In So Many Words

As I reflect on the first half of the summer, I am overwhelmed (in a good way!) with how free from worry it has been so far. In the past, I have often dreaded the arrival of summer, with its lack of structure and my anxiety about the next school year. I am so thankful for a number of factors that have brought much more peace to this summer than to previous ones:

1. How well Michael has responded to the medication we started this spring. Notwithstanding a handful of difficult instances, he has been tremendously flexible and emotionally regulated.
2. Having the same babysitter and summer program (and even van driver) as last year.
3. Being able to attend therapy sessions on a more flexible schedule so Michael isn’t overloaded but doesn’t lose ground.
4. Being able to bring out the summer packet without Michael falling apart and completely refusing to do it.
5. Making fun trips to Hersheypark and Michael being tall enough to ride any roller coaster or ride he wants to.
6. The fact that we have a solid IEP with a good behavior plan in place, as well as a gifted evaluation scheduled for the fall.

I am also greatly excited about the opportunity to attend the National Autism Conference the first week of August. Between the fee for PA families being just $25 for the entire four days, my brother-in-law’s family allowing me to stay with them in State College, my boss allowing me to take the week off and Michael getting into the Children’s Institute taking place at the conference site, it has all worked out incredibly well.

There are a lot of great speakers coming, and I am especially looking forward to the seminars on motor planning and on adapted physical education, both topics with which I am not as familiar. For anyone who is interested, both handouts and video of some sessions will be available within the next few weeks.

Of course, there are always things I can find to worry about, but I am choosing to focus on how many wonderful things have been happening for our family.

What are you thankful for today?

This month, Thankful Thursday is being hosted by Spiritually Unequal Marriage.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve thought about things I wanted to write about or share here and just haven’t been able to get them down on paper, so to speak. Looking back, I realize that I let myself be completely overtaken by my anxieties about Michael starting kindergarten.

While trying to be proactive about the implementation of his IEP, I seem to have alienated the learning support teacher, who is his case manager, and couldn’t get anything out of the classroom teacher other than, “He’ll be fine.” Suffice it to say, that made me even more frustrated. I finally got to talk directly to the speech therapist last Thursday and we were able to connect really well.

It turns out the SLP has the most contact with him anyway, other than the classroom teacher. She has also been gradually talking to each of the special teachers (gym, art, etc) about what information to write on the daily report and giving them some ideas about how to help him understand what they are teaching or directing him to do. I felt a hundred times better after talking to her, and I am also seeing that the classroom teacher is beginning to understand how he takes in information and handles difficult or confusing situations.

Since then, I have been feeling so much better about school and have a lot more peace about everything. As things come up, I am taking note of them and also the different solutions we come up with so I will be even more prepared the next time we write an IEP. (Yes, I know we can change the existing one and we will if it becomes necessary.)

And I even pulled myself together enough to schedule respite for tomorrow night so that hubby and I can get out of the house for a little while! We are hoping to see the play at our church if there are still tickets available, but a movie will be good too if they are sold out. Unfortunately we didn’t know last weekend if we could make it, and his meeting last night went so late that when he made it from the prayer center to the main building, they weren’t selling them anymore. Either way, I’m sure we will have a good time.