Out of the Mouths of Babes...

During Summer School hours (which Bryce did not qualify for since he is so advanced in academics :), Bryce has been still going to the school to work with Mrs. Linda, the world's greatest ABA therapist.  He gets 5 hours a week according to his IEP, so we spread it out over a few days and it gives him something to do over the summer break.  It also is helping prepare him for the new school year, where he will be attending a regular ed 1st grade class this year.  Mrs. Linda will be with him all day to help keep him on task.  For the summer, Mrs. Linda has been concentrating on social skills and communication instead of more academics.  Yesterday, when I picked him up from school, she told me he had just been chattering away all day and was doing fantastic work on his sentences.  She sees such an improvement in him since the beginning of Kindergarten.  He's finally starting to grasp some of those abstract concepts that are required to build proper sentences.  On Thursday, when we were at her house swimming (yes, she invited us over to swim and to work with Bryce in the pool-is she not just the biggest blessing ever?!?!?) she told me that he should be caught up to his typical peers in language by 3rd grade.  That is just about the greatest news I've ever had.  There's hope.  Light at the end of the tunnel.  He'll always struggle socially and communication will be hard for him, but if he can make himself understood without someone always there to help...that's a huge burden off my shoulders! Anyway, last night, Linda called me because she forgot to tell me something when I picked up Bryce and she knew I would really want to hear this.  She said that she was picking up random flashcards and asking Bryce to give her a sentence using the word shown.  She held up one that said, "made."  Without hesitation, he said, "I am fearfully and wonderfully made."  She couldn't believe it! She asked Mrs. Caskey, Bryce's kinder teacher, if she had heard what Bryce said.  Mrs. Caskey said no, so she asked Bryce to tell her the sentence again.  And again he said, "I am fearfully and wonderfully made."  Mrs. Caskey didn't see the significance of that, so Linda said, "He's quoting Scripture!!!" We are so blessed to have a wonderful Christian lady working with Bryce in the public school system!  She's even offered to use her phone to show him visuals of verses he's working on (sneaky way of getting the Bible into school without breaking any rules).      I always said I would never put my children in public school, and sometimes I feel guilty for putting my son in an environment that may be difficult for him, but little things like this confirm that we made the right decision and are doing what's necessary to get Bryce the help and education he needs.  And God is keeping him protected and provided for while he's there.  What's next?  I don't know.  We will just take things one day, one month, one year at a time, and trust God to show us where we need to be! Because, we too, are "fearfully and wonderfully made" by an amazing God!

"My Tooth Fell Out" by Bryce Burkholder

These are the events of last Sunday/Monday according to Bryce: (his therapist had him write a story)

"I was at church and ran and bump Henry.  Then it wigold.  Next my tooth came out.  I put it my envelop undr my peloaw.  I got muney frum 99cents for a new game."  He then drew a picture of a huge mouth with a missing tooth and an arrow pointing to the hole that says, "My tooth is gon."

It may have been the fact that he knew he could get a new game for the iPod when he lost his next tooth, but this time around was MUCH less dramatic than the last time :) Yay for progress!

A Heart-warming "Motherhood" Moment

Anyone with an autistic child will tell you that there's rarely such a thing as spontaneous gestures of affection.  Bryce has never brought me a flower from the yard, or come up to me and said, "Mommy, I love you."  I don't get kisses "just because." I may never get a Mother's Day card that was not purchased by Daddy or created at school.  This is not to say he isn't affectionate at all.  But his affections are usually in response to ours.  It's a learned response.  Just like, "Hi, how are you?"  "I'm fine, thank you." Or "What do you say?"  "Excuse me."  So the other night, I was saying goodnight to him like I always do.  He was in bed already and the lights were off.  I kissed him on the forehead and said, "Goodnight, I love you."  He responded, "Goodnight, I love you."  But then he did something totally unexpected.  As I turned to leave the room, he grabbed my wrist and said, "One hundred kisses."  I was surprised and it took me a minute to respond.  I realized he was asking for 100 kisses instead of a kiss goodnight.  I countered with, "How about five kisses?"  He then negotiated, "How about TEN kisses?"  How could I say no to that? So I kissed him all over his face while counting to ten and then he just giggled  then turned over to go to sleep! I came out to the living room and told Jared I'd just had one of those heart-warming mommy moments that so many others take for granted.  My sweet boy- how I love him!

Mainstream my baby?!?

Ok, so I know he's not a baby anymore- he's a VERY large 6 year old, but this was my thought the other day when Bryce's teacher mentioned how well he was doing in class and she thinks he should go mainstream with a full-time aide.  It's a two-edged sword, really.  Every parent of a special needs child wants their child to be as "normal" as possible, but on the other hand wants to protect their child from those same "normal" kids!  Bryce has been improving by leaps and bounds since going back to school after the Christmas break.  He's always been bright academically and this baby Kindergarten stuff really isn't all that challenging for him.  He, of course, has gaps in his abilities, so he still has to maintain the course he's on, but his teacher has started him in First grade math and reading/writing comprehension.  He also does all First grade spelling! So, to give him more of an appropriate and challenging school atmosphere, she believes he should go mainstream next year for First grade.  (Which by then will be baby-easy for him, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.)

Now, it's not that I don't trust Bryce's teacher, but I value the opinion of this ABA therapist much more.  She is the one who spends 2 hours every day with him one-on-one and she really knows him by now.  She has figured out his personality and learning style, and whether he needs time to answer a question or has just wandered "off task."  So I asked her after school whether she thought mainstreaming him was a good idea. She just jumped at the idea and STRONGLY recommended it for him.  I was surprised by how adamant she was about the idea.  She would be his full-time classroom aide, to keep him involved, on task, and help him when he doesn't understand.  Autistic kids don't naturally follow the example of their peers, and need to be taught how to take cues from others.  In his special ed class, he doesn't get the peer examples, since all the kids in there are learning disabled in one way or another. Bryce's therapist thinks that only good will come from mainstreaming him, so it looks like we'll be having another IEP meeting at the end of the school year to get that all set up.  Now I just have to fight to keep him at his current school.  His therapist would go with him to any school he attends in the district, but I like his school and I want to keep things as familiar as possible for him. 

As to what this means for the future, especially as he ages in middle school and high school, I'm not sure.  We just have to take things one day at a time and make the best decision we can for him at each crossroad.