Autism Therapy: sensitive

            Finally, the school year has commenced and life is slowly returning to a fixed routine.  Thomas has adjusted very well to kindergarten, as we had fervently hoped.  His teacher is very nice and always takes a few seconds after her morning session to let us know how Thomas did that day.  She doesn’t really do that with the other kids, I suspect because Thomas is one of her special kids, but she has thus far only had nice things to report and seems to really enjoy having him in class.

            His teacher uses a “red, yellow, green” system for reporting how the kids did in class that day.  Thomas has so far brought home only green lights, a fact that he is very proud of.  It’s one of the first things he reports on when he comes out of class.  After Open House last night, the teacher explained that if everything went well, the child gets a green light.  If she had to warn a child about their behavior once but then they cleaned up their act, they get a yellow.  If things were abysmal, a red light is sent home.  Even though Thomas has had greens so far, I know that there will probably be a yellow or a red at some point this year.  Everyone has bad days, after all.

            Speaking of bad days, I was worried about Thomas this morning.  The usual routine is for us to walk to school together and then wait outside the kindergarten door for the teacher to fetch the kids at 8:25 a.m.  Today, it was raining so we waited inside the hallway.  This confused and upset Thomas to the point of tears and he didn’t want to go into class.  He wanted instead to stay in the hallway with me and Hayley, his head buried in my hip.  So the aide came by and tried to distract Thomas with tactics I knew wouldn’t work, but she tried.  The teacher finally came out and gently took Thomas by the hand and led him into class, telling him that it was okay to be sad.  I wish she had told me the same thing.  I wasn’t really sad, just concerned.  It’s hard to make Thomas do stuff like that, especially when I can see him getting tearful.  As Hayley and I left the building, however, I couldn’t hear him crying loudly or shouting, and he didn’t resist when the teacher led him into the classroom.  I expected him to pull away from her when she took his hand, but he didn’t.

            I have volunteered to help out with his class this year and I know that his teacher is excited about this.  I just hope that Thomas can handle it.  I think that was one of the reasons that he didn’t want to leave me in the hallway today.  As we were walking in, I was talking about how sometime soon, I would be helping his teacher “teach” in the classroom.  I think that he thought I meant “today.”  We’ll see how that goes.  If it’s too disruptive or causes Thomas too much anxiety, I’ll have to help in some other way.  One nice thing is that the teacher (who’s name I will be using instead of “teacher” soon, I hope…I suppose I should get her permission) has said that if I help in the classroom or school, Hayley is welcomed to join in the class.

            Thomas continues with the Focalin and I can’t really tell if it’s helping, even though we’ve increased the dose.  I was thinking that maybe it works for him in school, because the day is structured and he is required to focus on certain activities.  I don’t ask that of him too much at home so maybe I just don’t give the meds a chance to show me what they can do.  One thing he’s developed, I believe as a result of the Focalin, is a tic.  He clears his throat and opens his mouth as if to yawn when he’s talking.  Some days it’s worse than others.  I may call the doctor about that if it gets much worse or more noticeable.  It’s kind of disconcerting to watch.  I wonder if there’s another Ritalin-type medication that wouldn’t cause a tic.  Since I don’t even know for sure if the Focalin is working, it may not be worth it for Thomas to take since the tic has presented itself.

            We had a nice Labor Day weekend, complete with Wisconsin Cow-Chip Toss festival and all.  Thomas swam in the lake all three days of the weekend, and actually jumped in a few times off a friend’s pier.  The kids had a great time and came home exhausted.  Tomorrow, we are going to spend the night at Grandma’s cottage and then continue driving on Saturday up to the Wisconsin Dells to stay at Kalahari Water Park to use the gift certificate my mother-in-law gave us for Christmas last year.  The outdoor portion of the park is closed from Labor Day to Memorial Day, so we’ll miss that.  I think that the extensive indoor area will be plenty for us to explore on Saturday and Sunday.  I don’t want all of us to spend all day in the sun anyway.  Getting tan lines now would be irresponsible of me since my sister’s wedding is only five weeks from Saturday.  We’re all very excited.  Hayley is a little disappointed that she won’t be attending.  Apparently, she loves weddings even though she’s never been to one.

            As I said, we really couldn’t ask for a better start to the school year.  Hayley starts preschool on Monday, but I’m going to be kicking myself for paying for preschool if she gets to come to kindergarten while I volunteer in Thomas’ class.  Hayley actually got pretty upset this morning when we tried to soothe Thomas.  She didn’t want to leave him either.  My sensitive little girl.  I’ll try to remember that when she’s bugging him intentionally and making all of us crazy in the process.