Taking the Scenic Route

I am wiped out, and I am behind on posting now.  I have photos from a fun day yesterday at Pedalfest with my parents, but I still need to resize them.  If I have any energy tonight, I will post them, if not, well, they will still be there later.  lol

School went better today. I didn’t hear any negative comments.  The kids seemed to be much less irritated about things today, and I even had a few kids coming to me and confirming what the teacher had said.  (in a “hey, I listened, can you tell? kind of way) and had kids willing to let him in line easier.  

I realized that the pattern to the meltdowns over the last week was that he went ballistic when he was the LAST person in line.  Second to last, no problem, but the last person, big huge problem. So, I am making sure he isn’t the absolute last one now and the teacher is too.  I think the “rule” formed from when we line up for lunch, in alphabetical order, which is the only time she designates positions, and he is second from the last. 

There were a few people that came in for evaluations, the communications disorder classroom teacher and the OT.  I think there might have been somebody else too, but I can’t remember right now. 

I did find out the school has a room that is ‘in between’ the severe autism room (which, in this district, seems to be there for the most severe cases and nonverbal kids) and the mainstream room.  There is a communication disorders classroom.  From what little I could gleam, it seems like it might be a good fit for Zane too, not as much for the communication stuff in and of itself, but because she lets the kids work at the level they are at rather than the level their age suggests they should be at.  For example, if Zane is at 2nd grade math, he will be able to do 2nd grade math instead of Kindergarten math in that classroom.  (or, conversely, if he gets to 5th grade and is at a 1st grade writing level, that is where they work with him).  I got the impression that it is a multi-age classroom too, but I don’t know if that is correct.  The teacher was familiar with the specific visual prompts and how they are integrated into the classroom that Zane used in the preschool classroom and is familiar with the STs there too.  

I told her that I didn’t know what would be best for Zane at this point, with this new information about the CD room, but I think that if he is in the mainstream classroom he will need an aide that understands how to manipulate the visual supports for him, but probably won’t need a lot of one-on-one prompts.  A classroom aide familiar with the visuals, but who could also help some of the other students, would be appropriate if he remained.  However, knowing that they might have a place for him where he could also work ahead without extra pull outs has some appeal too.

I also found out that the school district has decreed that they use Investigational Mathematics instead of Everyday Mathematics.  (I asked after doing some research into the differing methods)  In one way this is good for Zane because EM is much more language intensive, which isn’t good for him, but I don’t like the lack of mastery that IM method can produce The IM method is the spiral method…they cover a topic, but move to the next topic before mastering the first topic, therefore exposing kids to a lot more math and possibly allowing for better leaps and playing heavily into Zane’s ability to recognize patterns, but also giving the false sense of mastery when it isn’t actually there.  It also can leave kids without the proper language of mathematics.  (sum, difference, etc.)  They mistake familiarity with understanding.  She said that she, as many of the teachers do, supplement the Investigational methods to help keep some of the typical problems from occurring, so that encouraged me.

ST tonight went alright once we finally got started.  M, his partner from the summer friendship group, was crying and Zane had a bad blowout that resulted in his session taking place in pull-ups while I washed his pants in the sink.  Ugh.  I have pants stashed everywhere for him, but forgot to replace the ones in the car stash.   Yeah me.  They skipped the hallway (less private area) part of the session today, but with all the excitement at the beginning anyway, there really wasn’t time.  Zane was reluctant to put the wet shorts back on to go to the car, but thankfully he did it without too much drama. 

How the heck did I go from being so completely lost to sounding like a teacher and ST and OT.  lol.  Very weird.   I guess you can teach an old dog new tricks.  lol.