Back to school with Autism and ADHD
School started last Thursday for my girls. It is a BIG year for them both for different reasons and I was a little more than nervous.
Kat is attending her first year at middle school, 6th grade. It’s her first year in a new building in the last 5 years. We went to her well child checkup before school started and she is now officially taller than I am and weighs almost as much.
The doc asked if we wanted to change her meds (for ADHD) before school and we all agreed that we wanted to see how the first month or so went before changing anything. So far, so good. She’s remembered to have me sign papers, both last Friday and today. She also remembered to bring home her Tupperware bowls from her lunch bag, so I don’t have to be mad at her because I have to buy new containers.
She is back at the same school as last year. However, the staff has changed some. We had an “informal” meeting before school started to let the staff know how things had gone over the summer and to help bring them up to date on last year’s incidents.Her school now has an “autism team“. Okay, not just her school, but our whole county. But, what does that say, really? We are only one county and there are major budget cuts. Budget cuts big enough that we no longer have busing within 2.5 miles of our children’s school, yet we have a brand new team?
Back to the point.The resource room teacher from last year was able to educate the new teachers about Nove’s behaviors last year and the huge lack of language and fine motor skills. We all agreed that having a full time para teacher would probably be best if the district could afford to supply one. Nove showed significant improvement in Kindergarten and this summer when she had one to one time with an educator. But, last year in first grade, when she had very little help due to her IEP resources being depleted, she had meltdowns and frustrations beyond what any of us could handle.
So………… we still have an IEP in September and her 3 year reevaluation coming up, but so far, so good! Her teachers seem to understand her better. This is probably because I understand her better. Last year was frustrating for me as her mother because I didn’t even know how to help her, or what to tell the school.
My biggest worry now is that she actually learns something. I hope they don’t just write her off and only worry about her not melting down. She really can learn and I hope they don’t forget it.
