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twinplets
Sea Gull
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23 May 2011, 8:19 pm

We had our IEP last week. The behavioral specialist and autism specialist from the district were there. I really do love the district personnel. They are by the book, letter of the law type of people. They do not want to get into trouble. Although they had an agenda, one of the first topics after a general academic review was to go over any parental comments/concerns. I basically ran the meeting at that point going over what I was unhappy with this year and what I wanted for next year. Think Track has now been nixed for him. If they want to get him to remember to put his name of the paper/etc., he doesn't get punished for not doing it. Only positive rewards for that type of stuff. He earns points that turn into extra free reading for that type of stuff and these points can onyl be earned, not taken away. The specialists were pretty unhappy with all the negative punishments this year. When he touches someone and gets redirect, he now goes to the resource room instead of another classroom. This way the special ed person knows what his miscommunication problem is and they do a social autopsy on it immediately. This has already happened the end of last week. They earn character bucks at school for various things. At the end of every 9 weeks, they have a store and get to purchase things with them. My son purchased a ticket to be line leader and get to hold open the door all day. When they left lunch, a kid in his class told him tough luck and was holding the door anyway (Their class teacher doesn't work lunchroom, so she wasn't there.) My son asked him to move and let him hold the door as everyone knew he had purchased that, but the bratt kid refused and told him tough luck, so my kid shoved him off the door, he knew he should have told a teacher, but he also knew he would waste time doing that and it would be too late for him to hold the door, so he had a problem and he obvioulsy chose wrong by shoving. He was sent to the resource room for his redirect, where they went over the strategies they are working on with him.

He doesn't have morning social group anymore. The social group they have is pretty much tailored for younger kids. He knows all the techniques. It is all about always applying mature strategies and being less impulsive. he can pass the tests on this stuff, it is always applying it that is the problem. Instead, the special ed teachers for 4th and 5th grade will be observing him 30 minutes each day at recess/transition times mostly(which is when he usually makes a mistake.), and helping him put the strategies he knows into use to reach the goals they have made for him. He is guaranteed his breaks next year and they have already started setting up reminders for him. The teacher said he actually remembers his breaks more than I thought, he is just upset if it is during instruction time as he doesn't want to miss anything, so they are going to make sure they are during free work time next year. I guess he has also twice gone and asked his teacher for an unscheduled break on his own, saying he needed one as he was about to lose it, which he has never told me about. The behavioural specialist had some good ideas on dealing with his desk touching issues. He is going to have 2 desks next year. One by itself and one in a group and his desks will never move all year. He likes this better because he actually is a very social kid. This way, he is able to choose when he wishes to be alone and when he wants to be part of the group. They started this week a technique where he has a handkerchief and wipes off the spot where someone touches his desk or chair. We are going to see if that will make him better without having to go touch their desk in return. I am unsure that will do the trick for him, but we are going to try it.

His speech therapy has been increased for next year. They are going to work on better pragmatic speech with him, more focused on application, instead of lessons. I changed his speech goals and am happier with them now. We also got the home room teacher we wanted for next year. She will be his main teacher, plus the math/science instructor. We are stuck with whoever is her team teacher for Language Arts, but if it stays the same as the one this year, we will be fine.

Writing will gear up next year as it is a part of the state testing on the 4h grade. Since he bubbles so sloppy and his teacher think his main problem is he thinks faster than he can write, he gets all his tests gone over to make sure he has bubbled completly. They are also going to give him 9 weeks to see how he does with the 4th grade writing. We are going to revew at that time and call in Assistive Technology to see if he needs a computer for writing if we deem it necessary. They really do no want him to bomb that writing test. They are very proud of their exemplary rating. He has computer class once a week and they work on typing skills, but it isnt enough to get him going fast, so I am going to have him work on it this summer. I had purchased a typing a program a couple of years ago from a homeschooling site, but never got around to loading it on the computer. It is called Typing Instructor Deluxe. I am going to see how he likes it, but if anyone knows of anything they have liked, let me know in case I need to switch.

I am pretty happy with everything. I am just going to have to stay on top of everything next year. The special ed teacher for K-3 agreed to all types of things and made his goals with me, but he will be transitioning to the 4th-5th grade resource room, so who knows if the new teacher will be as on top of things since she had no hand in this IEP. His current resource room promises they will be checking to make sure he transitions well. They have been talking to him about it and they introduced him to the new room already, but I am still going to be their best friend next year.



Covuschik
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker
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24 May 2011, 8:35 am

Sounds good! Definitely keep on top of them!

We used this for learning keyboarding: http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/typing/

My son is 10, AS, dysgraphia. It is very "kiddie" so I'm not sure that your guy would enjoy it vs. a standard typing program. It worked well for Julian, keeping him on track with auditory cues if he wasn't pressing any keys.

Ultimately, we ended up with a scribe for writing anything more than a sentence or two. Since the dysgraphia is processing related and not physical, learning keyboarding didn't help much. With a scribe, he just scored a 5/6 on that standardized writing test. :) We're still working on the keyboarding, slowly. He enjoys the typing program but still can't get information from brain to hands.

I love the idea of the resource teacher being available to help with social skills, on the spot. We've done those same "social skills" classes in school, with the school counselor, with pretty much the same results, "He knows all of this in theory, but he can't apply it". So far we haven't gotten any further than that.

We also had very similar experiences with the negative punishments - that has been our greatest struggle and every year, I send in at least one e-mail/letter reminding them that punishing this kid for something that is genuinely out of his control is absolutely rediculous and counterproductive (especially when it's directly related to something in the IEP, that is not always being followed). This obviously varies greatly from teacher to teacher, so this is one area that I would keep a very close eye.

Elizabeth



DW_a_mom
Veteran
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29 May 2011, 1:17 am

Somehow my passed the fourth grade writing test ... no idea how, lol! The 7th grade one he actually did very well on using a keyboard. Keyboarding was something he didn't really take to until his 6th grade OT made it her project for the year, despite all the typing programs at home and at school; some kids just are not developmentally ready for it until about 6th grade. So, if it doesn't take yet don't freak out about it; the issue is most likely developmental.

Glad to hear you are comfortable with the plan and I hope it all goes well!


_________________
Mom to an amazing young adult AS son, plus an also amazing non-AS daughter. Most likely part of the "Broader Autism Phenotype" (some traits).


twinplets
Sea Gull
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29 May 2011, 7:20 am

He seems to like typing in computer class. I know he knows the proper positioning for his hands because he has tried to type that way when he is doing something other than a game on the computer, but he is soooooo slow at it. I just figure if they want t get on top of it now, why not, so that it will be one less thing to worry about in middle school. We will see how the typing practice goes this summer. I am not going to work him hard. Only about 10 minutes each weekday. I am actually more worried about his writing content as he tends to think very big picture and does not like to give details when they are asked for. He just assumes everyone knows what he meant in 2 sentences.



twinplets
Sea Gull
Sea Gull

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Joined: 22 Feb 2010
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29 May 2011, 7:20 am

He seems to like typing in computer class. I know he knows the proper positioning for his hands because he has tried to type that way when he is doing something other than a game on the computer, but he is soooooo slow at it. I just figure if they want t get on top of it now, why not, so that it will be one less thing to worry about in middle school. We will see how the typing practice goes this summer. I am not going to work him hard. Only about 10 minutes each weekday. I am actually more worried about his writing content as he tends to think very big picture and does not like to give details when they are asked for. He just assumes everyone knows what he meant in 2 sentences.