Can we? Should we? A Spring 2009 PTR - New 5/6 - The TR has begun!

[DisMomAmy]

Charleston Princess: "So sorry that Alex is having behavior issues! I know it must be so nerve-wracking!

Since I am relatively new to your PTR, I don't know all of the background on Alex -- is he high-functioning autistic? Does he have a parapro that follows him throughout the day? What grade is he in -- second or third grade? Sorry for all the questions -- it's my teacher-side coming out. "

mousescrapper: "Not that I'm glad but glad that someone else thinks the same thing as me....this has always been a problem for Michael too I had his 504 school meetin review today, this actually is the 1st one in a long time that I haven't went to w/out feeling all and I'll pm or email you soon w/ some updates."

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Hi! Yes - Alex is high-functioning. He has a diagnosis of PDD-NOS, but some have suggested that Asperger's would be more appropriate. He's in second grade this year.

He has a shared assistant this year. He had a one-on-one through preschool and kindergarten, but switched to "shared" last year in first grade. They had one assistant in his class for 90 minutes in the morning and another assistant in his class for 90 minutes in the afternoon. It was not an ideal situation so for this year I requested that his assistant be the same person all day and that more than 3 hours of the day be covered. They said "no", but then they did just as I requested. However, his assistant does not attend "specials" or lunch/recess. Our school is small (165 students - 2 classes per grade level) so their theory is that all of the assistants who cover lunch & recess on a rotating schedule, should know Alex well enough to support him. Obviously not...

I do have to say that his teacher this year is fantastic!! Last year, his first grade teacher was not very flexible and her response to Alex was that he needed to adjust and learn some flexibility - since he'll need those skills later! Who's the one with an autism spectrum disorder??? At least this year his teacher is very flexible and understands that kids learn differently - she will use several techniques to teach the same information for the benefit of the whole class - which is a big plus for Alex!

Thanks for your support!!

And now back to our regularly scheduled PTR!

 

[KathyRN137]

Our kids sure do keep us on our toes, don't they? I've been through ups and downs with Billy's behavior, too, so

Has Alex begun to talk about the Disney trip a lot?

I will pm you on the red bottom (Like Charleston Princess, but its the nurse in me coming out!)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Kathy

 

[DisMomAmy]

Our kids sure do keep us on our toes, don't they? I've been through ups and downs with Billy's behavior, too, so

Has Alex begun to talk about the Disney trip a lot?

I will pm you on the red bottom (Like Charleston Princess, but its the nurse in me coming out!)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Kathy

Thanks Kathy!! Can't wait to hear our red bottom theory!

No -no trip talk yet - we are surprising them on or around Easter. Cousins are probably coming over (different cousins - DHs kids) so we don't want to reveal the surprise if they are here since they have never even been to Disney... We may do it later in the day after they leave. We leave 13 days after Easter so that should give the kids enough time to process things and ask all of their questions without having months of obsessing... It's KILLING me!!

 

[Charleston Princess]

Hi! Yes - Alex is high-functioning. He has a diagnosis of PDD-NOS, but some have suggested that Asperger's would be more appropriate. He's in second grade this year.

He has a shared assistant this year. He had a one-on-one through preschool and kindergarten, but switched to "shared" last year in first grade. They had one assistant in his class for 90 minutes in the morning and another assistant in his class for 90 minutes in the afternoon. It was not an ideal situation so for this year I requested that his assistant be the same person all day and that more than 3 hours of the day be covered. They said "no", but then they did just as I requested. However, his assistant does not attend "specials" or lunch/recess. Our school is small (165 students - 2 classes per grade level) so their theory is that all of the assistants who cover lunch & recess on a rotating schedule, should know Alex well enough to support him. Obviously not...

I am surprised with only 165 students that the assistants don't know how to deal with Alex better. One thought when you go to your meeting: you may want to take a list of suggestions and information about autism to help those assitants that don't work with Alex on a daily basis. Sometimes they just don't have any clue what autism "looks" like. I have taught a couple of autistic/Asperger's Syndrome students over the years since they also tend to be highly gifted and smart. It does take a different approach -- I imagine even more so when they are younger.

I do have to say that his teacher this year is fantastic!! Last year, his first grade teacher was not very flexible and her response to Alex was that he needed to adjust and learn some flexibility - since he'll need those skills later! Who's the one with an autism spectrum disorder??? At least this year his teacher is very flexible and understands that kids learn differently - she will use several techniques to teach the same information for the benefit of the whole class - which is a big plus for Alex!

Hurray for a good teacher -- it really can make all the difference in the world. It is so unfortunate that his first grade teacher was like that -- apparently, she needed a refresher course in special needs students.

 

[DisMomAmy]

I am surprised with only 165 students that the assistants don't know how to deal with Alex better. One thought when you go to your meeting: you may want to take a list of suggestions and information about autism to help those assitants that don't work with Alex on a daily basis. Sometimes they just don't have any clue what autism "looks" like. I have taught a couple of autistic/Asperger's Syndrome students over the years since they also tend to be highly gifted and smart. It does take a different approach -- I imagine even more so when they are younger.


Thanks for the suggestions... they should know Alex better.


Hurray for a good teacher -- it really can make all the difference in the world. It is so unfortunate that his first grade teacher was like that -- apparently, she needed a refresher course in special needs students.

I'm glad Alex has moved beyond that 1st grade teacher... but unfortunately, Zachary's class is going to be small and is planned for just one kindergarten class next year - about 16-18 kids. There are a few kids who go to private kindergarten, but even with them I think the first grade class will only go up to about 20. I'm hoping that a few more students move to town to join his class so that they can split into 2 classes for 1st grade (they split at 22 kids) - because if they don't- I'm sure he'll end up with the same teacher Alex had...

 

[KathyRN137]

..... We leave 13 days after Easter so that should give the kids enough time to process things and ask all of their questions without having months of obsessing... It's KILLING me!!

I could never, ever keep that secret! I bow to you...

Kathy

 

[DisMomAmy]

I could never, ever keep that secret! I bow to you...

Kathy

Believe me... it's VERY DIFFICULT! Especially when Zachary keeps coming home and telling me about more kids in his class going to Disney. Last night at a class birthday party, we found out another family is going. I mentioned it to Zachary on the way home and he sounded very disappointed that we aren't going anytime soon. I told him we will go sometime, but I just don't know when...

It helps quite a bit that both kids are pretty oblivious to the fact that I am DISing day and night and have Disney books all over the bedroom floor. I guess they just think that's normal.

 

[MRYPPNS]

It helps quite a bit that both kids are pretty oblivious to the fact that I am DISing day and night and have Disney books all over the bedroom floor. I guess they just think that's normal.

What??? That's not normal in everyone's house?

 

[Charleston Princess]

It helps quite a bit that both kids are pretty oblivious to the fact that I am DISing day and night and have Disney books all over the bedroom floor. I guess they just think that's normal.

What??? That's not normal in everyone's house?

It's normal at my house for sure!

 

[mrsksomeday]

It is completely normal!!!

 

[DisMomAmy]

What??? That's not normal in everyone's house?

It's normal at my house for sure!

It is completely normal!!!

That's what I thought... What house doesn't have a full Disney travel library complete with past/current/future trip binders/folders, right?

 

[bertegirl]

We only have the current, but can't wait until we can say we have a future and past, too!

 

[mommytothreeboys]

Cool! I'll have mine on - so I'll definitely look for yours!

I haven't made one yet and I'm not really sure what I'm going for. Any chance you could post a pic of yours so I kind of have an idea? That would be awesome!

 

[DisMomAmy]

We only have the current, but can't wait until we can say we have a future and past, too!

Soon enough!!

I haven't made one yet and I'm not really sure what I'm going for. Any chance you could post a pic of yours so I kind of have an idea? That would be awesome!

I'll post a picture for you tomorrow... it's just a lime green Mickey head paint chip from Home Depot that I wrote "DisMomAmy" on and laminated. I punched a hole in it and attached it to my bag(s). You have probably seen pictures of others here on the DIS.

 

[mommytothreeboys]

I'll post a picture for you tomorrow... it's just a lime green Mickey head paint chip from Home Depot that I wrote "DisMomAmy" on and laminated. I punched a hole in it and attached it to my bag(s). You have probably seen pictures of others here on the DIS.

Ok thanks! I will try to do a search for some pics, but the search function never works so well! Hope you had a great weekend!

 

[DisMomAmy]

I haven't forgotten about my PTR... I'm super busy this week between work stuff and Alex (school meeting, doctor's appointments) and PTO stuff. Next week is school vacation around here so things will slow down (I know that doesn't make any sense... but I won't have work and appointments...).

Coming up... my trip to the SEE Science Center with Zachary along with an outing to the mall in the big city... Manchester NH - can you guess which store they have there???? I have pictures of my purchases.

I also have updates on both of the boys. Plus I'm still looking for my LGMH tags to post pictures for mommytothreeboys!

 

[DisMomAmy]

Quick update before I run out to pick up Alex from school...

I had my meeting with Zachary's therapist last week - it went well. He has an evaluation planned at Mass General in a couple weeks so this was an opportunity to connect before the evaluation to discuss her impressions. She sees some red flags, but they are all mild... So it sounds like she is on the fence about him. He definitely has anxiety, his eye contact isn't great, he can be rigid about some things, etc., etc. So overall it was a good meeting and I'll let you know how the evaluation goes.

Alex's strep test came back negative - and his bottom is still red and sore so I need to take him back in to the doctor - probably tomorrow. (Kathy - I'll keep your suggestions in mind when I talk to the doctor.) He also had an appointment with his psychiatrist yesterday - we're trying a new medication... I'm not optimistic since the others haven't worked...

We had a meeting at Alex's school also - it went very well. Turns out that the math curriculum has changed recently and he is struggling quite a bit. He is normally very strong in math - he can multiply and divide, which is far above his grade level. They recently started working on arrays, which lays the groundwork for multiplication. He just doesn't get it. So basically the team decided that since he already knows how to multiply, he doesn't need to worry about arrays... I was very surprised - they are going to have him work on word problems during that time because he struggles with those too. We'll see if the math curriculum change makes any difference in his behavior... the timing correlates to his behavior changes so it's worth a shot.

That's about it for now - I have to run out to get Alex. I might have time to post another update about our outing on Monday later today. I uploaded all the pictures to photobucket already.

One last thing- the airline tickets that we got for $84 down and $124 back home are now at $254 down and $184 back!!

 

[DisMomAmy]

On Monday, President’s Day, Alex had school but Zachary didn’t. We planned to spend the day together doing something special. His current fixation is anything having to do with Wii or Mario, but before that he was really into science – still is, but gets distracted by Mario. I have wanted to get to the SEE Science Center in Manchester, NH for a while, so we decided Monday would be the perfect day. It takes us about 45 minutes to get there so we headed out a little while after dropping Alex off at school. The center opened at 10 - we made it there by 10:30. And we were happy to find free parking due to the holiday! There were quite a few exhibits – dinosaurs, sounds, lights, a robotic arm, turtles & lizards, water, music, air, ocean, etc.
There were also a few demonstrations – one on static electricity – which really made Zachary nervous. At the end, everyone had a chance to go up and touch the generator thingy to make their hair stand up – Zachary finally decided to do it with the promise that he wouldn’t get zapped. The guy who was demonstrating (probably a college student) put his hand on the generator first to kill any charge that would zap Zachary – then Zachary put his hand on. The guy had to let go so it would make Zachary’s hair stand up – but Zachary didn’t keep his hand on the generator. He took his hand off but kept it really close to the generator and of course… it zapped him. Fortunately he got over it pretty quickly once he realized the zap wasn’t that bad. He also participated in a gravity demonstration – it was called the moonwalk. They put the kids in a life jacket and did like a bungee thing to lift them off the ground – then they jumped to feel what it would be like on the moon where gravity is 1/6 of what it is on earth. Here are some photos:

The Moonwalk:

The demonstrator doesn’t look too happy to be at work…

Here are some from the exhibits:
Giant bubbles:

Robotic Arm:

A pulley that you can lift yourself up with:

Zachary making music:

A light exhibit – don’t remember what it’s called…

Zachary loved this – there were three lights, blue, red & yellow – you could turn the switches on & off and make different colors -

Continued next post…

 

[mousescrapper]

hope things settle down soon for all.

School changes are tough, I hope Alex can find a way to get in his own groove. BTW 1st grade was the worst for Michael and things went up then back down, but have steadily been approving since. Hopefully the scales won't tip to severve in time for the big middle school adjust, oh yes 2 yrs away but I'm already

Hope you can keep that secret into till mid April!!!!

and I love the Disney books all over...I have a nice collection my self, even one from 05, just don't have the heart to toss it, it's like an old friend....

J-

 

[mousescrapper]

whoops, thought I had posted and then you posted again about the muesum. That is so sweet you got to have a special day w/ just Zachary. My DH has one of thos strobe light things....

This muesum sounds like one down in Hot Springs Arkansas that we grew up going to (my Dad's parents lived there when were kids).