Last week, we had a parent-teacher meeting with Javier's mainstream teacher and we were caught by surprise by what she said.
I admit that before this meeting, I was bracing myself for the worst since I do not have any idea exactly how he behaves in his mainstream school. There were incidents of tantrums out of separation anxiety and also of him throwing a plastic telephone toy at one of his classmates because he was upset. Predictably, another area of concern is his "developing" social skill since he is still not able to engage in a sustained back and forth conversation.
Other than that, his teacher was happy to inform us that he is thriving well in his mainstream kindergarten. He is able to sit still in class and is not disruptive. He is also able to follow instructions and respond to simple questions. He is able to write simple strokes and he is proficient in reading. The most wonderful thing he's done in class is when he initiated to sing the Deepavali song in front of his classmates. His teacher remarked that he remembers the lyrics and movements to the song and he was not shy when he was singing. His memory is very good and he remembers all the names of his classmates. Whew. I thought I was dreaming... I have to admit that all these remarks are quite unexpected, but it is a welcome development for us.
Javier also had his speech therapy assessment and the therapist was not able to tell us exactly about my son's differences based on her assessment. While he did well for some items, he was behind in some aspects. As I watched my son progress through the 2-hour assessment, I was also feeling how exhausted he became as the questions/tasks became more complex. I can't help but think to myself if we are over-analyzing today's children... On top of that, I was also given some homework so I can do some speech therapy with him at home. It's a pretty comprehensive list of things to do, enough to keep us busy to while the school holidays away.
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