Friday, November 30, 2007

Matthew's Preschool Teacher

Matthew's special needs preschool teacher (Ms. Heather) came to the house yesterday to meet us and explain the PAC (preschool autism class) program. She is young and tan (lol) and a little serious...not the chubby Mary Poppins I was expecting!

Matthew will be the 6th (and final) student in the class which is made up of one girl and the rest boys. The ages range from 2 to 5 years old and the kids are low to high functioning. The teacher said Matthew would probably be in the middle of the pack based on the short time she spent with him. This is the schedule: Monday 9:15 am - 1:15 pm, Tues, Thurs, Fri 9:15 am - 3:45 pm, and Wed 9:15 am -12:30 pm. Not sure how he will hold up on the 3 long days b/c he usually takes a nap by 3pm.

The program is ABA-based and is at a different elementary school than the one we thought he would attend so Matthew and I are going to visit his class (I requested this) for about a half hour on Thursday morning. We haven't been given a start date yet but I'm thinking it will probably be December 17th.

Because he is transitioning from the Early Intervention program (ITC) to the public school system we will lose his home-based speech and physical therapy sessions, but we will continue Matthew's private one-on-one ABA therapy at home. I will write more about that after Monday as that is the day Jenn (his BCBA) is bringing "his book" and will start the intensive verbal behavior therapy...up until now (the last 3 visits) she has been getting to know him and gaining his trust.

3 comments:

Maddy said...

Sounds like you're all set to go. I'm impressed that she visited several times first. Looks like you have a good team there.
BEst wishes

Unknown said...

I know you are nervous but it sounds so exciting to me. He will go to school now and get used to having a more structured routine and work with someone for several hours who specializes in autism. I can't wait to hear how it goes :)

Casdok said...

Hope all goes well!