Back to School: A New Year, New Teacher, And New Results

When I initially realized who my son’s teacher would be this year I was a bit concerned. I had seen her around the school and I felt that she just might be a bit hard. I actually thought that perhaps she was not the best option for an autistic child. Boy was I wrong.

When I first met her during our year end interview, last year. She noticed a couple of things about my son that made me realize she was extremely observant.

1. She realized my son could identify many of the kindergarten sight words, and most of the grade 1 sight words. (he had just finished kindergarten) This she realized while his previous teacher had the list underneath a pile of papers, because she wasn’t concerned as she didn’t feel it was important enough to share.
2. She realized that my son was quite capable of playing well with his sister, leading her to believe he could play well with others. However when she asked the previous teacher, the response was “I don’t know who he plays with.” Fortunately the TAs were able to provide those details also.

 

A Month With The New Teacher.

We are almost a month into the school year and details have come to my attention that amazed me.

 

1. last year my son got 4 “feather in your hat” achievement certificates. 3 of them were from his TA, and one from his teacher. This year in one month he has already gotten 5, and 4 of them are from his teacher. This tells me that she is not only paying attention to what he is doing, but she is engaging him in the classroom.
2. This year due to a work to rule situation amongst the TA’s our son is missing one of his recesses. Now ordinarily I would be freaking, however instead he is being monitored in the school gym by the local head of Special Olympics, and he was invited to join the training program. This is not actually because of his athletic ability, but because instead at the age my son is they can do the most to put him in a position to at least enjoy sporting events.
3. My son started this year at a reading level A and within the space of a month has progressed to a C. This again tells me just how much his teacher is actually paying attention to him. It also indicates that she is moving him along at the pace that suits him

 

So in addition to this, my son now gets weekly Special Olympics training. This is in addition to his schooling, which presently includes weekly swimming lessons. He also has biweekly trips to another school, which has an extraordinary sensory room.

 

Personally I feel my son will progress extremely far this year under the present circumstances, and that is lovely to watch.