Sorry Kristen

[peglem]

My phone went dead!
Or maybe something else- it rings but I can't get any sound? Hmmm.

[peglem]

Sorry again! Shoot. What I did want to say is that I think the teacher should be trying to employ more nonverbal signals to Coley, so things don't become a war of words. For instance a sticker on the desk that she can just point to that means "get back on task." And if she does that for Coley, I think she should do it for the other kids so he doesn't feel like its something special. I wonder if it would help to do a social story on compliance issues? Or, hey, what if an entire day of school was filmed, and you could go through it with him? Do a play by play- "you did this very well! This was a problem because... Why do you think your teacher was getting a little frustrated there?" Stuff like that so he can see how what he's doing is affecting others in the classroom. See if he can come up with solutions. Or maybe that would make him feel even more like he's the authority in th classroom. Does he understand (even if he doesn't accept it) why adults are the ones who make the decisions?

Anyway, I'm going to have to get a new phone. My kids (who talk on the phone way more than me) have been telling me there's a problem, but I just didn't see it- wasn't a problem for me until now!

[Kristen (ColeysMom)]

No problem...

I'm not sure about the authority thing with him. He knows Ms R is the 'boss' at school and that Mr S (the aid) is second boss, but only when Ms R is not there...he tells us often that I am boss and Daddy is second...so he knows that Daddy follows my instructions too :p...but we do have to remind him a lot that Daddy is boss too...he seems to think that if we are both there Daddy is NOT a boss.

He also tried to tell Audrey that he is her boss...but we corrected that RIGHT away! We told him that only when he is asked to 'baby-sit' which is generally when I need to get laundry down the basement or go pee or something.

So I don't know if that gives you any hints...I think I'll need to talk to him a little to tease that out.

I like the sticker idea...

I want to ask her to ask Coley to repeat instructions as we've been doing here. That does seem to help him. I'm not sure how many steps he should be able to handle at this age, do you?

He's really only able to handle 1 or 2. So I don't know if that would actually make things harder for Ms R or not. But I did plan on talking to her about that Tuesday morning.

Ms. R has also made it clear that often he's not paying attention to the directions being given, so it's not always a matter of reminding him to get on task...that she often needs to explain things to him directly after she's given the class instructions. This usually happens after they've left the 'circle' and gone back to thier seats and she notices that Coley hasn't begun while everyone else is working away. I guess it could also be a matter of him not really understanding how to begin... But I know we see him yesing us when he's not really listening...

I think making sure he knows his assignment before he follows everyone's lead back to his seat might help...

I think his staying on task has a bit more to do with boredum than inattention and his 'following directions' is more an issue with processing verbal information...but that's MY (likely biased) impression.

Hopefully Dr. M's report will help decipher that.

The sticker thing could make it clear whether he was dilly-dallying or just doesn't know what to do at times though.

I'll talk to her about that too.

I'm curious as to what they are going to suggest.

I'll try to send you a scanned version of the school assessment I'm sure reading that will give you a better picture than me trying to guess on things that I don't really 'get' ya know...

Thanks for helping me get my mind around this!!!!

[peglem]

Yes, she should be making sure he can tell her the instructions before he goes back to his seat. Again, he should not be singled out for this (he'll think he can just wait and get his personal lesson when she's done with everyone else). But she can do things like writing stuff down on sentence strips (good way to throw in a writing connection anyway) and having kids put them in order on the board. Then choose students, Coley included, to read instructions back to you. The rehearsal is good for everyone- I'm sure Coley is not the only student who would benefit from the going over this. She could do things like: Have all the girls read it together, then the boys. Have everyone whose name starts with "C" read it, All the students who ride a bus, etc. Having a visual instruction is just good teaching anyway- the whole class can refer back to it and they'll learn to check that before they raise their hands to ask.

[Kristen (ColeysMom)]

That is an AWESOME idea! LOVE IT!

I gotta tell GM to come read this...hopefully Noah & Coley's teachers both like it too!

I sent you an e-mail but I couldn't attach the file through Braintalk. I'll be able to do it from outlook though.

[peglem]

UUhhmmm..GM?

[Kristen (ColeysMom)]

GinaMarie...she signs GM...

[peglem]

Oh, right, i should have known that when you mentioned Noah.

Hey, i bought a new phone! Okay, I'm gonna email you back so you can attach stuff.

[Kristen (ColeysMom)]

I was gonna say that you might just need a new battery...but these days you could likely upgrade your phone for the same price.

We got a great deal at Costco last year for a phone with 3 extensions that only need to be plugged into an outlet...only the 'main' phone needs the phonejack....

Now we have one in the basement, the garage, upstairs & downstairs...it's awesome!

God I probably sound like I'm from the dark ages or something...

So many people I know have cell phones only...:rolleyes:

I e-mailed the evaluations...