Back to School

In 2 days, Sam goes back to school. I am very pleased with how the home ABA and Parent Training went this summer and I will fight to repeat this schedule next August. Sam will have a new teacher this year and I know nothing about her. I am preparing to write her a lengthy note (I know, I know) because I have a couple of concerns about Sam's transition back to school.

1 - When Sam left school he was on a 40 minute potty training schedule (meaning every 40 minutes a timer went off and he was taken to the toilet). At home now he is fully potty trained and if I try to make him go when he doesn't need to, he gets frustrated. He takes himself every 2-3 hours. I want to make sure they will respect the progress he has made and not fall back on data that is left over from July. The program is SOOOO data driven - for everything- and it frustrates Sam sometimes.

2 - Sam has made a lot of progress verbally. Prompted, he can say "I want ________". He is tought to understand but he is using more words. After carefully reviewing his last progress report I noticed that ALL Sam's expressive programs are for PECS. There are no programs that work on his speech. His speech therapy does a little but it is really only his private speech therapy that make him work to produce sounds. I want to request that they push him to speak a little more and back off on PECS a little. I don't want to get rid of PECS since he may never be fully verbal but I would like to push the verbals kills since he is trying so hard.

Maya will go see the babysitter this week. I wonder if she will remember? The last time she was there she couldn't quite walk and now she runs.

I will be heading back to work next week. It is always a mix of emotions for me when I go back. I am lucky that I like what I do but I miss being home with my baby. I always thought I would be home until my kids started school but finances haven't allowed that possibility.