Schoolhouse Talk

Elliot started doing double duty for preschool this week. Y'all have heard me sing the praises of School of Autism numerous times. Elliot has been attending SOA for almost a year now, three mornings a week. In addition, he has been receiving services at home from the Multnomah Early Childhood Program, or MECP, which is through the public schools. His case manager at MECP recently talked us into trying out one of their preschool classrooms again (it was a disaster the first time, but that was over a year ago). This time, the classroom is at Lee Elementary.

This week, Elliot went to visit "teacher Jessica's" classroom after hours to get a feel for the place, and he had a great time playing with Jessica and getting the lay of the land. Most popular were the musical instruments and the "dramatic play" area. Here he is playing dress up and serving a snack to Jessica.


Also popular was the giant button that opens the handicap access door. A dream for a boy who loves to push elevator buttons!


Elliot attended teacher Jessica's class for the first time yesterday, and he did great. As promised, Mama stayed and blended into the woodwork until he was comfortable, which was almost immediately. I ended up staying for an hour of the 2 1/4 hour session, and then Elliot was a big boy champ and stayed the rest of the time by himself. He says he likes the class, so hopefully he'll be excited to go back on Monday. He'll attend the MECP class 2 days a week, on the days he's not at SOA. The class is half typical peers and half kids with special needs, mostly on the autism spectrum.

My topic today in honor of autism awareness month is mainstreaming. Mainstreaming is the term used for including kids with special needs in a regular classroom instead of a "special ed" classroom. We are currently undecided on this point. Our plan right now is to keep Elliot at SOA for as long as he is successful there. He will start in their kindergarten class in the fall, and he'll spend two years there. The school is going to be starting grades 1-2 in the fall as well, and is in the process of becoming an alternative school. This status will make the school part of the public education system (and tuition-free!), and they plan to continue adding elementary grades. As long as Elliot continues to thrive at SOA academically and socially, we see no reason to mainstream him.

An advantage of mainstreaming is more exposure to "typical" peers and opportunities to learn from them. However, this same exposure can be a negative, since kids on the spectrum are often easy targets for bullies and can have difficulty making friends. Ultimately, we'll see what Elliot wants and where he is happiest and doing the best. For now, we have no plans to leave SOA, even though we are also sending Elliot to the MECP class (which is not at our neighborhood elementary school, Rigler.) We'll keep everyone posted!

And of course y'all will want an update on the birdies. Thomas gave Joey a bath this week, and s/he was crying pitifully for Pippin the whole time. So Thomas came up with an impromptu boat for Pippin so she could keep Joey company. Here is the result, followed by a happy post-bath time dry off session.



Never a dull moment around here.