Comments on: Try This Tuesday #17: Brainstorming

By: Julie

Julie — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 04:50:48 +0000

What an awesome mom and advocate you are!!!

By: starrlife

starrlife — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 23:03:45 +0000

Yeah- what is it about elem. art? It is so rote? I spoke up about it in an IEP meeting- how is it possible to be unsatisfactory in Art and why aren't the goals of the Art class more specific so I can understand what that means!

By: Trish

Trish — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 22:28:19 +0000

@Amazing Grace – I wish I could hire you to run my meetings!

@Jenny – it's a slow process, but I am pressing on. I try not to get too worked up about things needing to happen overnight.

@Spring – thank you for your kind words. I am sure that you will be teaching us a lot as you learn more about dealing with multiple conditions.

By: Spring

Spring — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 17:22:48 +0000

Love this idea, posting solutions to problems.

While my daughter's primary diagnoses is mental illness, she has more autistic-type behaviors than I realized at first. I'm thankful for Trish and others here at 5mfsn for alerting me to that. (My daughter is on the spectrum, PDD-NOS, but we've been focusing on her mental illness). Anyway, I thank you. I have learned a lot here.

By: Jenny

Jenny — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 16:07:47 +0000

I'm so glad you noticed these items on the reports that were sent home and were able to address them with his teachers/therapists! Hopefully, improvements have been made and Michael is able to feel successful when completing one of these types of assignments.

By: Amazing_Grace

Amazing_Grace — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 15:51:11 +0000

What needs to be in the IEP- a list of things that need to be in your child's IEP.

By: Another Piece of the Puzzle » Try This Tuesday: Do You Have Something To Share?

Another Piece of the Puzzle » Try This Tuesday: Do You Have Something To Share? — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 12:52:51 +0000

[...] TTT#17: Brainstorming [...]

By: Trish

Trish — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 12:50:39 +0000

@Maddy – Yes, this regular ed thing seems to be an uphill battle. You'd think they've never seen a child with ASD before.

@Cale – I agree that creative assignments should be given leeway, especially if they aren't willing to help him come up with ideas. I keep talking to them about written directions, and his shadow has a white board to write them down, but he complains that she is "interrupting him."

For first grade, I am going to insist on written directions being provided, especially for homework. (He has been reading for a couple of years, so that's not an issue.)

By: Cale

Cale — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 05:47:48 +0000

It is unfortunate that they are preventing Michael from expressing his creative talents by restricting him to such a limited scope. I could never understand why art classes, particularly in elementary school, would attempt to force kids to operate within such confined parameters.

That said, the reexplanation seems as if it would have been intuitive, had the teacher known anything about ASDs, for the reasons mentioned (literal interpretation and difficulty with verbal instruction). I think the way they worked this out for my brother was by printing him a set of instructions which were laid out in a much more detailed manner (though this was only useful once he was reading; I'll have to ask my mother about the procedure used beforehand), and which he could consult throughout the class and ask questions about throughout the period.
Anyway, I hope this new brainstorming plan will work out better for him.

By: Maddy

Maddy — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 05:23:39 +0000

Sounds like the teachers need a crash course! Ideation is a hard nut to crack around here too. Fortunately my two are both in special education classes where the teachers have years of experience and dedication [and a lot of tricks up their sleeves too!]

Brainstorming seems like a great place to start to me.

Best wishes