BloodyKisses, that's great! Are you in the US? What state did you leave and what state are you in now? I wonder if the differences are due to state mandates or district policies?
Are you moving for his education or for a job or something else?
Because if you move for his education, Oakland County(in michigan)has the best special ed programms in the country. Especially Clarkston school districts, they have the best AI programm of ALL public schools in the country. Im serious too, like it's an actual fact, and i've heard it more than once.
Natalia banned?
We had our teacher conference for our son yesterday, and one skill the teacher had listed to work on was my son's perceived "stubborness." She's a first year teacher so I'm not surprised she perceives a few things incorrectly, but I explained to her why I have a difficult time using that word for a child like my son. He doesn't entract into a position because he wants it his way, he entracts because he can't see his way to the alternatives. If you lay that path out, he can often change his position. But, it's difficult for him to change paths. I didn't ask her to, but she quickly erased that word from her sheet
It is good that she is willing to learn.
I guess it was "ABA" I saw on a TV show about autism. An instructor was trying to train this poor toddler to make direct eye contact, commanding him to look and holding a bit of food against her face to get the kid to look. They drilled the kid over and over and over and over. The kids got tired and cried but parents were told that the hours of drilling were necessary. This made me angry to watch. Eye contact can be absolutely painful for some people. It is more than a matter of establishing a habit, it is torture. It seems unjust to do that to a kid just to make him act on the surface "normal", so that "normal" people will feel more comfortable. What’s next? Shock collars? I wonder why some people are so bigoted that they feel everyone must look, act and be just like themselves or it is "wrong". As far as I know, schools no longer insist that a kid must write with his right hand.
Sorry, I guess that was a rant. It just really bugs me.
I saw a thread in here earlier this month or so about someone using a cattle prod on their autistic adult child.
{sigh} this whole thing just really freaks me out sometimes. That just really bugs me about the eye contact thing. I make eye contact, most of the time, but when I don't want to do it I will NOT do it. I can't imagine letting someone do that to my daughter. What good is eye contact if the poor thing is broken inside? Or to know from such an early age that other people's emotional needs (eye contact) are more important than your own?
sorry- rant!
*** Kisses- I'm glad that you're doing better in NC! I'm in NC also, on the coast, and it seems pretty nice. My oldest starts kindergarten this year, I'm anxious for schooling myself. Good to hear that its more open to proper therapies for ASD.
I've always wanted to homeschool both of my boys,
but he seems to really like public school. He likes
being around other kids, but doesn't really "play"
with them. He tends to walk circles around a play
situation. He plays on swing sets alone, sand boxes,
trampolines etc.
He sounds just like me when I was his age. I was not diagnosed until much later (age 65) so I had to cope. I always liked school except for the "gym" class. I would have hated to be home schooled, which seems to me to be the worst thing for a boy with Aspergers who needs friends. What are the goals of his therapy?
At present, he's getting a good amount of lessons in art and music, OT and speech therapy, computer activities and some one on one table time (writing, puzzles, matchings numbers, colors, animals, plants etc). A friend of ours is helping us set up drum lessons soon and he will be going to his first music concert in a few weeks (well, not really a first, he has been to small shows and bad practices before).
I guess our main plan for now is exploring musical interest.
Wouldn't be more practical to concentrate on studies that could someday apply to his getting a job to support himself?