We have all had a lovely Christmas and are looking forward to all the promise that a new year brings.
My boy is now started the new school term and has struggled to say the least. I did mention a problem in my last post and we have now got to the crux of the problem. He is not enjoying the maths lessons, much preferring the english lesson. He says that in the english lesson he is able to talk to the other pupils in his group and likes them, but doesn't feel that he has had this chance within his maths lessons. He has agreed to keep one of the Maths lessons as the subject is compulsory but swap the other for another english lesson which will give him the chance to get to know the other group of kids. This should help increase his confidence and from there he will hopefully add that lesson back into his timetable at a later date. I am so pleased that he has been able to think this through himself and state his case sensibly and with great thought to how he feels. A first for him as normally he wouldn't be able to say why he feels this way. It just proves that his medication has helped and given him the basis to keep calm and think rationally. Anxietywise the medication does have an effect but doesn't take it all away as he has still been rather stressed over this. His sleep being the first thing to suffer and so from there, of course, mine too!
The best bit about his decision is that it means his time in school on one day will increase as it means, due to the way the timetable is set, that he will have a maths lesson, lunch club and then his english lesson. Hopefully this will help as we gradually increase his timetable. So even though we have made a side step in changing a lesson for one that he enjoys more, we have also made a step forward in the amount of time spent in school on any one day.
Onwards and upwards! As they say :o)
Sunday, 16 January 2011
Long Time No Post
Well it's been ages since my last post and so much has happened that I thought it was about time I got a wiggle on and brought this blog up to date!
Since the summer holidays my boy settled back to lunch club every day and after the first couple of weeks managed to do a lesson with other kids in the class. This was to be weekly. A couple of weeks more and he asked to add another lesson to his timetable. Making good progress and gradually becoming more confident in class by contributing to the lesson with his own comments. As he felt more able he then read aloud in class when asked. I am so pleased with his progress. It has been slow but that is how he needs to take it.
After the Autumn half term he again agreed to add another lesson. Then we hit a bit of a wall. He has found the two maths lessons on his timetable a bit of a struggle and it took us a while to work out why. Before we could get to the bottom of it he was rather poorly, which took a week for him to get over. He went back into school on the Monday only to be off the rest of the week as the school closed due to a very heavy snowfall which increased as the week passed. Great fun for the kids! It did have a very adverse effect on my boy though as we lost the consistant routine that he really needs. He struggled to get back into the swing of things the following week and did refuse on odd days but when it came to the finak week before the Christmas holidays he did manage every day!
Overall fantastic progress has been made this year, especially considering that in January we could barely mention school without him getting very distressed. Now he goes in most days for lunch club and has added in three lessons each week within a small group of children. And all this within a large mainstream school.
I am one very proud mum and so incredibly grateful to the patience and hard work of the school SENCo and staff of the supportive education department. Without their hard work and gentle encouragement my boy would never of had the confidence to make this progress. He has even admitted that he does trust them to want to help him with his best interests at heart. He also trusts them to do the right thing for him. This from a child (Ok teenager, because he turned 13 this year) who up until now trusted no one within education after his previous experiences. All in all a good year!
Since the summer holidays my boy settled back to lunch club every day and after the first couple of weeks managed to do a lesson with other kids in the class. This was to be weekly. A couple of weeks more and he asked to add another lesson to his timetable. Making good progress and gradually becoming more confident in class by contributing to the lesson with his own comments. As he felt more able he then read aloud in class when asked. I am so pleased with his progress. It has been slow but that is how he needs to take it.
After the Autumn half term he again agreed to add another lesson. Then we hit a bit of a wall. He has found the two maths lessons on his timetable a bit of a struggle and it took us a while to work out why. Before we could get to the bottom of it he was rather poorly, which took a week for him to get over. He went back into school on the Monday only to be off the rest of the week as the school closed due to a very heavy snowfall which increased as the week passed. Great fun for the kids! It did have a very adverse effect on my boy though as we lost the consistant routine that he really needs. He struggled to get back into the swing of things the following week and did refuse on odd days but when it came to the finak week before the Christmas holidays he did manage every day!
Overall fantastic progress has been made this year, especially considering that in January we could barely mention school without him getting very distressed. Now he goes in most days for lunch club and has added in three lessons each week within a small group of children. And all this within a large mainstream school.
I am one very proud mum and so incredibly grateful to the patience and hard work of the school SENCo and staff of the supportive education department. Without their hard work and gentle encouragement my boy would never of had the confidence to make this progress. He has even admitted that he does trust them to want to help him with his best interests at heart. He also trusts them to do the right thing for him. This from a child (Ok teenager, because he turned 13 this year) who up until now trusted no one within education after his previous experiences. All in all a good year!
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