Today was a day I've looked forward to for years. It was Nate's first day of kindergarten. Let me explain. Back 3 1/2 years ago when Nate was diagnosed with autism it was so overwhelming. I couldn't think too far ahead about whether Nate would ever be able to have a job, graduate high school, or live on his own. The psychologist who diagnosed Nate suggested trying to focus on just a few years ahead. Work on trying to get Nate ready for a typical kindergarten classroom. So that's what we've done. All the ABA, OT, speech, music therapy, specialized preschool, IEP meetings, research, etc. has contributed to this goal.
When we were starting to plan Nate's transition from preschool to kinder the plan was to have Nate in a typical class and also in a special ed class. We loved the special ed teacher and the school was great. We were excited for Nate, but it wasn't a fully integrated class which would have so many benefits for Nate.
Well, at the final transition meeting of the year the plan changed. The school had enough incoming kindergarteners with autism to hire a special ed teacher to be in the typical kinder classroom. This meant Nate could now be with his peers all the time. No pull out for special ed. And that's really exciting for us.
I'm so proud of all the hard work Nate's had to do to be ready for kindergarten. So today is definitely a day to celebrate all we've achieved.
2 comments:
So proud of you all! This is definitely a big, happy milestone! Way to go Nate! 😘
You've done a lot of hard work too! So congrats to you both!
Post a Comment