Getting Ready for Kindergarten

The past few weeks have been busy with people coming out to Tawanka to evaluate Sean's skills for his kindergarten placement. At Sean's IEP meeting in the beginning of December, when transition was mentioned, I had absolutely no intentions of doing so. But as time dragged on, and we kept on waiting and waiting for the Chat (which only arrived last week), and for our new speech therapist to begin working with Sean, and for our reimbursement paperwork to arrive in the mail (came yesterday), I came to the realization that I absolutely could not put Sean (or myself) through another year with the IU. When I step back and take an honest look at my son, I know he probably can't be mainstreamed yet. His biggest issues are his lack of language and his short attention span. But that doesn't mean he can't do kindergarten work. I have been working with him on writing his name, drawing shapes, and using scissors. He is learning how to do all of it, and I'm confident that he'll have all those skills mastered by the time school starts in the fall. I'm going to make sure of it. He is so smart, I just cannot bring myself to hold him back another year. He needs to be around typical kids next year, I'm not sure how they're going to accomodate us, but that's one thing Sean absolutely must have to continue developing socially at this point.

We've got a great summer planned for all the kids, Sean especially, I hope! Our family is lucky enough to know some really fantastic people and because of knowing some really fantastic people, we were given the opportunity to send Sean to "Expressions" day camp, which is a camp designed for high functioning kids on the spectrum who, like Sean, don't have a lot of language, and who need to work on their social skills. The camp is from 9-11:30, the van will pick Sean up and then take him to Tawanka for the 2nd half of the day. He will only go to camp while the IU is in session, which is 4 weeks. The rest of the time he'll be at home with me, but I will be working on skills then too. My other 3 kids go to camps on the same campus as Sean, so it will be so neat for me to be able to drop ALL my kids off in the same place for once (right now I have 4 kids in 3 different schools).

In August, we are going to Disney World! Our family is going, along with my husband's sister's family, and my in-law's. That's 7 kids, and 6 adults. We rented a 5 bedroom vacation home just outside the park, and we are all really looking forward to it! I can't wait to see how Sean does. And it will be great for the other kids to get away! I still remember feeling, a few short years ago, that we would never be able to take Sean anywhere ever again. So to have most of our freedom back is the best reward for all the work we're putting in to getting Sean better.

I'm trying to keep Sean off of the computer for longer periods of time while at home, and last week I gave him crayons and asked him to draw me a rainbow - he did it! The colors were in the correct order and it brought tears to my eyes! Without doing it intentionally, I underestimate how much information is in that big head of his, and it really made me feel guilty when he handed me that rainbow on paper.

We are also working on sounds. Sean has been able to make the "s" sound several times for me. I tried teaching the sound by having him make the "t" sound, over and over at first, and then holding the sound for a few seconds at a time. That really helped him to get it and he is now beginning to say it more consistently.

It all just takes time, and usually lots of it, which drives me crazy, because I am not a patient person. But we keep making progress, and that's all you can really ask for.

Sean is off the Valtrex, for now, not sure if I'm going to start it up again. We are also taking a break from chelation and some supplements. It's good to give Sean's body a break every once in a while.

I'll give the next update sooon!