#Autism: 9-Day School Update On Emma
Emma’s first day back-to-school was on February 15th(Friday) and on the 4th day which was the 21st(18th was no school), I got a phone call from her Teacher just to give me an update of how she’s been doing. She said Emma had short outbursts which only lasted 3-4 minutes or so and wouldn’t do her school work right away. There were times a councilor or the Teacher assistant would take her out of the class just to get her to calm down during those 3-4 minutes. She said Emma is such a sweet girl but for those 4 days she was still trying to cope with the routine of a mainstream class. We expected this to happen of course since it’s a new environment and with a mainstream class of more than 10 kids during this evaluation process, she’s not getting a one-on-one face/floor time treatment. This adds to her frustrations coz she can’t grasp the instructions given to her that fast compare to other kids her age so all that emotions get compounded to a meltdown. Still though, she was doing much better than we’ve expected coz meltdowns usually last 30-45 minutes if we’re lucky. She was also able to sit through group reading and music times. 2 things that would usually set off her sensory problems.
I let her stay home on the 25th coz she was still getting over the cold that started last Friday. She went back to school on Tuesday(26th) and at the end of the day her Teacher called to inform me what a wonderful day Emma had. She also had a good day last Friday(22nd) but she forgot to call me about it. She said she came to school, set her jacket and bag aside, went to breakfast, bathroom, and did her work for the rest of the day with no issues. She also said she even got the courage to stay in front of the class and pretend to be the Teacher pointing at the stuff on the board.
Yesterday, she came home with a card praising her for a great progress and for having 2 great days on the 27th and 28th. She also lost her 1 front tooth. The one tooth that Daddy had been wanting to pull out so badly, HAHA! I just talked to her Teacher a few minutes ago and she informed me that Emma had a good day today too. Emma just had such a wonderful week. This is day 9 of her evaluation process which I think lasts for 60 days. Routine, that’s very important to Autistic children like Emma. This routine also involves doing homework that she and I finally had a breakthrough yesterday. We got through doing homework without the usual 35 minute meltdown first. I asked her teacher today how she is with socialization coz while she has no problem being around kids she doesn’t actually communicate that easily and more often than not will isolate herself at a certain point. Her Teacher agreed when I described that scenario but she’s been encouraging her to talk to the kids more and Emma has done so a few times. There are a couple of kids too who would hold Emma’s hands when they go to the playground to play during their break. One of today’s playtime was at the “kitchen” area of the classroom and I guess Emma had fun playing and communicating with her classmates.
By the way, this week I made a daily visual chart list for Emma to help her understand the sequences of her day. I asked her teacher for a schedule breakdown, then I made a visual board of the breakdown so Emma would transition from task to task much easier. Each task has a small box for the check mark after they’re done. I’ll take a picture of it sometime so I could show what it looks like.
Weekend break and then another week. Here’s to more wonderful school days for Emma-Boo whom truth be told is doing much better that Mommy, 😀 .
