Poor Little Bug, there were tons of changes. On Thursday, we started brushing therapy. He seemed to really like it at first. He asked for the brushes and would brush himself on his hands and feet. Starting on Sunday evening, his love affair with the brush was over. He now screams, “No, no, no, owa, owa” whenever we try to brush. Honestly, we aren’t sure if this is being 2 and waiting to control the situation or if, to him, it is painful. We are going to take a break and check in with his OT on Thursday.
We also started packing this weekend. Nick and I decided that we wanted to pack while he was awake and around to see so that he can deal with the change. He was pretty excited while we were packing- jumping in and out of boxes, putting his stuff in, taking his stuff out, etc. Once we were done packing for the day, he suddenly began screaming and crying and yelling NO! over and over again. He fell asleep crying and saying No. It broke our hearts. We were hoping that this was a result of him being too tired or not feeling well, but yesterday when I packed a couple more boxes, he again began yelling NO and crying.
We knew that this would be hard for him- new cloths or shoes are a major problem. We just didn’t realize how hard this would be and how to make this better for him. Our therapist recommends that we drive him by the new place every day and talk about it. She also recommends that we leave a box out at all times so that he can “pack” his stuff. One note, we aren’t packing his stuff. Nick and I made the decision to leave his stuff unpacked and haul it over in the car early in the morning and have his room set up completely- therapy swing and all- before we take him over.
The last change that happened was in his routine for school. We had our first school visit yesterday and it didn’t really go well- for anyone involved. Little Bug was hyper focused and very into repetitive actions. He wouldn’t talk or look at anyone with physical and verbal prompting.
Nick and I didn’t like the class room style. It would be very easy for Little Bug to get lost. They have free play for the first 45 minutes. They then have exercise time- either outside or in the basement of the school- then circle time, lunch, and go home. A good majority of their day is free play. We asked the teacher about what experience she had with children with ASD and she admitted very little. She also believes that during free play it is truly free and if a child wants to do something for all 45 minutes, they can. The problem with this is that Little Bug would gladly play Thomas for all 45 minutes and never say anything to anyone.
Another difficulty is that there was no forced interaction between the kids or teacher. When I say that, no one entices the kids to play games together or interact. Its very much, if they want to great! If not, oh well. Also, the teacher and the aides only interact with the children if the children come up to them. This is not to say that they are sitting on their butts all day, just that there is a lack of structure and focus that Little Bug is used to and craves.
The teacher was amazingly honest. She told us that she would strongly encourage us to check out the Autism Preschool. She also told us that she doesn’t get a say even if she doesn’t feel a child is right for her program. When I asked her about the ability for a child to go more than two times a week for 2.5 hours, she stated that if she feels it is necessary she will advocate. She told us that she did this for a child this year and the school district told her that if she feels passionate about it, she can have it her way, but they will flood her class with pupils.
I felt so bad for her. She talked about time outs and breaks and how some parents feel that is too extreme. We heard her tell one child that if they did something again, she would tell their mom. She told us that for that student, it was the only recourse because they weren’t allowed to have the child take breaks or have timeouts unless they actually hurt someone.
I appreciate that her hands are tied- sometimes by lack of knowledge, sometimes by parents, and often times by the school district- but this is not the right program for Little Bug. No offense to her, but this program is set up for failure for the students and the teachers.
We have a visit to an Autism Program and we are hoping that we like this one. The thing is, we really, really wanted to like the first program too.
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