SPED teacher questions

[Guest guest]

Hi all. I am having a new experience that I'm not sure what to do with. I want

to make sure I'm making the most of it. My son has been progressing through the

accommodation chain--nothing--informal--RTI--504--now probably IEP pretty soon.

They haven't been waiting on the SPED eval to finish to start experimenting with

placement. I guess that means he is back in RTI and they just haven't said

anything to me. But I digress. So, I have two new things I'm not sure what

to do with.

First of all, they have decided to have my son (14yo 8th grade

Asperger/anxiety/executive dysfunction/developmental coordination

disorder/borderline gifted) start meeting mornings before school with a special

ed teacher to make sure my son is organized for the day, provide

organizational/planning coaching etc. Typical thing they do with kids with

executive dysfunction, I know. But this is new TO ME.

Should I be doing anything on my end? The assistant principal (my son's 504

coordinator) called to let me know this was going to start happening (and to get

my permission--guess verbal was good enough) and my son has confirmed that it is

(a couple of weeks now). But the teacher has never contacted me. Is it

appropriate for me to initiate contacting this teacher, at least to say " Hi " and

....what else? ... I'm really not sure. Just say thanks for the extra support?

I'd like feedback at some point on how he is doing, what they are working on (so

I can reinforce it at home), and whether he appears to be learning anything.

But it is awkward since nobody has even bothered to introduce us. I feel like

I'm pushing myself on him (the teacher).

Okay, the other thing is, I found out my son is in a math class with a SPED

co-teacher. Since he is not officially assigned to her, nobody told me.

However, she is my neighbor a few doors down! I don't know her except by sight.

I found out because she had to pull him from class and make him call home

because he had not handed in a project--something they do inconsistently at our

jr high. She took the opportunity to take the phone from my son and introduce

herself; I think she had just figured out who he was, i.e., that we were

neighbors--either that of she had just made up her mind to introduce herself for

some reason.

Then, she called me back in a few minutes after the kids left, let me know some

more about her position as SPED teacher in this class, that she ended up helping

all the kids. She said she was having a very hard time getting " productivity "

out of my son -- gee big surprise LOL! We talked some about how many of the

kids without official help needed it just as bad as the ones with it, and she

asked me to let her know if there was ANYTHING she could do to help. She was

very insistent that I let her know if there was anything she could do to help.

I was too flabbergasted to say much. I'm not very good at thinking on my feet.

So, what do I do with this? What kind of help do you think she was thinking of?

She's pretty much a stranger, other than I've seen her around since she lives

down the street. We have kids the same age; hers are NT. For some reason, our

kids have never played together. I have no idea why. I just know them from

seeing them at the school bus stop (how I also know who she is).

What is running through my head is how the help my son needs is someone

understanding the problems autistic kids have with math that nobody seems to

understand. The language snaffus in word problems and directions in general,

learning things then forgetting, the constand need for reinforcement, not being

able to generalize learning, needing things in linear steps and written down

because of the executive dysfunction. But it is all such a long story, where

would I start? And since she is a SPED teacher (something I have never dealt

with before, I might add), maybe she knows more about this stuff than all the

general ed teachers? Again, so where do I start? And how would I work with her

without offending his official teacher? Can I even do that? One thing--since

he has not had good educational evaluating (supposed to be happening soon with

his IEP eval) nobody really knows exactly what his problems are. So, maybe

there is nothing really to do right now?

Any help much appreciated--I know it is the weekend, spring break besides--but

please have pity LOL!

Ruth