Thursday, September 29, 2011

Mantis on the Dais

Mantis on the Dais
Zora and I watched this mantis (unsuccessfully) hunt
a rather large grasshopper.

Sticking the camera in its face seemed to bug the mantis, and then proceeded to watch us wherever we went. I'm sure it was happy
once we left.

"shake the dickens out of it."


How to peel a head of garlic in less than 10 seconds...."shake the dickens out of it."

Monday, September 26, 2011

WSU SLH Clinic Grand Opening

After the IEP determination meeting we rushed to Wichita to see how all of the remodeling looked at the Grand Opening of the WSU Speech Language Hearing Clinic.  We have had services there for over five and a half years and it felt like a second home, and the staff is practically family.  I thought we were going to go this fall, but the school services have been good enough that we are on hold at WSU right now.  We will probably go back for summer friendship groups for Zane.  Zora graduated from services, but she might go back to be a peer model in the future.

We have seen the slow evolution over the last few years, and did many of our speech sessions amid paint fumes, sawdust, and hammering noises last semester, so we felt like we were really a part of the transformation.  We even donated our old train table when we moved, since we didn't have room in our new place.  It was hard to let go of, but I know it will be well loved.  (It will be in the waiting room, it was just stowed in the preschool room for the Grand Opening to make room)

Zane checking out a very familiar  train table.
It really was well done.  From the subtle things, like changing the therapy rooms from a bright white to a soothing mix of brown tones with variable lighting (would have been a big deal when Zane was little), to the more dramatic, like a new activity room for older kids (and adults, presumably) so they didn't have to meet in the preschool room.  There were new microphones in the rooms so the observation rooms and recordings would have better audio, and just a dramatic increase in the number of rooms.  There are also huge changes in the facilities in general, including new offices for the faculty and staff, the whole lobby area, and even the entry way doors.  (they made it a double entrance so Kansas winds and wild weather didn't cause so many issues with the doors.)

The two changes I am the most jealous of is the new, large conference room with these awesome comfy chairs.  Oh, that would have been wonderful for all the conferences and the adult education segments of Reading Explorers where we used to cram ourselves into tiny rooms.  The students also got a massive improvement to their work room.  They even have lockers now so they don't have to haul so much stuff around with them everywhere, and there is actual space to spread their work out.

I am so happy for all of them.  They so deserve to have a nice place to work.  They are an amazing group of people who do an incredibly challenging job exceptionally well.

They even updated the brochures, including a photo of one of Zane's friends and this really cute little girl.  :)
the photo in the brochure was of her first day of pre-school there

Now both of my kids star in brochures for speech-language places in town.  lol.


SpEd Determination Meeting

We had our first "official" meeting in the IEP process.  It wasn't the first meeting with his team, in fact, I think it is the third time we have met. (not to mention the many shorter, individual, communications over the weeks)

Anxiety chased away sleep most of the night.  Thankfully, my mom picked up Zora after school for an "Oma Day" so Zach could come with me to the meeting. I felt like the meeting went well and the testing results were reasonably accurate. (I would argue with some of it, but the things I would argue, they noted that the there were circumstances that probably affected testing, so I didn't argue too much.  There are bigger hills to climb)

I wasn't surprised that he didn't qualify for physical therapy.  (PT)  He is borderline, and he has always almost qualified, but not quite.  He has lower tone, but not low enough, he has poor coordination, but not quite poor enough, etc.  The areas he has problems with have been addressed, over the years, with OT, and his biggest weaknesses are related to sensory issues.

Now, from my perspective, it is a waiting game.  From their perspective, a whole lot of work.  He will be getting services from an SLP, OT, and a resource room.  I know he is also getting literacy interventions, which I think come from another person (not the SpEd teacher in the resource room), and they are going to try to incorporate some social skills training. I brought up the idea of peer training, and was met with general agreement that it would be beneficial, but figuring out how to fund it (because you work with non-disabled students) is a problem in some districts (coming from the county person, not the site/school side), but that they would discuss how it could be implemented.  I was left with the impression that they agree and it is a matter of figuring out how to make it work.  There are even a handful of students that immediately came to mind as good candidates for peer training. Considering the typically developing peers are going to be interacting with Autistic people all of their lives, it is an important social skill for them too.

Overall, I am still impressed with this district.  They have given every indication of being the kind of district that should be held up as an example of HOW TO DO THIS.  They aren't a specialty school, nor do they have a large district, and yet they seem to really understand and they are what you hope all educators are:  caring, passionate, smart, and possessing common sense and decency, and, so far, it appears to be pretty across the board.  It kind of restores your faith in humanity.

And, finally, after watching this week's episode of "Parenthood" (they are mainstreaming Max in a public school), and knowing that is a more typical experience, I am even more thankful for the people we have around us now.  I have identified with that storyline quite a bit, but this week I could, thankfully, see more that was different.  It reinforced my belief that success for an Autistic person, who, by definition, struggles with social interactions, is determined largely by the reaction of their teachers and peers.  It doesn't matter how hard our kids work at learning the rules of social engagement if the people on the other side of the equation, regardless of age or occupation, lack compassion, emotional intelligence, or patience; true success is only accomplished when BOTH sides work at it.

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Some Art by Zora

I sat with Zora and told her I was going to post these on my blog, but I needed titles for them, so the supplied titles are from Zora.

As always, you can click to see bigger pictures.


From School

(from school) "Plaidy the Platypus"
(from school) "truckish"
"sort of like the fix-it duck, but not really"
(other side of duck) "circle thing with my name" or "decoration"

drawn on the back of some of the school registration paperwork while she waited.



From the Chalkboard at Home
Zach and Zora drew an underwater scene together, 
Zach drew animals on the top, Zora on the bottom.



(on chalkboard) "Whooshing Octopus"
(chalkboard) "Kiss Kiss Fish"




Made at home
A combination of crayon, marker, oil pastels, and colored pencil

"Monster Growls.  One of the people (on the right) is worried.  The other one isn't listening"


Princess Folder/Notebook Zora glued together

(outside of folder/book) "Prince looking at the princess"
(middle of floder/book) "Princess Style"
(back of folder/book) "Princess runs away because it's time to go and get to work"




"Horse saying nothing"



"Buffalo"

"Buffalo"

"Buffalo yelling STOP"

(other side of buffalo...stop) "GO horse"









"Giraffe"

"I always love the days.  I love Dad, I love Mom, I love Zane, I love Zora."

"Two Birds and a Bunny"





"Happy in the Wind.  Happy to Drink in the Water Fountain"

"Hot-ness;  We Don't Want it Hot"  (gray thing is water fountain)




"One kid on skateboard, bigger kid on skates"

"Smart House"











made from one of the Crayola clays, I think Model Magic

"Little Kid"

"Big Kid"

"Robot"



Saturday, September 24, 2011

Looking Back: Early February 2011

Since I skipped about 8 months of blogging, I wanted to do some quick catch-up posts.

These are some of the highlights from the first half of February 2011

Zora snuggling with Zane as he plays his Nintendo DS


I forgot how long his hair used to be

I only intended to trim the ends, but he decided he wanted it like it used to be.



Post hair cut, looking at an infinity of Zane's in the mirror

Oma treats us to a meal at Subway after spending the day with Zora
Gymnastics


Enough snow that it buried our planters. (notice the 4th one you can just see the handles)
And some of my favorite pictures from that time period, taken while Zane and I waited for Zora to finish at Reading Explorers.  He was playing his "Nintendo DS Extra Large" (he always adds "Extra Large" on the end of the name)






My Happy Guy


















Brown Bear, Brown Bear....

Zora's class was studying the book Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?, a book that both of the kids have loved over the years, and the class put together a book to show off on parent's night.

Her page in the Kindergarten Class Book


After doing that in class, she came home and made her own book.  She will proudly tell you she is the "Arfer" and the illustrator.  She first had us make the book itself out of construction paper, with very specific instructions, then she disappeared for a while.  When she reemerged she asked us to help her write exactly what she told us too.  She wrote the story backwards (the pages open on the left instead of the right side, and the books starts at the back, but that's ok)











(on a special glued in page)



the back cover, with the pictures of the author, etc on it.