Beth and I just got back from Sensational Kids. She’s a bit floppy today, I don’t think she’s feeling 100%. I spoke with Rod about Emerson School and he seemed to like the idea. He was saying that eight out of ten parents he speaks to professionally have the opposite idea about their kids. He said that often parents have much higher expectations of their children than what the kids are capable of. He said he has even lost clients when he has written a report or suggested that the parents send their child to a special school. It’s funny, I always had the perception of special school to be the easy option to take as opposed to mainstream. Once I went and saw Heatherwood and Emerson however it changed. It showed me that they are far more independant in a special school setting than in mainstream as they have to learn to be independant. I’m still glad that we went mainstream primary school but am certainly ready for the support that we’ll get from a special school for high school. I don’t know where I’d start if I had to organise things like work experience or training in an area that she may be able to work in. It’s certainly opened our horizons and shown me that Beth can indeed be independant to some degree one day.
Todays speech session was about why Beth was going to Emerson next year. I found it an eye opener. Rod asked Beth why she was going there. She answered with things like “They have a cute dog” or “they have an art room.” She kept repeating these and was getting silly, a sure sign that she finds the question difficult. I suggested to Rod that perhaps she doesn’t know how to get the answer out, that I was sure that she knew it. He said that no, often with kids like Beth they may even know the right words but that doesn’t mean they understand the ‘why’ behind them. If we had discussed that our primary school doesn’t go to year 7 she could repeat it if asked but may still not know what she is really saying. Even when Rod gave her multiple choice answers she chose her original answers. I explained that it wasn’t why she wanted to go to Emerson but why she had to but she still didn’t get it. It showed me just how difficult normal conversation must be for Beth.
Beth had a good session with Whiskas (not her real name) the occupational therapist. They did writing about things that Beth knows about herself. Whiskas did say that Beth seemed to move about more and make lots of noise. I asked her my opinion on the tourettes noises that seem to have sprung up. I told Whiskas that they seem to happen when Beth is excited and making noises anyway. Does that mean that the noises were tourettes based as well or just that she was adding noises to her excitement? Whiskas didn’t seem overly concerned and said that often when kids are more anxious the noises and the movement gets more intense. It’s like Beth’s way of self regulating and if she’s worried she needs more. I get this but will keep an eye on it.
As usual we ended up with McDonalds and a dvd for Beth. She’s watching it now. I deliberated over letting her have a dvd again. Then I figure that the other kids do lots of extra curricular activities that cost money and Beth doesn’t. Movies are what she loves so that can be her reward.
