Perceptions... (funny)

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Ok, so my son goes to school today, has not been since Wenesday because of his arm. I was going to send him for a 1/2 day yesterday, but school WAS a 1/2 day, so there were no classes in the afternoon.

Anyway, he comes home overwhelmed by all the "work" he has to do. I look it over, and there does seem to be a fair amount, about 6 pages of math, but it seems like not a lot on any page. (Gr. 5 fractions, so there are a lot of pictures). I try to suggest that it is not a lot because there are not that many questions, and they are very fast to answer, he groans and asks if he can go see a friend, and do it some other time. Ok.

So, I am looking at it a bit more, and a page falls out, it has very teeny tiny print and looks like 2 or 3 pages have actually been shrunk to fit on the one page! I look a bit closer, and "hey" three of these other work sheets are just larger copies of these!

I have been fighting all year to get larger copies of things for him, nothing under a 12 or 14 point font because he has visual tracking problems! Apparently that letter I wrote last week is finally paying off! I hope it continues. I looked over the work, and sure enough my son had actually finished a full page it looks like with little ease based on the fact it is not covered in little drawings!

Yay! It's always great to hear about the school listening to you and doing what you ask for.

They may be surprised, but these "request" actually CAN make a difference. Congratulations!

Kris

wooohooo ! !! !! !! !! ! glad they're finally getting it !

I assume you have been asking them to do this since September-its now May (well, tomorrow). Nice of them to finally make such a HUGE accomodation (sarcasm, just in case). But maybe it will carry over into next year! Congratulations.

Thanks.

I feel the sarcasim too. When I first put him back in, they tried to sweep me away, using every reason they had to not accomidate him, refuse the accomidations I wanted, or just run around in circles and "look" busy. I have had 3 meetings where I had photocopies of my sons work "showing" that they where not even following the accomidations that they DID agree to in his IEP! Sheesh.

Anyway, I hope it does continue, we are finally making ground, I know we are in a much stronger position going into next year then we where at the start of this year. They now know I won't go away!

BTW, last week I was talking to his teacher about his using the recorder that they put in his IEP as an alternate to "writting" answers. The principle actauly had me buy one for him and reimbursed me. Guess where it is now? Locked in a desk! I asked for the millionth time again when my son broke his arm, and the teacher I asked said "well, if you don't mind scribing everything he records onto paper, then he can use it, because I don't have TIME to listen to recordings!

Sigh, 6 weeks to go, and I get a whole new pack of nit witts next year!

I know the feeling. Every IEP meeting it is reruns. This is his dx. This is what AS is. This is what autism is. This is his academic potential. This is what the law is. Now what do you intend to do to make sure this child doesn't get left behind? I wanted to be a doctor and prayed for patients, God answered with a school committee to teach me patience.

Ya gotta love it!

Oh EarthCalling - how frustrating!

I'm getting the same run around at school now. They promise "this will definantly been done by the end of this week" - 3 weeks in a row. Grrrrrrr.

I've decided I'm not phoning anymore. Instead I'm e-mailing everything and cc-ing it to the Vice Principal.

UbbyUbbyUbby attended his first session at Hearts and Minds (Asperger's specialist clinic) yesterday.

Ivy, the pscyhologist, suggested we cease bus transport for UbbyUbbyUbby in the afternoon due to sensory overload and bullying he's been experiencing on the bus. We will now transport him by car.

Ivy told me that UbbyUbbyUbby's anxiety levels are very high. She won't be able to directly teach him social skills (when she asked him if he wanted to he burst out crying and was hiding his face). She will have to use indirect methods via his interest of dinosaurs.

Ivy reported she suspects UbbyUbbyUbby is being bullied at lunchtime with some of the comments. UbbyUbbyUbby kept saying he 'sucks' at soccer. He used to play soccer at lunchtime but has stopped.

She also suggested PE is extremely difficult and stressful for him. So we will change his homeschool day from Wednesday to Monday. He was go to Hearts and Minds on Monday mornings therefore he can skip PE, and this is less disruptive to family life than Wednesday afternoon appointments.

Ivy was also surprised at the limited support Daniel has been given so far this year and wondered whether he has been ascertained yet. Has he been ascertained yet?

When will we get our copy of the IEP? When will the extra teacher aide time discussed at the IEP meeting commence?



The Vice Principal e-mailed me back. Part of what she said is:

As a result of his verification and our IEP meeting, we are currently finalising support timetables. I will send you a copy of the IEP and timetable on Tuesday of next week. The new support timetable will commence as of next week.

Thank you again for your communication. I encourage you to communicate your activities and concerns with us.

We were originally told the IEP would be ready in 1 week - 2weeks ago. So it's now blowing out to 3 weeks. Grrrr.

It's frustrating!

I've been going in and doing some stuff myself using their equipment. They'd been promising to make him a timetable with velcro sticky dots so if there's a change in routine they'll will change it and show it to him.

Well after promising this for 8 weeks I went and did it myself. There's no point standing on principle that the school should be doing it - I just wanted it done.

Anyway UbbyUbbyUbby has settled down a great deal thanks to the advice of Ivy the lovely psychologist. There's a blurb about her at this website.

http://www.mindsandhearts.net/who.html#ivy

Smelena

Smelena, don't worry about standing on principle, stand ON the Vice- principal. Go for it. Gal, make 'em sweat whenever thay see you!

it sounds like you are doing a great job for UbbyUbbyUbby, and figuring out exactly what he needs!

I agree, hashing over who should do what and "making" the school do things you can do and they seem reluctant to do just does not make sense. It is great you are getting a relationship where you can walk in and help with the accomidations. I wish I could walk in and photocopy things for my son since the teachers seem to think that is a "big deal".

I think that he may be far sighted! That would explain a lot with his adversion to looking at print, troubles learning how to read, the fact he was doing great at 10 but I dropped the ball for 6 months (his dad was doing some reading with him) and he still has not regained that proficency he had with almost a year of intervention on part of the school!

Life marches on, seems that things are slowly starting to come together. I feel sad for all the children who have parents that are not nearly as proactive!

This rings so true! My daugher's math teacher (thanks to our school 504 plan) is now giving her his set of notes after every math class. It was just too much for her to listen to him and write her own notes and absorb the information too. She was too stressed trying to write down all the details rather than focus on the concepts. This has certainly been a good lesson is being PRO active.

I have fought for the same accomidation with my son, it looks like they are finally listening to that one too and he is getting copies of notes. However I think this may be in part because he broke his arm... He broke the left one, and he is right handed, but with how much he struggles, even breaking the hand he does not use for writting is just the icing on the cake!

Sorry about that, Earthcalling.

However, I do have a 'kids say the darndest things' story for you.

My Godneice, A who is now four but was three then. (Godmother's eldest son's daughter) came round to my house a fair while ago. We somehow managed to talk about dancing and shoes and A comes out with 'Because I do ballet in my ballet shoes.'

That is cute!

I thought so too.