I
Ivy
Guest
I just found this forum and, I kid you not, I wept. I think I really need this place.
My son turned 5 in February. He was diagnosed with autism at TEACCH last July. He's extremely bright in a lot of ways, and honestly his behavior is not that bad most of the time. But he really resists being managed-- that boy just will not be told what to do. We've built up a set of ways to circumvent that and avoid locking horns with him, but we're aware that it will probably always be a challenge for his teachers. With his diagnosis we were able to get him placed in a Title 1 pre-K last year which was an absolute Godsend. He made some really, really great strides last year. His teachers loved him and although he was still acting out some by the end of the year, he had made a lot of progress.
For Kindergarten, we have chosen a charter school with excellent Easy Child staff who will visit him every day in the regular classroom. He started today. When I picked him up, his teacher recited a litany of everything he had done today- threw his shoes, meowed, couldn't sit still, just basically refused to cooperate.
I knew it wouldn't be a cakewalk. His pre-K teacher was upfront with me about the challenges he would have in the classroom. And at the Kindergarten IEP meeting we noticed that the K teacher is a little rigid. (There's only one class per grade.) But I feel like her expectations are a mite unrealistic. Clearly he should not be throwing his shoes, so it's lace-up shoes from now on (he loves his Crocs). But some of the other stuff seems like just your basic everyday autistic stimming, doesn't it? I don't want him to be punished for being autistic.
I really feel like I'm in over my head, trying to navigate sending an autistic child through school. Homeschooling isn't an option for us for a variety of reasons (I'm being treated for depression and I worry that if I homeschooled I'd become even more overwhelmed and that wouldn't be good for him either). It's just the first day so I KNOW I'm overreacting but I can't shake this sad feeling. I just wish it were easier.
Thank you for reading this far, if you did. I know I'm a disorganized mess and I probably didn't explain things very well. If I had to crystallize all this into a single question, it would probably be: How do you guys stay upbeat and take it a day at a time instead of looking down the road and imagining all the negative outcomes that COULD happen?
Whew...
My son turned 5 in February. He was diagnosed with autism at TEACCH last July. He's extremely bright in a lot of ways, and honestly his behavior is not that bad most of the time. But he really resists being managed-- that boy just will not be told what to do. We've built up a set of ways to circumvent that and avoid locking horns with him, but we're aware that it will probably always be a challenge for his teachers. With his diagnosis we were able to get him placed in a Title 1 pre-K last year which was an absolute Godsend. He made some really, really great strides last year. His teachers loved him and although he was still acting out some by the end of the year, he had made a lot of progress.
For Kindergarten, we have chosen a charter school with excellent Easy Child staff who will visit him every day in the regular classroom. He started today. When I picked him up, his teacher recited a litany of everything he had done today- threw his shoes, meowed, couldn't sit still, just basically refused to cooperate.
I knew it wouldn't be a cakewalk. His pre-K teacher was upfront with me about the challenges he would have in the classroom. And at the Kindergarten IEP meeting we noticed that the K teacher is a little rigid. (There's only one class per grade.) But I feel like her expectations are a mite unrealistic. Clearly he should not be throwing his shoes, so it's lace-up shoes from now on (he loves his Crocs). But some of the other stuff seems like just your basic everyday autistic stimming, doesn't it? I don't want him to be punished for being autistic.
I really feel like I'm in over my head, trying to navigate sending an autistic child through school. Homeschooling isn't an option for us for a variety of reasons (I'm being treated for depression and I worry that if I homeschooled I'd become even more overwhelmed and that wouldn't be good for him either). It's just the first day so I KNOW I'm overreacting but I can't shake this sad feeling. I just wish it were easier.
Thank you for reading this far, if you did. I know I'm a disorganized mess and I probably didn't explain things very well. If I had to crystallize all this into a single question, it would probably be: How do you guys stay upbeat and take it a day at a time instead of looking down the road and imagining all the negative outcomes that COULD happen?
Whew...