The first week of the summer break is over and it there were many interesting details come out of the week
For one the week started with all of the kids wound up completely an our son climbing on everything in reach including computer desks and tables, walking along the top of the back of the couch etc. So all signs point towards a lively and energetic summer with almost no listening skills.
What was of particular interest is that on Monday he took over my wife's computer and went digging for games. And he found them (take into account he is only 6) and proceeded to start playing them and taking the computer over to the point of us deciding it was time to haul my old computer out of the basement.
We have now set him up with a computer to share with his sister and at least my wife gets on the computer some now.
We have also seen signs of certain things we were looking for. Our son has started to mellow out a bit (at least this am when his sister was in day camp) so hopefully that will continue and as well he has started to make progress again in his autism so we are hopeful that will continue over the summer break
We are watching the next few days to see what happens on that front
About this blog
In the past week three stories have come to light regarding the fact that three special needs students have been pulled from their schools due to the treatment they received at their school
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/new-brunswick/story/2010/06/21/nb-moncton-inclusion-school-isolation-room-1113.html#socialcomments
Autistic child pulled from school over use of Isolation room
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/new-brunswick/story/2010/06/23/nb-inclusion-terry-lynn-551.html#socialcomments
8 yr old with foetal alcohol syndrome, cerebral palsy and epilepsy pulled from school because no one would help her use washroom
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/new-brunswick/story/2010/06/22/nb-isolation-room-marc-1221.html
13 yr old with aspergers and bipolar disorder pulled from school over use of isolation room
Over the last year these three students were pulled from classes due to their treatment at the hands of school staff with one case verging close to serious neglect in the case of the cerebral palsy girl and the other two clear signs of abuse as the isolation rooms in question used in those schools are 3 walls bolted to the floor and a door that is held shut while the student is inside
Isolation rooms in general are not a bad thing as it does help an autistic child calm down, however a major part of the issue involved in these cases is the size of the room. In my child's school what is used as an isolation room is a small office sized room where the TA and student sit and wait for his issues to resolve themselves.
What is of particular issue lately is the fact that autistic children due to a lack of social skills and communication skills become upset due to the inability to communicate and can become disruptive and/or aggressive. This can be fixed if the TA involved is directly involved enough to pick up the signs of an impending issue and has the child leave the classroom before he becomes disruptive.
As i have watched these discussions over the last several days i have noticed a significant trend in that a large majority of people would prefer to see all special needs students removed from the classrooms which is no more a solution then a full and complete inclusion system is. The majority of students that have special needs can manage well in a standard classroom as long as certain needs are met.
1./ no person who needs help using the washroom should be forced to not have that help. A TA appointed to help the student at prearranged times or a simple paging system to have a TA come help in that situation is all that is needed in most cases and the TA involved could also be dealing with other low risk special needs students at the same time.
2./ no student who is at risk of violent behaviour or running away due to a special needs situation should ever be without a TA present. This TA would normally monitor the child for warning signs that they need a break and remove them from the classroom before an episode, allowing them to decompress without a violent episode and would also help the student with certain training outside the classroom that would be considered part of a special needs student's special education plan.
3./ Where at all possible special needs students should be part of a regular class for at least a portion of their day under the supervision of a TA when required due to behavioural issues.
4./ Those students with intellectual difficulties would have a modified education plan that would focus on making them as independent as possible while allowing them the ability to learn as much as possible of a normal school criteria.
5./ Those students who can not handle a classroom situation (they do exist but are fewer then some would like us to believe) would be taught to the best of the student's capabilities to keep as close an education level as students in their own age group as possible and including them in things like art, gym, music and library with a standard class where the student is capable of handling this.
During the debates over this issue in the last week I have monitored not only the discussions of those completely opposed to inclusion but also parents of special needs students who were dealing with specific issues and have put together a plan that best meets the needs of as many people as possible. That plan as outlined above includes, in basic terms, integration when at all possible with special attention paid to stemming issues proactively instead of reactively and therefore avoiding violent outbursts and disturbances
So we are soon to be starting the summer. A period in which my wife has full intentions of doing everything in her power to increase our son's ability in speech and writing and we will monitor and hopefully curb some of his violent tendencies when upset.
My wife is having some incredibly luck in breaking through his speech barrier tho he has not developed clear words they are understandable. We are not at sentences yet one and two words at a time are the best he can do but anything is an improvement over no speech at all.
On the issue of his violence it is interesting to monitor where it comes from. At home we get at most one episode a day and realistically we can usually go two or three days without an episode. At school on the other hand he has the tendency to strike out at least once and often twice a day. Now not all of these episodes are actually rough enough to hurt, but they are of a concern.
What has been my opinion for a while is that where he is in his first year they are trying to get him to conform to "school routine" and my belief is that instead of working on one thing at a time, they are instead pushing him on everything at once and accomplishing nothing but frustration.
Basically we are hoping this summer for a clue that we are right (or wrong) and then move on to working with the school (or on the school as the case may be) to develop a plan that works to continue to move him forward from what we manage to develop over the summer.
