JJ's Home Therapy and K-5 mainstreaming (More on my son Part 9)
Well as stated in the last composition, JJ had been accepted for the PDD Wavier program to receive in home therapy. Things started off slow and a little difficult as JJ got used to this new schedule and understand that he would be during some work at home and not always playing or just watching the Wiggles, or other cartoons and movies he liked. After a while he came around and once he accepted it. The therapists that have been working with JJ have all been great. Once a month the therapy coordinator for ATC (Autism Therapy Center) evaluates his progress once a month. During these evaluations we tried taking JJ back to the ATC office, but never made a lot of progress. He did not want to behave, and focus on the tasks at hand. The coordinator suggested conducting these evaluations in the location of the therapy, our home. We readily agreed to give this a try and the difference was like night and day. He paid attention, focused, followed instructions, few to no outburst etc... Eventually, before the end of this program, we are going to transition him back to the ATC office for the monthly evaluations.

Well after 2/3 of the way through JJ's second year in ECD, the idea came up in one of his IEP meetings that we try to prepare JJ for K-5. We decided that about 9 weeks before the end of the school year, JJ would stay at school an extra hour and participate with the current K-5 class during their lunch/recess period and their math session. His ECD teacher volunteered to use most of her lunch/break time between the morning ECD class (the one JJ was in) and her afternoon class to attend the K-5 time with JJ, for a few weeks. Then for the last 4 weeks, she would not attend and the K-5 teacher would have him like any other student in K-5. The first couple of weeks, this was rough for JJ. One of the biggest problems was his diet. At the this time his diet consisted of the following:
Entrees:
- chicken nuggets
- fish sticks
- bread
- graduates spaghetti meals

Sides/Snacks:
- french fries
- tater tots
- pudding
- yogurt
- cookies
- crackers
- fruit snacks
- and his favorite, ( we call it the ultimate bribe) m&m's

Another major problem JJ had was focusing on eating when in a room with lots of people without something to expressly focus his attention on. If he has a TV of portable DVD player playing something he likes, he has no problem eating. But he tends to get a little agitated and stims when a lot of people are around all talking in different conversation. This is especially true in loud places like restaurants or cafeterias. So a few weeks ago we started incorporating food therapy in his home therapy sessions. It has worked wonders, we can now add, grapes, corn, peas, and peanut butter & jelly sandwiches to his menu. Giving him something else he likes to focus on is his key here. The TV.

We also have included peer time in his summer therapy sessions. He has a cousin only 6 weeks younger he sees fairly often and the other cousin who is 1 year younger. Also, a couple of times a week his friend, a peer from his 2 years in ECD, comes to the house and provides a model for him to follow during his therapy, with a focus on social skills while the peer is there. We are so grateful to Jimmy's parents for continuing to allow their son to interact with JJ over the summertime. Unfortunately, Jimmy will be attending a different school next year and will not be in K-5 with JJ. I find this to be sad and hope it is not too big an obstacle for JJ to overcome. The good news is he has another peer he gets along with pretty good, who will be moving up with him. So hopefully it will ease it some.

I am very nervous about JJ being mainstreamed into K-5. I just want the best for him and know it will be possibly his biggest challenge yet. His ECD teacher promised to check in on him from time to time, and we have already met and talked to his upcoming K-5 teacher. But I am sure as many of you can imagine, I still worry about his adjustment into the more organized and disciplined class of K-5. We have a parent information night coming up and plan to attend and discuss everything again with his teacher. We are currently planning on calling an IEP meeting after the second week of school to discuss how the mainstreaming is going, and review his goals, which were set at the end of last school year. Since he has received so much therapy over the summer and made some great progress I am pretty sure a lot of goals will have to be re-adjusted. And this pretty much brings us up to where we are now. Thanks, and I hope you enjoyed the reading.