Grammy’s comment about knowing her kids more than the teachers triggered this. Monkey’s current teacher certainly seems to agree with the idea that we know him better than they do. But I’m not all that sure that this is totally accurate. I think in some ways they do know more about him than we do, which is why we let them set his goals without much interference.
Monkey seems to have different attitudes at home and at school. He will do things at school that he won’t at home and vice versa. It’s weird. He won’t use his entire vocabulary at school…there are certain things we hear him say all the time that they never hear. Again, weird. We thought that if he felt more comfortable in his classroom (and he does) he would share more of his skills but it doesn’t seem to have worked that way. He’s definitely showing MORE than in the last classroom but still not all. I wish I knew how to fix that.
One example, at our annual meeting the ST mentioned that she wanted to work on breathing exercises with him to help him speak more loudly. Uh, what? We were flummoxed, the boy has lungs and USES them to the point of giving poor Duhdee headaches some days. She was shocked to hear that he can be so loud, she really thought he had some sort of trunk weakness that was affecting his diaphragm.
Another example is that at school he will apparently eat with utensils…we have to constantly remind him at home to use his fork/spoon and he still ignores us a lot of the time. I would have said he didn’t have the coordination or fine motor skills to do that…in fact I have said that exact thing on those stupid questionnaires we have to fill out for all of the evaluations we’ve done.
I just wish I knew how to get him to use all the skills he has regardless of which environment he is in. Any suggestions? I can’t be the only one who’s seen this 🙂
Punkin uses utensils at school, too, but forget it at home! We seem to be in the same boat as you. It does get better, though, over time. It just stinks because in the past, by the time he fully adjusted, he had a birthday and had to move on. I’m glad he can be in his current room until he is 5 and 1/2. Maybe he’s anxious at school? I mean, home is the safest place for us and our kiddos. It’s where they can let totally loose.
I can relate to so much of this post! Stupid evaluations, not using utensils at home, etc. I don’t have any wisdom, but wanted you to know you’re not alone.