Back To School

I'm writing to report that there's not a whole lot to report. Which is good, I suppose.

We're back to four days a week at integrated pre-school ("integrated" meaning special needs and typical peers). As I have blogged, Brad is in a great program with a rich curriculum, including motor group and one-on-one speech. It wasn't all good news last year though. In last year's class, he had difficulty keeping up and tended to withdraw.

Over the summer, Brad had a good teacher, who REALLY REALLY understood Brad and appreciated him. (Well, technically, I think the summer program is camp, but it was at the same place.) Anyway, according to her, Brad came out of his shell during the course of the summer. Brad showed her that fullness of expression that we see around the house. She loved him. Well maybe she loves all of her students, but still, I was enjoying her Brad appreciation.

Anyway, out with the old and in with the new. His teacher for this year (September through May) has yet to bond with him on that level. But I'm hopeful they'll get there. And the class mix seems to be better for Brad, in terms of age and temperament and whatnot.

One thing new on the roster: they might add a twist to Brad's one-on-one speech pullouts. They suggested one-on-two, meaning one speech therapist for two children. To facilitate a friendship and administer therapy at the same time. Call me crazy, but I like that idea a lot.

The Brad Papers: Part 2

Here I will share an excerpt from a weekly newsletter from Brad's preschool:

Motor Groups for January
This month during Motor Group we have resumed our weekly warm-up stretches including standing on tiptoes with arms overhead while keeping our balance and jumping in place and jumping forward with a two footed takeoff and landing. We also resumed our walking “warm up”, running, and walking “cool down” laps in the gym. The children are always encouraged to pump their arms and run “just right” while traveling all around the gym. We see that the children have improved in their overall physical endurance for these laps since the start of the school year.

The children then played some new games. They listened very carefully and followed specific directions to run from one spot (a certain colored star) to another spot (a circle or cone of the same color). Children were assigned to different color teams for their stars/circles/cones. They listened very carefully for their “color” team before taking their turns. After running to their new spot, the children followed a multistep sequence for a motor activity, “RUN, STOP, DROP, and ROLL”. This was tricky and the children listened carefully, watched a model and then completed the motor plan for the activity. Another game we played included having the children start at their colored star, run to their colored circle/cone, pick up a bean bag, and run back to their star. We added several directions to the game including placing the bean bag “under” the cone or standing “next” to the cone. The children worked very hard listening closely to the multistep directions to complete each task.

We hope you are taking advantage of the many opportunities for outdoor snowman-building and playing in the snow during this month’s snowstorms. Snow shoveling with a child-size snow shovel is a wonderful functional, resistive, “heavy work” activity. Be careful on the ice but please keep your children active!

This is just the motor group. I reprinted it here because these are great strategies for PDD, dyspraxia and SPD (sensory processing disorder). So great that it's hard for me to imagine a richer, better suited educational environment for Brad, with his "ho hum" profile. (As an aside, it's a shame that some people feel the need to scare parents into homeschooling, lest some one use the word "autism" and their child's name in the same sentence.)

The preschool also engages the class in a range of cognitive activities. Not to mention the freeplay and the fun. (Also important!) His peers (hopefully, soon-to-be-friends) are a mix of special education kids and typicals. The special education kids seem like PDD kids (one older than Brad and nonverbal) and aspies. The only thing I'm certain of is that there are no Downs kids or physically disabled children in his class.

Yes, people. I have stumbled across some sort of Early Childhood Development nirvana.

The Brad Papers: Part 1

Here I will share the "accomodations" listed on Brad's IEP:

• Model and expand language and sound development
• Break down activities into incremental steps
• Wait time for processing
• Frequent breaks for movement as needed
• Inflatable seat cushion as needed
• Position pre-writing, drawing activities on a vertical surface
• Adult assistance and cues as needed to encourage independent self help skills as it relates to outerwear, backback, snack, toileting etc.
• Adult monitoring and cueing as needed for use of both hands together in functional activities thoughout the school day
• Monitor use of utensils and classroom tools for hyper-extension

I think Brad's IEP hits the metaphorical bullseye.

A few notes of explanation:

1. Monitoring the use of both hands is to promote bilateral coordination.
   
2. The hyper-extension, also referred to as hyper-flexion, is related to the hypotonia or low musle tone. If a child has low tone in his fingers, the fingers bend way back and present special challenges with respect to handwriting.

The second birthday party clichee and a happy epilogue.

The second birthday party clichee goes something like this: the child, suspected of autism, is surrounded by a flurry of joy and merriment, but wants no part of it. Instead he is in his own world, isolated and alone. Mom is despondent with grief. The Autism Sourcebook, which I blogged about, opens with such a tale. Age 2 is generally when the symptoms of autism become evident, and a birthday party serves to bring out the typical/atypical contrast.

Sadly, this describes Brad's second birthday party to a tee, from my perspective anyway. I was mostly swallowing my tears, wondering if Brad would ever talk or return my affection.

Flashforward to last week, when Brad turned three. Yes, we have a label and it's the one I had dreaded just a year earlier. But with the realization came enlightenment and understanding. And Brad is doing so much better than I ever could have imagined. He's talking and showing affection. He charms us every day with his emerging personality, quirky as it is. We've come to appreciate his difference, not fear it. (Of course, that difference doesn't appear severe or disabling at this point.)

I just wish I knew a year ago what I know today.

TGIF