New Classroom for Katie

I've been trying to get a chance to post about this for a few weeks now, but have been super-busy and just haven't had the time! Anyway, I wanted to let everyone know about the change in classroom placement that Katie started in mid-January.

The week before Christmas break, Katie's educational team approached us about possibly having Katie spend a part of her day in the SCSF (Social Communication School Fundamentals) classroom. As the name suggests, the classroom has a strong focus on social and communication skills as well as academic fundamentals. The program is made up of primarily autistic students and is available in all of the schools in our district, all the way through high school.

It was a hard decision for us to switch Katie to this classroom. We've always known that she has a lot of autistic-like tendencies--severe delays in expressive communication, very limited socialization skills, OCD'ish type behaviors, etc.--and we've even discussed this with her developmental pediatrician and had already made appointments to start an autism evaluation for Katie at Children's Hospital here, but we just really hadn't considered it from an educational standpoint. It was also difficult because we really liked Katie's support educator, who Katie had been with for a year and a half, and we hated to give her up for this move. We were also concerned about how Katie might react to a change in classrooms in the middle of the school year. Unexpected transitions are usually not her strong suit!

But after looking into it further and talking with Katie's educational team, we decided it would be in Katie's best interest to at least try the program for the rest of this school year. The small group atmosphere of the classroom and the emphasis on communication and social skills seemed like things that could really benefit Katie.

I am happy to report that, after a few weeks in the new classroom, Katie is doing great! She made the transition with no problems at all, and she is already making some strides in her communication and social skills. Being in the new program means she is spending less time in the regular mainstream classroom, but that seems to be OK too. I think she is actually benefiting from the small groups and one-on-one interaction that she is getting in her new classroom.

Katie's new support educator in the SCSF classroom is great! She sends us updates and pictures of Katie every week. Here are some of the pics we've received so far:

This is Katie doing independent work in the SCSF classroom. The black piece of paper on her desk holds a schedule of activities that match up with the activities in the bins to her left. She follows the schedule and works through all of the activities on her own. This activity is designed to promote independence.

This is Katie working on a touch-screen monitor. (The picture is a little blurry.) She loves working on the touch-screen! We are looking into getting a touch-screen adapter for our computer at home. There are lots of fun, free softwares on the Internet that you can download for use on a touch-screen monitor. Plus, it even works on regular websites, like Playhouse Disney!

This is Katie and Wanda, her interpreter, making fruit salad. Katie's interpreter and deaf educator are picking 10 new sign words every two weeks for Katie to work on. Then they structure interactive activities around those signs to make them more meaningful for Katie. Her words this week included fruit, banana, orange, grapes, apple, plate, fork, spoon, and knife.

Katie actually ate one of the grapes in her fruit salad!

This pic is from Katie's Valentine's party in her regular classroom. She usually doesn't do that well at class parties--they are usually too overstimulating and overwhelming for her--but she did great at her Valentine's party! She and Miss Wanda are participating in the crawling relay race. You had to carry a stuffed pony on your back and crawl across the room, and then tag the next person on your team. Bless Miss Wanda for all she does for Katie--I bet she is worn out at the end of every week!

Katie's evaluations for school services and her IEP meeting are coming up in March. She will be moving to second grade in the fall, which will mean a new school building and all-new educational team (although we're hoping to keep Miss Wanda!), so this will be an important IEP meeting for us. Considering how well Katie is doing in the SCSF classroom, we are seriously considering placing her in this program in second grade. Her current educational team members are all in agreement that this would be the most appropriate and beneficial placement for her.

Related to Katie's autistic tendencies, she has an evaluation at the Kelly O'Leary Center for Autism Spectrum Disorders at Children's Hospital coming up this Thursday, March 4. She'll have another evaluation there later this month with a speech-language pathologist. Arlin and I had a parent interview there a few weeks ago to start the process. If the questions they asked us were indicative of autism, we don't have any doubt that Katie will likely be diagnosed! It's very hard, though, to get a definitive diagnosis when a child has dual-sensory deficits because those can also cause autistic-like behaviors, so it's sometimes hard to separate the two. But it does seem like, even with her dual-sensory deficits and CHARGE, Katie does exhibit more extreme autistic-like behaviors than a lot of other kids with CHARGE do. And we do know of some kids with CHARGE who also have an autism diagnosis, and Katie is very similar to them in terms of language and social skills delays, OCD'ish behaviors, etc.

So, off we go, down yet another road on this interesting journey in the life of special needs! Wish us luck on our new adventure!