What I've really been thinking about are the weighty issues raised on Kristina Chew's website, as well as elsewhere. But I'm just not up to tackling those things today. So we'll keep it a bit closer to home.
I haven't totally figured out how Buddy Boy is "graded" every day. Every day we get feedback from the school as to how he has done during each period of the day. He gets either a green light, yellow light, or red light. Besides getting a "light" for each period, there will also usually be explanations of his behavior for either yellow or red lights.
Last week Buddy Boy started "inclusion" for one or two periods each day in his assigned first grade classroom (he hasn't been there all year-instead he has been in a self contained sp. ed class). The first few days went well (novelty usually works to keep him distracted/interested) but the yesterday he got yellow lights, and today he got two red lights.
There never seems to be a consistent standard for what constitutes a red light vs. a yellow light vs. a green light. We have asked them in the past to clarify this, but have never really gotten a satisfactory answer.
Today's red lights were for two things. The first one was evidently when he was sent to the nurses office to take his midday meds. Instead of proceeding directly to the office, he decided to go and visit teachers in other rooms. While I realize that it's important to follow directions in school, marking an autistic kid down for socializing seems rather ironic to me (although it is consistent with the school district's unpublished motto "Obsequium Supra Omnia"-Subserviance above all else[Thanks to Dr. Chew's correction of my grammar]).
The second red light was for refusing to participate in a group activity. No notations were made that any screaming or physical actions on Buddy Boy's place took part.
So basically, I'm a little bummed that things aren't totally hunky dory with the inclusion thing this week. But in my view, it's great that he's not doing anything that can get him suspended/expelled. He's keeping it together enough to tell him what he doesn't like without getting physical with them. As long as that keeps up, we can work on the rest.
Next week, we have parent-teacher meetings, so perhaps we'll get a better idea of what exactly the different colors mean.
As negative as this post might sound, we actually are making progress with the school, and I think Buddy Boy is, too. And as long as we're moving in the right direction and not losing ground, I'm willing to work with it.
Joe is 210
