Dear Kid Saturday – Parent Teacher Conference

Dear TJ,

Yesterday, Daddy and I went to a parent teacher conference at preschool. When we got there, Miss Maryellen introduced us to Diane Burke, who is one of the school administrators. Miss Maryellen started out by telling us that you’re a very sweet boy, and that you try very hard in school. She thinks you’re quite adorable. But she did have some concerns.

She seemed a little nervous when asking if you had an actual diagnosis, and when I said yes, she asked if it was PDD-NOS. I said no, you were diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome. She took a deep breath, and I could tell she was relieved. She said that would make everything easier.

We talked about your rigidity issues. You have a hard time at circle time when you don’t get to sit on a blue mat. Miss Maryellen has been intentionally giving you a different colored mat so that you can learn it’s okay to have a different color. She said that you used to cry and have a tantrum when you got a red or yellow mat, but now you mostly just sulk about it. Diane said they might make a social story about it for you, taking pictures of you sitting on the red mat and showing you that everything turned out okay. “You Can’t Always Sit Where You Want.” I can’t wait to see that.

We also talked about your intolerance for noise and crowds, both of which are problems during music group on Fridays. Other classes come in to do music with your class, and you’ve told your teachers that it makes you nervous. Miss Emma was listening in and told us that you sat next to her at the back of the room last week. She said that you had your back turned to the rest of the class, but then you were laughing and singing along with her so long as you couldn’t see all the other kids.

Your teachers would like you to join the five days a week class. They think that you would really benefit from coming every day instead of just three days a week. You would stay in Miss Maryellen’s classroom on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, but you would go to the Helping Hands classroom on Tuesdays and Thursdays. You would have OT and PT at Helping Hands instead of down at Kids Care in Latham. They said you could even take the bus if you’re in the five day class. Wouldn’t that be cool?

But getting you into the five day class means meeting with the CPSE again. It’s been almost a year since your first evaluation, so they are going to ask for a program review for you. Since you now have a diagnosis of Asperger Syndrome and you’re already receiving services on the additional days you’d be going to school, they hope that it won’t be difficult to convince the committee that this is the right thing to do.

We all agree that this would be the best thing for you. You love school, so I don’t think you’ll have a problem with it either. Even your grandmas think this would be a good move, and it’s hard to convince them of such things! I have been a little worried about your kindergarten readiness, so this would help ease my anxiety immensely. We just have to get the school district to agree.

So I haven’t told you any of this yet, because I don’t want you to get excited about something that might not happen. We’ll see! Let’s hope they schedule a hearing for us quickly.

Love,
Mommy

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Christina Gleason (976 Posts)

That’s me: Christina Gleason. I’m a writer, editor, and disability advocate. I'm a multiply disabled autistic lady doing my best in this world built for abled people. I’m a geek for grammar, fantasy, and casual gaming. I hate vegetables. I cannot reliably speak, so I’ll happily conduct business over email or messaging instead.