What a summer it’s been with the kids. It’s hard to believe that next month, my babies will be back in school. Gabby is going into 7th grade; Ian is starting Kindergarten. Time sure does fly.
As school time approaches, both Mike and I have been working diligently to try to get Ian ready for the transition. With all of his medical issues, as well as his Autism diagnosis, I would be lying if I said I wasn’t worried how well Ian will thrive, especially when I can’t be there to help him. I have to put my trust into other people that they are going to help him succeed and that the district as a whole, kids and adults alike, will treat him kindly.
There are a lot of signs I see in Ian that would indicate an Autism diagnosis. But one of the biggest things I’ve noticed is his communication skills. Kids with Autism often have a very difficult time communicating, some are even non-verbal. With Ian, he is able to communicate. In fact, during his most recent speech evaluation, they stated Ian pronounces and articulates words and letters a lot better than most kids his age. The ability is there; it’s getting him to use his words that is difficult. It’s hard to say why Ian won’t. Ian attended a preschool program for special needs kids the last couple years. His teacher rarely heard him speak. But when we would have our parent/teacher conferences (virtually) she was able to see a difference in Ian from school to home, especially communication wise. That’s the thing with kids with Autism- they are extremely smart; they just have a harder time communicating it.
As we work with Ian on the necessary skills for kindergarten, it is a concern he won’t show the school what he knows. We recently got the school’s report on Ian’s IEP (Individualized Education Program), which tells us and the school what Ian’s needs are so that he can better thrive in a school environment. Ian has changed so much over the summer that a lot of things in his plan are actually inaccurate. And I love it. Over the summer, Ian has learned to recognize letters, count to 30, spell his name- I could go on. I’m so proud of this kid for overcoming such great obstacles in his young life.
This past Friday, we had a follow up with neurology. At minimum, Ian needs to be physically seen every 6 months, but I am typically in contact with them more often than this because Ian’s seizure meds constantly need adjusted as he grows. We wanted to get him seen before school starts just to make sure no meds needed to be adjusted at this time. We are fortunate enough that Ian’s current seizure medications seem to be keeping his seizures under control. (We haven’t noticed one since April, yay!) In addition to the seizure meds, his neurologist also prescribes Ian with a medication to help him focus. During this appointment, we asked to switch this medicine from evening to morning in order for Ian to, hopefully, focus better while he is at school. On top of all of this, our neurologist is also a child development specialist so we will be going down to Oakland the day before school starts to let her evaluate Ian.
Something that we have been struggling at home with is Ian’s behaviors. He can be very temperamental, and it’s hard to pinpoint what’s causing it. (Autism, sensory overload, the tumors, the medications he is on, him just being 5, or something else entirely.) Just to give an example of how bad it’s gotten: Ian actually was transferred out of his outpatient services for speech and occupational therapy because he would go in and be so destructive and so uncooperative. After a month of this and getting nowhere with him, it was decided to just give him a break. Maybe after all the outpatient services, the doctor appointments, and preschool, our boy was just burnt out and needed time to be a kid. While the child development assessment might be able to give us more insight into this, we also had an appointment today with Endocrinology. One of Ian’s tumors is pushing up against his pituitary gland, which controls your thyroid and other hormone functions. As a precaution, we were referred to them just to check Ian’s levels to see if this could possibly be a cause of the behavior issues. The doctor went over a lot of symptoms, and while Ian doesn’t really exhibit too much beyond mood swings, they are deciding to air on the side of caution and get some blood work done just to rule it out (or in, who knows).
I wish so badly that Kindergarten could have been more of a happy and exciting time for all of us, but it’s been a stress factor if anything. Between Ian’s IEP, a seizure plan should he have one at school, the possibility of chemo starting again in September after his next scan, it’s been a bit overwhelming.
As stressful as it is though, we can’t forget to focus on the good. We are truly blessed Ian is well enough to attend school. We are blessed that we are in a school district that has an Autistic support classroom to help Ian thrive. And although we are having behavior issues with Ian, nothing beats the moments he is happy.
Always remember to find the good in every situation.
