DD1 is really getting the hang of her balance bike! We haven't used it a lot this summer, but she's starting to coast with her feet up for short distances, and she seems to like it a lot.
My other one is kind of a brag on both DD1 and myself. DD1 has been in a preschool "camp" for four weeks now. Starting in week two, I started getting pulled aside saying that she was pushing, hitting, head-butting, and wouldn't sit during circle time. None of those are go-to behaviors for her, and she had no such issues in preschool last year. The teachers are aware she has autism, but clearly have no training on handling SN, and the suggestions I made didn't seem to help.
DD1 would give me all the right answers when we talked about it, but the behaviors continued at camp. I started to feel like they were going to recommend she not come back, and really questioned whether I wanted to take her back when every day I was getting pulled aside to tell me what my kid did wrong over three hours. I made plans to go in one day and observe to see what was going on, because all those things are very much unlike DD1, who is usually overly passive vs. aggressive.
I was really feeling defensive and broke down in tears with DH the night before I went in to observe; I just didn't want to deal with seeing how much she struggles among other kids, and considering just writing it off as beyond her right now and not going back. But I bucked up, turned down DH's offer for him to go instead of me (although I was tempted!), and actually had a really good day observing, talking to the teachers and helping intervene a bit. The behaviors were not nearly as extensive as the impression I'd gotten, and they've improved every day since. I also arranged for our Floortime/SLP therapist to go in for an hour on another day to do her own observations, and it has turned out to be incredibly useful to give us ideas on strategies and what, exactly, needs to be addressed in therapy.
Sometimes it's so hard to be a mom of a child with SN, and I was pretty proud of myself for digging in and dealing with it head-on even when I dreaded it. A situation that I was feeling awful about has ended up doing both me and DD1 a lot of good, and I think it might even be a turning point in terms of how we shape her therapies.
And today her teachers told me that she had a good day. Tomorrow's the last day. I'll be glad when it's over, it has still turned out to be a good learning experience for both of us and hopefully will make it easier to deal with similar situations in the future.
DS, at age 4, is finally starting to tell me a little about his day! I'm used to scowls whenever I ask him what he did that day. Yesterday he volunteered all kinds of information about baby animals, the firefighting efforts in Colorado, the olympic races, and even offered that one of his favorite teachers is back from maternity leave. It sortof blew my mind!
Those of you with children who happen to have autism understand that we have to teach our children literally everything or they just won't know. Well I realized that I had never taught ds1 how to tie. Actually I had the realization a few months ago when his scout troop was learning how to tie knots and he had no clue what to do. So I found one red and one blue ribbon and tied them together in a knot so that he could practicing tying. I used the two different colors so that he could see how to do it much easier. I actually showed him a couple different methods and let him choose which one he felt was easiest for him. He chose the two bunny ears and run around down into the rabbit hole method. Yesterday he practiced for half and hour with a 50/50 success rate. This morning he tied 5 times in a row with 100% success rate! I'm so proud of him. The practice will not end...
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DD1 is really getting the hang of her balance bike! We haven't used it a lot this summer, but she's starting to coast with her feet up for short distances, and she seems to like it a lot.
My other one is kind of a brag on both DD1 and myself. DD1 has been in a preschool "camp" for four weeks now. Starting in week two, I started getting pulled aside saying that she was pushing, hitting, head-butting, and wouldn't sit during circle time. None of those are go-to behaviors for her, and she had no such issues in preschool last year. The teachers are aware she has autism, but clearly have no training on handling SN, and the suggestions I made didn't seem to help.
DD1 would give me all the right answers when we talked about it, but the behaviors continued at camp. I started to feel like they were going to recommend she not come back, and really questioned whether I wanted to take her back when every day I was getting pulled aside to tell me what my kid did wrong over three hours. I made plans to go in one day and observe to see what was going on, because all those things are very much unlike DD1, who is usually overly passive vs. aggressive.
I hear you--camp is hard! My DD's preschool camp is at her regular preschool, and most of the time the regular teachers run it, but sometimes they send in a sub halfway through the day, and it can be rough. Water is a huge trigger for my DD, and one day on water day I got a call because DD had a very dramatic meltdown because her shoes felt wet and the substitute teacher was making her wear them anyway. Up until then she had been having a great week, and I was getting such good reports. I felt really deflated when DD lost it on the last day
Re: bRaG dAy wEdNeSdAy!!!
DD1 is really getting the hang of her balance bike! We haven't used it a lot this summer, but she's starting to coast with her feet up for short distances, and she seems to like it a lot.
My other one is kind of a brag on both DD1 and myself.
DD1 has been in a preschool "camp" for four weeks now. Starting in week two, I started getting pulled aside saying that she was pushing, hitting, head-butting, and wouldn't sit during circle time. None of those are go-to behaviors for her, and she had no such issues in preschool last year. The teachers are aware she has autism, but clearly have no training on handling SN, and the suggestions I made didn't seem to help.
DD1 would give me all the right answers when we talked about it, but the behaviors continued at camp. I started to feel like they were going to recommend she not come back, and really questioned whether I wanted to take her back when every day I was getting pulled aside to tell me what my kid did wrong over three hours. I made plans to go in one day and observe to see what was going on, because all those things are very much unlike DD1, who is usually overly passive vs. aggressive.
I was really feeling defensive and broke down in tears with DH the night before I went in to observe; I just didn't want to deal with seeing how much she struggles among other kids, and considering just writing it off as beyond her right now and not going back. But I bucked up, turned down DH's offer for him to go instead of me (although I was tempted!), and actually had a really good day observing, talking to the teachers and helping intervene a bit. The behaviors were not nearly as extensive as the impression I'd gotten, and they've improved every day since. I also arranged for our Floortime/SLP therapist to go in for an hour on another day to do her own observations, and it has turned out to be incredibly useful to give us ideas on strategies and what, exactly, needs to be addressed in therapy.
Sometimes it's so hard to be a mom of a child with SN, and I was pretty proud of myself for digging in and dealing with it head-on even when I dreaded it. A situation that I was feeling awful about has ended up doing both me and DD1 a lot of good, and I think it might even be a turning point in terms of how we shape her therapies.
And today her teachers told me that she had a good day.
Tomorrow's the last day. I'll be glad when it's over, it has still turned out to be a good learning experience for both of us and hopefully will make it easier to deal with similar situations in the future.
DD1, 1/5/2008 ~~~ DD2, 3/17/2010
I hear you--camp is hard! My DD's preschool camp is at her regular preschool, and most of the time the regular teachers run it, but sometimes they send in a sub halfway through the day, and it can be rough. Water is a huge trigger for my DD, and one day on water day I got a call because DD had a very dramatic meltdown because her shoes felt wet and the substitute teacher was making her wear them anyway. Up until then she had been having a great week, and I was getting such good reports. I felt really deflated when DD lost it on the last day