Hi all,

It seems there are a few of us now with problems at school - honeymoon period over!

So I thought I would just find out how everyone else is getting on?

Emma is fine in school but VERY stressed and I get it all when she gets home, shes Whiney, moaning all the time, major tantrums etc. She has problems with the feeling of her shoes on her feet - any solutions anyone?!!! I'm exhausted but trying to keep calm. Desperatly trying to ignore the bad behaviour and reward the good but its not easy, she went into school today without breakfast as she spent a hour and half crying over a bvlocked nose - grrrrrrrr

Any advise would be fab!

Cant wait for xmas hols!!!

Sara x

As my other post said we've had a bad day today but generally its been ok. Actually better than expected (my expectations were very low though:-).

Aidan is struggling with the bell though. He is stressing big time with the anticipation of it and the loudness i think does cause him distress. Also he finds lunchtime very long and he gets very tired and a bit teary towards the end (its an hour and a half cos its a big school).

He is doing very well academically, he is reading wonderfully and can construct small sentances so i'm really amazed at how fast he is progressing. I'm always gonna worry about the other stuff though.

i didn't realise how many more things there would be to stress about. oh well on and up

XX

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well weve had a few problems, but on the main Jake seems to be settling well, he doesnt read any words yet, but does know everyone in schools name.

He gets tired and ratty a lot more now at home and the smallest thing can set him off.

We had a BAD half term as he couldnt understand why he wasnt at school.

Liz

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Hello

Well it's been a bumpy couple of months.  After Sean's first session which was only until lunchtime I received a phone call in the evening requesting a meeting with the Head as to how we move forward with Sean.  We'd previously had the big transition meeting back in the summer with Ed Psych and the school and a lot of prep had gone into place with respect to getting Sean used to the idea of going to school, but how he'd react on day one was always the unknown. 

Unfortunately he'd found the morning rather stressful and after a couple of hours was really struggling, so from day two he has only been going to school for 1hr 15 mins each day which is now 1hr 20 mins.  Admittedly it has been a lot for Sean to take in - all very demanding.  To expect him to go from a free-play nursery setting to working from a visual timetable on a daily basis was a big ask.  He has lost control of his environment and to a degree has rebelled against it.  Ed Psych have the school monitoring Sean's behaviours to see if there are time slots he has trouble with or if there is a pattern to the week where is behaviour gets worse.  We had a recent review meeting and there are a lot of positives from Sean, his outbursts are not something that comes out of the blue, there are obvious reasons for his screaming/hitting, they do appear to be becoming less though and I give huge credit to the school and his teacher for being able to read Sean and understand the things that could cause a problem for him.  We review again next January - Ed Psych are collecting information to push for a Statement.

Sean does now have a one-to-one person available for him (unfortunately the previous person lined up decided to leave for another position).  Sean seems to be reacting well to this and his timetable is reduced with activities which are familiar to him.  He loves the whiteboard and is successfully utilising a Help visual instead of getting all stressed when he can't do something.  Loves to play outside, play with cars and joins in with singing and story time.  I did give the school a book "My Brother is Different" which I thought could be read to the other children to help them understand why Sean behaves the way he does.  He loves school and he thinks his teacher is wonderful.  He will actually talk about school and what he's done in that quiet time at bedtime when his brain is calming down.

He coped wonderfully with half term and I could be tempting fate but his behaviour since half term appears to have got much better and I have getting some really good reports back from the school.  Hopefully this will continue, it's all about tweaking little things for him, the one to one definitely helps, I now drop off a little later so it's a quieter calmer entry into school, his coat peg has been moved so his transition to play outside doesn't involve having to walk through two different play areas to get his coat and then come back again.

That's about it really.  We've had to play around with our working hours and family are involved in childcare because of Sean's reduced hours but we understand that this is the best for Sean and his coping ability. Small increases should eventually occur when he is comfortable with this time there.  Just spending 1hr 20 mins there is tiring for him though but he's getting better.

I'm just a little sad that this run up to Xmas is something that Sean cannot really be part of.  I wouldn't expect him to take part in any kind of Xmas event the school put on.  Guess we'll have to figure that one out.

Thanks for reading

Cheryl (mum to Sean ASD)