I still remember the first day we gave him a medication, it was a low dose, but the Doctor said we would see it work right away, it didn’t need time to build a tolerance. That first day he cleaned the room he shared with his brother by himself with no additional reminders. He was actually focused and stayed on task until the end of the project!
I have always told myself that I would do what each kid needed, even if that was different for each child. This year, for a time, we had kids in both public school and homeschool. I got to experience that choice and I was surprised at how it felt. For my public school student it was a drastic change. He struggled, which made watching the transition even harder for me. There was no cheers when the bus arrived each morning for him.
the tools we had developed when they were a preschooler have been outgrown. Their triggers and struggles have changed; they need more support with social skills. They are also now more capable of being responsible for their own reactions.
Getting an IEP for my autistic son was a nightmare, it included a denial and an advocate. His needs don’t show up accurately in the testing environment because he is a good reader and has a great memory. We tried applying a second time after we had his official Autism diagnosis and it was uphill battle because their previous testing showed no need. Eventually we got one only to have it reduced the next year. He was thriving, but he was thriving only because of the IEP accommodations. We knew he would not be able to adjust to a normal classroom environment.
A Sensory Diet is activities we can do at home to help him regulate their atypical need for sensory input. When you see special-needs kids rocking back and forth, banging into things and people, or flapping their hands, those are often signs that the kid is attempting (in socially awkward ways) to get sensory input that their brain is craving but isn’t getting.
