What's your take on this?

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Registered: 03-27-2003
What's your take on this?
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Mon, 03-06-2006 - 8:48pm

Sam (AS, 6.75, 1st grade) is in mainstream class with no aide. He struggles greatly with reading and all the normal executive functioning stuff. He has a hard time doing independent work and starting new assignments. He has a blue book that we keep in his backpack so his teacher and I can write notes to each other. I wanted something so I knew what was going on daily. Initially she'd break the day down into am, lunch/recess and pm. Now I'm lucky if I get that. She usually just writes if something is really good or really difficult. I'm glad that she isn't telling me every time he's squirmy or something though!

Here's what I got today

AM (frown face) Crawling on floor
PM (happy face) good listener.

I've pretty much had it with hearing the AM type of entry so I replied, starting it off ,"To be honest, this type of entry isn't very helpful for me." pointing specifically to the AM entry. I explained that it doesn't give me any specifcs, why was he crawling on the floor, when did it happen. Was he avoiding work, or was someone annoying him and he couldn't use his words. I stressed that if he is avoiding work that unless he is given help, he's just going to continue to behave this way to avoid it.

Sam actually remembered this (he often doesn't) and told me that it happened during center time. His teacher does her small group reading lesson during center time so some kids are with her and others are working independently at the centers. Sam said he can do the listening center and the weather graph but was hiding from his teacher so he didn't have to do the ABC, poem or, reading centers which all involve serious writing and reading independently. I think Sam may be dyslexic in addition to the AS so these are really hard for him . We have an appt for a neuropsych eval to figure out these other LDs. He *says* that his teacher sent him to the office and then he went with his Sp. Ed teacher to do math. He said noone spoke to him in the office about what happened. He also told me that when they do math in his reg. class that his teacher lets him play with blocks since he goes with the Sp. Ed teacher to do math. Sometimes he misinterprets things, so I'm not sure if this is how things went, but he sounded pretty sure (which is rare.)

They've gotten into this habit of sending him to the office everytime he becomes an inconvenience. Not as discipline or punishment but to get him out of people's hair. It started off at the beginning of the year when I requested that something be done in the afternoon line up time. He just isn't able to hold it together anymore and he was hitting kids with his lunch box and getting into fights while waiting in line to be dismissed. So I agreed to pick him up at the office. Now I also drop him off at the office in the morning because lining up in the gym has become a problem. And they all wonder why I don't let him take the bus?!?!

He is to be observed this month for an FBA and I am going to fight for a BIP because he doesn't have one. I keep hearing about resource teachers and am curious about what they do. I don't think there is one at our school and think that it would be helpful to have someone Sam can talk with about this behavior. And someone to help his teacher tailor the center so he can be working instead of avoiding it. The conversation I had with him this afternoon should have happened at school too. I don't know how they expect him to behave if they're just going to shuffle him around and ignore him.

Chrystee

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Avatar for littleroses
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Registered: 03-28-2003
Mon, 03-06-2006 - 10:53pm

delete




Edited 2/19/2008 9:23 pm ET by littleroses
Avatar for googolplex
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Registered: 03-31-2003
Tue, 03-07-2006 - 1:07am

You might want to post this on the 504, IEP, Sped Board. Does Sam have an IEP? He should. AS is an autistic spectrum disorder, and he should qualify for and IEP under federal law (IDEA). (Then again, I'm not sure if they *have* to interpret it that way.

Even with an IEP (which doesn't really have much on it), my son has been struggling with a lot of the same kinds of issues. Finally, I found a couple of good things to give to the teacher, and she was really grateful. She called me up and said, "I was sure I was doing the right thing when I _______, but now I understand that I need to ________." I don't know how to provide the direct link, but www.aspergersyndrome.org has a "Guide for Teachers" under "Education". It's a prewritten letter that you can edit to personalize it. I've only recently come to understand how important it is for the teacher to understand AS, because what works for typical kids doesn't work for AS kids.

I'm sure others will have plenty of good advice, here and on the IEP board.

Evelyn :)

Avatar for nutmegspice
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Registered: 03-27-2003
Tue, 03-07-2006 - 1:24pm

The blue book is not for Sam, it's for me. If he has a really great day then I'll know about it. If it's been a hard day, I want to know why, what happened....etc. so I can pick out patterns if something needs to be tweeked in the IEP. I reference the book if I feel I need to question Sam about something but it's not used a reward or punishment system for Sam. It's just so I know what's going on.

I intially gave her a chart where she'd have to use pluses or minuses describing how he handled cerain events/activities during the day but she found it "too complicated."

Chrystee

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Registered: 03-28-2003
Tue, 03-07-2006 - 1:28pm

delete




Edited 2/19/2008 9:24 pm ET by littleroses
Avatar for nutmegspice
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Tue, 03-07-2006 - 1:29pm

Oh he has an IEP. He gets speech 2x per week and OT 1x. Plus he sees the Sp Ed teacher and has special reading intervention pullout. It's the in classroom stuff he's having trouble with sometimes and how they deal with his behavior. Sometimes he doesn't realize what he's doing and he needs someone to work with him, not just shuffle him off to the office everytime he gets antsy or can't understand his work (which is often one in the same.) His teacher and the school in general have a very cookie cutter way of doing everything and that's the basic problem we are having.

chrystee

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Tue, 03-07-2006 - 1:46pm

Chrystee: I could have written this post about our youngest. He has a terrible time in "center time" for a couple of reasons - if he gets confused for any reason about his work, he stops. That doesn't work well when they are working independantly. (For example, he started a sentance with a small "g." He didn't have an eraser, and he couldn't finish his sentance with the wrong letter in front - so he stopped - and got in trouble). Also, kids are moving around at center time - this sends his sensory stuff into major defensive mode. He shuts down and can't work - and if it's really bad then behavioral stuff starts happening. (Like rolling, crawling, hiding. swinging arms, etc.)

DS will often end up crawling under desks, etc. when stressed. I have to laugh when the principal then calls home and says "Colin was under a desk and drawing on himself. What could that be about? Anything going on at home?" Gee - I don't know - why don't you tell me the circumstances at school 1st? !!

Anyway, what helped our older DS (diagnosed Aspergers) was an in-class aid from 1st grade until 6th. His teacher tried the smiley face thing on him in 1st grade too - and luckily, he was out of it enough to really not notice or care what his behavior chart said. But then you have to ask yourself - so what's the point? I think it was to give the teacher some kind of emotional outlet. I don't think we would have survived without the aid, and now in teh 8th grade, the older boy is a great student and seems pretty darn happy.

With younger boy, we have an IEP meeting next week - probably to make certain we can get an aid going into 2nd grade. He's not ASP, but has severe sensory issues and it seems a vestibular dysfunction causing dyslexia and disgraphia. Poor kid - he is super super smart, but school is so hard for him. :-( It really does hurt their self-esteem when they are trying to do it "right" and it keeps making them uncomfortable and they keep failing. If that's the case, they need to be pulled from the class or have an aid to help them. If they're high functioning, it's simply not right to pull them from the class, so the aid seems to be the preferred way to go.

Have you asked the school about an aid? They have to have them - but sometimes you have to move to an "inclusion class" that has an aid or 2.

Jackie

Avatar for nutmegspice
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Registered: 03-27-2003
Tue, 03-07-2006 - 7:58pm

About the aide.....I'm fighting for this right now. They're reply to my request is, "we only do 1:1 aides for kids who are blind or need their diapers changed." So, that's where I am right now. He's getting an FBA and we'll see what comes of that. There is an inclusion class with fewer kids and an aide and that's definately an option for next year (we want to keep him back in the 1st grade) but I don't think it's appropriate to change his placement this late in the year.

Thanks for the input

Chrystee

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Tue, 03-07-2006 - 9:26pm

Chrystee and all:

I thought I'd post our situation, maybe it will help you with yours, maybe not. I've been having computer problems lately, so this is the first time in a while I could get on.

First of all, Ryan just turned 7 and is in Kindy, so I'm still relatively new to the whole school district special ed stuff. Ryan is AS, and is classified as autistic in his IEP. I say this because although he is in a regular classroom most of the time, he spends 90 min a week with the autistic support teacher, and has an autistic aide etc. You mention some questions about the resource room. I don't know if that's what they call it in our district, but Ds's AS teacher does have a fairly large room that she uses for her "pull outs" and it also serves as a place for ASD kids to go when they need to. It's a pretty neat room, it has an area with sensory stuff like a swing, bean bag chairs, therapy ball, and also table and chairs, books and computers. When you mentioned about your ds being sent to the office, I couldn't help but wonder, do they send all the AS kids there when they need a break? Frankly, the people who work in the office at Ryan's school are kind of cranky, so I wouldn't want him sent there. lol.

Regarding the aide, if the school is resistent to a 1:1 aide, would they consider a shared one? DS's kindy is full day, and he shares an aide with another student. According to his IEP, he has the aide for 4 hours a days or something like that. I think the aide has helped Ryan alot, many times preventing situations from escalating. Also, she works with the AS teacher to tell her what's happening in the regular class, so she can tailor social stories, etc to his needs. Like right now they are working on how to handle being last, being wrong ( like wrong answer in class), making a mistake in class, etc.

I can relate to the lack of communication with the teachers. I like Ryan's teachers alot, the regular and AS teacher work well with each other to iron out issues that may arise. But they don't always follow the IEP when it comes to writing in his communication notebook.

Anyway, HTH

Kate

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Registered: 09-09-2005
Wed, 03-08-2006 - 9:03am

Well I can tell you about our experience.

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