Hi! New "chicken soup" book info:
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Hi! New "chicken soup" book info:
| Mon, 12-12-2005 - 4:09pm |
Hi Ladies, I haven't been around in a while - my life has been just so overwhelming (lately in a good way)!

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Fran,
That was a lovely story.
michelle
Fran that is a great story. I am glad you submitted it to chicken soup, but by chance there may be another place you want to submit that (ahem -says the content manager of APOV emagazine).
COuld we please take a look at that for our mag too? In fact I am thinking of submitting one I published on the site last month to the chickensoup people.
Email me and let me know renee@asdrendrewolf.org
Thanks,
Renee (content manager ALWAYS looking for new material and more material)
Ok, I did it too. Fortunately I had one I had already written and published but what a great idea. Thanks for sharing. I hope it doesn't take to long to hear.
Renee
Hi Renee, yeah, I hope they give some sort of notice soon.
Your story really hit home with me. My DS was diagnosed in June with PDD-NOS and we are now about to start the process of having my DD evaluated because she also shows some signs of autism. She is my musical one. That's how I really get to engage her. Whenever she's having a meltdown (which is quite often) I play music for her. She will come into the kitchen, point to the radio and I know that she wants to dance and sing.When she was younger, she couldn't even tolerate me holding her but she had no problem being in my arms as long as we were dancing in the kitchen to whatever song was on the radio.She has been getting therapy for a couple of months now and we try to include music with her as often as possible. It really is amazing how it calms her and has been a life saver for me.
Teresa
I will post here to for fun. Yeah it is in the emag. www.aspergerinfo.org If you go under world news the link is there. You will see the beginning of the article on that page along with like 6 others. There is a great one there from an adult with AS too.
Here it is....
Regardless of whether you are a parent, child, single adult, or senior citizen, there is always one consistent group of people who have affected our lives; teachers. Sometimes the impact is incredibly positive, sometimes not so much, but without a doubt we always remember those who taught us. For parents of children with autism spectrum disorders we know that how our children progress and what kind of year we have are based nearly entirely on the teacher they will have. Sometimes we are blessed with teachers who are incredible angels, moving heaven and earth to better the lives of their students. I have been fortunate to meet and work with many teachers like this and though I have seen the gamut of teachers, good and bad, there is one particular teacher or teaching set that I need to thank from the bottom of my heart.
My son has always been a challenging child starting in preschool. However, he was also very smart, so while on medication and having gifted teachers he struggled some behaviorally we were able to make it through the first couple of years with fair success. However, in 2nd grade my son began to change. I was losing the boy that I had once known though I had never heard of a regression at that age, which is what I had felt like what we were dealing with. He became withdrawn, increasingly aggressive and difficult to deal with. We tried changing schools, adding an aide, Miss Kelly, to the classroom, behavior plans, multiple medications and he continued to grow away from us and become more and more aggressive.
At the end of second grade, he made his first communion. This day stands out in my memory not only because of how much work it took for him to be able to participate with his peers, but also the intensity of the meltdown that he had afterward at what was supposed to be a party in his honor. About that time we decided that Mike no longer would be able to remain in a mainstream classroom, but needed a more intensive placement.
Finding a placement for a very bright and yet behaviorally challenged child with autism spectrum disorder was not easy. Mike had just switched schools and I didn’t want him to change again. We decided to look at the classrooms in our current school. When I observed the older special day classroom I instantly knew that this was the kind of classroom Mike would need, plus I instantly liked the teacher. She was very calm and caring. However, when we decided that this was the classroom we would like for Mike, I don’t think that saying Mrs. Anne Moreno looked very concerned would be an exaggeration.
The classroom we choose was a learning handicapped classroom. Mike didn’t exactly fit the profile of most of the kids there and in fact was quite different and very challenging. But Mrs. Moreno willingly took on the challenge of taking Mike into her class, despite any concerns, and instantly tried to work to make the best of it. Miss Kelly agreed to stay with Mike as his aide again as well; despite the difficulty he had given her.
The first couple of weeks of Mike’s 3rd grade year went well, but that was as long as it lasted. We tried adding in mainstreaming time and he quickly went downhill. Soon I was receiving regular phone calls from the school regarding difficult behavior and before long I was spending hours at a time in the rain outside classrooms trying to help them calm Mike down from dangerous tantrums lasting 45 minutes or more. My sweet son had totally gone away and had been replaced by a very different, troubled, withdrawn child. The most troubling week of my life included Mrs. Moreno and Miss Kelly sitting in the back of my car holding mike to keep him safe on the way home, while the principal followed me with my other children in her car. That same week I took Mike to a new psychiatrist who wanted to hospitalize him while he had a 30-minute tantrum in her office.
Most teachers in this situation would have given up. Most teachers would have said that this wasn’t the right placement; they couldn’t handle a child like this. Not them. They never gave up trying. Anne was constantly trying to find what would work, constantly meeting with me, communicating, putting her heart and soul into helping my son, at the same time meeting his individual educational needs. And Kelly stuck with us and implemented everything to the best of her ability. Finally we worked together to make some changes, both at home and school, and they began to work. It was a slow process but he continued to do better and better. Then it was time for summer school, and although the classroom she was to teach for summer school was much different than Mike needs, Anne agreed to take him for the summer too so he wouldn’t have to get used to new teachers. Again, she made sure to individualize for him above the call of duty so that he had a productive summer school experience.
Currently, Mike has just started 4th grade and it is exactly one year later then when I was sitting in the rain outside classrooms listening to my son scream. He is in Mrs. Moreno’s class again with Miss Kelly as his aide, and doing marvelously. I recently received his state test results and not only has his behavior improved but his academics all went up significantly as well. He is happy, sweet and wonderful again.
Many teachers give their students wonderful gifts in learning and growing. And though these teachers will continue to get their Christmas cookies and teacher gifts, they have given me a gift I can never repay. They found my son and gave him back to me.
Yeah, music is big here too.
I remember when mike was a toddler he would make me play this one song over and over. He just heard it on the radio the other day. I think I posted about him remembering it. But it really connected for him.
We actually put Mike in music therapy and it was GREAT for him, downer is they moved and no longer are close enough to warrent the gas weekly. NUTS!
Renee
Renee,
Dear Renee,
Girl, you can WRITE! That is just beautiful and made me tear up, yup it did.
There is nothing in the world as powerful as great teachers. I myself am here and now taking a moment to go over in my mind and thank the many great teachers Malcolm has had and the many contributions that the (huge) village that has surrounded, educated and raised him has made to his growth and wellbeing!!!
Now to get out the address book and write thank yous and Holiday greetings to them all...
Sara
That story this year was my christmas present to his teacher and aide. I sent her the link via email, I also sent it to the principal to put it in thier permanent folders. She sent it on to the director of special education as well as the program specialist for our school. They all cried, particularly the principal. She was there for all of it too.
Of course the teacher is sooooo funny. She does NOT was the credit for his improvement. She keeps saying Mike is working hard, all these others are working hard, etc. And I keep telling her most other teachers would have figured out first thing how to get him out of thier classroom rather than how to help him in the classroom.
I had gotten the idea for sending to the principal for the permanent file thing from the CTA magazine (California Teachers Association). My Hubby is a teacher. They had an article about the best and worst teacher christmas presents. One teacher had said the best gift she ever got was a positive thank you letter written to her and sent to the principal. The principal is thier main boss and the one who does thier evaluations, etc. They often get complaints from parents but rarely any kudos for teachers.
I also told the teacher to save a copy for her files so she can add it to her resume as a letter of recomendation or what not if she ever looked for another job.
Renee
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