We had our parent orientation/open house last evening and I loved every second of it! First let me take you back half a step and remind you how we went from A to B.
When Nea turned 3 in March, she aged out of the Early Intervention program. They provided developmental therapy for her as well as Speech and OT. However, those services ended when she turned 3 and they turned her over to the school district. (We elected at this time to maintain private OT and Speech services so that she did not regress too much over the summer.) The school district placed her in a satellite classroom for special needs kids. Teacher/student ratio is 1:10 in a special needs room, along with an assistant. They had to place her where they had an opening. The satellite classroom was in one of the local elementary schools on the OPPOSITE side of town. Thus, her 50 min bus ride to and from school.
Nea had an amazing 8 weeks at school and she had a wonderful teacher. Nea and I both learned so much and I am forever grateful for Nea's first experience in the school system to be such a fantastic one. I knew she would probably get placed in our early learning center when the fall semester started and I was alright with that. As much as I didn't want to lose the teacher, I also needed to get Nea off that 50 min bus ride. I also wanted an environment that didn't include 3rd and 4th graders. They looked HUGE compared to this little group of 3 and 4 year old special needs kiddos. Again, I want to reiterate, we had a great experience!
Indeed, Nea was placed in the district's early learning center. This school focuses on early childhood education and there are only 3,4, and 5 year olds at the school. The environment is very different and has an early childhood focus. Our early learning center is accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children.....which I think is pretty darn impressive. You know I did my research, and the standards that they have to prove they accomplish are pretty impressive. Major kudos to our district for creating this center 9 years ago and putting much thought into its growth so it provides quality education to our community.
We didn't tell Nea where we were going until we arrived. If we would have talked about "school" and "teacher" she would have used her previous understandings, which were not going to be true. I wanted her to understand as she was standing right in the building when I said, "THIS is where you go to school." and when I introduced her to her new teacher, "THIS is Mrs. K, she is the teacher."
Prior to our open house I sent the following email to the teacher. This was a great idea I learned online and the teacher replied with how grateful she was to get the info! I provide it here in case any other parent wants to copy the format or things I included.
My daughter, Antonea (Nea) will be in your afternoon class this school year. You and I met briefly at registration and I wanted to say hello and pass along some info for you. I think IEP's are wonderful, but I also believe the day-to-day information needed is just not in them. :-) First, let me say that I appreciate all the information on the website! Thank you for helping to getting us organized to start a new school year! Nea attended XX for 8 weeks last Spring and did really well. She made lots of progress and we tried to keep momentum over the summer. Initially it seemed she slid back a bit in communication, but I think she is back on track. I'm going to try and be brief but organized :-)
Background: By the time Nea turned 2 her vocabulary went from 100 words to 10. She had extreme "shyness" with strangers and many repetitive behaviors. She was diagnosed with Autism at the age of 2 after spending a verrrry long day at Cardinal Glennon in St. Louis. She immediately started receiving OT, DT, and Speech therapy along with swim class. The girl did 6 hours of therapy a week through Early Intervention services and she made great strides. DT stopped when she turned 3.
This past year: We decided to keep Speech and OT through rehab and have maintained it through the summer. The Speech Therapist elected to "graduate" her when she starts school. She felt that her language skills were good, she just needed more pragmatic use with peers. I started noticing this summer that she has had more phrasing and interactive language with us. She is also doing more pretend play and lets me insert into her play from time to time. Books are an interest, but still difficult for her to maintain focus. (I'm looking forward to the weekly library book!!)
Strengths: Nea knows all her letters and we have started working on sounds. She can count to 14...but seems to get stuck there often. She can do one-for-one counting with 3 objects occasionally. She is very curious and likes to learn. She does not give up easily! She has the best facial expressions!
Weaknesses: She has many OCD qualities and can get "stuck" on a subject or a toy. She still enjoys lining things up and gets territorial when it seems another child is going to come into that particular play space. She is also a hoarder and likes to collect things in a room and will often keep something in her hand. She seems to have some anxiety with sharing but will often offer a "trade" so she can keep the toy she likes. Instead of communicating her need, she often times uses my hand as her tool to get her need met. She also tends to bolt when she is mad or fearful.
Enjoyed activities: Nea loves anything physical....climbing, jumping, swinging, tricycle, etc. She is a risk taker and will climb the highest point whenever she can. She also loves water and always seeks it out. She loves super-heroes (Spiderman, Ironman). She also enjoys trains and tracks and likes to build these often.
Activities that are frustrating: Social interactions. She always needs a 5-10 minute warm-up time....even with someone she knows and loves. If it's been a couple weeks since we've seen Grandma, the first hello is always tough. Often she will run or hide behind something. Finding words are often frustrating and she continues to use jargon speech a lot. She believes she is communicating, but the words are not understandable.
Motivators: Anything with wheels excite her. Bugs and dinosaurs are also favorites. It's hard for her to follow a "list" ....so "if you do X, you get Y" doesn't seem to work with her. She also loves to be outside. She has started to mirror activities, which has been nice to see. She also loves to ride the school bus!
Self-Stimming behaviors: She still uses a pacifier during stressful times, however we do not send it to school. When she has them (usually 3 at a time....the hoarding thing) she flicks one on the underside of her nose. That's her most frequent stim. When she doesn't have a paci, then she usually will spin. She's a sensory seeker, not avoider. Noises, lights, etc. do not tend to bother her.
Goals: We would like to get "up-down" "on-off" "yes-no" used appropriately. She tends to interchange them often. We still work on potty-training and hope to make more progress this year. She still is not making the connection, but will use the potty often in the morning. I would also like to see number recognition and sounds of letters.
This email address is the best one, and our phone numbers are listed on her info sheet. She calls Jon and I "Poppa" and "Mamma" .....she does not really know the term "Daddy" (just a heads up on that one!).
Buffy
(Nea's Mom)
When we arrived, we were greeted by a friend of a friend. Her and I hadn't seen each other in years and I had no idea she worked there! We hugged several times and tried to catch up in 2 min or less! I'm not sure if it was Nea's observation of the hug or just the simple fact that this woman is so dang cool....but she walked right along with her when invited.
"Hey Nea, I have toys and trains down in the library, want to go see?"
"Sure!"
.....and off they went hand in hand.
(You have to know this was a surreal moment for me. Years ago when I struggled with infertility and miscarriages, she was so sweet and supportive. And now, I was watching her walk down the hall with my 3 year old!)
We went to the gym and listened to the principal talk about the school, the program, their philosophies and the importance of co-responsibility of our child's education. I soaked in every word.
Here's another thing she said that about blew my socks off.
"Your child has only been on this Earth 1200 days. 3 year olds have only been around 1200 days. So when we grow frustrated with them or maybe get angry....remember that they only have 1200 days of experiences in how to live in this world."
Yah, see....it knocked me over too!
Playing outside is not only important......it has a focus. They refer to it as "outdoor learning" and when you say it that way it has a whole new meaning! They have a new outdoor music wall that they are creating that looks amazingly fun!
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| example of outdoor music station |
We then went down to meet Nea's teacher. (Nea was still in the library with her newest friend!) It just so happened there were no other parents at this session so we were able to have 1 on 1 time with the teacher AND with the speech therapist! You could tell they had done their homework on their new student and I loved everything about them. After our conversation was done, then Poppa went to retrieve Nea from the library.
Nea hid behind Poppa for a couple minutes but then walked around as if she owned the place. Her energy level was HIGH, HIGH! They were both able to witness her....
- jargon speech
- echolalia
- scream in frustration
- frequent Scarlett O'hara dramatic phrase of "No....I can't!"
- be lousy at transition
- identify animals and bugs on a poster
- pretend play with a puppet
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| Quiet corner for decompression if needed! |
There simply was a whole lot happening in that 20 minutes she spent in her new classroom! At one point Nea saw that the door was open, and she bolted out the door....running down the hall. The assistant chased after her and came back saying, "Wow! She was running like the gingerbread man, looking behind her every couple seconds!"
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| Exercise bike in classroom |
All and all, I think they all were able to witness what it means to have a Nea in the classroom!
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| Sand angel in the park |
Nea will be at this school for the next 2 years. I am looking forward to her growth as well as my own!
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