We had our first SST meeting for Chance at school last week. SST stands for Student Success Team. I guess it used to stand for Student Study Team or something like that but someone decided that wasn't positive enough so they changed it. They also call tutoring/study club "intervention" or "support". The marketing person in me finds the spin amusing.
Anyway, I have been trying to get all our resources together… trying out a few new OT techniques, looking for new materials. I passed around this book at school and I'm not sure I'm gonna get it back! (Which is a shame because our OT/Speech therapy is all excited to see it, too. Guess I'm ordering more.) I'm currently researching noise-reduction or isolation headphones so if there are any SPD/autism parents out there with suggestions please ping me! I will love you long time. We're trying chewing gum in the classroom for focus and to stop someone's little motor mouth from running. I had put together a "busy bag" full of fidget items and worksheets and that has been helping a bit when he just can't sit still. Starting this week I'm also going to be picking Chance up and bringing him home for lunch. This is a big one because it cuts my day in half but it just seems like most of his melt-down incidents happen in the afternoons or at lunch time. We've been discussing giving him a scheduled break in the middle of the day to get away from all the stimulation but honestly, I'm not sure the school has the aide/resources to enforce a break every single day and it might just be moving him from one stimulating environment to another. So I think getting away from the 180-student lunch time noisy cafeteria/recess might be the break he needs. We're going to try it anyway and see how it goes. At least the school year is half-way over.
And President's Week is next week! Woot!
(I'm going to Disneyland.) – wg
Funny, they are thinking of getting my son headphone to provide a white noise background to get him to focus or stay on task. He isn’t ADD though – but he seems to move almost continuously (always did) and the psychologist thinks it might help.
I do know BOSE makes a sound isolating headset that works to block noise on planes but I have never used them.
M
I especially like the subtitle of the book, “Making sense of school”. It reinforces the fact that children learn in so many different ways, and that the standard way is not appropriate for every child. Reminds me of the story (probably true) that Einstein had great difficulty in school. Chance could very well be a genius too!