On both fronts

Here's how I gauge Max's day: by how chewed his shirt is at pick up.  I could use my statistical knowledge to chart this into a nice correlation.  More chewed = more stressed = more tantrums.  It's kind of fascinating, really.  Also, I should probably buy him some new shirts. 

This is where we are, after the most recent meeting.

Max has a fidget item that he keeps on The Teacher's desk.  He can use it when he needs it and she prompts him when she sees him going goat.  Sometimes he will take the item and sometimes just the prompting with extinguish the behavior.  Recently a boy in the class questioned Max about his shirt-chewing habits.  I was nearby and since the questions were friendly and curious, not mean, I stayed out of the conversation and let Max handle it.  But it seems the combination of having the item when needed plus the knowledge that we are all aware of his behavior has been enough to deal with the majority of the shirt chewing. 

Of course, that has done little for the tantrums.  I'm noticing less stimming.  Sometimes Max will stim on the walk home, but it's usually gone by the time we're home and I'm assuming that's related to the transition from school to home.  For the tantrums I've made Max a thermometer with colors, faces, and words to indicate his mood.  He can point to whatever he wants to indicate how he's feeling and then he chose three relaxation techniques.  We made a list of those nearby as a reminder so that when he's upset he can chose one of those he thinks would help and he can go to his room to calm down. 

He hit his sister today.  It's a work in progress. 

Drop off time is going significantly better.  I'm making an effort to get him there early enough to play for a bit before the bell rings and as long as that happens he's going into the classroom without a problem.  I'm making an effort?  I have no trouble getting out of the house on time.  I do not comprehend small creatures that hold up socks like they've never seen them before and stare at them for ten minutes.  And then bitch at me because we're not at the playground early enough. 

I've moved up my warning times for getting dressed, etc.  Let's say that.  We're mostly successful. 

....sock?....

Max is unoffically in a social skills group one morning a week and he has been enjoying it.  He's on task with all of the games they're playing, reaffirming that we were probably not wrong to drop the IEP, but he's enjoying the time with the smaller group of kids. 

Writing continues to be a major problem.  We came up with a few ideas and The Teacher has backed  way off a lot of her expectations (Max's spelling, though, is fantastic, which makes me very proud).  In the meantime, we're starting to work on touch typing with him with the expectation that we'll get him on a modified plan in a year or two so that he can predominently keyboard rather than write in the classroom. 

It was a mostly positive meeting.  I decided not to ask for another scheduled meeting, since I obviously will sound the alarm if I'm worried.  I'm looking forward to the end of the semester, though.  This has been a stressful one. 

As for the Goblin, I finally screwed up my courage and got on the phone with the school district about evaluating her for kindergarten.  To my tremendous delight I learned that the evaluation will take place next summer.  I was worried that it would be soon and she would bomb but then make all this progress, but apparently they have thought this all through.  We're on the list and will be contacted in May about setting up the evaluation.  The more time passes the more sure I am that kindergarten is going to be the right choice for her.  I'd forgotten until today that about a year ago, before the accident, Julia was evaluated for a longitudinal study and found at that time to be about a year ahead on all accounts.  She'll get there again. 

I'm feeling generally settled with everything.  We had a good Halloween.  Paul held us back to only three nights of trick-or-treating (my enthusiasm for this holiday knows no bounds; Paul is more measured).  Max was a diamondback rattlesnake.  Julia was a cat.  A particular cat from our clinic in fact, although I wasn't quite true to life (I wouldn't let her be a pregnant cat).  Paul's students dressed up as...Paul. 

It's been a pretty good couple of weeks. 

Comments

[Mary_Flashlight]

When I was in HS, my English teacher junior year wore a black skirt, black shirt, black tights, white athletic socks scrunched down, and white Reeboks. Daily. Sometimes the shirt/skirt had a pattern, but it was always the same idea. I dressed up as her 2 Halloweens in a row.

One of the Chemistry instructors always wore a short sleeved white dress shirt, khaki pants, and 4 colored pens (always in the same order Red, Green, Blue, Black, probably because ROYGBIV) in the shirt pocket. Something like half of every class dressed up like him. On Halloween (and ONLY on Halloween), he wore a golf shirt and jeans.