Comments on: Try This Tuesday #44: Student Orientation

By: Trish

Trish — Wed, 20 May 2009 15:08:05 +0000

Wow, thanks to everyone for their additional ideas, and a special thanks to Amazing Grace for sharing her wealth of knowledge with us here!!

By: Territory Mom

Territory Mom — Wed, 20 May 2009 04:00:35 +0000

This is very helpful. We have an IEP meeting this Thursday. My little guy is in a special ed. class for autism. It seems like total chaos, but I think I can use some of the things on the list. IEPs can be intimidating. Thank you for the education. This is so important.

By: LynnEnsMom

LynnEnsMom — Wed, 20 May 2009 00:20:21 +0000

This is good stuff Trish and I will surely refer to your list as Little Miss gets older. Middle School is just around the corner!

By: ShashK

ShashK — Tue, 19 May 2009 21:11:31 +0000

I’m gonna ping this, because I have a few things I’d like to suggest/clarify that I do for my ASD son. One of which is the schoolbooks thing; most counties/commonwealths will allow an child with an active IEP to take a set of schoolbooks home (parent usually signs them out) to use for homework. It cuts down on the amount of items the child is responsible for and has to carry throughout the day.

As far as PE, most schools will allow children with an IEP to waiver out of Physical Education in the higher grade levels (Middle & High School). However, if you are heck bent on getting a Regular/General Diploma (which we are), you can find out of your county/commonwealth/state has an Online Virtual School. If so, then your child can sign up for, and take classes through that school while simultaneously attending regular classes. We have done Personal Fitness and Life Management classes during the past summers (while in Middle School) and they have counted toward his High School credit. I’m sure I’m not in the minority, but I want my ASD child nowhere near a locker room if I can avoid it. This is one way to do that.

Hope this helps! My post is forthcoming too, I guess we all have been to IEP meetings recently!

By: Sarah

Sarah — Tue, 19 May 2009 14:45:55 +0000

Wow a great article. We are about finished with school but I sure wish I had read this list years ago instead of learning the hard way! The PE lock thing was a major issue. We had wonderful staff in middle school and high school that helped, but the combination lock that had to be EXACT was impossible for my sons with their fine motor skills let alone remembering the combination. We obtained permission to go with a key lock and I safety pinned the key inside the shorts pocket and they kept the shorts in their back packs when not in PE so the key was always available. Just worked for us.

By: Barbara

Barbara — Tue, 19 May 2009 12:11:37 +0000

Excellent list. For children with mobility issues – nos. 2 and 3 could be exploded into whole new lists.

I arranged and attended my patient’s pre-visit to high school in his power mobility with the counselor and parent. They had no idea how much consideration had to be given to his different mobility. His schedule was changed to accommodate his needs prior to school starting.

By: Try This Tuesday Guest Post — Another Piece of the Puzzle

Try This Tuesday Guest Post — Another Piece of the Puzzle — Tue, 19 May 2009 12:02:43 +0000

[...] If you, like me, are already thinking ahead to back to school time and making the transition as smooth as possible, take a look at today’s Try This Tuesday. [...]

By: rickismom

rickismom — Tue, 19 May 2009 05:56:06 +0000

Thanks for this! I am printing this out so that I can adapt it to suit our needs.

By: MaddyM

MaddyM — Tue, 19 May 2009 04:18:17 +0000

My you have done your homework. There are so many things there for only children that I haven’t even considered yet as we’re in Elementary school right now. All that gym stuff! Eeek.

For little children I think the names of the teachers and their photographs might be useful as mine never remember names. They’re usually available for the school website which is handy to print out. [as much as for me as for them!]

I also arranged for a visit during the holidays so I could photo different rooms and the route so they could take along a little booklet a bit like a map to help them navigate through. The link between seeing the place and the visual reminder helped a lot.
Cheers