Mainstream schooling...*sigh*

Bubba has an IEP (Individual Education Plan) and is mainstreamed at school, with some modifications.  Basically, that means that he is in a regular education class with some extra in-class support and he gets extra time to take tests.

This keeps him with neurotypical students.  Neurotypical means kids who don't have "issues" with their brain, for example:  autism, seizures, etc

This is a good thing and a bad thing.

It's good because the other kids are usually good role models for how to act.  They help him practice proper social interactions.

It's a bad thing because kids with Aspergers usually can't tell when someone is a friend or a bully (we dealt with this in kindergarten adn 1st grade) or when someone is friendly-teasing.  And it can also leave the non-neurotypical kid feeling like an outcast.

We have been having trouble with Bubba's school over the last week-ish.  We get a feeling that he is being singled out due to his Asperger's, and that the teachers/aides are relying on the other kids side of the story and not even listening to Bubba's.  Kid's with Asperger's are honest to a fault.  They don't understand things like the "little white lie."

I threatened to pull him out of school to home-school him.  I don't want to because this child is going to be smarter than his college graduate mother before too long :0)

Our next option was to look into alternative or private schooling.  There is an autism program run in our county out of a school about half an hour away.  We are going to insist, at the least, that we be permitted to look into the program.

The school keeps insisting that he needs to be with neurotypical kids to "socialize" him.  He started publie school in Pre-K, he is now in 2nd grade.  His friends are the kids he wrestles with because they accept him for who he is.  He has no friends in his class and hasn't since he started school. 

"Socialization" is no longer a good enough reason to keep him in that school.  Especially when I get an e-mail from one of his teachers telling me that the other students "shouldn't have to tolerate" the things he does.  Well, I don't think he should have to tolerate being forced to sit still for hour at a time, or being picked on when the teachers/aides are out of ear-shot.

After he came home with wood chips all over his socks and him telling me that some kids TOOK HIS SHOES out on the playground, I asked him if he told an adult at the school.  He said he did but was told not to "tattle."  So when the kids pick on him, he doesn't say anything anymore.

How freaking sad is that?



We have an appointment on Monday, 10/21.  I'm sure I will have to get pissy a few times.

Don't mess with the cub if you can't handle Mama!

"Special Needs"

I have a problem with my kids having this label.  You can't see their medical issues like you can with other things.  They don't use a wheelchair (ok, we did have to get Diva a special needs stroller, but it looks like an umbrella stroller), they don't have braces or casts, etc.

They both kinda fall into a gray area.  They aren't 100% healthy but, to us, they aren't disabled enough to be considered disabled.  Sadly, if Bubba actually had a diagnosis on the Autism Spectrum there would be more resources available to him and us than there are with just an ADHD diagnosis.

I feel like we are sitting on a fence and we don't really fit on either side of it.  Then there is that label...special needs....different needs...differently able...etc.  I dislike all of them.

I have yet to figure out exactly why I dislike the label, but I think it may have something to do with wanting my kids to be treated like any other kid.  Labels have a way of separating people.