Aspie Mom

CSE Meeting coming up

I will be having a CSE meeting with Kiddo’s new school in a little over a week. While it doesn’t serve a lot of purpose here since we are moving in 3 weeks, it will be good to make sure her IEP is up to date.

I was talking to the Special Ed teacher about it and she was telling me that the IEP the previous school district sent them is practically worthless. Somehow I’m not surprised. I was not impressed with how they ran the last CSE meeting I attended there and am not surprised that they didn’t do anything with her IEP. The Special Ed teacher here said that there is just nothing in there that tells about how she reacts to various situations and how best to handle it. There is so much that needs to be added to it. She said that she wants us all to sit down and get it straightened out so that when we move, we have a decent IEP to take with us to her new school that will actually be helpful.

While I have had a couple of frustrations here and there (not that they were anyone’s fault really), I love this school. I am so upset that I have to pull Kiddo out in a few weeks. They are really on the ball and have proved that they really know what they’re doing.

I spend a lot of time looking around Greatschools.Net and want to write a glowing review for the school because I am so happy with them. I just hope our next school will prove to be equally as good.

So much for that

I spoke with the teacher about this yoga class and he said Kiddo is welcome to go only if she finishes her work. I don’t think he understands my position on this and I’m trying to decide whether or not it is worth pushing.

Yes, I totally understand that these are fun activities and you shouldn’t reward a child for not doing what they were supposed to do. I get that. And of course it is important that Kiddo understand that she has obligations at school. But we are talking about a special needs kid that may actually BENEFIT from this. It isn’t just about it being fun… which is important enough on its own… it is about NECESSITY. So I’m a little put off about his response but I know he’s simply not seeing it from our point of view. I understand where he’s coming from… I just wish he would understand where WE are coming from. It especially irritates me because Kiddo came up with this idea to help her relieve her stress on her own and in her mind, she was denied that opportunity which only discourages her further.

The reason I don’t know if I should push the issue is because we are moving in what… three weeks? At that point, it won’t matter anymore. So maybe I should just let it go and try a yoga dvd at home. I just think they are making a mistake in the way they are handling it.

Very proud

While Friday wasn’t a good day, something good came out of it. Kiddo shut down over a vocabulary test. I’m not sure why. She just got upset because she didn’t know what to do… even though it sounded like she did know. I think she was just tired and over-stressed in general and that’s where it came out.

Anyway, she mentioned that there is this yoga class they have at school. I don’t know anything about it, where it is, when it takes place… but it is sometime during the day. Kiddo told the special ed teacher that she wants to go and try it because it might help make her feel better. The teacher said no… that she had to stay in class. That’s when Kiddo lost it completely.

I just wrote an email to the teacher saying that if this yoga thing is during the day and Kiddo wants to try it, then they should let her. It may be more helpful than anything else and they shouldn’t discourage her from doing it when she came up with the idea for relieving her own stress all by herself.

I am so proud of her for coming up with that idea on her own. She said she remembered that the gym teacher said yoga was a great stress reliever and so she thought maybe it would help her. I can’t wait to bring that up at her social worker appointment today. I’m just so proud of her for that. And if she really is interested, I will even get her a dvd to try at home if she wants to.

Complete Emotional Wreck

Kiddo is home and has been crying and shaking thanks to an unscrupulous bus driver that honked at her when she was crossing the street.

We do this every single day without incident. Kiddo’s bus drops her off on one side of the street and I am waiting directly across the street. I wave her on across. The bus waits. All is well.

Today, it was a different driver who decided our routine is not acceptable and honked at her while she was crossing. The driver copped a major attitude with me. I copped one with her in return… followed by me filing one major complaint with the bus garage.

Kiddo is a special ed kid. That is why she is on that bus… because she has to go to the one elementary school in the district that offers special ed services. She is extremely sensitive to loud and sudden noises. When this driver honked at her, it sent her right over the edge. I explained this and it was like it didn’t matter in the least.

Kiddo said that this driver is really mean and was yelling a lot and honking at a lot of kids that have the exact same routine that we have. All I can say is that she better not be there in the morning. It better be the regular driver or someone else. I have enough trouble getting Kiddo to school most days. This was the last thing she needs and may have just caused her anxiety to sky rocket. Great. Just great.

Some good news

I received this email from Kiddo’s teacher this morning.

Mrs. XXXXXX,

Thankfully this note is a little better news than we’ve had to share in a while. Maybe it will cheer your family up a little for the holidays. Kiddo had a great day yesterday. She was smiling and doing much better overall. And great news is that she seems to have made a good friend. She spent a lot of the day with a girl named xxxxxxx. xxxxx is a nice girl who may also benefit from Kiddo’s friendship.

We have not been able to find a time when everyone can get together to discuss Kiddo. It has been going on piecemeal. We are getting the pieces together and I am confident that Kiddo will be receiving a good education.

After the break I will get back to you and let you know when we can get together. Have a great Christmas!

Mr. XXXXXXX

I cannot tell you how happy this made me. So happy in fact that I have tears running down my face.

Kiddo can go back and forth of course… good days, bad days, ok days, really, really bad days. But hearing something positive like this makes me feel a lot better about the situation. Given the horrible school experiences she has had over the past few years, when I hear negative things about her behavior, I tend to panic. I explained that to her new teacher because I didn’t want him to think that I’m a completely insane parent. If I come across sharp, its just due to past experiences and how I’ve had to handle them in the past. I think her new teacher is on the mark and we are on the right track here. I just wish we didn’t have to pack up and move in another month. I finally get Kiddo straightened out with school and now it will be all screwed up again.

Before we move though, I am going to see if I can sit down with her teacher and definitely the school psychologist and see if they can make any recommendations for when we have to change schools. Advise for getting Kiddo settled and such I mean.

One thing that Kiddo mentioned to me the other day really peaked my interest. She had a visit with the school psychologist and said that they wanted to try velcro at her desk. The idea is that when she gets overly frustrated, she can scratch at the velcro as a stress reliever. I was very interested in this and am anxious to see how it works out. I never would have thought about using that.

I am so excited about sitting down with her teacher and the psychologist and seeing what other pearls of wisdom they might have for Kiddo. I LOVE the velcro idea and may have to try that at home!!