(NO HBOT) Kindergarden is Going Well

Even though Jonathan did not have HBOT today, he had a long day. In the morning he went to kindergarden. Daddy went during lunch time to volunteer to help the kids with their lunches. On Mondays the school dismisses a couple of hours early so they can have their weekly teachers meetings (or something like that). Right after school, daddy took Jonathan to the dentist to get his cavity fixed.

Daddy said that Jonathan was a complete champion. The Dr. had to use the drill for a couple of seconds to clean up the decay well, and Jonathan let her do it (no anesthesia) and had his mouth open and did everything she said. He did not have sensory problems at all. Daddy was totally amazed.

After that, they went to the pediatrician’s office to get his weekly allergy shot. Because kindergarden is dismissing at 4pm and we are not done with the HBOT, we switched to getting the allergy shots on Mondays until Sept 16. After that, we will resume our Wednesday evenings. He then went home and Daddy picked Vanessa up and they played until bedtime.

Today we had the school’s parent evening event. I went to the event and Daddy stayed home with the kids. The kindergarden teachers had us all sit in the tiny chairs and she had a presentation ready. She told us about the curriculum, and the activities, what to expect. She had a folder with information and she gave us a website where we could keep in touch with her. I really liked her approach and I can tell that she is passionate about the kids. And she is fun. Jonathan seems really happy when he comes home from school and I can totally see why. She is very energetic yet everything has a structure and it looks really well organized. I think this is going to be a great year for Jonathan. And I intend to get as involved as possible.

When she was done, I personally approached her to ask her how Jonathan is doing. She said that he is doing really well. He is fitting in. He is blending with the class. I asked her how his attention span was, and she said that he is really good. He pays attention and responds to just about everything (unless he doesn’t understand in which case she repeats with different words). And whenever he sucks his thumb, all she does is touch his hand. She does not say a word and he immediately takes it out and joins the group again. I told her I was worried about his attention span and she said that the first 2 days he was a bit jumpy. So she put an X on the floor when they had to sit and pay attention and she told him to sit there. He did for 2 days with no problems and at the beginning of the third day she told him that if he sat quietly and paid attention, she would take the X off the floor. He told her that he didn’t need the X and she took it off and since then he has been really good about sitting until told to stand. This is exactly what I wanted to hear. That she would be able to use behavior modification of this sort to bring him into the group. The 2.5 years of ABA is now really paying off. Thank you LEAP Ahead.

After that, I spoke with the assistant who was also with him at the other daycare in the afternoons (in Group 5). I asked her how she saw him compared to the Group 5 class at the daycare. And she said that it was night and day. Jonathan is doing really well in this classroom. He is rarely on his own or bored. He is very happy all the time and he is simply very lovable and cheerful. They love his laughter (Group 5 also liked it. They sent a note a few weeks before he stopped going there about his laughter and how much they liked it). Apparently he giggles and laughs in a fun way that all enjoy. She told me that in just 1 week she can already see an improvement in Jonathan’s behavior and involvement. He really enjoys the academics and he is very engaged. Whenever they see him zone out (which is not often she said), she just touches his back and he turns and pays attention. And because he already knows his letters and such, he likes to participate. But he knows how to wait and take turns. She told me that she feels Jonathan is going to do really really well in this class this year. And I could feel a bit nut in my throat. I have noticed a change in Jonathan this week. He is happier and he is more talkative. And he is also making more things up. And he is now very independent. He pours his own juice, he feeds the dog, he gets the glue to glue things, he cuts whatever he wants to put on our "Art" wall and tapes it on his own, etc. All this in just one week. So I agree with them that this class seems like will help Jonathan a great deal.

The meeting was very good. Very encouraging for me. Specially because this is a public school and I didn't know what to expect. But I am happily surprised to see it so well organized. They are starting to assess the kids based on the curriculum they are teaching and their final goal (all kids will leave kindergarden knowing how to write a full sentence) and they are going to meet with us parents the first week in November to let us know where our kids are compared to the curriculum (not compared to other kids) and how we can help the teachers move our kids along.

When I left the class, I had a couple of tears in my eyes. All I could think of was “my God, we made it to "mainstream" kindergarden with typical (normal) kids. He is not going to go to an institution for kids with autism”. It has been so hard. The past 3 years have been the hardest of my life. He was first diagnosed on Sept 24, 2004 and the prognosis was not very encouraging. The future was “Institution for kids with Autism”. And I changed my attitude towards “mainstream”. We made it to the mainstream world. We have a long way to go still, but we are out of the woods. This year, working at my company I was able to help an institution for kids with autism and I got to see what that would be like and that was horrendous. And last night, all I could think of was that he was not going to need that.