Final child study team meeting

At this point, I have had quite a few meetings with the child study team at Thomas's new school for the fall- one in November of last year, a few in the spring, an interview with the social worker, an in home eval with the school psychologist and speech therapist and now today to make sure we are all on the same page and know what will be occurring this fall.   They are AWESOME!  I know it will be a great school year with how much they are willing to help.  We reviewed all the evaluations Thomas has had by the district and went over the IEP.   The teacher will be stopping by once in July for a playdate and then we will visit her at school a few times in August and help set up the classroom.  She is also going to try and coordinate a playgroup with her, Thomas and one or two other classmates.  We totally just winged it last year with preschool, which didn't fair too well.  We had just started with the SMart Center and had a newborn, so we were lucky Thomas even made it to school.  I know that this year will be different though.  I can feel it.  All the pieces and supports are falling into place and I think it will be an awesome year for Thomas!

The preschool memory book I wish I could erase from my memory!

Today was a really low day for me.  We had Thomas's last day of school celebration and he was very clingy and of course mute.  The parents all gathered in the gym where the children gave their parents their preschool memory book full of all the "happy" times they had that year at school.  Thomas was so excited to show me his, but when I started looking through it my heart sank and I was desperately trying to hold back tears.  If your are a mom of a child with sm you know this pain.  Here are a few of the pictures in his memory book.  Heartbreaking.

Looking toward a better school year in the fall

The past two weeks Thomas has been saying he doesn't want to go to school and is having a very hard time separating from me at drop off.  He is crying and saying he wants to go home.  Usually the assistant teacher has to pick him up and take him over to a quiet area so I can leave.   The circus graduation has been over for a week now, so not sure if he is still having anxiety about this.  He knows it is over, but his mood has definitely changed at school.  Even the director who greets us each day mentioned that he does not seem comfortable lately.   I am frustrated that he seems to be regressing with school.  Definitely not where I envisioned he'd be at the end of the year.  Sad to be ending the school year on a bad note, but he will be starting a new school in the fall.  Instead of worrying so much about this, I going to try and be positive by focusing on laying the groundwork for a new better school year this fall.  

Separation anxiety

Thomas has never had separation anxiety at school and all of a sudden it is coming on full force in June!  After no problems all year, Thomas is having a lot of trouble separating this week at school.  He was crying and saying he wanted to go home when I dropped him off on Wednesday.  When I spoke to the SMArt center they explained that this is usually cause by something else like an upsetting event.  I think most of this is due to this stupid circus show at school.  The teacher did tell me that the director is sitting with him and they are looking at books on the floor while the others practice on stage.  When I picked him up he said he liked doing this.  I talked to the teacher about bringing him in to school an hour later after the practice had ended and this was fine with them.   So we started doing this, but it doesn't help his anxiety.  I am pretty sure we will not attend graduation.  It won’t be pleasant for any of us.   I just feel so sad for him and am not sure how to help, but I know I won't give up trying no matter how hard it gets!

In home observation with school's SP and psychologist

We had an in home evaluation with the school district’s psychologist and speech therapist this morning and it went really well.  They are wonderful and are so willing to work with Thomas.  They were asking a lot of questions to him, which he wasn’t responding to, so I asked if they had any questions for me.  Children with SM sense expectation and it is hard for outside people to understand this.  They are not going to do well if you start asking them direct questions like you could with "normal" kids.  You really can't do a standard evaluation.  They need to feel that the pressure is off them and they can do things on their terms.  Once the pressure was off him, he started talking a little bit and bringing up things that interested him.  they were able to get some of the information they needed by watching him and I interact together.   

On June 19^th we are meeting to review all the evaluations he has had by the district and go over the IEP.  Very excited to work with this school next year!

Hitting some road blocks

Thomas had a pretty good field trip to the park with his class yesterday.  He brought a joke can of nuts that has a snake pop out and showed the teachers.  He was excited to do this.  This attracted a lot of children and he had another panic attack screaming he wanted to go home and crying.  Eventually we got him to calm down, but it affected his mood the rest of the time.  He did say bye and wave to his teacher when we left.    I have tried very hard to engage Thomas in other activities and games with children but it is always met with resistance.   We are hitting a lot of road blocks with him and are feeling very frustrated.