So sad right now...about Lucas

[Guest guest]

Hello everybody, just feel really sad today from going to a meeting

yesterday with my daughter and learning the school does believe my

grandson Lucas has autism, the school psychologist said he rated " very

high " on all their testing that he has it. Of course we have always

known he was different and quirky and all of that but guess we were in a

bit of denial about it were hoping he could just somehow grow out of it

and adjust and settle in, and to tell you the truth he has done just

that during his first year of public school in many ways, has adjusted

to many things, he even told me the other day he liked school now. He

used to say he hated it and I asked him why and he just said " People

talk too much.. "

Soo I know it is a good thing to get him on an IEP, as his first year of

school is almost over and it well help to get this out of the way this

year rather than wait till next year, but still I am sad, it's a feeling

like a swift kick in the stomach. One reason is I have a son Marty who

is 46 years old now and he has had serious problems all of his life, and

I certainly didn't want anything like that for my grandson to go

through, or my daughter, or my other grandkids. It hurts, really hurts.

Yesterday we went to the school right as it was out and popped into the

office there and I was watching for Lucas's class to walk down the hall

so I could grab him and so I did and pulled him into the office, and he

said, " Am I in trouble? " Poor little guy already knows when you go to

the office you are in trouble. Sigh.

Funny thing he did not rate so highly at home he is quite social and

when we take him to the park he plays with other kids, it is WHY he

wants to go there every Sun. after church. They said at school he

doesn't talk to the other kids he talks " at " them. I told them I didn't

talk at all in school my whole life and the teachers thought I was

strange. But I am very shy and a thinker and rather afraid of strange

people which I think Lucas is a lot like me. Very high attention to

detail, observing everything but not speaking. The school psychologist

who I did not like just snipped at me, said she was not a clinical

psychologist and did not analyze personality.

Why not I wondered?

He can write numbers to a hundred, perfect numbers, can repeat all the

letters of the alphabet and recite the phonic sounds to them, can read

but does not read at school, or do math, or anything they tell him,

although he is a fantastic artist. He has a really good memory and can

draw from memory 67 telephone poles with all the stuff on the tops of

them and tell me what they are for pretty much, and tell you where they

are in town....! So why can't he read 1st grade material for his teacher

so she can pass him I wonder!

I guess what hurt is he scored so low in language, he would not tell the

speech and language teacher for example what a coat was for, that is how

she tested him, held up cards of things and he was supposed to explain

what the thing did, like a lawn mower. Yesterday in the car he did ask

me why people mowed their grass and I said well it was always growing

and if they did not it would get too long and be all messy. So it is not

like he doesn't get what a lawn mower does he just wants to know why it

is doing it. He asks a lot of questions like this and I am explaining

things to him all the time.

Well that is enough for now I guess, just feel sad, and sad too he is

sick again, my daughter is taking him to the doctor this morning because

he has a fever. He just had strep throat less than two weeks ago and

took antibiotic and now is sick again. So worried about that right now.

She has to go to the doctor herself later and will bring him over and I

will be so glad to see him, see him almost every day...

Thanks for listening,

Carolyn Grandma in Oregon ;o(