tiny update

We had Alden's annual IEP meeting yesterday. Thankfully it went very smoothly & everyone is one the same page. He is really thriving in his new classroom and I really like his teacher. He has been having a lot of fun this year and actually seems to be enjoying school.

He finished his February reading chart in 7 days! I'm really proud to be raising a fellow bookworm!

Not much else going on at the moment, just hanging out watching him watch America's Funniest Home Videos right now (his commentary is SO much funnier than the show itself), while I sit here and read my book.

gotta go back, back, back to school

We found out yesterday that Alden will be in a different class this year! I'm so pleased as I was not a big fan of his other teacher. He is going into the second grade but he will be in the 3-5 class. All the children we met who he will be in class with were verbal so he will actually have someone to talk to this year! His friend Joey (the only friend he ever talks about because I guess Joey is verbal as well) will also be in his class. He wasn't sure about moving across the hall at first but once he saw the new toys they had he was game. I personally thought the room was laid out in a much more aesthetically pleasing way. There was a large space in the middle of the floor instead of all sorts of shelves all over the place like his previous class.

I can see him growing a lot in this environment. Especially since I noticed that they will be using technology this year! He will get to work with an iPad in class instead of just the computer in ST and OT. He will also have his communication device that I'm going to go program at the seminar tomorrow.

We will still be having an IEP meeting at the beginning of the year (likely in October to give him a chance to settle into a new environment) and we will still be pushing for at least one inclusion class. We feel it's important that he grows up with neuro-typical peers as well.

Waking up for school tomorrow should be interesting because I keep forgetting he has to get up at 5:50 to get out to the bus on time. We haven't bothered fixing our schedule yet. Oops!

busy little bee

I've been BUSY this week. First off with Alden's doctor's appointment. We went on Wednesday to see a highly recommended Nutritionist/Family Practitioner that we were on a wait list for since December. He was absolutely fantastic. The appointment was scheduled as a consult but he actually went a head & got blood & urine samples from Alden to be sent off for testing @ Great Plains Lab. I was impressed by that because most doctors just tell you what they're going to do eventually but he jumped right in with both feet & already started actually doing something. He also broke down all the different tests for us and showed us the best & most cost effective way to go about getting all the tests we need done. While we were there Alden also got an Rx for an ear infection. I realized that morning that he was acting like he does when he has an ear infection (falling down a lot, crying, feeling warm but not enough for a fever). Anyway the appointment was a huge success and we'll be going back either later this week or sometime next week for more tests. He has to fast for them & he's going to be annoyed when I can't give him his cereal in the morning.

On Friday my friend Allison & I went to an autism conference downtown. I didn't really learn anything. I wasn't really expecting to, I've read basically everything on the internet about autism so nothing really surprised me. I did really enjoy a few of the speakers and just getting out of the house for a day to sit in a room full of people who knew exactly what I was going through was refreshing. The did a little bashing of some of the more unorthodox methods but I went in expecting that as well.

Alden got out of school early again this week. They have been having snow days nearly once a week for the past month. I don't mind having him home (actually I miss him when he's not here) but I don't want him to have to make up days all freaking summer.

His OT overbooked for IEPs this week so she called me today instead to talk about his goals for this year. She mentioned that he is reading more than 30 words at school...which is awesome. Then she mentioned that they were "really impressed with his reading skills" because 30 is the required amount to pass regular kindergarten and even her own NT some was only reading 27 words. Then I got really super excited because I know he can read way more words than that (like character names and things like that). So I'm super proud of him. They are going to start him on a handwriting program which is cool because we've been working on writing his name (legibly) at home and he's been doing a lot better. They are going to start with tracing, then copycatting and then independent. She said if he has a hard time & gets frustrated they will help him begin to type. Then I told her we have been doing that at home as well. Right now if he sees something he can type it. I made him a huge list of all his character/movie/book names a while back because he wanted to Google someone new every 5 seconds and I needed to do things like fold clothes so I just made him the list & told him he could type them himself. He's now pretty good at knowing where the letters are.

Anyway it's been busy but we're getting things accomplished. His regular teacher keeps commenting on his hyperactivity and extreme cases of handflapping & clapping that are preventing him from concentrating. I understand her concern but honestly, what does she think I can do about it? I'm just hoping that at his IEP she doesn't bring up medication or anything like that because we will have words if she does. I'm not anti-medication, I'm anti-medicating MY child.

IEPs & MB12

It's report card time! Alden's second Kindergarten report card came today. He is in a self contained classroom and it contains only children who have autism spectrum disorders. These classes are designed so that these kids don't get lost in regular classes and also so they aren't taking away attention from children with more severe special needs who need more specialized attention.

If you don't have a child in the special education program you probably have no idea that 11 page report cards exist. They do! Our school gives a "regular" report card for English, Reading, Science, Social Studies, & Athletics. These are graded on an A-D scale. Alden has made As & Bs on both his "regular" report cards. These are required by the school because the children have to have number grades. The next 10 pages of the report card are his specific IEP (Individualed Education Program) goals. I am actually glad he gets this kind of report card since when I ask him what he did at school today he says "learn" or "sing" and never goes into any detail.

An IEP meeting takes place when your child joins a school program, the meeting is designed to set realistic & a few ongoing goals for the child to reach by the end of the year (or next meeting which is the end of that IEP). I was completely estatic today because Alden's report card says that he has accomplished all but one of his goals for specific tasks. The only ones that he is still "working on" are the ongoing Speech & OT goals. The one specific task he hasn't accomplished is rolling a car or a ball and they even said that he just flat out is not interested in either (which is true). I have a feeling if they gave him an action figure and told him to roll it down the hill away from enemies he'd have no problem rolling it. He has never really has much use for cars, rolling a ball *though he will throw one*, or stuffed animals.

We are so proud of him!

Another thing I want to mention is that I got a call from his teacher yesterday asking if he'd gotten into any food that wasn't on his safe list. I knew he hadn't but I remembered that we were out of MB12 and that last time we were out of it he was a bit all over the place pulling out every single book from the bookshelves and every toy out of every corner of the house. She clearly thought I was insane telling her that the absence of a vitamin would make him act that way but it's true. We ordered a 3 month supply this week so we shouldn't be running out for a longggg time. Anyway I thought it was nice to see that I wasn't the only one seeing a difference when he's off them. I never tell them when we're starting something new just to see if they mention progress and they had, and when it went away they even called. We're doing something right.