Blue Sky Reserve Field Trip

We had such a great time on our field trip yesterday. This was Javi's first field trip with his new class. We went on a hike at the Blue Sky Nature Preserve. I was still battling my cold, but I didn't want to miss Javi's field trip. I got to meet a lot of the parents of the kids in the class. I also got to know Javi's new classmates a little better. They are all great kids. They are all so loving and accepting. It really makes me wonder why we try to shoe horn kids with ASD to be more "typical". It seems we have a great deal to learn from these kids. I held hands with most of the kids yesterday, many of them hugged me. They are so accepting, even of us new folk. No suspicion, no malice, just wonder and kindness.

I am truly happy that we found such a great placement for Javi. He has made some great friends his first week. He told me that one of the girls in his class, Sydney, is his girlfriend. I asked if she knew that ;) They are really cute together. They shared a bag of apples. Very cute! We love the new teacher Ms. Meghan and her assistants. They are so great with the kids.

Here are the pics of the trip...

Javi's New School

We are very pleased to announced that Javi will be starting school at Garden Road Elementary this Monday! Hooray! I went to check out the placement yesterday. It was so awesome to watch the teacher work with the students, I nearly cried. I just knew that this placement would be great for Javi and that he would be well matched to make friends easily. I knew right away that he would pair particularly well with a couple of the boys and one of the girls. Yep, two girls are in the class!! That is the most Javi has ever had. He will be one of the two third graders in the 2/3 class, but that's fine with Javi. He doesn't care much about the kids ages.

The teacher had already prepared a letter and a social story for Javi, even before we decided. She also had told the students about Javi and they were sooooo excited to have a new friend joining the class.

We are so happy that he will fit in nicely with the kids and that they will mainstream and accommodate Javi's needs.

Poor Javi

Still going through the motions of finding Javi a new placement. I have a meeting with the principal of the prospective new school where I will also get to take a look at how the class is run and meet the teacher. I am hoping that this will be a good placement for Javi, otherwise, I think we may have to go to homeschooling.

Javi has been pretty sick for the last couple days. Today, he had a fever of 103. He has barely gotten out of bed or eaten much for the last two days. As if all the school trauma and turning his whole little world upside down wasn't enough.

I know I was pretty vague at best about what was going on, but Javi has basically been on a behavioral downward spiral at school over the last, well, since the beginning of the year actually. The "experts" kept trying to tell us that he just needed more time to adjust, which clearly wasn't the case. The last straw was the two referrals and an in school suspension with in two weeks time. At that point, we decided enough was enough. I pulled him out of school until we could make other arrangements. It was against their suggestion, but at that point, I was not going to continue to further subject Javi to an environment that clearly isn't right for him. They were just not equipped to handle Javi's needs and they lacked the understanding of ASD to be able to work with him.

We have also taken Javi off the GF part of his diet, for now (maybe we'll try again someday?). It was just making him to angry. He didn't like being different at school or different at home or different from his friends. The anger Javi has been suffering with has just been so overwhelming, that we didn't want to further traumatize him by keeping him on it. He has made it no secret that he doesn't really like being on a diet, but who does? It did help him, but the benefits were outweighed by the anger issues.

We are planning to take Javi to an ASD psychologist to help him work some of the issues he has been having lately. We have seen a glimmer of the old Javi here and there since he started staying home with me last week.

I just wish there was more I could do for him. I wish I had a crystal ball that could tell me exactly what to do to make his life easier or more comfortable.

Well, until tomorrow. Thinking positive and hoping that the class I visit tomorrow will be the right place for him.

More school issues for Javi

So, if you were wondering where I have been for the last few days, I've been on the phone.  First with the stupid bank people that I had my school loan with, that is a long story, but sufficed to say my school loan is paid off, yay!!  I no longer have to deal with those accounting morons!

The rest of the time, having many, many discussions on what to do about Javi's school issues. Got a surprise call from the principal on Monday regarding Javi's behavior.  He has basically turned in to the "problem child" in class.  He's been disruptive, mean to other students, and generally misbehaving since his teacher has been out on medical leave.  He received a referral on Friday for a physical altercation with another student, then Monday he was disturbing another student and it was keeping both of them from working. Apparently, the ladder has become an every day occurrence, since the sub has been teaching the class.   Javi is in danger of being removed from class if he doesn't improve. They are willing to cut him some slack, since he has a sub right now and that's a big adjustment, but I think we are done with all of it.  I just basically told the principal at long last, that this year has been a total disaster and we would like to get together to discuss our options for other placements.

Well, if it's not one thing, it's another.  Either Javi comes home miserable and hating school when his teacher is there, but somewhat productive or he's driving everyone else nuts, but comes home happy.

We had hoped that Javi would eventually settle in to his class, but I think it's been long enough and he hasn't adjusted.  In fact, things are worse now than before.  We have tossed and turned over how the transition will affect him, but we are ready to just bite the bullet.  Anything would be better than his current state.  We are getting ready for yet another IEP.  I have spoken with the program specialist, emailed his teacher from last year and now we are just trying to schedule an IEP.  Keep you fingers crossed for us that we will come to a quick resolution!

PS, still no news yet about MRI results, but any day now.  Please remember Kay in your prayers that she still has a clean MRI.

Grrr...

Yet another school incident on the Javi front.  Yesterday, Javi came home and reported that the class aide gave him pizza.  Apparently, the class got a treat for turning in their homework consistently and they voted for pizza.  For those of you that don't know, Javi is on the GFCF diet which the school is fully aware of.  Not to mention, Javi said he asked if the pizza was gluten and casein free and they told him no and gave him a slice.  Of course, this is according to Javi, but since he was reluctant to tell me because he was afraid he would get in trouble, I have a harder time believing it didn't happen.  

Sure, accidents happen on the diet, but this seemed to be a blatant disregard for his diet altogether!!  I am waiting to see what his communication log says before going to the principal.  I wanted to get their side of the story first.  

Oh, and surprise surprise!!  Javi had his first meltdown in months the second he walked in the door because he may have lost his jacket.  Full scale, crying, throwing-himself-on-the-floor meltdown.  The evidence is irrefutable that he had pizza, just waiting to hear their explanation. To be continued...

IEP Warrior, take 2

Well, we had our second IEP meeting to finish up what we hadn't finished previously at the first meeting. It was completely pointless. I came out feeling 10x's more frustrated than before I walked in to the meeting. Javi is not really making a lot of progress in his current setting. In fact, he has regressed to the beginning of the year last year academically. His teacher said he is making slight and slow progress, but that is progression from a regression, so I wouldn't exactly call it real progress. Just as I said in my last post about this, it seems to be a complete class mismatch.

We attempted to use the "easy way out" and use an address change to switch him to a new class. Javi technically lives with his dad now, so using his address would put him at a different school. It was recommended and affirmed by a few people that this would be the easiest way to avoid all the complication of pointing the finger and saying that this was a crappy fit for Javi. The program specialist, flat out said he will not even be considered for a move until next year. She also said "considered", not guaranteed. She also seemed completely insensitive to the fact that Javi has no friends this year and that the kids in his class are starting to "tolerate" him now a little more than they were before. I guess in her eyes, the fact that he is tolerated instead of flat out ridiculed like he was before, is progress. I can also tolerate a pebble in my shoe, but it doesn't mean that I am going to learn to like it being there. I don't get a sense that Javi will ever truly be accepted in this classroom. I think his behaviors will be tolerated sometimes, but he may always be considered "the pebble".

We did at the very least, get a better feeling about the teacher. Definitely not to the level of caring we have felt from previous teachers, but a better feeling than we received in previous meetings with her. She seemed to show more of an interest in Javi being in a good place and making progress.

Ultimately what it comes down to is this, you can have every modification, assistance and service set in place in the IEP, but what matters most is whether or not the child is happy. Happy children typically produce better work and progress (just like happy employees). It's obvious to us that while Javi may be getting "used to the routine" he is not happy, not by comparison to previous years. I know that we can't go back to Deer Canyon (his previous school, the program specialist had eluded to the fact that this was not Deer Canyon and that there was no placement for him there) , nor do we care if we can. We just want our son to be happy and succeed to the best of his abilities. We want him to be well-liked and accepted and feel like he has friends, just like any other parent.

How long do we have to wait before we say enough is enough? How long will he have to struggle before they do something about this? I am willing to give it to the end of January, which would be when the semester is over, but if we don't see some positive changes and improvements, I think we may consider taking this to the next level. I think half a year for an "adjustment period" is long enough.

This Little Piggy

This little piggy looks better than it did yesterday!

It isn't slowing me down one bit.  It looks much better by comparison to Mark's toes, after the two times he broke them, one of those times was on our wedding day!  It doesn't feel too bad.  I have stayed loaded up on advil to help with the pain and swelling.  

I have a field trip for Ethan tomorrow to the Children's Museum.  Jamie Poppins, our friend and helper will be coming to watch Kay while we are out.  Straight from the field trip, I will be running to drop Ethan off at home, then whisking off to Javi's continuation IEP, to which I will undoubtably be late for.  I told Javi's dad to start with out me.  I only have 30 minutes between the arrival of the field trip bus and the start of the IEP.  Talk about cutting it close!!  Wish me luck!  With this troop, who has time to slow down?

Sum it up...

Javi update on the school front...

Contacted Javi's teacher from last year, just at random to say hi. As it turns out, the ASD Program Specialist contacted her yesterday to ask if she would be the ASD consultant to observe Javi. We are thrilled with this, since she would know Javi the best in a school setting since she had him for two years in a row.

Also, just as I was formulating a response to her email....the Education Consultant I had requested through the Regional Center contacted us. Got him up to speed on the situation and now he'll be scheduling an observation too and attending the second IEP meeting.

Still feel that it may be a mismatched class setting for him. Javi gets really agitated when you ask him questions about school. He did tell me that the kids are teasing him and copying him during recess and lunch. He said "Yep, I'm still playing alone." Poor baby :( Breaks my heart to keep sending him when I know he is not happy.

Ethan has his Halloween parade and party tomorrow. We are making homemade popcorn balls to pass out to kids in class. The boys LOVED making popcorn on the stove tonight. They couldn't believe that you could actually make popcorn with out a microwave :) It really tastes a lot better than in the microwave. Javi said "Wow Mom, this tastes like the movie popcorn, but better." We just put a teeny bit of salt, no butter. Javi, Ethan and Daddy shoveled handfuls of it in their mouths. I'll probably have to make more popcorn before I can make the balls.

Kaylee had PT today. Ms. Bonnie, her regular PT is back, YAY!! She was happy with the progress that Kaylee has made while she was gone (a month). She did say we will determine whether or not her regular tennies will be enough support for her or if she will need orthotics. She is still pronating her feet. She said it's a tough call because Kaylee is not technically walking yet. She mostly side steps when she cruises. She did agree that it would be a good idea to look in to a pediatric posterior walkers since the doc said that the Topamax may inhibit her ability to build muscle tone at this dose. Since she already has low tone, it makes it tough. We are going to see if we can possibly check out a walker from the CP Library to see how well she does with it before we order one. Heh...maybe we can convince my grandma walkers are cool if Kaylee has one :)

Well, that's all for now. Have to get to making popcorn balls :)

When it rains...

It pours!  Wow, can't believe that the weekend is already here.  This week has been such a whirlwind with everything that's gone on this week.

Grandma Audrey is still hanging on.  We can't believe that she has hung on this long with what the doctors and hospice had said on Tuesday.  Bless her heart, just hoping she will remain peaceful and is not in any pain.  Please keep her in your prayers.

Still no resolution with Javi's IEP.  Not that we were expecting one this quickly, but just thought I would update.  We are still planning on contacting the program specialist to see if we can possibly switch schools and have him placed in another NSH class, but we are trying to determine the best and quickest way to get him out of the class with minimal mediation.  As anyone who has dealt with difficult IEP matters knows, you have to be very very careful how you word things.  One wrong move, and mediation can drag out for months.  We are hoping that we can go about it from two angles:  

A) Javi technically lives with his dad now and has for the last year, though we share joint custody.  My address has been listed as his home address since he began school. Previously, there was no real benefit to changing it, since we had been at the same school for three years with out any issues.  The reason we didn't change it last year was because we thought it might be a good thing for Javi.  His current school is one of the newer schools in our district, so it has state of the art facilities, computer labs, classrooms, etc.  

Long story, short, if we were to change the address, that would put him at a different home school and would change the location to the nearest NSH program. So, by default this may change his placement.

B) It's obvious in so many ways that this is a shear mismatch of student to teacher and parent to teacher.  I don't think any mediation will do it at this point.  Javi has been stamped with the "problem child" stamp and frankly, I think any further intervention may make things worse instead of better.  

It was evident in the teacher's note in the communication log today that she was already on the defensive.  She noted that we should try to talk about his day in a more positive way and that we should encourage him to tell us about the good things that happened at school, instead of focusing on the negative.  EXCUSE ME???????  She even went so far as to list questions we could ask him.  I guess she thought we were too ignorant to come up with positive questions on our own.  It's not like Javi gets off the bus and I ask him "Hey, so who was mean to you today?"  or "How many times did you get in trouble today?".  The nerve of her to even suggest that, after most of her commentary in the log has been negative, if any at all, which we have all brought up amongst ourselves on many occasions!!!  Which, BTW, we did nothing to suggest that it was her fault that he was miserable this year.  We just simply said he's unhappy and it's evident in many ways.  He feels like he doesn't have any friends and more often than not, plays by himself because the kids are mean to him.  In what way does that indicate we are pointing the finger?

I was so perturbed by her audacious insinuation that we are somehow spawning negativity and that is what is leading to his inability to be happy in her class.  

Lady, you can candy coat things any way you want, but no amount of focusing on the positive aspects of his day is going to change the fact that he feels like his only friend is someone that he is carrying on imaginary conversations with.  (see previous post)

Javi's stepmom wrote the response to today's communication log.  I knew I was not in the right frame of mind to word things eloquently.  She did a wonderful job of being polite, but it was also to the point.  I am certain, that no matter what we write, she is going to be on the defensive, so I can't wait to read the response.

Our next step in the process will be to contact the two other mothers whose children are in the other NSH program that we want him to transfer to.  We can find out more about the teacher and whether or not the class is full.  Javi was in the same class with these two kids since K, so he will at least feel like he has friends with all these chaotic changes.  Most children have that comfort of having students that they are familiar with, so why isn't it similar for children with ASD who have an even harder time with change?  I am still not seeing the benefit to breaking them up.  They told us that they try not to place all the ASD kids transferring to NSH in the same class.  I don't think there are any studies that show that it hinders growth to have some form of continuity in friendships for kids with ASD, but I am not an expert.  

From there, we will be speaking with the educational consultant provided by the regional center for their input and then contacting the district's program specialist. 

We are hoping to have a resolution before all the holiday breaks begin, since it can be difficult to get anything done during that period, as we have experienced in the past.

Ok, I think this post is slowly becoming a novel, so for those of you that are still hanging in there thanks for reading!!  I will continue to keep you all updated as it unfolds.  Sorry for the ranting, but I tend to get fired up about these subjects, as any mama would.

IEP Warrior

Well, today was Javi's IEP. About the most successful thing I can say about it is that Javi's dad, stepmom, Mark and I agree that the teacher is not a good match for Javi. She doesn't seem to have the knowledge, nor the sensitivity to deal with a child on the spectrum that has sensory seeking behaviors and a tendencies to flap.

Javi is not at all happy in school this year. It is evident in his academics that he is not happy. This is the first time ever that he has not even partially met an academic goal. He managed to meet some of his OT and Speech goals.

Surprise, surprise!! He's had a total academic and social regression. Hmmmm....wonder why?

It's no secret that we haven't cared much for his teacher this year. I am sure that she is fine with her other students, but where Javi is concerned, it just doesn't seem to be a match.

She told us that Javi has a tendency to clap and bother the other students. She said even though they work through this problem over and over again, he just doesn't seem to be making the connection to stop clapping and bothering the other students. Hello? Did I hear that right? To a person with Autism, that is like telling someone to stop blinking because it's bothering people. I wanted to tell her she should attempt to stop breathing during the meeting because it was bothering me. She just doesn't seem to make the connection that it is due to the fact that the part of the brain that controls the nervous system is damaged. So, when certain "emotional" chemicals are released in the brain that cause Javi to be anxious, excited, happy, etc, he flaps, or in Javi's case claps.

We ended the IEP with out signing, since we still have matters to discuss. They are attempting to call the ASD program specialist to consult, but frankly, I don't think it will help. Javi feels as though he has no friends. Today he told me that he didn't cry at school today, which has been a pretty frequent occurrence. So, I was glad to hear that he had a decent day today. He said that he still played alone.

Javi is not typically the type of kid that strives to play alone at school. He will typically at least attempt to engage other students, but now, he just says that he doesn't really try anymore. He just plays alone because the kids are mean. He has been telling me that he talks to a girl on the bus and at lunch. She is a little girl in a wheelchair. We had always thought it was sweet that he thought her wheels were cool and that they had things in common, their love for all things Disney. Apparently, the little girl doesn't speak, so any conversations he is having are not verbal ones. We had such high hopes that he had at least made one friend, but according to the teacher, he doesn't sit near her on the bus or during lunch. When I asked him about it today, he finally told me that she doesn't talk because she has a sore throat. He had told me that she had a sore throat once before, but I assumed it was because she had a traech. 

It's so sad to hear these things about him and to see him in this state. He is typically such a happy kid and a such a sweetie. He has completely changed since the beginning of this year. We thought maybe if we gave it a little time, that he would get used to the routine, and things would get better. It's just not getting any better. I think we are finished being patient.

Next step, I'll be contacting the program specialist to talk to her privately with out the teacher and tell her our feelings about the situation. We have suspected it from the beginning, but didn't want to jump to conclusions with out meeting with the teacher and other therapists. Now, I think we have all the info we need to conclude that it's the class is a mismatch, not just Javi being a bad candidate for this program. Fortunately, there are other classes available for him to go to, so we are hoping it will not be too difficult to switch.

We are hoping that there will be a quick resolution. I refuse to let him go through the year like this. The mama lion will pounce if I have too :)

G5 Progress Report

Just wanted to give a brief update on how we are doing three weeks in to our new school/therapy year.

Kaylee has in-home early intervention therapy on Monday's and Thursday's. They work on pre-language, play skills and also reinforces the homework we receive at our OT and PT apppointments. She has Physical Therapy on Tuesday's. They work on strengthening her entire body since she has low tone through out her body. She has Occupational Therapy on Friday's. They work on her fine motor, mostly visual motor, such as feeding and putting toys in and out of buckets and such. 

Our schedule is pretty full, but we do get a break on Wednesday's which works out well. It's right in the middle of the week, so we can do girl things like shopping and playing. We have floor time to reinforce all the things that we have worked on in therapy for at least an hour a day. Many of the things Kaylee works on in therapy, she does on her own. She is a very motivated little girl.

Ethan is doing great! He is really doing well in his new inclusion program. He is in a class of 14 students, including him. There are four girls and ten boys. Ethan knows all the names of his classmates and even made a book about them. Ethan is learning to write his name. He is great at spelling it, we are still working on the correct formation of the letters, but he is really making progress. He has really come along with gripping crayons and pencils and he loves to do art in class. I met with Ms. Danielle last week for a conference and she said she just loves him and he is a pleasure to have in class. Ethan does need a little extra time to process language, so she gives him an opportunity to come to his own conclusions about things, which is a great reinforcement when we begin RDI for the boys.

Ethan is learning phonics at home and is doing quite well. We work on phonics about three times a week and we work on writing almost every day. He and Daddy color together almost every day too. Last night they watched "The Upside Down Show" on Noggin and did "Action Fingers" just like Shane and David. It was pretty cute.

Javi is doing awesome in his new program. We had a rocky start and we were really unsure of placement at first, but he is working things out. He is really getting adjusted to his new routine. He really has a busy schedule at school. He does a lot of work independently and is expected to do many tasks unprompted. He gets off the bus on his own and goes directly to the playground, then lines up with his mainstream class. He does inclusion in the morning for the first 15-20 minutes of school, which means he gets to go to a mainstream third grade class. Then he goes to his NSH class where they have a very busy schedule with a mix of different activities. He plays and eats lunch with kids in his mainstream class. He also does art rotation and will soon do computer and library time with the mainstream classes. 

I was exhausted just hearing about the schedule at Back to School Night, so I can only imagine how he feels doing it. He comes home in a good mood every day, so I take it he is enjoying it. He has made some new friends too, so we are happy everything is working out so well for him now.

We had a sleep over with Noah this weekend, where Javi got ready for bed with out any prompting at all. He went and got his PJ's, kid pull up, and brushed his teeth with out any verbal cues. Typically, Javi will try to get ready on his own, but will typically need refocusing, such as a reminder of where his PJ's are, brushing teeth or where to find his "underjams". Yesterday, he also worked through his homework independently with very little help.  

Javi has behavior modification on Wednesday evenings. This is really therapy for me, since she mostly works with me, making suggestions and tracking progress.  We met with our new behavior specialist last week, and she was great.  We really did not work well with our last consultant, so we are happy to have some fresh ideas with our new consultant.

We are very proud of all the kids and all the progress they have made.  It's really amazing to see them adjusting so well to so many changes.  Mom and Dad are still having trouble adjusting to such a full schedule!!

Back to School for Everyone!

Well, tomorrow is back to school for everyone, including Kaylee! Tomorrow will be Kaylee's first PT session and Friday will be her first OT session.

We went to our orientation at Ethan's preschool today. We got to meet with his new teacher, Ms. Danielle. She is lovely. I have heard so many great things about her. I know I have mentioned it before, but Ethan will be starting at a new school in the integrated program, which is a mainstreamed preschool where there are half typical peers and the other half are kids with high-functioning Autism. Their classroom is set up so cute and the teacher seems like she is really well organized. She really put a lot of effort in to all the letterhead, forms and take home folders. You can definitely tell that she has experience with teaching this program. We decorated Ethan's cubby bucket pictured below. He chose the Scooby Doo theme and I decorated it. We just happened to find the "eye" stickers in the halloween section at the craft store and it reminded me of the Scooby Doo intro.



Javi is also starting a new program and a new school. He will be in NSH (Non-Severely Handicapped), so he will no longer be in the ASD Categorical Program (ASD only class). This is an exciting year for Javi. He will be expected to be more independent, as there is only one assistant teacher and a teacher. There will be no scheduled individual mainstreaming, they will mainstream for certain activities as a whole class, which the expectation is he will gain more independent skill. I am hoping that he will enjoy his new school. He is getting to be such a big boy! So independent!

Fall is almost here! My favorite time of year!

Shower Success

Well, we had so much fun at the classroom baby shower yesterday. Here
are a couple pics. Glad we were able to pull it off. It's been such
a busy week, but I definitely wanted to do something special for Mrs.
Morrison. She has been Javi's teacher for the last two years and she
has been great. Congrats to her and her family!

IEP Season

I have been IEP'n it up having two boy on the spectrum. It's
transition time for both of them. Javi is going in to NSH (non
severely handicaped) and Ethan in to Integrated Preschool (50% typical
kids with less adult to child ratio). This is a big step up for both
of them, in terms of independence. They will both be at a new school
with new classmates and new teachers, so it's a pretty big change.

Yesterday we had Ethan's transition and today is the continuation of
Javi's transition meeting. Hope all goes well!

Shanna Grimes
(Sent from my iPhone)

Teacher Appreciation Web Project

Well, the hubs and I are all finished with the site. I think it looks nice. It's simple, but it does what we need it to do. It took us about eight hours from start to finish. I will email a link if anyone wants to see the live site. I just didn't want to post it in a public forum since it's only intended for the parents of the class and has a live form that acts similar to making a reservation with no moderation.

Still have a million other things to do this week and next. We are doing door decorating and kids are going to make pen flowers and a mosaic pot, so I still have to have my creative juices flowing. I am also going to make her a mosaic garden stepping stone as part of her gift.

It was a fun project and best of all I got to work with my darling husband on it. That made it fun :)


Teacher's favorite color is green, so we made the site green. Tree is part of the theme "Branching out in Mrs. Morrison's class for the door decoration.


Mark's form came out really nice. The error messages fade in, if something is not filled out properly. It posts the reservation below like commenting and it sends an email to me and a confirmation to them. It's pretty cool. It also has security features that protect against packet injection and spam bots. Go Mark!

Teacher Appreciation Week, May 5th-9th

Teacher Appreciation week is just around the corner, May 5th-9th. Don't forget to show your kid's teachers how much you appreciate them. Especially those who work with our special needs children. It takes a special kind of person to do their job everyday. Think of how we feel with our SN kids home on vacation and just think, they deal with 8-12 SN kids in their classroom almost every day!! Also, don't forget their wonderful support staff, the aides, student teachers, volunteers and specialists.

It takes very little to show your appreciation. A homemade card, some homemade cookies, a single flower, a gift card to Starbucks for a coffee, even a McDonald's gift card (You deserve a break today, is one of their slogans).

Just wanted to get the word out there. I hope you take the time and effort to recognize your child's teacher in a special way :)

Parent Education Night for Children on the ASD Scale

Tonight we attended parent education night. It was interesting to hear the other parent's stories and what they have tried to counteract difficult behaviors. The information presented was interesting, however, I think the lecture was a little hard to follow. Sometimes people that are experts in a particular field, forget that the lay person has a hard time understanding all the jargon. When you are relatively new to the diagnosis, you just want to know how to help you child with out having to learn a new language. Although hearing about artificial consequences and differential reinforcement is interesting. Listing it in a flow chart to keep us newbies on topic, would probably not help. Learning all those terms is an afterthought when your child can't make it through a grocery store run with out throwing themselves on the floor and screaming.

Fortunately, that is not the case for our family these days. Javi has really made a lot of progress over the past few years after using many of the techniques suggested by ABA. However, I must stress that you have to find what works for your child. ASD children cannot be put in to a box and categorized. What works for one child, will not necessarily work for another. The best advice I can offer that is more a "real world", realistic technique that can be applied to nearly every avenue of your life:

Recipe for Success for your ASD Child
-----------------------------------------------------
ADD:
time
a heaping cup of patience
a generous portion of love and understanding
a tablespoon of the professional techniques

Blend until you get the right consistency.

My brother's first day of school

Today, I helped my little brother get ready for his first day of school. I helped him brush his teeth, put on his back pack and get in the car. Ethan was pretty excited about his first day. He cried when Mom and I left, but I think he will get used to going to school in a couple weeks. I was pretty nervous to go to school for the first time too, but now that I am big, I love it. Ethan's new teacher is very nice. Ethan has a visual schedule just like the one I had when I first started preschool. Now that I am in second grade, I don't need a picture schedule. I can just read the times and activities I have planned for the day. Mom dropped me off at school after we took Ethan, so we were a few minutes late for school. I don't like being late, so I kept telling Mom to drive fast so I wouldn't miss the morning announcements.

I can't wait to hear all about his first day when I get home from school today! I hope he made lots of new friends.