Image by John-Mark Kuznietsov
As many of you read about our initial indecision about whether or not to ‘Delay Our Boy With Down’s Syndrome Starting School For A Year Or Not‘ and then how it went initially, I thought I’d write an update on how he’s getting on a few weeks in…!
You may remember that, like many children without or without Down’s Syndrome, he has some difficulties with sensory processing, which means he can feel very overwhelmed in certain situations and get overstimulated (can’t we all?). I think the current data is about 5-10% of all children have sensory processing difficulties. Not unusual for a child with Down’s Syndrome, he also has some speech difficulties, so he doesn’t yet have the same communication tools that his peers have…
Like all parents, I was nervous. Would he be so overwhelmed by the whole environment that he wouldn’t be able to learn, or worse still, cope? Would he be happy? Would he be included properly? Would he be side-lined as ‘the one who has Down’s Syndrome and special needs’ and get lost somehow? Would he be able to form meaningful friendships with his peers? Would he be able to communicate effectively with the staff and the other children? Would he be bullied? Would he progress at his optimum speed? Would he be so far behind with everything that we’d have to have a rethink?
Before I say anything else I want to quickly tell you about something that made my throat go very lumpy indeed….each class in the school learnt a (different) poem, which they all performed to the rest of the school and then the parents. Our gorgeous boy stood in the front row and signed or said every single word and at the right time, for the 3-verse poem ‘The No No Bird’ by Andrew Fusek Peters. I couldn’t have been more proud. At least three members of staff came up to me to tell me how well he’d done and that he’d brought a tear to their eye. What’s amazing is that when the children were first given the poem to learn, I could tell they weren’t too sure how he’d get on with it. They simply said ‘just do what you can and have fun with it.’ The first time I ran through it with him, it was clear he was ‘on it.’ I tried to repeat the first verse and get that cracked before moving on to the second but he was already signing the third line of the second verse. Down’s Syndrome or no Down’s Syndrome, that boy is the absolute apple of my eye.
We had our mid term meeting with the SENCO, his support worker, his Speech & Language Therapist and his teacher and the upshot is he’s settled in brilliantly: he’s following instructions, he’s listening, he’s integrating well, he’s making meaningful relationships with the other children in his class, he has a small group of close friends, he’s popular, he’s kind and empathetic towards the others, he’s starting to learn to read, his pen grip is better than some of the other children in the class, he’s interested, he’s focussed, he’s enjoying learning to write his name independently (not there yet), he seems happy, he’s eating well…..BUT he wouldn’t go to the toilet! Well, he would but then nothing would happen. I’ve since taken in our toilet seat and he’s going like a champ.
We went through his tasks until the next meet up around the middle of next term and I was assured they’re in range for many of the other children in the class too. Things like being able to…
- talk about the pictures in a story
- read some cvc words by segmenting (e.g. sit, cat, sat…)
- read some high frequency words
- be able to write his name independently
- write some phase 2 phonemes
- can say what he’s going to write or what he’s written
- reproduce repeated colour sequences,
- participate in a two way conversation with a peer about something they’ve been doing,
- consistently count items in an accurate and meaningful way….
- follow a sequence of 3 things
He literally runs the whole way to school, which is a good seven minute walk away and is greeted by what can only be described as ‘a herd of children’. It’s quite a bracing start to my day I must say. So many members of staff have told me how wonderful he is and how he always has a crowd of children round him. So much so I think it’s a bit of an issue as he’s been SO tired and overwhelmed by the end of the week and is less able to focus generally and can resort to antisocial behaviour (hitting out).
I’m not surprised by this and I’ve requested proper down time for him each day – one play time a day outside by himself with his support worker, so he can unwind properly and just enjoy poking a stick into the earth or having a shuffle about in the leaves without any children plying him for attention or any of the usual playground noise. Then when the other children go out to play, he has the quiet classroom to himself, to focus on something he finds harder to do.
I asked the teacher and his support worker yesterday whether they thought he was right to start school when he did, or if he’d have been better to have delayed a year. They assured me that he’s doing very well and they think we made absolutely the right decision for him.
What a relief, so far so good….!
To read more about our journey with Sensory Processing Disorder…
Sensory Processing Disorder & Our Boy With Down’s Syndrome
Sensory Processing & Sensation Avoidance
Sensory Processing Disorder , Sensation Seeking & Antisocial Behaviour
Please also see Potty Training A Child Who Has Zero Interest
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Photo by John-Mark Kuznietsov
The school sounds really supportive and it is good that he is settling in well. It sounds like you made the right decision
Thank you so much Alison – yes I think that all is good so far. We can always review things if they change later on.