First week of School!

We had a great first week of school! Caleb is back into the swing of things. He quite amazed his teachers at how much he'd grown intellectually over the summer. He even began some more general ed. by wanting to take part in the Spanish Class and of course gym (which Daddy is now his teacher for). As for the school fight, it truly has helped to know my rights! They can NOT change his IEP or any type of schooling plan if I don't agree. I have made my presence known this whole week; popping in at different times to make sure he has his normal teacher and is in his normal classroom (the resource--special ed--room). I just want to encourage all who read this to google the special ed. laws in your state. Go over them with a fine tooth comb :) Here in Michigan, the schools CANNOT deny services due to funding, nor can they change a child's individualized education plan without the parent's okay. Basically, they can do nothing without the parent's consent. If they try to, contact the state, an advocate, and the schoolboard. Your child has the right to a free and appropriate education (FERPA) in the school district you live in. For my son, since he is doing so well right where he's at, his least restrictive environment (LRE) is the resource room at the general ed. school. They cannot even begin to say it should be the autism classroom all of the time. Best wishes to a happy, fun school year!

Back to the School Fight...ugh...

Unfortunately, we're back in the fight for my son's schooling. Our new Superintendent doesn't want to have the elementary Special Ed. teacher tied to her room due to having Caleb most of the day (3 days a week), and is thus trying to muscle us out of what Caleb's IEP says. After already having a conversation with her, I can see that she has no intention of giving in. Thus...without some divine intervention....we will be doing a lot of fighting! Thankfully, I now know my way around an IEP. I now know that Caleb's current IEP MUST be in place when school starts (by MI law). I also know that services cannot be cut due to funding/lack thereof reasons. In addition, if the IEP states that a child is to be in a special ed. classroom, as opposed to a gen. ed or other setting, then it must be in place. I plan on talking to this superintendent again tomorrow, and if nothing changes I'll be on the phone with board members, possibly an advocate, etc. If all else fails, all 5 of my children will go somewhere else within county. Let's see how that affects their precious budget!

Our New Puppy!

We've found our puppy! Caleb is thrilled! He finds everything the puppy does hilarious. The great thing about getting the puppy is that he now is totally interested in other animals. He now notices the cats we've had for years, and tries to get them to do similar things as the dog. I woke up this morning to, "Come back kitty!" as he chased them around the yard. Then later he ran in yelling, "band-aid, band-aid..." as I assume his playing didn't go so well :) Caleb even spent a few hours watching the chickens at Great-Grandma's house as he plopped himself right down next to the fence talking to the chickens. He is TOTALLY into animals right now! Here are a few pics of our new puppy!

** On the biomedical note, we've also discovered we need to be treating Caleb with homeopathy for parasites (as I'm assuming he picked up from the dog). Once we started the remedy for worms, his mood again improved amazingly. **

Looking for a Dog for Caleb

Caleb's convinced us that we need to revisit the idea of getting a dog soon. Everywhere we go he gravitates towards the dogs (and them to him) and he finds everything they do so fun and amusing! Yesterday at a graduation party he was feeding the big dog cookies and fruit. He's even taken to trying to elicit the same dog responses out of our cats, only to rush in saying "I need a band-aid". Cats just don't like to play rough :) So, here we go on our search for the "perfect dog"....

On a side note, I couldn't believe the changes I saw in comparing last years' grad parties to this year's parties. Caleb now rarely gets a second glance from being "different". He now blends in more and more with the other kids. Now, I think he may just pass for "quirky". It's kind of nice to be able to just let him play, and not have to worry that he's into something, bothering someone, or throwing a big fit. Thank you God for the little blessings!

*Pics are from fishing and the carousel ride a week ago.** We're already into full summer mode!

Parents Ratings of Most Beneficial Treatments in Autism

I found this link to Parents Ratings of Behavioral Effects of Biomedical Interventions very helpful and highly useful, especially for skeptics who wonder whether biomedical treatment works. Here's the link: http://www.autism.com/treatable/form34qr.htm . Many of the things that we've found helpful, others also found helpful. Parents know best! Take a look at how many drugs (the most pushed by many mainstream doctors) parents found actually WORSENED behavior. Yet, see how dietary changes, simple supplements, and other biomedical treatments were rated as helping children "get better".

Back in the Swing of Spring

It's been so beautiful lately that I've forgotten to update on my blog! Caleb's been very even-keeled, and thus has made life infinitely easier. He still has his moments of mood issues, but they are no where near as severe as a year ago. We occasionally do Melatonin at night if mood slips, and it picks it up considerably. Otherwise, I just do a general gummy vitamin every day, and give a well-balanced diet (not even necessarily gluten free anymore). We are looking forward to summertime as a family which is Caleb's favorite time of year.

I included a pic of Caleb coloring Easter Eggs this year. He thoroughly enjoyed coloring all of his eggs blue (his latest favorite color)! He understands the calendar so well now, and anticipates upcoming events, like Easter. After every event, he'll tell me what's next, like: "Easter's over, next is Bumpa and Joel's birthday." Thank you Lord for the little improvements!

The Development of Empathy

I visited Caleb's new class yesterday. I am very impressed with the teacher, as I get to know her better and watch her in action. She has infinite patience! However, I'm a bit disappointed that the classroom is so much set up like his pre-primary impaired classroom. I was hoping for a similar set-up to his last class...that is more like a school classroom, but with a few centers too. Because of this, we've decided to up his days at regular education (the special ed. classroom) to 3. Thus he'll go to this new ASD classroom only 2 days out of the week.

The class itself has only 4 students. The boy similar in ability to Caleb was absent that day, but the 2 other children were very clearly lower ability and high needs were there. That day, I got to witness something that truly brought tears to my eyes and a sweet smile to my heart :) One of the high needs students, I'll label "B." was having a day full of meltdowns. He spent most of the morning in his tent with earmuffs to keep out the noise, and a vibrating pillow to help calm him. After lunch, Caleb, the teacher, and I came back to the classroom and found B. sitting at the beanbag area. As I talked to the teacher, Caleb went over and laid next to B. on the beanbags. He gently took B.'s hand, and rubbed it as he smiled at B (and B. smiled back). They stayed in that position for several minutes. It was as if Caleb was saying, "I've been there..I feel for you!" We all marveled at the empathy and care shown between the 2 boys. No one "gets it" like they do! No matter what others may diagnose as lacking in social ability, they both proved otherwise in one small moment! After a bit, a staff member tried to get B's attention for something else, and he once again broke into a large tantrum. Caleb calmly got up and went to the lego table to free play. He wasn't phased by the tantrums one bit! It helped me really internalize that education is more than academics. No one could have reproduced this social experience of empathy by mere teaching techniques. It came from feeling a connection to another child who deals with what you deal with. It made me very glad that I have tried to do both worlds for Caleb...the autistic world, and the neurotypical world. Hopefully, he gets the best of both! Everyone needs to be able to relate to another person when it comes to struggles that we go through. Caleb and B. are no different!

**The pics are from Caleb's 8th birthday that he just celebrated last week. He loved his new Lego Toy Story & Lego Star Wars sets! **