How Was Your Day?

Posted by Dad Enough

This is based on a conversation I was having on Twitter last night with another parent of a child with Autism.

The Monster’s only partially verbal – he can communicate his basic needs (“Eat!”, “Drink!”, “Go to sleep!”) but he’s not very good at a narrative of what’s going on in his life. In some ways, I’d joke it’s like living with a teenager a couple of years early (“How was your day?” “Fine.” “What did you learn at school today?” “Nothing.”), but without the ability to really get useful information from follow-up questions.

One of the most useful things that we had added to the Monster’s IEP is a communication requirement. Continue reading →

To the Rest of My Child’s IEP Team

Posted by Dad Enough

It’s the end of another school year, and here we are, going over the Monster’s IEP yet again, evaluating which goals he succeeded at meeting, which ones he made progress on, and which ones are abject failures.

I know it’s really hard to squeeze out time to make these meetings work. He’s one child out of twenty-five in his general education class, and heaven knows how many other schools his specialists get to during the day. His IEP chairperson’s time is split between two different schools, and the meeting protocols require having an administrator and school psychologist present as well. Further, someone from the central office has to come as an education/placement consultant, and since we’re discussing changing placement next year, there’s also the problem of having someone from that program at the meeting…

And being part of an IEP team can be a very thankless job. Continue reading →

Not Quite a Walk in the PARCC

Posted by Dad Enough

Last night was a PCAB meeting down at North Avenue, to allow for more discussion about the way that the PARCC exams are going to be administered next month. Most of our discussions have centered on whether or not schools are ready to administer the exams, whether our students are really ready, and the technology issues around the test itself, since parts of it are slated to be computer-administered.

Bear in mind that the Monster is not old enough yet to be taking the PARCC – he’s in first grade, and the test starts in third. But one of the things they tout with the exam is that it has features built-in to allow for accessibility for students. Continue reading →

Math Matters

Posted by Dad Enough

This evening, part of my task was to get the Monster’s homework done.

I don’t know how much the Monster really gets the basic concepts of math in the abstract. He does, certainly, recognize numbers and can read out a ‘math sentence’ (what most of us recognize as an equation) to the point where he’s required to fill in the answer. But he’s not making the mental jump to do the problems in his head. Continue reading →

Talk About It

Posted by Dad Enough

Today was the IEP meeting with the Monster’s new team at the Mount Washington School. We’re about six weeks into the school year, and it’s clear that we needed a checkup for the implementation of the program. The Monster is just not making much progress and that spells trouble.

So, first thought – going to the school is a lot different than when we used to go to Garrett Heights EMS. Aside from the fact that the office is literally right inside the main door, I was actually greeted by name by the woman at the desk, even as I was signing in. (Scary – that they know who’s expected for an appointment.) Continue reading →

Dumbing it Down

Posted by Dad Enough

The Monster’s homework is checked on Mondays, so we’ll admit that there are times that we slack a little bit in getting it done ‘on time’. Since he only has homework from Monday through Thursday nights, it’s easy enough to spread out four nights of homework over seven days and get it done in doses that he can cope with.

On the other hand, though, as we mentioned, his homework’s not really being adapted for his level. Continue reading →

Two Way Communication

Posted by Dad Enough

We’re four weeks into the school year, and things are slowly stabilizing.

The biggest thing that we miss from last year was the communication log that we had with Ms. A regarding the Monster’s conduct in class. Certainly, there is behavior charting in his folder, but the Monster has never been a problem in that sense. (Ms. H, his teacher this year, does it for all the students.) Continue reading →

Implementation Issues

Posted by Dad Enough

Because we’re not seeing any adaptation to the Monster’s homework, we decided to speak up – I’m a big believer in “say something”, rather than hoping for the best.

It’s not that the Monster is unable to do the homework when it’s something factual. It’s when homework is more open-ended, when it requires some creative input, that he needs more guidance due to the way Autism affects his language processing. So telling him to “write a sentence of five words or more, using at least three sight words” is not a direction he can easily handle, for example. Continue reading →

Policy Matters

Posted by Dad Enough

Thursday night was the first “real” Parents and Community Advisory Board (PCAB) meeting of the 2014-2015 school year.

The major order of business was to nominate and elect an executive board, and I was elected as Treasurer with only a little back-and-forth about whether other candidates were going to accept nominations. But this was the least of the matters that PCAB really meets for. Continue reading →

Adapting

Posted by Dad Enough

Today is the end of the second week of first grade for the Monster. (Why our schools here start before Labor Day, I know not.) And as such, this is also the end of the second week of homework.

Now, the Monster’s teacher apparently only checks homework on Monday, which is good because his work did not get done last night – I had my PCAB meeting, and the wife had choir rehearsal, so he had to go to choir with her and didn’t get a chance to work on it. So we’ll get that done tonight.

The only problem, though, is that I question how well his homework might be adapted to him. Continue reading →