Well it has taken some getting used to on all fronts, but I do think it is an improvement, so far anyway. This is BOCES,
Ash started school on the 9th of this month. They start a few days later, end a few days later, and don't have the massive number of inservice days that the district does.
Just two weeks after he started we had the Fall IEP meeting. The state requires two, one in the fall and one in the spring. His new teacher is totally juiced about him. First off he is the most amiable and well behaved kid in his class (of 4), and she believes that this is already having a good effect on the other three. Then to quote her, "He really does have total recall!". She found this out working with flash cards and a dry erase board. She thought the word 'refigerator' was too long for him and by the time she had refiled it he had written it down, as well as the next word which was 'unicorn'. Then he refiled 'unicorn' while she was gaping at the board, and he was poking her saying 'unicorn' (which is a word he knows from his own flash cards). He will say words he has figured out how to say, some sounds are easier for him than others. In this case he was trying to prompt her for the next word, he does that at home all the time. This did allow us to emphasize that for him treating words as independent units works better than sounding out, or phonics.
They are working on trying to sort out which words that he writes he actually associates with a meaning. A daunting task. I think it is more than we know because he spending more and more time pouring over his books rather than just copying out of them. They are quickly sorting out which worksheets he has seen before as he will fill them out quick as anything if he knows them. They also discovered that they have to take the cards out of magazines since otherwise he will take them out himself, fill them out, and line them up in a row.
He loves the pool. Since it is a theraputic pool he doesn't even come home reeking of chlorine. This is the first time he has ever had access to a pool on a regular basis, he goes four times a week. The director of the facility feels that learning to swim is an important life skill (in this area it is, a great lake, a biggish lake and a multitude of smaller bodies of water, rivers, and streams), so she tries to make sure that every student in the students with disabilities facility learns how to swim. So this is multiplely good for our lad. They quickly learned that in the gym as long as he is bouncing he is a happy boy. Since they have a trampoline they have learned why Ash's independent aide is a needful thing! He can be up on the thing and bouncing before they get the door closed if there is nobody to hang onto him. So they are going to keep the aide at least until after Christmas. They do eventually want to be done with the aide, but they are not willing to run risks.
Naturally practically the first person he made friends with was the biggest scariest security guard. Think Wesley Snipes as Blade, only he talks less and growls more. One of the things they do the first week is introduce all the kids to the security guards (parents got to meet them on the introductory tour), so they know the guards and the guards know them. Ash clapped eyes on this guy and immediately ran up and gave him a hug and looked up at him and said Hi!. The guy smiled at him, which just impressed the heck out of the teacher. Ash always gives this particular guard a hug and a Hi! every time he sees him. Our lad just liked him on sight. When I said hi the guy just nodded and sort of rumbled, maybe I should have hugged him?
NightMist