BACK TO SCHOOL IS ALMOST HERE
By Kim Manning
It's August, and along with the hottest days of summer comes the steady stream of catalogs for "Back to School" sales. When you have a school aged child with a Disorder of the Corpus Callosum there is more than just shopping to think about though in order to make those first days of school go smoothly. Here are some things that have worked for us:
The Building - Begin to drive to the school building on an almost daily basis and talk about going to school. Especially when a new year means a new building, make arrangements with staff to go inside and take photos of important rooms and areas of the building. When my son started high school last year I took photos of the entrance, his primary classroom, the lockers, the library, the gym, the auditorium, the cafeteria, the computer lab, the music room and the nurse's office. We then looked at those pictures together and talked about each photo. Once I knew his schedule, I arranged the pictures on his Ipad (or you could use a small photo album) in the order that his day would progress.
The People - Utilize the school district's website or contact your special education administrative offices to find the names and photos of staff that will be working with your child. Create an album of those or mix them in with your building photos matching people to rooms. Talk about them using their name and explaining their job. Once the year starts, be sure to include a picture of the bus driver and bus aide.
The Stuff - Find out about any required supplies, back packs, and dress codes and begin to desensitize your child to using them. Wash new clothes and remove any tags that could be a distraction. Practice taking them on and off. To the extent you believe the clothes required under the dress code will interfere with your child's ability to learn, move freely or perform routine personal care you should contact school's administration and ask for a reasonable exemption from the problematic requirements. Have your child practice opening, closing and using backpacks, lunchboxes and other supplies.
The Schedule - Sad but true, but you have to start to gradually adjust bed times and wake-up times so that when that first week comes along 7:00 AM will not seem quite so harsh.
The Manning Family:
Kim and David Manning live in Northeastern Pennsylvania with their 16 year old son Will, who has hypoplasia of the Corpus Callosum. Will is getting ready to start his sophomore year of high school this fall where he attends a life skills class along with American History and Chorus.
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