So, today I had my son's Parent-Teacher conference. At the top of my list was a discussion about food at school and my "finding" that my son was getting glutened and caseined at school. She more or less confirmed that it had happened. I let her know that I wasn't happy about this. She agreed that she needed to be better with me about letting me know that they would be doing a cooking project. She heard my concern and I am going to give her the benefit of the doubt that this will be corrected going forward. If it isn't, it won't be pretty.
Academically, Alex is doing well. He is a math whiz and a good reader. He does need to slow his reading down and do more for comprehension. He needs to apply himself. These are all things that you'd hear during a conference with a "typical" child. It is actually kind of nice to go in and hear these types of comments and has such a feeling of "normalcy". She shared that if he could just stay on task more and get that "focus" down that he could be mainstreamed (I'm really not rushing that, but it was nice to hear). In the "specials" subjects - art, music, gym, library, recess - he is excelling. These have always been difficult areas for him because they are so unpredictable and they are also integrated with typical peers. Those issues are in the past and I view this as a huge success.
Last year we had a lot of issues with the loud speaker (daily announcements) setting him off. I'll never forget when his second grade teacher called me to say that Alex yelled out during the morning announcements that he "wanted the effing voice-over to stop NOW!" (he said the F bomb). This year the announcement issues are in the past. His teacher was by some miracle able to nip this behavior in the bud in the first week of school. Assemblies are still difficult with him. He gets real upset with the auditorium, big group, applause. She has to sit in the back with him and walk him out and give him breaks. One time he got so upset that he was physically sick (vomited). He cries and meltsdown. This was the first I heard of this occurance so I didn't really appreciate the lack of communication from her once again.
The really good news is that my son's class just added a new para-professional that is not "new" to my son at all. In fact, it is my son's favorite para of all times from back when he was in preschool. After 4 years of being in different classes - he recognized her and the pair had a happy reunion. This para is also "on my team" and will be helping to make sure that Alex doesn't get glutened in the future. Once again, my son seems to have wrapped all the para-professionals right around his finger and has built a good rapport with them. Now, if only we could get him to build that type of rapport with other kids in the class.
Goals:
Teacher goal - improve communication all around! No more food issues.
Goals for Alex:
- Work on improving focus for attending to task on hand.
- Increase social interactions, build social skills with classroom peers and typical peers.
- Make it through an assembly without a meltdown.
We can do it. We can do it. We can do it!
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