Anxiety relieved (for now)
The meeting is over. The anxiety is relieved. (At least until the day or two before the next meeting.)
In short, their biggest concern is Chee’s failure (such an ugly word) to interact and engage with her peers.
Later that afternoon, Chee and I went to her Art Class for SPD kids (which is pretty cool). There I witnessed the following:
We were playing with a big blue parachute pretending it was the ocean and she was “swimming” in it. P, the other child in the class, was not participating, choosing to stand against the wall and look around. Chee took the parachute over to him and she said, “Hey, P, want to come and swim in the ocean? Want to be a fish?”
That was COMPLETELY on her own … NO prompting from me. She just did it. So I guess she’s not failing…
Their other concern is what they are calling anxiety. She takes a long time to come into the classroom, choosing to stand in the doorway and observe for awhile, and then she goes through the same script everyday during the sign in process (where she practices writing her name). She takes a long, long time to choose a marker and then takes forever to write her name, whereas most other kids zip through this in just a minute or two.
The team’s feeling is that coming in the classroom is overwhelming for Chee and she is giving herself time to get acclimated to the situation. A loooong time.
I don’t know what to say about that. I don’t know what to do about that.
My gut tells me that it’s connected to the SPD and as we continue weekly OT to address those needs, we’ll see less anxiety.
My gut also tells me that it’s connected to her Language, and that as that continues to develop, and she can find the words to express her feelings, we’ll see less anxiety.
Expressing feelings is coming. Just last week, for the first time ever she told me she felt mad about something. She was upset and said, I felt mad! I felt mad! (Music to my ears.)
The last part of the meeting was about Kindergarten. Chee has a summer birthday, so she can start Kindergarten when she’s 5, or we can wait till she’s 6. They want to know which way am I leaning. Everything I have read about children with Hyperlexia says that their language really takes off between ages four and five. With that in mind, I’m reserving judgment on when she should start Kindergarten for about another six months. Let’s just see how things go.
Taking a wait and see approach is not my general modus operandi.
Right now I think it’s the only approach I can take. We’re doing all the right things, including getting together a solid game plan for social interaction this summer.
Ohm.
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