Blog
Back to School!
9/7/2021
Back to school!
Back to school can be exciting, but can also be mixed with so many different emotions! Maybe a little bit of sadness that summer is over, or anxiousness of what the school year may bring both academically and emotionally. Some kids adapt easily, while others might take longer, especially if moving to a new school.
One of my favourite ways as a teacher and parent to communicate with a child without them feeling pressured or in the spotlight, allowing us to see how the school year is going is through journaling. There are several ways this can be done, either through free writing or with the use of prompts, where we can guide their writing slighlty to where we want them to go towards. There are many wonderful journals out there for kids. Here is one of my favourite one:
Children on the autism spectrum might feel overwhelmed by the different ways things are done in this new school year compared to last. New sounds, new people, new friends, teachers, you get my point... It's a big change and sometines change can be hard.
It is not only important for teachers to be able to understand these kiddos, but also, I believe, it is a good idea, that the rest of the students in their grade understand why a child on the spectrum is acting the way she/he is. What is stemming and why do they do it? Why the meltdowns? And how to befriend a student on the spectrum. Because believe it or not, they still want to feel that they belong and are liked just like the rest of us.
I would like to share what it is like for my son Risho.Even though he may not know the name of his teacher or his peers, he will know if someone was nice to him, helped him or even if he was wanted and accpeted in their team during pe. He also wants friends even though that might mean, or be, slighlty different that what it means for the rest of us. Kindness goes a long way!
My friend, please feel free to share with your child's teacher and take a look at book 1 in the Ridho & Kaia series: The Seed of Imagination
Written under the POV of a boy with autism we get to understand and live the story through his eyes. The discussion questions after each chapter make communication easy for the teacher and student.
BONUS do not hesitate to contact me! I would be more than happy to zoom in to the classroom for and Q & A.
As always wishing you the very best!
Aggie
