Fitting In

The Doodle Bug is a unique little individual and it's always been my concern that he wouldn't fit in being the only Autistic child in the medically fragile classroom at his special ed preschool. I always wanted him to get the SHAPE program support and participate in the more autistic based classroom with other equally autistic children.

Currently the classroom he's in caters to more medically challenged children and I've said it before the Doodle is only medically fragile when he is actually having a seizure. And, we're going on being seizure free now for almost five weeks! Yahoo!

So now they are talking about possibly moving him into the more "autistic" classroom and doing away with his fabulous nurse. I'm not sure how long they are going to wait to determine this but one of the scary and bad things about epilepsy is that one day it might be controlled and then the next it might be back--full force. You just never know. It's a crap shoot.

So I'm hoping they are going to wait at least six months before they go and decide to pull our nurse and stick him in the other classroom. I would hate to lose our nurse. And she's arranged her college schedule so that she can be with the Doodle in the am at school.

The feedback I've received from our nurse, who attends school with him every day is that the "other" classroom is much crazier and chaotic! With ten autistic kids running around with varying degrees of behavior and developmental issues--it's a very loud distracting learning environment where the Doodle gets overstimulated and a little nuts. Over in the Doodle's medically fragile class, it's calm and quiet and nurturing. Because of the severity of some of the other children in wheelchairs being tube-fed and unable to interact or communicate much, it allows for much more concentration and educational support for the Doodle. The aids in the classroom all think he's cute and great and he loves them too. What I'm saying is that the medically fragile classroom has been a blessing in disguise.

So now I am torn, again, about where I think the Doodle will be best served. I guess I will wait for the school to make the first move and try to release his nurse and then I will demand another IEP. And we'll have to go from there.