In case you missed the musical reference.

This has always been the song that makes me think about Nile and autism and all the other crap. I'm probably punishing myself for listening to it so much.

Tuesday Report Card

Better Than I expected. The day started with an EPIC meltdown which made me think it was not going to be a good day. We get these meltdowns all the time, early in the morning was just odd. Wife took him to school and there were no calls. When I picked him up, he was separated from the other kids playing with one of his teachers. She looked exhausted. Talking to his main teacher, she asked "Does he take naps?"

NO. Not since he was an infant. He runs, and runs and runs and then refuses to rest. Remember in college when you would go to the bar and then come home and study and not go to bed until 5 or 6? Nile is 3 and a half and he does that every day. By the end of the week he has dark circles under his eyes that rival his dad's.

Come to find out it is during nap time (quiet time), that Nile tends to be the most disruptive. He actually does very well during "class" time. That struck me funny because his old man was always a master of the reverse. I'm going to try to get him to settle down more at home and if that doesn't work I may end up picking him up early (12:30 instead of 2:00) to save his teachers. The poor girl that was with Nile was supposed to be watching the babies at the school. I did get the feeling from the people at the school that they saw him as a challenge, not a burden. This was not the case with the other school.

He is getting something from this new school though, he was singing all kinds of new songs we hadn't heard before this weekend. Kid likes to sing, ain't nothing wrong there.

Heard those words again.

My son Nile is almost 4 years old. He has a high functioning form of autism. The first Doctor we went to just wanted to give him meds, which my wife and I thought was the wrong path. He is supposed to see a very specialized Dr. in October which, we are told, will provide us with answers we need.

In the time leading up to this visit we have tried to get Nile into camps and preschools that would help him to socialize and make friends. The summer camp he went to at a local church seemed to work pretty well. He went everyday foe a few hours and came home with crafts and songs and seemed to be having a swell time. I even convinced the theatre company that I am a member of to do a free show for the kids over the summer. Through all this all we heard was that we had a great kid. My wife and I already knew that.

We enrolled him in the preschool at the church for this Fall. We figured that a similar environment and friends would be good for him. He thrives on routine. The school year rolled around and he had new teachers and a new classroom. It was only 3 hours a day M-F. We were told by his teacher that he wouldn't cross his legs when sitting in a circle or wouldn't sit in his seat. Those didn't seem to be big problems and we were never told he was bad or unruly. At the Parent/Teacher Meeting the second week of school the same problems were rehashed, but we were told "We're working on it."

Less than a week later, 4 school days to be exact, I was told by his teacher that she needed to call my wife and I to set up an appointment to talk about Nile. Uh oh. We get the call and my wife, who is a lawyer, got the teacher to boil down why we had to have a meeting at the school the next day - We were being asked not to continue attending. I may write a separate post about having a meeting about your son's future while sitting on kid chairs in a "Godly Play" room, but for now I'll just say it didn't go well. That was our son's last day.

We were told he was "difficult", "disruptive", "overwhelming", "hard to manage with other kids", & "needs too much attention".

Because of his autism, he attends a speech therapy class at the local public elementary school twice a week. His teacher there, suggested another school that we could take him to. We called and they had a spot open for him. He was signed up for a class two days a week for 5 hours at a pop. We got all the paperwork and new fees and had him to school Tuesday.

After the first day I heard some of his similar problems kick up - his fascination with potties. (There will be another entry about that.), "disruptive", and "sweet kid". (That was a new one.)

Today he had both his speech therapy class and his preschool. After preschool class today I heard "difficult", "disruptive", "overwhelming", "never had a kid like that".

I can feel it coming...