The past months have been something else in this house... I can only imagine what a day in the class is like for these two boys.
Joey has been a train on a collision course that looks like a roller coaster. We've been through so many different types of medications I've lost track of them all. The biggest issue has been getting Joey to swallow meds. He is the most picky eater in the world and that apparently includes medicine. Even things like a pill you don't have to chew or taste is a gigantic issue. After being the worst mother in the world by trying to force the pills down his throat we settled on a patch. I think we're due for an increase but it's been working pretty good. Not as good as I thought though. He was telling me that he was on green every single day for weeks. He even had green written on papers for me. Stupid mother I am, I believed him. Today while I was taking care of some business in the office he saw me and ran to give me a hug. I asked how his day was going and he told me, with my prodding, that he was on
YeLLOw. I was driven to go look at the chart after he couldn't 'remember' what the yellow was for. Low and behold he has been, since December, Yellow, Red, and Blue but not green :( I feel like such an idiot for believing him. I'm quite angry at the teacher for not letting me know. She's supposed to be using their assignment notebooks to write down why they get a red or blue and we're to sign and send it back that we've seen it. She's totally dropped the ball by not emailing me or something when she's not getting anything from me and when Joey never has his assignment book for her to fill out! I wrote her a letter to day explaining that here I thought he was having awesome behavior and that's so not true. We can't trust him to tell the truth or be the middle man between our communication so I want her to sign all days and expect me to sign all days too and we need to be on top of it. This would include discipline for Joey at school if he doesn't come to school with my signature!!
I have a SIT meeting for him in two weeks as well as a med check just before that. I see med increase and revised IEP in his future.
Another thing, the original reason for the upcoming SIT is that I believe Joey has a mild form of dyslexia! I was looking at a reading curriculum to do with Joshua at home and was led to this program that is primarily for people with dyslexia. I was investigating what it was all about and if it's the right program to get Joshua up to speed and realized quick how it can help Joey but then was knocked over that the check list for symptoms of dyslexia read like a book about Joey!! I called the doctors to find out who specialized in dyslexia diagnosis's and to set up an eval with him. While there to get Jon's basic eval done we took a couple minutes to discuss this dyslexia stuff. She said the doctor had come to talk to her and looking back at all Joey's testing, the fact they already said he was at high risk for reading problems he didn't feel that he needed to test that plans should be put into place immediately and assume that he does have a reading disability PERIOD. I felt very validated in all this at my feelings about his spelling words. They are ridiculously difficult for a kid who can't read the words. If you can't even read the words how can you be expected to spell them? The answer is he can't so at least here at home we've give up on the spelling words until he gets to a point where he can read well enough to learn how to spell what he can read!
In summary, school sucks, behavior sucks, nutrition sucks (picky eater thing) and we're at our wits end to find the right meds for him.
Joshua, wow wow wow with him too. His behavior at school escalated to an extreme I couldn't handle. That boy spent the vast majority of his first 4 months of school in the office. He was refusing to attend class, specials were an extreme no-no to him (what 'normal' little boy doesn't like gym class?!) He loves to draw and paint and color. Spent his time coloring in his journal instead of writing like he was supposed to but he refused to go to art class! I always thought he was going to be my performer once he got over his shyness. he picked up on songs and motions so easily but he treated music class like it was a bounce house, quite literally bouncing himself off the walls! He would leave class when he felt like it. He was sent to the office daily. The teacher would have to remove the other kids from the class to protect them from the tantrums and flying objects and to allow Joshua to clean up his messes... *****SCREAMING*****
My dad then passed away the middle of November
very pretty unexpectedly I'm calling the doctor drowning in this life of mine saying "fix him, change his meds, do something...I can't take it anymore and neither can he!" The doctor thought Josh was reacting to his grandpa dying but I'm explaining to him that they didn't have that kind of relationship, this is his meds not his stress level! The next day I called the NP that regulates Joey's meds and asked her to have a titration schedule for Joshua's Zoloft ready for me when i come in for Joey's appt that day. I wanted him off and needed to know how to do it. She tells me a half a pill for 5 days and we're good. Not as difficult or slow as it was to get him on his full dose. I also was thinking back as to the melatonin he was taking at night. he was always a bed-wetter and that stopped with the melatonin so maybe, just maybe, it was preventing him from getting that really deep sleep that caused him to wet the bed but gave him the rest he needed? Taking him off that too. So over Thanksgiving weekend, Wednesday-Sunday he was taken off the Zoloft and the melatonin.
I then started looking into alternative ways to educate him. We're not that far from Christmas and this child has never once been in a reading group to learn how to read! He's missed half his kindergarten year!!! I applied for him to go to the Virtual Academy (K12.com) Being it's the middle of the year I had to do an exception application and write out why I wanted him to be an exception. Just after we got back to school from Christmas break I found out he was accepted. Thing was, the week before Christmas break he had done
GOOD GREAT Joshua participated and I mean PARTICIPATED in his first reading groups!!!
I was starting to look forward to this home school thing with him but now I'm wondering if he'll even need it?! The week after Christmas he had two perfect days (out of two days they were there), the first full week he earned ALL of his stars, participated in ALL OF HIS CLASSES even his gym, art and music. He was self redirecting, asking politely to be excused from things that would have triggered him before, but only after trying them first and giving it a shot!! He is a pleasure to his teacher and that aid they have with him all day, every day, seems to be a wasted resource lol
I had an IEP meeting for him. He's coming up on his 3yr mark and needs some re-evaluation but we needed to add on this ADHD issue. They scheduled 45mins but 2.5hrs later we were done. Came up with some great ways to help Joshua from making him stay in the class all the time (no more fun trips to the office), transitioning him to class and to anywhere he needs to leave the class for. One biggie was they are working on teaching him emotions. They didn't think he had the age appropriate understanding of which feelings were which much less how they felt. He'd know you were mad but he didn't seem to know what that meant other than a bunch of words. They taught him "cocoa" breathing to help him calm down. Made some visual schedules for his table spot and the classroom etc... Let me tell you, I have the BEST team for Josh and Joey at this school. The Principal is NEVER putting money or time ahead of the kids needs, NEVER. We are very blessed.
One think the teacher did notice and bring to my attention was that Joshua was taking quite awhile to settle down in the mornings. Like his meds were taking 45-90+ minutes to get into his system. We went into the doctor for a med check and decided to up his adderall by 5 more milligrams and we actually pushed his noon dose to 2pm. He should not need a booster dose after only 4-5hrs. So if the teacher is pulling her hair out before 2pm, that Joshua just can't last that long then we'll up the dose 5mg more. If he still can't make it until 2pm then we know he needs something else and we'll try Vyvance which he says is a more smooth uptake before it turns into adderall.
Now Jonny, my little Jonny who used to come home last year on the bus without shoes/boots, coat etc... because he'd have thrown a fit at school about that transition. The itinerant sped teacher that was assigned to him this year called a meeting (lots of meetings for mom in December!!) to tell me that she sees NO reason for her to be watching over Jon. He's doing GREAT, he's never shown any problem at this new school. He is excellently behaved every single day!!! Yay!!!!
Now momma can
sleep breath...
