Community› The Bump Message Boards› Special Needs
Special Needs
New Discussion
Options

S/O: Pulling from mainstream

MirandaHobbesMirandaHobbes member
in Special Needs

It's IEP season in the Hobbes' household, and I'm making my list and checking it twice. DS is 6, first grade, ASD/ADHD/Anxiety. DS's school is an "ASD site" so there are probably 20 kids with ASD in the entire school. Every two months they get to go on a field trip. Sometimes it's elaborate, to the zoo, other times it is small, like to a local book store. Once they went to Target and were given $2 to spend, and practiced math and social skills accordingly. I recently chaperoned a trip to a bowling alley- it was pretty chaotic and no "social skills" lessons were happening. DS relishes the opportunity to get out of school for three hours. It also happened to take place during his weekly spelling test, so for him, it was a double-bonus. (He did make up the test, but it was during his resource room time, so it was administered by an aide). I emailed his mainstream teacher and asked her if she thought it was too disruptive to have DS pulled for three hours every other month. She replied that it is worth considering and she'd think about it prior to our IEP meeting. On one hand, DS really doesn't like school, and this is a bright spot for him to look forward to every two months. On the other hand, if our goal is 100% mainstream, why stigmatize him by pulling him from class? Maybe this is something I can save for 4th/5th grade? If he knows he's not allowed to go and the other kids are, he'll have a fit. Thoughts?




Report Reply to Post

Re: S/O: Pulling from mainstream

  • Options
    hopecountshopecounts member
    I'd think about it but would probably let him keep attending we're talking 5 times a year at most right?
    It's something he enjoys and if he is struggling with liking school I'd hesitate to mess up something he enjoys that may be helpful.
    I would try to volunteer on another outing and see if the bowling alley was typical or not.
    Keep in mind that even a group of NT kids can be pretty crazy at the bowling alley (I'm not sure where on the line of kids being kids and outright insanity this event was). 
    It may be that the more structured events (shopping, bookstore outing, etc) are a bit smoother since the expectations are a bit different. 

    I would lean towards allowing this for now and pulling it in 3rd/4th when it will begin to be socially isolating right now it's probably cool to get to leave school to do stuff but it will become less so as he gets older and kids 'get' the Special Ed. thing more.
    Warning No formatter is installed for the format bbhtml
    Report Reply
  • Options
    MirandaHobbesMirandaHobbes member
    hopecounts said:
    I'd think about it but would probably let him keep attending we're talking 5 times a year at most right?
    It's something he enjoys and if he is struggling with liking school I'd hesitate to mess up something he enjoys that may be helpful.
    I would try to volunteer on another outing and see if the bowling alley was typical or not.
    Keep in mind that even a group of NT kids can be pretty crazy at the bowling alley (I'm not sure where on the line of kids being kids and outright insanity this event was). 
    It may be that the more structured events (shopping, bookstore outing, etc) are a bit smoother since the expectations are a bit different. 

    I would lean towards allowing this for now and pulling it in 3rd/4th when it will begin to be socially isolating right now it's probably cool to get to leave school to do stuff but it will become less so as he gets older and kids 'get' the Special Ed. thing more.
    This is where I'm leaning, too. The problem I see isn't the "chaotic" nature of the bowling trip, but just that I don't see any benefit in him going other than it's "fun." Even the well-planned Target trip isn't something that I think he "needs"- we practice this sort of thing with him ourselves.
    Report Reply
  • Loading the player...
  • Options
    hopecountshopecounts member
    I think the benefit is assuming the staff is trained they might be in a better position to work on specifics in a way we as parents might not. 
    I also think it's OK to let kids do something fun just because it's fun though ;)
    If it isn't impacting how he is performing academically I would probably let him have this break for now.
    Warning No formatter is installed for the format bbhtml
    Report Reply
This discussion has been closed.
Choose Another Board
Search Boards
"
"