The challenges of starting kindergarten with Autism

Well big surprise school started off crazy. My son was registered for all day kindergarten as I decided I did not want to have to travel to and from the school so much. I also did not want him to be half day and try to squeeze all his ot, social, and other sped services. He already struggles to learn how will he keep up if he misses half the stuff. Well big surprise he did not do so well going all day in the regular classroom so we decided to try him half day kindergarten and half day self contained where he can get all his sped services. This seems to be working for him as he melts down by lunch other then he bit a kid the other day not a real bite just a nibble really lol. When I asked him why he said he was looking at me and blocking the slide. Sigh! do kids just have this homing beacon for kids that are different and pick on them? I volunteered to drive for the senses field trip for my sons class. It was fun the teacher only assigned me my son and another sped boy he is a lot like my son she was worried to do so but I told her I was used to them so it would work fine.

LOL I always wished my son had a twin as then he would have a friend I am not so sure now they were fun to watch and played well till they did not want to do the same thing. Then you have a problem as one goes one way and one goes the other they do not listen well so if one wanders off you cant leave the other as they are not like other kids you never know what they are going to do. So you have to get the one and chase the other and quickly!

It reminded me of when my third daughter was 3 and my second was 5 she would just wander away with whatever had her attention. so I would have to uproot the 3 year old to chase the 5 year old and try to carry the baby. It was quite the challenge many mothers do not understand why I do not take my kids places much well there are several reasons: I have back issues, they tend to melt down, they don't listen well so it makes it difficult to divide yourself to get in each child's face to make sure they understood you.

Well back to kindergarten, my son is really good at math big surprise. However you have to read everything to him. He struggles to stay on the same task for very long. He works better if he has a fidget and a reward that is tangible he does not seem to get implied rewards. He can not handle the noise of the lunchroom. For fidgets he likes those party size playdough and those little balls with spaghetti strips coming off in center like these http://www.orientaltrading.com/halloween-porcupine-balls-a2-25_3355.fltr?prodCatId=551312 my oldest likes a good old stress ball or a worm like this http://www.orientaltrading.com/magic-worms-a2-16_1212.fltr I like these cause none of them are to expensive to replace if lost or ruined :)