Marching with the Band to the Beat of Autism

Hey, Mum here.

Red plays the baritone in the high school marching band. I am so thankful that he's found a group of people to hang out with this fall doing something that brings him great pleasure - Music.

Band camp has really been instrumental (grin!) in transitioning Red to the high school.

He's leaving a junior high school with close to 800 students and going to a HS school with over 2000! I was overwhelmed picking up his schedule and books, I can't imagine how Red's going to feel on Monday when classes begin.

Kids with autism typically don't transition or accept changes very well. Many though will also stress and feel overly anxious with too much advanced warning about changes or transitions so parents can find themselves in a position of weighing when to tell and how much to tell.

I was in that position regarding Red's inoculations. At the time, I didn't tell him in advance because I knew just he'd react with a lot of anxiety and be totally stressed out. And I was right.

Band has helped ease the typical transition to high school a lot! I am so amazed. Red has had no problem getting up early and spending a long day (8-5:30!) learning new music and marches and meeting fellow band members.

Red's ready for his classes to begin. I'm not so ready. Red will need to learn the layout of his new campus, find "safe" areas to hang out, contend with kids who are comparatively huge, learn how to open and use a locker, and he's not going to be crazy about all of his classes.

The past several years Red has been mainstreamed into regular education classes for most of his day. Last year he had a lower level math class and a resource language arts class. He hates math regardless and felt the resource language arts class was below him.

Sure, for spelling it was. The kid out-spells me! As long as Red is permitted to copy the spelling words from a book and not "guess" during a pretest. Pretests cause him to memorize the word incorrectly so I've added to his IEP, "no pre-spelling tests". Yes, I do resort to micromanaging when necessary.

Red just doesn't test well for reading comprehension. He may understand more that we know but even if we're all off a bit, he needs help in reading.

Also I chose to get proactive even before classes started. I pull Red from his assigned math class because I heard from 4 different sources that that the teacher is a "yeller" (and why is this person a teacher?). That would just upset Red and would be no way to begin his day.

The other teacher who taught the level of Math Red needs only has one section and its during band. So, he's now in a remedial level math, an SDC math class. It is my hope that the teacher can create a math program that helps him learn his math facts and also helps prepare him for the exit exam.

Sigh. There are many executive decisions and things to consider when raising a special kid with autism. Parents truly need to be active advocates and very diligent in their children's education and assessing their needs. A balance between smothering or codling with helping them grow and mature is not easy to achieve.

So, ready or not, classes begin on Monday. I'm not telling Red about the math class decisions I've made. I'm saying nothing about the resource language arts class. Nope. Mum's the word because when it comes to Red, Mum knows best. (I hope! Please don't backfire!).

Thank goodness for the things I can predict and positive influences in my son's life like Music, Band, and Band Camp!