Monday, July 2, 2012

SensiGirl's Extended School Year

image via:  http://www.johnhaydon.com/2011/01/if-dont-know-do-do-opposite/ 
My SensiGirl goes to what is called Extended School Year. She has been attending for the last two weeks. She gets an extra 5 weeks of school over the summer to try to maintain progress she has made during the school year.  She attends school in the same building as her regular school year, for half days. In theory this is a good thing. In practice, I find that this year, not so much.
Her WunderTeacher worked to try to set up SensiGirl with the summer school special ed. teacher so she would know some of SensiGirl's quirks. She worked with them for over a week and checked in on them to answer any questions. I updated the getting to know you letter and WunderTeacher proofed it and added some things I omitted. I know that I wrote she is afraid of atriums and echo producing places. I checked that the teachers and paras read it. I even gave them a copy of her IEP. Still we missed some things.
The atrium in the school building. Fuzzy resolution, but you get the idea.
image via:   http://museum.spps.org/ 
This week they took my SPD child to a drumming show in the atrium of the building. Just hearing about it made me cover MY ears. I explained that SensiGirl was nervous about atriums because she had to participate in a parade with music and drums in the atrium two years ago. She has very sensitive hearing and is nervous about big echoing spaces. We made wonderful progress this past year on this issue, now I am not so sure where we stand.
image via:  http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/features/life/article2737899.ece 
I had told them after the drum show not to take her into the atrium for any other loud activities. The sound echoes and hurts her ears. I explained it would be best to keep her schedule as routine as possible. Still, today they wrote a note: "Climb Theater will have a music presentation in gym. Do you want her to go?"
The teachers told me there were other activities coming up: a visit from Ronald McDonald, (false faced creepy clowns, anyone?), a theater performance and field day.
image via:  http://www.porteracademy.org/Sensory%20Processing%20Disorder.html 
The problem is the new summer school teachers haven't worked with SensiGirl before. They also don't seem to understand sensory processing disorder very well. Kindergarten was a hard transition but with WunderTeacher and the crew we got through the fall without too much progress being lost from her time at preschool. By the end of the year, great strides had been made by small incremental steps throughout the year.
My girl, who wouldn't go near a gymnasium without a food reward waiting was participating in adaptive gym every day, (sometimes they threw in a balloon reward for good measure.) Heck, she participated (again, with assistance,) in the Lion King play that the Autism Program put on. They had drumming for the scene changes, but she only covered her ears once, because of the off key singing. They had play practice every day for two months. That is how she was so successful.
image via:  http://mixedmeters.com/2009/06/vinyl-one.html 

Now she is crying about going to school, she is becoming markedly upset at the merest mention of a gym and I don't know how to make it better for her.  I could take her out of school, but then she wouldn't have any time with the other kids who understand her and accept her. She is spending time with another girl who is actively trying to make friends with SensiGirl. I have to weigh everyday if I should keep her going to ESY. All I can do is show up every day for a debrief of her day, offer suggestions and answer any questions they may ask.

5 comments:

  1. The only thing I can think of is to make an appointment with the teachers who don't seem to get it and ask for alternatives to these crazy clowns and in a one-on-one meeting make it clear about the SPD and the effect they are having on her! You know best and you are in the heart of it. I hope you come up with a solution that keeps up the friendship without the distraction!

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  2. Hey Lori... I feel for you, she sounds exactly like my youngest. And no, the school just never seemed to get it. Is there some way you can make the gym noise tolerable for her so she can still join in? Headphones? Ear plugs? Forgive me if you mentioned that already, I'm still without internet after the move so reading quickly on my phone :)

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  3. Ugh! That sounds pretty miserable. We're having sort of the opposite experience, but ESY is at a school for Autism (where her regular school is mainstream) so there was at least a good knowledge base for dealing successfully with Lily. She's liked it so far, or at least hasn't said, "I no want camp." (which is what we're calling it to differentiate between Kindergarten (I no want kindergarten) or day care (I no want daycare).

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  4. Thanks for the comments. I tried talking with the school. The teacher really did seem like a deer in the headlights when I talked to her about SPD. I don't want SensiGirl to lose anymore skills. I'm going to have to pull her.

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  5. Tough decision Lori, but it seems like you'd have to put in a lot of time and energy just to get the teacher to the point where she could understand, and that can be exhausting. Thinking of you!

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