Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Don't Mention It!

My family will be going on vacation soon.  We've been planning a rather big trip for over a year now and my DH (dear husband, for those of you not up on your blog lingo) is like a little kid when it comes to vacations.  For a solid year he has been leafing through travel brochures, pouring over details, pulling up websites with photographs of our destinations, and starting each morning with "Guess how many more days!?"  I recall the answers being "285."
Then "157!"
Then "83!"
and now... we're at "4!" 

This is awesome.  We're all excited.  Excitement can manifest itself in many ways, and this is even more so with an Asperger's kid.  (Everything is MORE SO with an AS kid.)

So Bubba has been absorbing the excitement for over a year now and since we're in the homestretch, he's starting to feel it more.  This has happened before.  Right before Christmas break, or spring break, or summer break.  He gets revved up, as we all do.  However, because Bub has such a deep loathing for school, it becomes harder for him to tolerate it the week before something special occurs.  This week has been no exception.

Bub's Educational Diagnostician, Mrs. H, called.  He was very upset in first period (science) because he completed a worksheet and then was told by the Spec. Ed. teacher (Mr. F) that he completed it incorrectly and would have to redo it.  Oh no, no, no.  Bub will buck like a bronco if told to do the same assignment twice. Once was enough for him, thanks very much.  He will flat out tell you, "I'm not doing it again."  Which he did say.

So he went down to see Mrs. H for a reprieve and in doing that he was missing his 2nd period class (AgScience).  She was trying to get him pulled back together so he could go back to class and was telling him he was now missing his work in AgScience and would have to take both classes classwork home for homework now.  Oh dear. Poke poke poke!  Now we're provoking the raging bronco.

Bub's way of dealing with this was to melt down and enter into perseverative and cyclical thinking.  He got stuck on the fact that it would be illogical to do his AgScience work when he hasn't gotten his science work done yet and could not stop perseverating on that idea.  Mrs. H. had to cut off her phone conversation with me because we weren't getting anywhere in working with his thinking so I wished her luck and waited for the inevitable phone call back.

Later that day, the phone call did come and Mrs. H. explained that she allowed Bub to have time to get himself together, put water on his face, and then return to class and everything was okay after that. 

I am always sure to thank people profusely when they take the time to kindly and patiently work with Bub.  I thanked her for her patience and understanding and she replied, "He's a joy.  And I want to thank YOU because he gives me opportunities every day to practice my skills."

Wow.  Well... you're welcome, I guess!  :)

2 comments:

  1. It's so nice to find educators that really enjoy our kids! Glad Bub has Mrs. H.

    ReplyDelete
  2. So true. The quickest way to a mommy's heart is through kindness to her child.

    ReplyDelete