Well today came a day I was hoping wouldn't come. By enrolling my child in a day care that specializes in special needs children and stresses inclusion and intermixing of nt and non nt children (nt= neurotypical) I had hoped that my sons challenging behavior would be worked around instead of excluding him from things. I was wrong.
Today was the big weekly field trip. They were going to a local-ish train yard for a ride. A was very excited as trains are his thing. ANY train floats his boat. They arrived there too late to ride the train so they opted to go to another attraction local to the yard. While at the other place A had issues listening, staying with the adults (he is a bit of a bolter , but this is nothing new, they KNEW this, its in his IEP they helped draft) and while on the way back to the center he opened his door that had not had the child locks activated on it scaring the driver. A never rides in my car without the locks activated so he really isn't used to the latch actually opening his door. But because of all this A has been un invited to the swim trip tomorrow to a local lake. We're in the northeast so you can imagine how hot it is right now , upper 90s and the dew point in the 70s makes for VERY uncomfortable weather. Add to that my last post where I mentioned just how much A loved swimming last week and you can imagine how upset I am about this. I was ciounting on the trip to help keep A cool since the heat only makes things much worse behavior wise for him.
I understand they are concerned for his safety BUT A has autism. They are supposed to be inclusive and trained to handle kids like him. They know him. This summer program is run to provide ESY (extended school year) services over the summer to kids making the transition to school from pre-school. I watched the school system exclude N from too many things due to his quirks before I knew what his diagnosis was and that exclusion was inappropriate. This incident with A just brings back all of that. I'm hoping this is a one time only thing because if they start excluding A from more trips that are being done as part of the ESY program with the school district I'm going to file a complaint with the school district about this. Exclusion is not an ongoing solution to the issue and the school isnt paying for him to not be included in the program.
I thought school and the teachers were supposed to mold themselves and their teaching style to make a place for each kid in their institution of learning? Not that the kid was to be bent, molded, changed to fit the teachers mode of teaching. My child is a puzzle piece and you cant change the piece's shape to fit the puzzle , you have to find the right place/orientation, etc for the piece.
There has to be a place or a program to fit our puzzle pieces... the problem is I cant seem to find it. Which really makes me sad and disappointed in society.
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