Thursday, January 21, 2010

Micah/School...

Just an update--

For now, he's home. I kept him home all week. He's now been out 2 1/2 weeks total. He's been WELL for one week. Here's hoping it lasts. If I haven't heard from anyone by Tuesday to schedule his surgery I'm not sure what I'm going to do. Can't exactly send him to school to get sick again! In fact, I'm not sure that even after his surgery he can go back. Obviously his licking and putting things in his mouth, etc. are having a big effect on his health in the classroom. Lots of germs, lots of sickness. But seriously, being THAT SICK for THAT LONG isn't something that's just normal "first time in school" ickeys.

Now I'm looking at the ONE thing that can keep him SAFE in school and that the licking and mouthing are only small parts of... I'm going to try to get Micah a 1:1 aide in the classroom.

Aside from getting sick, he will also get others sick if his behaviors continue. It's not a medical fragility issue. It's a behavior that needs to be worked with. And there's no way for 2 aides to be able to do that with 12 children in the classroom that ALL need their attention. They cannot walk around with Micah and keep his tongue off of everything or keep his hands and toys out of his mouth. In addition to that, he also needs to be fed, diapers changed, and walking anywhere someone must hold his hand or he either stops walking or wanders off. If the door is open he might just walk through it and leave.

He's a good kid. A smart little guy when he lets us know that he 'gets' things. But for safety and function in the classroom, he really needs more 1:1 than the teachers in the room can physically provide all the time.

We'll see how this goes... (any advice?)

5 comments:

  1. are you serious?? 2 aides for 12 small kids???? I'm a special needs teacher aide (SNTA) and most kids I work with are one on one, or if it's a special needs class it's 2 kids to 1 adult. I'm in canada so I'm not much help with info!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Praying for your request to be met with open arms! For everyone's sake!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Happy Birthday Meredith!
    Thanks for all your help over the last few months!!!

    Rich and Jodi

    ReplyDelete
  4. Braska's class is 14 kids on 'big' days M W (split evenly IEP and non-IEP kids), and they have a reg ed teacher and a sp ed teacher and one aide. But there are often therapists in the room as well. On 'little' days T Th (only IEP kids), there are just the one sp ed teacher and one aide and whatever therapists are seeing kids that day. No one has 1:1 aides in her class. I don't know about other classes like hers. Braska's the only non-walker in her class, and the only one who has to be fed instead of having snack crackers and juice. It's a private developmental preschool that our school district uses for early childhood ed. For the kids that need more help, they have more intensive classes.

    As far as sickness, Braska's been sick since her 3rd day in preschool, except for about 10 days. That's almost 2 months. It's crazy, and I asked our pediatrician what to do, that I wouldn't keep this pattern for the rest of the winter, and she had no answers. So I'm trying to decide what to do. I'm guessing she'll be missing at least half of this next week too... hope Micah can get better!

    ReplyDelete
  5. BTW...I didn't mean that Micah needed to be in an intensive class! That didn't come out right! :o)

    ReplyDelete