Just before we left to Texas Gavin had his big Kindergarten evaluation. They had a Kindergarten teacher from his current school evaluate him for a few days and see what she thought would work best for him. They also had his Autism Team person come in as well. He had a couple of choices. One, not to start Kindergarten at all and repeat preschool, two, attend a special Kindergarten for kids with Autism, and three, attend regular ole Kindergarten. We were really wanting him to be able to go to regular Kindergarten. And while we ultimately could chose that even if they didn’t recommend it, we would place him where ever they recommended.
After their evaluation we got word that he was fine to attend regular school!! We are so excited. We would have been fine had they chosen for him to go to the special autism Kindergarten too. Our biggest concern about him going there vs mainstream Kindergarten is that he would pick up on behaviors of other autistic students. Gavin doesn’t display a lot of classic autistic characteristics, and he’s over come a lot of the ones he used to have. He’s a sponge and we were worried if he was constantly surrounded by children who stimmed, threw tantrums, etc, he’d pick up on the behavior. Where in traditional Kindergarten he’ll have a lot of exposure to regular kids and hopefully pick up on their behaviors instead.
Last week I went to register him and next month we will have his transition meeting. We’ll meet with his current teacher and the Kindergarten teacher and hash out the details. Gavin will continue receiving support from the Autism team. I am not sure how often but at least once a week. He’ll be pulled out of class sorta like resource. He’ll also continue speech therapy. Our biggest worries for him will continue to be how he does socially. Right now he does pretty well and kids his age thinks he’s a riot. I wonder how he’ll be in a couple of years though.
He is definitely a success story. He’s come so far in such a short amount of time. I feel lucky beyond lucky. He is so amazing!
