OT-but a really nice story

[Guest guest]

My husband went to a autism conference on the weekend and heard this

story.

The was a young boy with autism who was always in trouble at school,

but this fall he hadn't had any problems at school. On parent teacher

night his mom, who was meeting with his new teacher and the principle

remarked on the fact that she wasn't getting calls every other day

and wondered what was different. The teacher said " Oh, it must be the

envelopes " , the mom and the principle both said, " envelopes! " . And

the teacher said, " I have a stack of envelopes in my desk, when I see

starting to get anxious, I ask him to help me and deliver an

envelope to the office. I write the secretaries name on the front,

and put a note inside asking her to have him wait for five minutes

for a reply, after five minutes she hands him an envelope to give

back to me. Giving him the time to get out of the classroom setting

gives him a chance to settle and then verbally praising him for

helping me is great for his self esteem " . We need more teachers with

this kind of insight.