Life with a First Grader

I was not as nervous for Dallin to go to first grade as I was for Kindergarten. He has come so far and he really had a great summer with his home programs so I was just excited to see how high he can fly. I love his confidence, Dallin really thinks he is good at everything and knows he is a good boy and wants to live up to that. For example, time outs were SO last year. He is a big first grader now so he is determined not to have any of those at school this year. It is great, he hasn't had even one! On Tuesday I went into the class to observe and see how he is doing. This was his 7th day of school. I was surprised that his aid wasn't there, but apparently she was taking some vacation time. I was so blown away with what I saw there. For two hours I watched him as he stayed focused, paid attention, raised his hand to speak and gave lots of answers. He was working so hard and taking everything so seriously all without any help from an aid! Okay, I knew it would be good, but honestly this was really what I was hoping for by the end of first grade.

His teacher is so great too. She is firm but very sweet. Mostly I love all the positive reinforcement that she gives the students after correcting them. Dallin thrives on that and as good as his Kindergarten teacher was, I really didn't see that there. Kids really believe you when you tell them how awesome they are and they will want to live up to that.

I stayed for recess to see how he is doing socially and was very happy to see him playing tether ball with another student. Dallin loved how he has 3 recesses now at the big kid playground. At recess I talked with his teacher and she said that she can't really see much of a difference at all between Dallin and the rest of the class. She said she read his file, but she is just not seeing the same kid. I think that says a lot for him but also for her, she is great. I guess his aid was gone the whole week and as far as I know, he did okay without her. I wasn't there, but I didn't hear anything from school and he told me he still hasn't had any time outs.

Last year I was a bundle of nerves every day when Dallin went to school. If he had a good day his teacher would give him a stamp on his hand and I would just feel so sad for him every time he didn't get one. We had to use external motivation for things he would get if he got a stamp. Let me tell you that being creative with fresh ideas to keep him motivated was not easy. I would go in every week to visit and even though I was proud of how far he had come, he did stick out, had a hard time paying attention and had behavior problems. But at least he was functioning in a regular ed. class, right? This year is so different already, all of that is 100% gone!!! I know I am always saying how great he is doing, but really, every time I think it couldn't get any better it does!!! I am getting many hints from people at his school that he needs to be re-evaluated!!! (I know I am using way to many exclamations, but that doesn't even begin to portray my excitement). Dallin will be up for re-evaluation in the spring, in case you were wondering. I don't really ever use the term autism when I talk about him in the present though. It almost seems like the last 6 years were just a dream that didn't really happen, but they really did. This little boy has put in thousands of hours of work to get to where he is. Early Intervention works!!! Dallin is such a wonderful miracle. I must change my thinking that it can't get any better. I now see that there is no limit for how far he or any of my children can go(more exclamations)!