Starting School
It is a very important milestone for any child to start school. It was very important for us for our son to start schooling in order for him to learn communication skills, social skills, and also academic skills. Aarian got diagnosed with Autism in June of 2009 and started school in September 2009 as in Canada Ontario the province we live in children start school at 4 years of age. It was very important for us to make the right decision in terms of Aarians placement in the school system. we knew right from the beginning putting Aarian in a mainstream class with 20 plus kids was not the right placement for him .what he needed to be was as a special needs classroom which has 4 to 5 children with a similar disability. It had 1 teacher along with 2 -3 Educational Assistants.
It was a big transition for Aarian and it was very important for us we had the right Transition plan in place for him which included his strengths and needs, diagnosis and medical information, the skills he has, or needed to develop, his communication and social skills. We were given an opportunity to visit the classroom even before Aarian started school in order to observe how the teachers worked with the children with special needs. That was very reassuring and comforting for us to know we had made the right decision in terms of his placement.
Aarian started school in September 2009 in Junior Kindergarten special needs classroom. The duration of school daily was 2.5 hours. In addition to starting school Aarian was continuing with ABA therapy, speech, and occupational therapy privately.as there are huge waitlists to get services in Canada. We privately did 20 hours of ABA therapy which was half of 40 hours which was recommended. An IEP is a government-mandated plan for addressing the specific needs and learning goals for a disabled student. In the case of children with autism it addresses social, communication, and academic skills. It is Individualized for every child. with special needs.it is a working document designed to be reviewed and updated regularly. Parents play a very important role in the development of IEP.
IEP was put in place for Aarian. Some of the goals which were targeted were teaching Aarian to work on greetings, participate in structured play and circle time activity, following familiar classroom routines, requesting items, and actions from familiar adults with adult support. PECS which is a picture exchange communication system was started in order for Aarian to work on communication as at that time he had no verbal speech. It was very encouraging for us as slowly but surely Aarian started getting used to school and was making progress.
It was a big transition for Aarian and it was very important for us we had the right Transition plan in place for him which included his strengths and needs, diagnosis and medical information, the skills he has, or needed to develop, his communication and social skills. We were given an opportunity to visit the classroom even before Aarian started school in order to observe how the teachers worked with the children with special needs. That was very reassuring and comforting for us to know we had made the right decision in terms of his placement.
Aarian started school in September 2009 in Junior Kindergarten special needs classroom. The duration of school daily was 2.5 hours. In addition to starting school Aarian was continuing with ABA therapy, speech, and occupational therapy privately.as there are huge waitlists to get services in Canada. We privately did 20 hours of ABA therapy which was half of 40 hours which was recommended. An IEP is a government-mandated plan for addressing the specific needs and learning goals for a disabled student. In the case of children with autism it addresses social, communication, and academic skills. It is Individualized for every child. with special needs.it is a working document designed to be reviewed and updated regularly. Parents play a very important role in the development of IEP.
IEP was put in place for Aarian. Some of the goals which were targeted were teaching Aarian to work on greetings, participate in structured play and circle time activity, following familiar classroom routines, requesting items, and actions from familiar adults with adult support. PECS which is a picture exchange communication system was started in order for Aarian to work on communication as at that time he had no verbal speech. It was very encouraging for us as slowly but surely Aarian started getting used to school and was making progress.
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