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| Image Credit Jimston Journal |
Its
a new school year. C1 has officially entered high school and I’m
terrified. Having a kid with autism makes back to school take a
completely different tone and set of challenges. My mind is focused
on her adjustment to a new school with new rules, a school with 2000+
students, if my new IEP team will be as helpful and cooperative as
the last, if I will have a month or more of daily meltdowns because
the school is one big sensory ball of chaos. I have to again have the
sex talk and not the way I expected. I have to focus on not being
taken advantage of or being talked into something because her social
skills and her inability to read people makes her an easy target.
Its
stressful y’all.
Her
first day wasn't too bad. After the obligatory first day pics, (which
for me was a first time ever taking them before dawn) She proceeded
to give me typical teen angst. Complaining I took too many pictures,
thinking every noise she heard was possibly the school bus before I
finally left her head off to the bus stop.
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| Before she got real annoyed with me. |
On her return home that
afternoon, I had to 1st
tell her she forgot to turn on her cellphone, a requirement I have
while she waits and rides the bus both ways. After I watched her and
gave her space, I could tell she was trying to decompress I got to
the myriad of first day questions. The one I feared the most clearly
shook her up as well. While we'd been at the school twice for tours
she was completely unprepared for the amount of kids. Her school is
not considered overcrowded but that many students and that volume
levels she came home shaking. Its been a week now and she's still
coming home in sensory overload but its not as bad as the first day.
I
may joke and kid on social media, I made several comments about a
teacher of hers who was shocked when I told her C1 has had
e-textbooks for 3 years.
Hello
the teacher doesn't even have a website! I bet she thinks I was
lying...
I
still have to make some minor adjustments. She's used to classes with
SMARTBoards and individual laptops, but she' new to the online
testing area, something the State put into practice this school year.
She's completely overwhelmed by the cafeteria line length but as with
every school she's ever attended she visits the school library daily.
She's amazed by the soda machines, the allowance of iPods in between
classes and during lunch and she's gotten some class time with her
iTouch. I know the social aspect will take a long time but I’m glad
she's making it to the end of the day before she goes into her
stimming episodes. Its the balancing game I have to play. Home life
is considerably more chaotic because of her need to decompress but
she's making it all the way to home so its just one of those things.
High
School is a journey much more complex than I could ever imagine. We
are already going to attend our first college fair soon. As I sat on
the phone with K talking about both of our brand new 9th
graders who are venturing into this world, either child is the same
we get to discussion what's similar, whats different and then joke
about our high school days.
Milestones
are funny like that. I have a high schooler. Its something I never
thought would be a big deal but then when life gives you a child with
special needs you realize that there are lots of milestones in life,
they just sneak up on you.
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