Educating the educators

Javier survived his first week of school in the mainstream kindergarten. He was attending a mainstream childcare-cum-kindergarten since he was 2 1/2 years and we decided to transfer him to a kindergarten-only preschool for the last school term. We made this decision before we learned of his condition so I was a nervous and anxious mess just before his first day. Since it is a kindergarten-only school, this means there is no extra 'care' routine given (i.e. feeding, toileting), unlike in his previous childcare where those things were routinely given.

I was with him on his first day of school and I prayed long and hard to St. Jude Thaddeus (Patron Saint of Desperate Cases) so that Javier will be able to behave and pay attention. Unfortunately, all my prayer intentions went out of St Jude's window. Javier did NOT sit still and he refused to participate in any of the activities! The teacher was not saying anything but I felt there were a thousand thoughts racing in her head and I had a bad feeling that if she can only kick us out of her school, she would have kicked us out right there and then.

But there is a silver lining to every cloud. If there is anything that Javier did well that day, at least he ate his snack properly and independently.

Recess time

I can eat this all by myself!

In the afternoon, I gave a "backgrounder" document-slash-lecture to educate his teacher and the principal on the approaches they can do with my son so they can manage his behaviour in the classroom. Up to that instance, his teacher still had that smiling-but-worried face and I assured her that although my son has that condition, his previous teacher never complained about him being disruptive or physically violent to other kids. I assured them that my expectations from my child is very different from the expectations of other parents. I stressed to them that my strongest reason for putting my son in a mainstream kindergarten is to expose him to typical children so that he can learn something from them.

The modeling approach works with him and for those who are familiar with this approach, you'd know that for it to work, you need a good 'model' to follow. My good models would be the typical kids since they have no social and sensory differences and I believe that my son will learn from his exposure with them.

Javier has been in that kindy for one week now and I am a bit relieved that to date, we have not been summoned to the principal's office yet.