PUTTING ALL YOUR EASTER EGGS INTO ONE ASD BASKET

April is almost upon us.  Which also means that the March break is long gone, and soon, Easter eggs will be all over my house.  Normally in the past, the time Jacob spent at school seemed to be much more productive, but of course, when the child in question has an ASD, there is no predictability to be seen.

Jacob's last 2 weeks since the break haven't been that great.  This week, Jacob earned 3 out of a possible 8 stickers for his reward calendar.  The strange thing is that all of his stickers are coming from the afternoon only.  We don't have an explanation for the poor morning behaviour, nor do we have an explanation for the good afternoon behaviour.

The only difference between the 2 when I think about it, makes me feel uneasy.  Jacob has a different EAs with him in class during the morning and afternoon.  The funny thing is that in the morning, he has the same EA that he's had for a few years now and the afternoon EA is new this year.

Originally when Jacob got the new EA for the afternoon, we were excited because the EA is a guy.  And we really wanted to see if he behaved better with a male presence helping him.  The sad thing is that it seems to be working out better as Jacob's classroom behaviour in the afternoon suggests.  But all of us really like the morning EA and we have for years.  His morning EA is the one who really helped implement positive change early on in school.  Who knows where Jacob would be without her.

But Jacob isn't responding to his long time EA like he used to.  So we're now faced with a dilemma.  Do we ask for Jacob's afternoon EA to be full time?  Or do we leave things the same?  It seems cut and dry to do what's best for Jacob, but if he all of a sudden was without his familiar morning EA, how would he react.  He could think of her as a security blanket and react poorly to her removal, which is far too risky in our eyes.

After discussing things in depth with my wife, we decided to let this year play out in full before suggesting any drastic changes.  It just seems more sensible to wait for a new grade to start before changing Jacob's routine, because when he starts a new grade, he seems to be more open to change due to the lack of choice.  We just hope that the end of this year becomes more like previous ones, because if it doesn't, things will absolutely have to change.