We have been having trouble with Jayden doing… well… anything at school. On average he brings home eight pages of homework with little notes on the top from his teacher letting us know that he did two problems the stopped or never got started on some pages at all. At the “suggestion” of the school we went with a 504 Plan instead of an IEP and at the time to me it was understandable but things are not only NOT getting better but they are getting worse. His teacher this year (second grade) is great. She writes notes to us, she modifies his work, & is pretty understanding in general but she has made it very clear that he is not keeping up. The work we have him do at home & the problems that he does do on the papers are all good. He even recently made the honor roll! She has also made it clear that while she is understanding of him the teachers at the next level will not be so understanding! We have tried alot of different things with no real luck. If I am near by and he is in his “Special Room” (kind of a breakfast nook with a desk) he burns through the work and its always right, unless he misspells words knowingly but that’s a whole different blog!
I really do think my biggest problem is that I still don’t know what is Asperger’s Vs. what is lazy or what is being 7 years old Vs. Asperger’s. You know what I mean? Its like, how can I know for sure how to handle situations when I’m not sure whats going on! I’m an EMT so when I’m on the ambulance I wouldn’t shock someone just because their unresponsive with out checking to make sure their not just sleeping. I feel like that’s what I am doing sometimes! I’m trying to help a situation that I only have half of the information about.
We had an eval for OT at the JD McCarty Center in Norman, OK last week so we should be hearing about that very soon to get him started. I am pretty optimistic that with alot of hard work & the new found help from the OT we will get him to a good place but I worry, I’m pretty crazy over protective. I am going to call the school tomorrow to start the spectacular & breathtaking show staring ME and my hoops of fire! Watch me jump through them one by one! Its not as bad as it sounds really! He went crazy at the center when we took him for his eval. He walked right up to the counter & said “Hi, my name is Jayden & I have Asperger’s Syndrome” the OT asked “So what does that mean?” with out missing a beat he starts to explain to her “well, it makes it pretty hard for me to do m work in school cause I get distracted easy” and so on and so on.
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Hi Tom
ReplyDeleteI just found this blog and was instantly intrigued by you family’s story. Jayden’s struggles are very similar to my son’s Sal, who was diagnosed with PDD at 3yrs old. We have actually decided to move back to NY from Florida in order to provide a better education and more support for him in school. Like Jayden, Sal was not completing school work and seemed lost compared to his peers. It was clear that he needed a lot of help with attention and independent skills. We presently have in place for him an IEP, (I’m not sure how 504′s work) that allows him to receive a social skills group and OT at school. He is in a 2nd grade inclusion classroom where there is a regular education teacher as well as a special education teacher to help him. In Florida the only thing he received was speech therapy which really was no longer helping him.
From my experience, I realize that Sal is capable of doing the work he just needs more support then other kids. I would look into the 504 and see if you can change it to an IEP. I believe IEPs hold more weight legally then 504s do. Also now that you have your new OT evaluation you can take those recommendations to your son’s school so that they can provide therapy for Jayden that will help him academically. At home our kids perform better because we give them the individualized attention. At school their attention doesn’t hold like typical kids do, They just need more support and the school is legally supposed to provide it for them.
I am looking forward to reading your adventures. Keep up the good work!
I homeschool my Aspie daughter, but we also have her in PT Special Ed at the public school. We are gonna pull her out next year and just put her in reading chats, swimming, and other therapies. She just gets WAY too anxious around new scenarios and although I am glad the public school can help, I just can’t feed her to the dogs in a new middle school. I know its gonna be tough trying to teach her social skills, but I think we underestimate how much a family can do to help in this area. I am reading some books about Aspie parents who did take their kids out and their children thrived. I’m not saying public school is bad. Some kids really do well in it. I just feel like if I push my daughter into something she’s just not ready for, I will do more damage than good.
ReplyDeleteI have a four year old and I’m wondering if he too has Aspies. My oldest Aspie is very shy, withdrawn, and anxious. He is very rigid, comical, but talks about things over and over…just like she does. Her thing is animals. My oldest is going to get medical diagnosed in March (she is only educationally diagnosed) and I’m thinking of doing a neuro psycho on both kids too. I also have a middle child that is totally “normal”…LOL. So weird how that works, huh? Anyway, I love the name of your blog. Glad I found it.