Don't use words like “weird” or “strange” or “bizarre” to describe children or their appearance or behaviors whether they are neurotypical or not.
9. Don't make changes in the schedule or expect me to react calmly to changes in the day that happen without warning. If there are unanticipated changes, don't reprimand me if I do react negatively.
10. Don't judge a me or reprimand me for choosing to communicate with you or my classmates in a way that is not speaking out loud – for example writing notes or drawing pictures.
11. Do not rush me or speak over a me if I'm struggling to verbalize something. Give me time to put my thoughts together and don't try to speak FOR me unless I look for help. Don't assume it's not important if I'm not able to verbalize it.
12. Don't punish me for being truthful! Sometimes a child with autism will say something that is painfully true (Joey smells bad, Ms. Smith's hair looks funny, etc). Also don't punish me for speaking up when I feel something is wrong or I have reached my limit.
13. Make sure my classmates and I have a trusted person we can go to if we need to bring up a problem we are having with fellow students or even our teacher (this is the first step in stopping bullying!)
14. Don't point out the strange behaviors I may exhibit while upset or distracted.
15. Don't fill every inch of wall space with pictures or every quiet moment with music – every poster, scrape of a chair, squeak of the chalk/marker is one more thing for me to focus on instead of my work.
16. Don't become impatient with me for not reacting or responding immediately after you give instructions or ask a question - give me a little bit of extra time for absorbing what you said.
17. Don't assume that certain ways of acting or speaking are “common sense”. Children with autism have to LEARN things that come naturally to most people.
18. Don't offer open ended choices (What do you want to eat?) - instead offer closed-ended choices (Would you rather have a hot dog today or chicken nuggets?)
19. Don't JUST send a note home if I have a meltdown or hit another child and definitely don't WAIT to make sure my mom and dad know! Call that day and explain exactly what happened to my parents. Notes just don't give enough information and aren't urgent enough.
20. Don't move from one activity in the day's schedule into another without some clear transition. Tell me how long until the next activity, what the activity is, and what is expected of my classmates and me during the activity.
    
    
    These are the rules I've got so far with help from the web and Twitter (I'm @thepyxie if you want to follow!). What do you have to add?  Feel free to print these out and hand them over to your child's teacher along with your phone number and email address so you know you can always stay in touch.

Aidan moves to a new school... or, why first year kindergarten teachers shouldn't have autistic children in their classroom...r

It's been an excruciating and stressful process, which has taken nearly a month (maybe more) to straighten out, but Aidan is now happily ensconced at his new school. Let's hope this time is more successful.

Because I registered Aidan late at Creekside Elementary (here in Limestone County), he was placed in a classroom with a FIRST YEAR TEACHER. Okay, seriously, who is this fair to? Aidan did alright at first, he made lots of friends, and came home singing songs and did his work. He adored his special ed teacher, Ms. Matsos (thank God for her, or things would have been a million times worse!), but she could only spend so much time with him, since she's got a lot of other students to tend to.

Aidan has a lot of issues with sensory overload, and I made sure that his kindergarten teacher (Ms. Hayes), Ms. Matsos, and the principal (Mr. Scott) all knew about these issues. Sounds are really his weakness, and he has to put a lot of effort into ignoring all the little noises you and I are able to filter out with no issue. I know some smells bother him, and he hasn't really told me about whether certain lights bother him, but who knows. We send his iPod to school with him everyday in case he needs time out and some different sensory input, and you'd think Ms. Hayes would learn pretty quickly when Aidan needs a chance to escape.

A couple weeks into school, they started DIBELS testing. This is basic reading skills competency for kindergartners. Aidan had been doing fine up until this point, with really very few problems. As far as I can guess, this change of schedule and routine really threw him off and the problems started.

Now anyone who's been around Aidan a lot, knows that when he's trying to ignore the world around him and focus on the task at hand (school work, TV, playing with trains, Lego's, etc.), if you touch him or speak to him, he lashes out. He just has a hard time with the sensory input. At school there are even more noises to try to filter out, and even more to focus on. Of course, kindergartners aren't great at staying out of personal space, or leaving other kids alone, and they all sit at group tables together. What does this mean for Aidan? It means that he starts hitting kids or pulling their hair or whatever reaction he feels is necessary when they break his focus or he goes into sensory overload. He had been having problems with pickup in the afternoon because it was too loud, and we changed that situation, but you can't exactly pull a kid out of the classroom every time he gets overwhelmed.

At least twice a week I was being called by the principal, or having to go the Principal's office to pick Aidan up because he had hit another student, or worse had hit his teacher. Kindergarten children should not be spending the day in ISS (in school suspension). But Aidan realized that the office was quiet, and there weren't other students there to invade his space or make irritating noises. So he continued acting out, because for him that wasn't a punishment. And it felt wrong to punish him for reacting the only way he knew how to a highly uncomfortable situation - he just doesn't have the coping skills to deal with it any other way.

Finally, Mr. Scott (the principal at Creekside) recommended that we consider placing Aidan at a different school that could better provide for his needs as a child with autism. Johnson Elementary, which is about the same distance from our house, just in a different direction, has a self-contained autism unit, with several aides to help the children one-on-one, and one of the best autism teachers in the state.

What an opportunity!

We were hesitant at first. Aidan is super-smart (highest reading level in his kindergarten class!), and very high-functioning - would these kids who were much lower-functioning make it harder for him to progress? Would he be overwhelmed by their behavior? If we didn't move him, what could we do for him?

Fortunately, Limestone County spent the majority of their stimulus money on their autism programs. In fact, they have a nationally renowned behaviorist from Auburn on retainer for the year - Dr. Babcock. He's odd, but he's very intuitive and has been working with autistic children for a very long time. We had the chance to sit down with him, as well as two of the special ed coordinators from the school board, and the autism teacher at Johnson (Ms. Enloe, who is amazing). Dr. Babcock also went over and spoke to Ms. Matsos about Aidan, and also observed him for a little while to get an idea of Aidan's behavior. Apparently, it is very rare for Dr. Babcock to recommend for a child to go to the autism unit, but he told us without a doubt that this was where Aidan belonged (heck, we asked God for a clear direction, I guess he thought he'd better make it crystal clear!). He feared that if we didn't move Aidan, he would develop a school phobia - he didn't want Aidan to feel like he had to act out to escape the discomfort of the regular classroom.

So, I took Aidan the next day to visit the classroom, with the hopes that if he liked it, we could get him enrolled the following Monday. This was the plan, and I was told by the special ed coordinator that it was clear for us to do this. We were delayed by a week because Ms. Enloe was going to be out on training, but when she returned then we'd start Aidan there and have his IEP meeting on his first day.

This is where the tangled mess that had me so stressed out really got even messier. Jeremy and I showed up Monday morning with Aidan who they took to the classroom. Ms. Matsos, Ms. Enloe, Dr. Lewis (Johnson's principal - who I don't like), and Ms. Simmons (a kindergarten teacher at Johnson) met with us. Instead of coming up with an IEP, they (Dr. Lewis and Ms. Enloe, but mostly Dr. Lewis) started back-pedaling. Oh, we didn't know about any of this, we don't have enough info to do an IEP, we don't know enough about his behavior, we didn't know this decision was final, are we sure he should be at Johnson, I thought Dr. Babcock was supposed to make a behavior plan first, that meeting wasn't official, let's step back and think about this. I went into mama bear mode. I was ready to slash some throats and take some heads. We left that day without accomplishing anything. They said he could stay the rest of that day, but should return to Creekside until further notice. The principal would attempt to contact the special ed coordinator. We had to wait until Friday after next to hear from Dr. Babcock. Who cares if we're shoving an already miserable little boy back into an uncomfortable and unproductive environment? It's convenient for us.

Thank goodness Ms. Matsos told Mr. Scott. About an hour after the disastrous meeting, my cell phone rang and it was Ms. Baccus (the special ed coordinator). She said Mr. Scott had called her and said the meeting hadn't gone well. I told her what had happened, and she confirmed that it was not THEIR decision to make, and that the decision had already been made and emails had been sent two weeks before. She said not to get upset because it would be taken care of. She called me back again and said we could go ahead and transfer Aidan from Creekside to Johnson, that he would finish out the week at Johnson, and on Thursday we'd have the IEP meeting, and she would be there to ensure that things were done properly and Aidan wasn't shuffled to the side again for the sake of bureaucracy.

So Aidan started his second week at Johnson yesterday. They've been working on handwriting, and numbers, and when he behaves for a certain amount of time he gets to go the sensory integration room. He calls it the nursery room for some reason - he loves it. It has quiet music, and dim lighting, and all kinds of interesting toys like a ball pit and a tent, and eventually a swing. He seems so much happier.

Right now they're observing his behavior, and letting him acclimate to the new school and environment. He's getting used to the new schedule and people, and then once they've gotten to know him, he'll start spending time in the regular kindergarten classroom, with an aide. Eventually, he'll spend the majority of his day in there with an aide. The plan is that next year he'll be back at Creekside and we'll try the whole kindergarten thing again. Considering he's got the maturity of a 4 year old right now, then next year he should fit right in. And you can be sure, I won't allow them to place him with an inexperienced teacher again.