Before I start this blog I have breaking news. After months and months of trying to teach Oksana to spell her name....she DID IT! This morning at breakfast she spelled her name 2 times with NO HELP! I jumped up and down and started dancing around the room. She thought it was so funny. I told her she needed to tell her teachers that she could spell her name and she said she wanted to see them dance! I had to explain then that not everyone is as crazy as I am :)!
OK, back where I let off. PE was becoming a trigger. This was so surprising to me because at the beginning of the year this was her FAVORITE class. Here is my understanding of what was happening. I'm not sure what they did at the beginning of the year but right now they are playing competitive games. Apparently she just isn't ready for that. So again remember that we are dealing with someone who is developmentally 2-3. She was getting tagged out in games and absolutely blowing a gasket. Major temper tantrum, pulling her para's hair, hitting anyone who came near her, etc. She had to go to time out, the school counselor had to come talk to her, etc. So this happens once and you can live with it but it was becoming a regular occurrence. Now take away the developmental factor and let's consider the physical factor. When we decided not to do adaptive PE it was because the PE teacher was doing a fantastic job of adapting for her in class and she also had her para to help adapt. So, for example, one day the kids ran the soccer field a couple of times and Oksana walked it once with her para. Well when you get into a game like this how are you supposed to adapt short of picking her up and running with her? She can't run. Now EVERY kid there is faster than her and she will ALWAYS be the one out. How incredibly frustrating for her. Again, the school is wonderful and I know they made efforts to let her be the one who is "it" but they can't always do that. Also, one day she was it and class ended. That caused a temper tantrum too. So finally I was informed that this just isn't working and they wanted to consider adaptive PE. I agreed completely so today marks her first day of adaptive PE. I'm anxious to hear how it goes. It is a shorter time period, only 20 minutes or so where the other PE was 40 and it is 5 days a week instead of 2 which surprised me a bit.
So yesterday the diagnostician called me to talk to me about it and she informed me that she would go to adaptive PE first thing in the morning and then while her class is at PE she would go to the special ed room. I asked what the class was doing at that time in the morning. I simply wanted to know if it was circle time because I know she likes circle time. She said they were doing morning work, which I take to mean worksheets, and she said "We will make sure that she makes up that work while she is in the special ed room". At that point I said "Really, don't bother." I went on to explain to her that the work is way above her level and that I know it is being adapted but imagine how frustrating it is to constantly be given work that you don't understand while you watch the other kids do it with no problem. I told her that I felt like this was the source of many of her behavior problems. She was very understanding and said it sounds like we need an IEP rewrite so that she can spend more time in the special ed classroom. We both agreed to get through the holidays and let her get accustomed to adaptive PE to be sure it will be a good fit for her and then we will rewrite.
What has surprised me about all of this is the feelings I had about it.....
To be continued.....
No comments:
Post a Comment