Off to School Already?

We get a call from the school board this morning, asking if we can bring the Little Man in for his assessment on Monday morning. Oh, thanks for the notice!

Basically the school board has to assess his file and write a referral in order for us to send him to a special private school specifically for autistic kids. So if they decide his needs can be met with a regular school, we can't send him there. Then the school itself will assess him and decide if they'll take him. If they don't, I have no clue what they do at that point. The referral has to be done by March 1st. Again, no one gave us any notice.

Anyway, we managed to schedule another day and Hubby will take him, because it's impossible for me to get time off with such short notice. Actually, it could be done, but I don't want to do things that way.

It's interesting how life goes. Had he been neurotypical, my intention was to keep him out of school until at least 5 since his birthdate makes him the youngest in the class. However, this autism school takes kids at age 4 and really, $5000 a year for daycare, speech therapy, OT and psych is a freakin' steal. I figure work with him til age 6, get him reassessed and we'll take it from there.

And then there's the thought of holy crap, my baby will be going to school in the fall if this works out! How did that happen? Wild.

App Review: The Wonkidos

We've been working on potty training. There are lots of pictures and posts by people using the iPad and their kid's addiction to it to help make training go smoother. I am not against this. It looks silly, but I'm all for anything that WORKS. 

Enter Evan and the Wonkidos! I downloaded their Going Potty app and showed it to the Little Man. He likes it! He watches it over and over again! Oh, thank goodness!
The app was created by a mom of an autistic boy, so she knows what she's doing!

I downloaded all the others also: Getting Dressed, What To Do If You Are Lost - all excellent topics.

The fact is, he likes them and responds to them, and I think we're making progress. I liked them so much, I contacted the creator and she was kind enough to allow me to download the Visual Organizer.

Anyone with a child who craves routines knows that letting them know what will happen next in their day gives them a sense of security and control. Sometimes, they just need to be reminded what is expected of them. Having the day laid out as a visual, and not just words, means it can be used from a very young age.

There are also separate logins for adults (parents, educators) and the child, so you can communicate with each other using the same device. It's super handy.

It comes with default pictures for many activities, but you can also personalize it with your own. Overall, I found the organizer easy to use and versatile enough for many situations.

You can check out the Visual Organizer and other Brighter Futures for Beautiful Minds apps here.

Thanks so much again to Tricia, first of all for creating these apps, but also for giving me the organizer for free. We really appreciate it!