4TH GRADE REVELATIONS

It's hard for us to believe that our son is now in grade 4.  And its hard to believe that he's only had an official ASD diagnosis for just 4 years.  But as each new school year approaches, we naturally begin to worry about his behaviour, the curriculum, and other things.  So needless to say, we were quite worried about grade 4.  This year is when things really start to matter in regards to learning advanced things in math and English.  Plus this is the year that kids in Canada start learning French, which is our second language.

We've officially finished week 3 of the new year, and thankfully, this has been the bet start to a school yar that our son has had.  He's been much more productive and emotionally controlled during class time and its amazing to us how hard he's working.

Now the interesting thing is trying to figure out why/what it is about this year that is making things flow so well.  It could be all the ABA training that we've been involved in, which has given us countless tools and strategies to help our son.  It could be that he's just getting older and realizing that he doesn't need to get angry when someone laughs.

Or it could be that this year the kids are all acting more mature as a whole, because this year most kids in his class will be turning 10.  Sure they still act silly, but acting appropriately is more prevalent in my sons school.  Plus the entire teaching staff are becoming more understanding and all of us are collectively learning to help our son.  And it appears that the great relationship that we, and the school have is definitely having a positive effect.

No matter the reason, we are truly thankful that things are starting to turn around for our son.  We've always felt that as he aged, he'd develop better understanding of how the world works.  Honestly, while he has outbursts now over simple things, we don't think that he will get upset at a child for being loud when he's a teenager (gulp).

I can't believe I just said that.  But like the other kids in his class Jacob is almost 10, which means that in a few short years, he will infact become a teen.  And from what I remember, that time in a persons life offers a whole new set of issues.  We just hope that these earlier issues are mostly resolved by then.  But if they aren't, I'm already bald any way.