Back To School With Special Needs

Back To School With Special Needs

Summer is almost over for us. The boys go back to school next week. My son with Asperger’s is going to start 3rd grade! I find that a little hard to believe. It seems like we were just getting ready for him to start kindergarten. What a nervous mom I was that summer. We were working with our ABA therapists to get him ready for school. He had been in preschool but kindergarten was something else. We were able to get a schedule of what his school day would like ahead of time and went over it with him.

He started school and that year was challenging. He started 1st grade and that was another challenging year. The summer before 1st and 2nd he really matured a lot. He was not the same kid when he went back to school. 2nd grade was a lot better but still had its challenges. We went from having to worry about him acting out to worrying about getting him to do his work. That was a big change because it involved two different things. He was not acting out as much which was great but he was refusing to do some of his work. It wasn’t that he couldn’t do it, but he is a bit of a perfectionist, so if he didn’t feel like he was doing it 100%, he would freak out and not want to do it at all.

We are working with a good team at his school. A few of them have known my son since he started at the school. It is one reason we are still in Tennessee. I worry that when we move, we will have to start over a bit and that scares me. Right now it is working and I don’t want to mess with that at the moment. Although I do know that there are plenty of resources for kids with Autism where we are planning to move to.

As we get ready for third grade I am feeling pretty positive about it. I have seen him mature a bit over the summer. He is no longer acting out just because someone does something he doesn’t like. He still does this sometimes but not like he did. I can tell he is really working on that. He is being more helpful around the house too. Things just seem a little more calm which is good.

So as we look into starting third grade with Asperger’s, I am excited about the year. However, I know there will still be challenges. He might not want to do all his work, and we will have to find a way to make sure he does and starts to understand that he needs to get it done. He might not get along with everyone in his class. He might wake up one morning and decide he does not want to go to school that day. I am trying to prepare myself for however the year is going to go.

Having a child with Asperger’s is challenging in so many ways. But we just have to work through them. I am glad I have a good team of people we are working with to help my son have a good year. It will be challenging at times, we will have a lot of IEP meetings and there will be a lot of tears on my part I am sure. But it will all be worth it so that my son can get a good education and can learn about how to do well in school.

Do you have a special needs child getting ready to go back to school? What are your biggest fears about it?