Devon's Happy Update

I wanted to give a heads up on my son, Devon.  He's 5 years old with mid to mod Autism.  He's been in the PPCD program since he was 3 years old.  I have worked and worked with him and though they said that he would never be a verbal child, HE TALKS!!! and says all kinds of things, asks for all kinds of things.  I am so excited.  But that's not the best part.  I have been arguing with the school that he's in that he has improved intellectually past the point of being in the PPCD for another year.  He has surpassed their curriculum since he's been in there more than 2 years.  By the end of this year they were thinking of little BS goals just to keep him in there ( i think).  He knows all his colors, letters, shapes, numbers, can trace his name, Identifies his name, knows all of  his family and extended family members names, what kind of car they drive.  ALL sorts of things a 5 year old should know. 

 

To make a long story short, I, with the help of my mom-in-law, talked in an ARD meeting about him being transitioned out of PPCD and mainstreamed into the next grade.  The teacher thought that he should move to another grade up and that would put him behind. And My thought process was that if he stays at a certain level after he has learned everything he has to learn and not be pushed, then he would get comfortable and digress We had talked about this before, and with just being me, I felt that no one really listens to the mother alone.  Well, after the last 6 ARD meetings I brought out the big guns.  I let my mom-in-law have at them.  That woman, I swear would make the devil run for cover just to get what she wanted.

 

After talking to them, and getting the results of the test we were able to get Devon transitioned out of PPCD and into Kindergarten for a better push on learning.  I'm not one of these mothers who accepts her child's disability and that's it, no way to help them.  I want Devon to do better, to excel for better than any expectation that the school district had set aside for him. 

 

I just pray that hopefully that he would be willing to keep it going because the road ahead is not going to be an easy one.

 

 

 

Leah V.