Progress made, November 2, 2010.

Time for an update, I know it's been a very long time since I have really posted anything here. To anyone checking in, I am sorry. To my few (1?) follower, you truly understand how complicated this is. I have more than one blog, this is the only one for this reason and of course this is important, but I usually keep everything I need for this stuff in my folders or fresh on my mind.

But, this isn't about excuses, this is about updates!

Nickolas
Nickolas is doing, okay. He has been grounded now for about a month after I found out he had been lying to me about his medication. Nick now attends Sebastian's appointments specifically for the "special playtime" part. He gets 10 minutes, Sebastian gets 5 minutes of it and he totally eats it up, since what he wants is attention, constant attention. But, it's nice to see him happy and smiling.

We have still been struggling pretty hard with mood adjustments, not calming down and going to his room which is his place to calm down. He often gets overwhelmed pretty easily when it comes to something he doesn't want to hear or do, which often ends in an outburst, tears, screaming and throwing/kicking of things. The boys have a nice hole in their wall, which needs to still be patched up...

He is noticing the difference his medication makes for him, but admits that about the time he comes home, he notices it tapering off and it becomes harder to control these emotions. I need to speak to Beth (his therapist) about this, he has an appointment on Friday at 11 a.m. with her.

I am happy too, to report that Nickolas despite not being on his medication made A Honor roll once again. This is amazing, I knew he could do it he is a VERY smart kid, through and through and I see nothing but good things for him ahead!

We just wish that he could take everything he learns in therapy and use it during the times (and constantly) towards his behaviors. He is too emotional and too easily agitated by things other children would take in stride, granted he is the older brother of a child with special needs, but he has to learn at 10 years old (almost 11) that he needs to come into himself too. He is dealing with other kids picking on him at school, but this has died down now that they know they cannot excite him in this way to get him mostly in trouble, but he had always struggled at home, and his biggest thing although not mentioned previously in this post is yelling at adults. This of course is not acceptable, but sometimes he makes his own rules. He does not need to disciple his brother, which he TRIES to do, this is not his job, but it's kind of what I call an "mini-adult complex" which, he is nothing of the sort and needs to learn this, now.

Sebastian
Sebastian has been struggling recently. Mostly the school has been having problems containing him, but I have not heard anything about him escaping through the front doors of the school, within the past 2 weeks. I am hearing mostly that after lunch, he is done with the day and ends up in the Principal's office, she doesn't mind she says he usually ends up curling himself in a ball and going to sleep he LIKES the OFFICE...

This I can understand, after 3-4 hours of school to an autistic child, this is very overwhelming and very, very hard to concentrate. The office is a lot slower paced than a classroom full of 23 other students, he is getting overwhelmed and shuts down as any autistic child does, this is a given and something all parents with an autistic child deals with, daily.

He also has had a few incidents of pulling his pants down in class, this I don't know what THAT is. He does not see this at home, nor does he see it in anything he watches, this may just be one of those random things we cannot explain.

Tomorrow is Sebastian's therapy, which I will discuss these things with Stacy (Sebastian's therapist) and figure out what else we can do for him while at school, we are hoping to maybe get a Teacher's assistant, who is specifically there for Sebastian and no one else.

After the therapist is Sebastian's case conference. We have been waiting for this since the first week of school, to determine what is best for him. According to the paperwork that I have, it seems as if they are going to discuss putting him in for half days, giving him both speech and occupational therapies at the school and it says "other eval" which is beyond me. I hope they do not mean another evaluation for autism spectrum disorders, we just did this in March and found out 100% in May that Sebastian is autistic.

I will not let them force me to do anything, I am walking in there with Sebastian's best interests in mind, no one will sway me from this. what works for HIM and what's best for HIM, not what's best for the SCHOOL. Half days, I do agree with and is something that is doable. The speech and occupational therapies, awesome they are done at the school and I don't have to worry about Medicaid being cut off and something out of mine (or even Sebastian's) control. Another evaluation, there is no NEED for this, this is likely something they WANT. I asked Ms. Wolfe (SpeEd teacher) about this, she says that people like Stacy can only do a "partial" test and not a State specified test. Well, wouldn't you think if he qualifies under a "partial" test that the "full" test isn't going to show anything different?

Anyway, this guy is busy and I promise as I have always promised, to keep what's best for him in reach. I am excited to see that there will be an autism specialist on hand at the meeting as-well as the speech and occupational therapists! What I don't like is that the counselor is going to be there. I don't trust this guy, personally. He is stuffy and doesn't understand what autism is in a 5 year old (now 6). Letting him run down the hall to a class or not understanding why he MISSES days or is LATE TO CLASS 98% of the time, seriously? Pull out your book, refresh your courses because in your position your guidelines are always changing... I think it's about time, I will educate them all if I must!

Half days, will also cover my bum for people like this counselor, who think it's just me fiddle-farting around. I invite anyone to come, tomorrow morning and get Sebastian to school before 7:50 in the morning. Care to take me on!?!?