How is school going for my sweet Kindergartener?? Great!! We are loving his new school and teachers and had a great IEP (Individualized Education Program) meeting and parent/teacher conference. Bryson has been going to this school for 2 months now and it seems like his regular classroom teacher, special ed teacher, speech therapist, and occupational therapist all know him so well! They work together as a team and are making great progress with him (along with all the great input and help we get from our amazing private therapist).
When we met with all these teachers last week, Zane and I left feeling so grateful and happy. Along with expressing how cute and sweet our boy is, they also mentioned they love his excitement for school and his happy personality. Obviously this is no cake walk for them as Bryson needs a lot of help in different areas but they are working so hard to try different ideas and pinpoint what exactly Bryson needs and how they can give him the most help possible. For example, Bryson is really having trouble processing noise. We recently went out to eat dinner and noticed that Bryson wasn't eating his food. Instead, he was covering his ears and quietly repeating to himself, "Please be quiet...please make it quiet in here..." I ended up taking him to eat his food in the car while Zane and Ashlyn finished their food. We found out in our meeting that noise is an issue at school too. Apparently Bryson has been wearing headphones to the lunch room to help alleviate some of the frustrations that come with loud noise (Zane and I forgive you if you just laughed at that image popping up in your head...we did too). :) They also had a very loud pep rally recently and the headphones just weren't enough to mask the noise so one of the teachers took him out in the hallway (By the way, the pep rally was for the first school fundraiser where the kids are challenged on Friday to run as many laps as they can...maximum of 35 laps...and they are supposed to get pledges...anywhere from $1 to $50...that will be paid per lap...Bryson is so excited so if anyone wants to support him, feel free to let me know...sorry, shameless plug!!). :) Anyway, back to my story, his great teachers are working so hard to help him process noise.
They also introduced us to the concept of this chew necklace:
We made one to use at home and it's helped to alleviate his desire to put things in his mouth and also helps calm him sometimes when he's getting overwhelmed. And by the way, I love this school photo!!
We recently got the results back from Bryson's Kindergarten assessments that were done on the first day of school. It was a little disappointing to see that he scored a 4 out of 20. Well, as the teachers got to know Bryson and realized how smart he really is, they realized he just needed to be tested in a different way. They noticed that he gets overwhelmed easily and needs time between questions and also needs breaks. He was recently retested and was only asked to answer 2-3 questions at a time instead 20 all at once. Over time, after all 20 questions had been asked, his new score was either a 13 or 14 out of 20. Soooo much better!! I kind of laughed a little when they shared that he also gets easily distracted when doing his work in class. Now they tell him that every time he answers a couple questions he gets to look around the room at his friends or look out in the hallway and then return to his assignment. :) This works so well for him!
I could go on and on writing about the help they're giving Bryson but instead I'll show you some proof. These are the type of homework assignments that come home:
The top square is a drawing of two goats. The bottom is Bryson's attempt to write the number 4. The scribbles on line 2 and 3 are the ones he tried by himself. While Bryson is making amazing progress drawing simple lines and circles, there was no way he would be able to write in these small spaces on his own. So, his homework has been changed so that I write the number on a much larger scale and he traces it 5 times. Now his numbers look like this:
Sooo much better! And do you see those four "B's"? That's the first letter he's ever written and his private therapist has been working FOREVER on that. It's so exciting to see that he was able to write that this morning after I drew the smaller B!!
And speaking of circles and lines getting better, just a couple months ago when he got his first set of homework, he had trouble circling and crossing out:
Bryson's private therapist had a great idea to draw a dot where his circle or x needs to start/stop. What a great idea! While he still struggles making an "x", the dot on top of each answer has really helped him with his homework:
I'm definitely not going to look ahead and get any hopes up about how much progress Bryson is going to make this year because I'm already thrilled with what he's accomplished! However, I know that his teachers are doing their best and they will help us make sure that he will achieve what he is capable of and we're already so proud of our sweet Kindergartner!!
3 comments:
I loved this post! I'm so so glad Bryson is at a school where the teachers are willing to work with him.
I hear stories like this in my classes everyday but hearing it from you guys really hits home. Thank God these teachers realize that Bryson learns differently and take the time to help him out. Thank you so much for sharing! Tell him to keep up the good work and that I'm so proud of him! :)
this post, and God's awesome work in your precious boy just move me. to tears.i REJOICE with you guys, tara. jut PRAISING the Lord alongside of you!! SO encouraging!
Yay Bryson! That boy works harder than any other kid I've ever seen. And what great teachers and parents to help him out so much!
~Nichole
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