Tonight was the boys' bridging ceremony. They bridged from Tigers to Wolves.
The last week has been a week of growing up for my babies. They "graduated" first grade and will be going into 2nd grade in the fall. And now they've moved to Wolves.
Every time something like this happens, I get teary-eyed, thinking of how fast the boys are growing up. It seems like only yesterday, I was putting them into pre-K, putting them into daycare.
I think the one big reason that I'm so proud of the boys is that Jamie has never felt the need for friends. He's been happy to play by himself. When school started this year, he got the Boy Scouts bug. He wanted to be a scout so bad, that's all he talked about.
I had to move heaven and earth to get him into a pack, because the first pack disintegrated, and then problems finding one that would take him. It broke my heart the night he cried saying that boy scouts didn't want him. I resolved to get him in.
Jamie usually gets bored, but he made it through a whole year, and he's excited about becoming a wolf next year. My anti-social baby did great this year. I think I'm so proud of him for making it through the year, finishing it, wanting to continue it.
Congratulations my 2nd grade wolves, mommy loves you.
Showing posts with label aspergers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label aspergers. Show all posts
Saturday, June 2, 2012
Saturday, April 28, 2012
The Presidents, can you name them all in order?
I've talked before about Jamie and his fascination with presidents. He knows them by name and number. He's recently started memorizing which years they served.
He's always been interested in Abraham Lincoln. Friday night we watched a show from the History Channel about his Lincoln's assassination. Something a 30 year old would be interested in, but not a 7 year old. He sat there for the whole hour watching raptly.
today at Antietam, there was a booklet about John Wilkes Booth. He grabbed it up. Apparently they have a tour where you can go visit his escape route. Jamie is very interested in it.
I love how interested he is in this stuff. This boy is going to be smarter than me before he's 12.
Iain, he had fun at the battlefield, but would have preferred to just run around yelling. We've decided he would have been great shouting orders to the regiments.
He's always been interested in Abraham Lincoln. Friday night we watched a show from the History Channel about his Lincoln's assassination. Something a 30 year old would be interested in, but not a 7 year old. He sat there for the whole hour watching raptly.
today at Antietam, there was a booklet about John Wilkes Booth. He grabbed it up. Apparently they have a tour where you can go visit his escape route. Jamie is very interested in it.
I love how interested he is in this stuff. This boy is going to be smarter than me before he's 12.
Iain, he had fun at the battlefield, but would have preferred to just run around yelling. We've decided he would have been great shouting orders to the regiments.
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Aspergers Label
I was happy when we had a diagnosis, and I could research, learn ways to help Jamie, etc.
But I don't want everyone to see him through the Label.
It's a bit of a double-edged sword, because sometimes the label is helpful. When I need something for him and can't get it easily another way.
Potential Dangers with an Aspergers Label
But I don't want everyone to see him through the Label.
It's a bit of a double-edged sword, because sometimes the label is helpful. When I need something for him and can't get it easily another way.
Potential Dangers with an Aspergers Label
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Validation
We went to see a different doctor today to talk about Jamie. There's no doubt in her mind that Jamie has Aspergers.
She says there's thinking in the world of psychology that says a kid can't be autistic AND ADHD, but it's phooey, and she believes he has the hyperactivity/ADHD as well. She thinks we should keep going with his patch, since it is clinically known to help kids like Jamie, and since the Autism teacher has noticed some changes in Jamie since he started with the patch.
She agrees with his current doctor about his diagnosis and how he's been treating Jamie, and says we should keep going with him. She has offered to be our advocate with the school system if we need her. She thinks it would be good if we find a Behavioral Psychologist closer to here, because we may have battles with the school and will need help advocating for him.
She doesn't think doing a full battery of tests right now would be a good idea, because he doesn't have the attention span, and we'd spend alot of money for tests that are "their best guess." She thinks in a year or two, we need to do it, to get the IQ testing and learn the full cognitive delays he may have.
She thinks that
1. He needs to see a professional pediatric occupational therapist for an assessment and for Sensory Integration. The only thing the school is judging him on is if he can hold a pencil, and there are so many more facets to it than that. She thinks if we take him for Sensory Integration 1 on 1 work, it could help with his extreme sensitivities to sound, touch, etc, and make his life easier.
2. She also thinks he needs a professional pediatric speech assessment. That once again, the school is just skimming the surface. Yes, he understands the ins and outs of conversation, but he doesn't understand the subleties, the deeper meanings in conversations.
The aggression isn't aggression in general. It's aggression based on a perceived wrong. Someone isn't following the rules (the school rules or his own self-thought rules), someone slighted him (his own feeling or reality), and this is his way of acting out. If he can get away, he can, but if he can't or it overwhelms him too quickly, the fight or flight kicks in and he fights. As he gets older, this will calm down some, but again she thinks having an aide to be there to quickly try to redirect him would help.
The big problem we're dealing with with the school is that if he had a diagnosis of Autism, an IQ of 70 and was barely communicative, they'd treat him differently. Because he is so darn smart and talkative, and carries on adult conversations, they forget about the Autism part, they expect more out of him than they would other Autistic children.
She thinks he is an amazingly smart child and probably does have a high IQ, but right now she wouldn't be able to test it. She did say if they did the testing, he'd rank very low in cognitive skills.
I think the day went well. She validated his current doctor's diagnosis, and gave us more complete info, some things she thinks we should try to make Jamie's life easier, and some things we need to get in his IEP. And if we need her, she will come help us fight the school for an individual aide for him. She's also going to try to ask around to see if she can find a Sensory Integration specialist around a closer area that we could try for him, as she thinks that's the biggest thing he needs help with .
She says there's thinking in the world of psychology that says a kid can't be autistic AND ADHD, but it's phooey, and she believes he has the hyperactivity/ADHD as well. She thinks we should keep going with his patch, since it is clinically known to help kids like Jamie, and since the Autism teacher has noticed some changes in Jamie since he started with the patch.
She agrees with his current doctor about his diagnosis and how he's been treating Jamie, and says we should keep going with him. She has offered to be our advocate with the school system if we need her. She thinks it would be good if we find a Behavioral Psychologist closer to here, because we may have battles with the school and will need help advocating for him.
She doesn't think doing a full battery of tests right now would be a good idea, because he doesn't have the attention span, and we'd spend alot of money for tests that are "their best guess." She thinks in a year or two, we need to do it, to get the IQ testing and learn the full cognitive delays he may have.
She thinks that
1. He needs to see a professional pediatric occupational therapist for an assessment and for Sensory Integration. The only thing the school is judging him on is if he can hold a pencil, and there are so many more facets to it than that. She thinks if we take him for Sensory Integration 1 on 1 work, it could help with his extreme sensitivities to sound, touch, etc, and make his life easier.
2. She also thinks he needs a professional pediatric speech assessment. That once again, the school is just skimming the surface. Yes, he understands the ins and outs of conversation, but he doesn't understand the subleties, the deeper meanings in conversations.
The aggression isn't aggression in general. It's aggression based on a perceived wrong. Someone isn't following the rules (the school rules or his own self-thought rules), someone slighted him (his own feeling or reality), and this is his way of acting out. If he can get away, he can, but if he can't or it overwhelms him too quickly, the fight or flight kicks in and he fights. As he gets older, this will calm down some, but again she thinks having an aide to be there to quickly try to redirect him would help.
The big problem we're dealing with with the school is that if he had a diagnosis of Autism, an IQ of 70 and was barely communicative, they'd treat him differently. Because he is so darn smart and talkative, and carries on adult conversations, they forget about the Autism part, they expect more out of him than they would other Autistic children.
She thinks he is an amazingly smart child and probably does have a high IQ, but right now she wouldn't be able to test it. She did say if they did the testing, he'd rank very low in cognitive skills.
I think the day went well. She validated his current doctor's diagnosis, and gave us more complete info, some things she thinks we should try to make Jamie's life easier, and some things we need to get in his IEP. And if we need her, she will come help us fight the school for an individual aide for him. She's also going to try to ask around to see if she can find a Sensory Integration specialist around a closer area that we could try for him, as she thinks that's the biggest thing he needs help with .
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Facing my fears
Ever since we got Jamie's diagnosis, I've done everything I could to make his life normal. Maybe normal isn't the word. We've learned what works and doesn't work with him. We know his trigger points, we try to make his life easier.
School is so hard for him. School really brought out the Aspergers. We try to give him a soft place to fall when he comes home.
We had an IEP meeting at the school yesterday. I was concerned with what would happen with Jamie next year. I wanted them to identify a teacher for him now, one who could handle Jamie, let them see Jamie in the classroom setting...see what works and doesn't.
What I got... was what I never wanted to hear. He's not ready for first grade. He isn't emotionally able to handle kindergarten. He doesn't have the social skills or the ability to function in a much more rigid setting like first grade. They want him to spend a majority of his time in the special ed class, and go to first grade for certain areas, like special classes and math.
They tried to say that it would be easier for Jamie, he'd have more one to one interaction (because there are only 6 kids in the class), they could teach him to his level in reading, keep him calm, let him go to some classes with the other kids his age, but limit the stressors of being there all day.
While this sounds like the best thing for Jamie. I'm devastated. I didn't want Jamie in the "special" class. He's so smart, I don't want him to flounder. And I know that part of it is what they did to "special" kids when I was growing up.... they stuck them in a room, taught to the lowest level, let them flounder, they were ostracized by the "normal" kids. Hell, last year in pre-K, when they put Iain in with the special kids because he needed OT and speech therapy, he was in there with kids who ate like dogs and wore diapers. He floundered...he didn't do anything... I don't want that to happen with Jamie. He's too smart.
I'm sure I offended the teachers with my questions. But I don't care. I DO want what's best for him. And I guess right now it's my fear of the perception, fear of the unknown, fear of how he will be educated... I'm scared for him.
And I guess it's also that I can't lie to myself anymore. I can't think our lives are going to be normal with just small deviations. That there really is problems with Jamie. problems I can't fix. Problems that will only continue. That he'll never be "normal."
I don't want this!! I want Jamie to be "normal." I don't want him to have to go through life being different. I don't want him to have Aspergers. I'm not strong enough for this.
School is so hard for him. School really brought out the Aspergers. We try to give him a soft place to fall when he comes home.
We had an IEP meeting at the school yesterday. I was concerned with what would happen with Jamie next year. I wanted them to identify a teacher for him now, one who could handle Jamie, let them see Jamie in the classroom setting...see what works and doesn't.
What I got... was what I never wanted to hear. He's not ready for first grade. He isn't emotionally able to handle kindergarten. He doesn't have the social skills or the ability to function in a much more rigid setting like first grade. They want him to spend a majority of his time in the special ed class, and go to first grade for certain areas, like special classes and math.
They tried to say that it would be easier for Jamie, he'd have more one to one interaction (because there are only 6 kids in the class), they could teach him to his level in reading, keep him calm, let him go to some classes with the other kids his age, but limit the stressors of being there all day.
While this sounds like the best thing for Jamie. I'm devastated. I didn't want Jamie in the "special" class. He's so smart, I don't want him to flounder. And I know that part of it is what they did to "special" kids when I was growing up.... they stuck them in a room, taught to the lowest level, let them flounder, they were ostracized by the "normal" kids. Hell, last year in pre-K, when they put Iain in with the special kids because he needed OT and speech therapy, he was in there with kids who ate like dogs and wore diapers. He floundered...he didn't do anything... I don't want that to happen with Jamie. He's too smart.
I'm sure I offended the teachers with my questions. But I don't care. I DO want what's best for him. And I guess right now it's my fear of the perception, fear of the unknown, fear of how he will be educated... I'm scared for him.
And I guess it's also that I can't lie to myself anymore. I can't think our lives are going to be normal with just small deviations. That there really is problems with Jamie. problems I can't fix. Problems that will only continue. That he'll never be "normal."
I don't want this!! I want Jamie to be "normal." I don't want him to have to go through life being different. I don't want him to have Aspergers. I'm not strong enough for this.
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