New class!

June 21, 2012

New class!

Ryan's school year is winding down, and we have been having alot of end of year activities, including his annual school sports day. This is always alot of fun, for the kids, parents and teachers / aides. Its a real treat to see how the teachers and aides really love and enjoy the kids so much. Of course Ryan was paired with his favorite aide Lori. Shes a classroom assistant for Ryan's class but happens to work with Ryan alot. When hes sick she will always be the one that hangs out in the nurses room with him, and walks him out at the end of the day etc. She really is a gift to Ryan.

This week we received a letter from the school notifying us which class Ryan would be in next year. It was abit of a surprise to learn Ryan's class would be pioneering a new structure at his school. The new class will be built around "centers". Along with the regular circle time, and PT, OT and ST sessions the kids would normally have the day will also contain 4 1/2 hour "centers"

Center 1 - each child will have one on one instruction with the teacher

Center 2 - structured play where the child will continue to work on the lesson from center 1

Center 3 - gross motor where the child will continue to work on the lesson from center 1 and incorporate gross motor activities with a therapist

Center 4 - computer / speech center

Ryan's teacher Miss Eileen has always noted how Ryan learns much better in a one on one situation as he can be very distracted in class so I'm so excited to hear he will be getting 1/2 hr of individual instruction from his teacher each day! His new teacher is a man who has had experience with ABA techniques and although the children in the class do not have autism they have been chosen for this new class because their teachers felt they would benefit greatly from this approach. The centres will be loosely based on ABA in terms of repeating a "lesson" in different shapes and forms until the child has learnt it.

When i received the letter I immediately put a call into Ryan's new teacher, Mr Mickey and the chools developmental therapist who developed the programme. We discussed how the "center" class will differ to Ryan's current class and why Ryan was chosen. I was excited to hear that they will be challenging the kids much more than currently and the class will have more of a regular preschool feel, eg the kids will be expected to find their cubby and hang up their own coats etc in the morning.

I'm excited for Ryan to get started in his new class and I'm expecting great things from him this year! I'm so very happy that Miss Eileen, his current teacher was able to see his potential and understand his needs and put him forward for this class. She has truly been his advocate this year, and has helped him get into the swim programme, the Speech consultations for the respiratory impaired kiddos and the school social group where Ryan joined another class of more verbal kids for a few sessions. Thank you Miss Eileen for making this year very special for my wee man.