School?

Yup, he loves it.

He loves his teacher, the helpers, and his friends at school. He has an inclusion class, which is where he goes to another class that is not for children with developmental disabilities, and we hear that he does just as good in that class as his normal class.

School has helped my son become more social, use words more often, improve at his fine motor skills and I'm sure many other things I'm just not thinking of right now. I told his teacher about this blog, and explained that it was about the whole family's experiences dealing with the big guy's autism. After a few days she had finally had a chance to take a look at it, and the next time I was able to talk to her about it, she was laughing.

She said "That's nothing like the kid we know" referencing the post I made about meltdowns. This is something I have heard from many people about children with autism; they are totally different in different situations.

The big guy acts differently with the speech lady than with me, and differently at school than at home, and differently with mom than everyone else. I kind of have an idea about why also.

When you or I go to a supermarket, we expect certain things like the grocery carts in a rack by the front door, the deli area in the back, one side of the store dedicated to fresh fruit and vegetables. When we go to a movie we expect certain things, to buy a ticket at one spot, and popcorn and drinks in another area, then the place we watch the movie in the back. We all expect things to be a certain way, even when they are a little different, they are similar enough we can adjust.

The big guy has to have things a certain way in all aspects of life, at home, school, and really everywhere. Changes are hard for him to deal with, unless change is a normal part of a setting. I know the school has a routine; the only difference is they will do different things during a day. So in a way, he has changes to deal with at school, but the "routine" is much the same. They have lunch and recess at a certain time and naptime is also at a certain time, the difference is what they do during the time in-between.

I think this is one of the reasons he loves school so much, he has a routine, but there are differences in what is done during the routine. The differences keep everything fresh and fun for him and I think this is why he loves school so much, that and his teacher.