useful versus academic.

[Guest guest]

Hi,

I was trying to summarize what I have been feeling about our

programming and after taking a good look at it this summer I came to

realize how heavily we were focused on academics, and how we had almost

completely ignored the rest of life. No functional programming, no fun

stuff, just academics.

Making a long story short, I started looking at his programs in a different

light. Okay take Edmark can he read, yes, does he understand what he is

reading no. So he can read " the girl sits under the tree " but cannot

understand what that means but more importantly he cannot read functional

directions such as " Brush your teeth " " Get your backpack " or follow

it. So I said why are we working on girls sitting under trees, when he

cannot read a door sign that says PUSH and do the action or find a sign for

the men's room. He can tell you in drill format that you buy stamps at the

post office, but he doesn't know what a stamp is, a letter or what you do

with a mail box, hmmm, interesting. He can point to the legs on a table,

but he doesn't accurately label his own legs or tell you if he has hurt his

leg or that his legs walk and run. He can tell you the months of the year

and count to 45, but he cannot line up for school or wait quietly and

cannot pick his school bus #20 out of a line up. BUT he knows his numbers!

So, I could go on and on, but I thought I'd share some of this stuff with

those of you with younger kids. If your child is a child who is on the

fast track (for lack of a better term), a lot of stuff will come fairly

readily and he/she will learn, retain and move on. But for the kids like

mine who are auditorily/behaviorally and socially challenged in only the

ways kids with autism are, look at your programming and really make sure

that you are getting what you need and most importantly what your child

needs from it.

Academics are great but for the more severe kids, it falls far short of

preparing them for life on a day to day basis. Make sure you are not only

helping them academically but more importantly to fit in, to become

independent and to be able to join in with NT peers in a nondisruptive

manner. I think it will make for a happier child in the long run and I

think I'll sleep better at night knowing he can find his bus, the bathroom,

and know for instance that EXIT is a way to get out of a building.

cate