Jake started going to his new school

Jake started going to the new school this week. Earlier then expected and overall, I am very pleased with the change.

The teacher is a guy, which is a rare commodity in the world of special education. He embraces technology, prefers to communicate with parents via E-mail. Wow, wait until he finds out what an email junkie I am…our communication will be frequent if not daily! Oh, he likes the color purple, and wears purple T-shirts everyday. I think he needs to set up his own IEP goal: I will wear non purple t-shirts 20% of the time with minimum reminder. :-) Jake’s classroom Para told me she has 19 years experience working with children with special needs, she is currently getting her master in child psychology. She is young and energetic. She told me she doesn’t want Jake to use the straw cup I sent to school, instead she wants him to practice using an open cup; I am liking this lady already!

Jake has to walk everywhere in school with his walker. I hope by doing so, physically - he can build up his endurance and strength; mentally - he can realize that he CAN be independent.

I had to switch my work schedule around in order to accommodate Jake going to the new school. My boss was very understanding, he told me I can have whatever schedule I want as long as I finish my responsibilities at work. I am grateful that he is an understanding employer, but hey, I am not a lousy employee either!

OK, back to Jake’s new school. The children in his class are mostly a few years older than Jake. I like the fact that most of them are eager to participate in classroom activities, which serve as positive role models for Jake; and from the short time that I observed the class, they seem to be very gentle to each other, which is very comforting to me, especially since Jake has almost no ability to protect himself.

That is it for now…

interesting day

Today was an interesting day.

In the morning, Jake and I went to The McCarton Center in Manhattan and had an oral motor consultation. According to the therapist who saw him, his jaws are always fixed; he won’t open his mouth big enough to brush his teeth; his tongue, lips, cheeks are very low toned; his jaws are weak especially on his left side; he has very little disassociation amongst his head, jaw, lips and tongue; and his breaths are very shallow; he can not blow bubbles, or any toy whistle or horn, etc… which by the way all of her observations were true. So I guess there was a good reason for the consultation after all. I heard from another mom that the therapists at McCarton Center specialize in oral motor, so I decided to give a try. I am still not 100% sure that any of the techniques I learned from the session will in fact help Jake but I am going to give the techniques a try. My goal is to do at least one session of oral motor activities with Jake each day. I was told that once I master the techniques, it shouldn't take longer than 10 mins for each session. So that doesn't sound too bad. In the short term, I am hoping at least he can become less orally defensive, and in the long term, I am hoping that he can produce more sounds.

So back to our interesting day today. In the afternoon, Jake was invited to the Yoga Integral Institute where Ms. Sonia Sumer was giving a week long Yoga for the Special Child^®, LLC Seven-Day Certification Course. Ms. Sonia did a demonstration of basic yoga movements with Jake in front of her class. Even though Jake needed hand over hand for all of the movements, he listened to her directions and participated to the best of his ability I think. I asked Ms. Sonia afterwards what can Jake most benefit from doing Yoga, she said deeper breathing, increase awareness of his body, and improvement in attention and focus. All pretty good stuff. One of the OTs who attended the class said she can teach me some basic breathing techniques to work with Jake, so I am looking forward to that.

Ok, that was our day...

Summer update

Jake is out with my husband, I think it is the second time they went out without me. I am enjoying the time by myself. (Left, Jake is practicing walking with Kevin-PT).

I am a little bit disappointed at Jake’s summer program at his school. His teacher from last year who was absolutely wonderful decided to take the summer off; his regular class room aid who had a special bond with Jake is working at a different class during the summer, so now Jake has a new aid. Everything just seems a bit disorganized at this point. Plus, since he will be going to a new school starting September, I feel like it is kind of pointless to get him all situated with summer staff.

I am going to visit the new school next week, but from what I have heard, I am expecting great things. I was told that there will be regular interactions with typical kindergartners; there will be kids who are cognitively higher. I have also heard great things about the teacher. It was my request to Jake’s current school that they re-evaluate his placement, and I am glad that they made the change as quickly as they did.

With the change of school, I am anticipating that I will have to re-adjust my work schedule in order to accommodate the change in transportation needs. At this point, I am not sure how my employer will react, but I am going to have to do what I have to do.

Last week we also looked at new augmentative communication software called Picture wordPerfect. Jake’s speech therapist who is very experienced with ACC recommended and feels strongly that this software is long term solution for Jake. I am going to go with her recommendation after all, she was the one who helped us to set up Jake’s current communication platform on his Mini-Merc, and Jake has proved that he can communicate given the right tools.