The ARD wasn't too hard
I've apparently come down with some horrific cold-like malady, which is why it has taken me two days to report back on the ARD meeting, which was Thursday. And also why I'm apparently making corny jokes in the subject line. After coughing my guts out half the night last night, I finally got up and took some codeine cough syrup, so I'm feeling a little incoherent this morning. Which means this may make no sense at all, but one must press on.
Okay, so the ARD was Thursday, as previously mentioned, and it went well. The room was full of people: DH, myself, the boy child's classroom teacher, the speech pathologist, the counselor, the vice principal, the school district psychologist, the diagnostician and the girl child's special reading class teacher who was acting as secretary for the meeting. Whew! And all of these people think the boy child is a neat kid, which is very nice to hear. It helps, when asking for services for your child, if the people providing those services actually like him, you know?
The various people in the room went through the FIE report with us (this is the report the diagnostician went over with me in detail a while back), explaining whatever part of the thing fell under their area of responsibility. No surprises -- the boy is very bright, doing fine academically, does not have a speech impediment or a language problem, etc. The committee concluded that he does have Asperger's tendencies, HOWEVER he is so high-functioning that he does not meet the TEA criteria for a disability at this time, and does not at this time have an educational need for special education services. And again, we're okay with that.
We talked a bit about how some of the committee members' observations (the boy talking with his peers, playing with another kid once at recess) did not mesh with how the boy tells us he is feeling. He feels very lonely and isolated and as though no one at school likes him. He doesn't think he has any friends, even though many of the committee members observed the other kids treating him in a friendly matter. We tried to impress upon them that he may LOOK fine, but he's not.
And I just want to interject here, thank GOODNESS the boy child has finally opened up to us and is telling us these things. Because you really can't tell much by looking at him, unless you know him VERY well. He's the type of kid who doesn't show emotions (hello, autism spectrum!). You have to ASK him how he's doing, and then hope he tells you.
Okay, so here's what's going to happen. The boy child will meet with the school counselor once a week for about half an hour, just to touch base with her and get comfortable talking to her. She is going to teach him some social skills strategies and then coach him through implementing those strategies in the classroom (or lunchroom, or at recess) with the kids he encounters every day. She's also going to help teach him some calming strategies for when he gets frustrated and upset (which is happening a lot lately). Basically she's going to cultivate a relationship with him that will let him know she is one of his "safe" people; someone who gets him and to whom he can turn if he's having a problem. So that's all good.
Before the meeting wrapped up, DH and I asked for an update on the bully situation. That's something I haven't written about here, so forgive me if I skip over details. Essentially, another boy has been making the boy child's life miserable by keying in on both his auditory defensiveness and his lack of social awareness. We only learned about this last week and notified his teacher over the weekend, but the school was very quick to act on the situation and we're satisfied with the way it's being handled. The boy child has reported no serious problems with this boy since the school found out what was going on. Thank goodness.
So that's about it, and in my cold fog I've probably left out a bunch of stuff, but I'll update as needed. For now, things are looking up!
Okay, so the ARD was Thursday, as previously mentioned, and it went well. The room was full of people: DH, myself, the boy child's classroom teacher, the speech pathologist, the counselor, the vice principal, the school district psychologist, the diagnostician and the girl child's special reading class teacher who was acting as secretary for the meeting. Whew! And all of these people think the boy child is a neat kid, which is very nice to hear. It helps, when asking for services for your child, if the people providing those services actually like him, you know?
The various people in the room went through the FIE report with us (this is the report the diagnostician went over with me in detail a while back), explaining whatever part of the thing fell under their area of responsibility. No surprises -- the boy is very bright, doing fine academically, does not have a speech impediment or a language problem, etc. The committee concluded that he does have Asperger's tendencies, HOWEVER he is so high-functioning that he does not meet the TEA criteria for a disability at this time, and does not at this time have an educational need for special education services. And again, we're okay with that.
We talked a bit about how some of the committee members' observations (the boy talking with his peers, playing with another kid once at recess) did not mesh with how the boy tells us he is feeling. He feels very lonely and isolated and as though no one at school likes him. He doesn't think he has any friends, even though many of the committee members observed the other kids treating him in a friendly matter. We tried to impress upon them that he may LOOK fine, but he's not.
And I just want to interject here, thank GOODNESS the boy child has finally opened up to us and is telling us these things. Because you really can't tell much by looking at him, unless you know him VERY well. He's the type of kid who doesn't show emotions (hello, autism spectrum!). You have to ASK him how he's doing, and then hope he tells you.
Okay, so here's what's going to happen. The boy child will meet with the school counselor once a week for about half an hour, just to touch base with her and get comfortable talking to her. She is going to teach him some social skills strategies and then coach him through implementing those strategies in the classroom (or lunchroom, or at recess) with the kids he encounters every day. She's also going to help teach him some calming strategies for when he gets frustrated and upset (which is happening a lot lately). Basically she's going to cultivate a relationship with him that will let him know she is one of his "safe" people; someone who gets him and to whom he can turn if he's having a problem. So that's all good.
Before the meeting wrapped up, DH and I asked for an update on the bully situation. That's something I haven't written about here, so forgive me if I skip over details. Essentially, another boy has been making the boy child's life miserable by keying in on both his auditory defensiveness and his lack of social awareness. We only learned about this last week and notified his teacher over the weekend, but the school was very quick to act on the situation and we're satisfied with the way it's being handled. The boy child has reported no serious problems with this boy since the school found out what was going on. Thank goodness.
So that's about it, and in my cold fog I've probably left out a bunch of stuff, but I'll update as needed. For now, things are looking up!
posted by Miss Anthrope at 8:12 AM
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