Starting a New School Year

Yesterday in our children’s therapy lobby, I sat with another mom, and we discussed our anxiety about approaching a new year with a new teacher for our children. When you have a special needs child, a new school year isn’t easy. The new teacher is learning about your child and an entire class. My friend and I talked about creating a letter that would help our kids’ teachers with getting to know our children. The letter would also help at the 504 meeting as well when creating the kids’ IEPs. Luckily, someone I know already had a template for this letter that I could go off of. Thank you so much Megan Dunlap! You saved me a ton of time! I thought posting one of my kid’s letters might help other parents so here it is:

 

Dear Teacher,

 

My son cannot wait to start school again this year! Since you are his new teacher, I wanted to let you know about his disorder. Sensory Processing Disorder has been linked with the diagnosis of Autism.  However, as in his case, he does not show signs of being on the autism spectrum. Sensory Processing Disorder is also tricky because it does mimic bits and pieces of other disorders, and it can occur in waves.  He has good days and bad days.  The good days, he barely seems affected at all. The bad days he can be grumpy, uncooperative, very emotional, clingy or very distant. Also, every child with Sensory Processing Disorder is different, so I made a list of what aspects of the disorder he shows at this time.  

 

·        He will sometime avoid eye contact when you are talking to him because he is trying to ‘tune out’ his visual sense, so that he can concentrate on hearing.  When speaking or being spoken to amid other sounds or voices, he has a hard time focusing. It is helpful to make eye contact or even touch his shoulder to give him a listening cue.

 

·        He has a stress reaction where he will lick or chew on his hand or objects when he is stressed by his environment. To counteract this at home, we offer him a chewy to satisfy that oral sensory seeking. I will be leaving a chewy with you for the times when he will need it. Other ways for him to calm himself involve chewing on gum/ crunchy items, deep-pressure hugs, or a spot away from the group to re-organize his thoughts.

 

·        He is a ‘touchy’ person.  He loves to be touched and sometimes doesn’t understand personal space or why others do not want lots of hugs.

 

·        His shoes or accessories sometimes feel very tight or very loose. It can distract him so much that he can’t focus on anything but the shoes or the clothing that is bothering him. If he is allowed to take off his shoes when he feels the need, this will help him a lot. I am also sending a change of clothes incase his clothing doesn’t feel right.

 

·        If you eat in the classroom, he can have a hard time trying new foods and can be very particular food textures. He loves salty and crunchy items. They can help stimulate him.

 

·        Fine motor tasks can be a little bit of a struggle. He struggles with zippers, buttons, and snaps when it is on his clothing.  His hand strength is improving, but he still gets tired when coloring or cutting and needs to take frequent breaks if a lot of fine motor is involved.

 

·        He does have some challenges to balance and his sense of gravity is skewed.  He struggles with standing on one foot and descending stairs. As long as he can go at his pace and has a rail to hold onto, he is fine.  

 

·        Hearing loud sounds can over stimulate him. Sometimes he craves loudness (music/ singing/ television volume) and other times it brings about his anxiety (being in noisy settings such as a crowded restaurant or busy store). However, he does great with background noise (soft music) when concentrating on a task.  I have head phones in his backpack if he complains of the class being too loud.

 

·        Light can sometimes be too bright (very bright light, sunshine, or being photographed with a flash) or too dark (dim light, shaded areas).  If you will allow him to wear sunglasses during recess, I will send a pair of sunglasses for him.

 

·        He struggles with change and transitions. On days where he has a substitute teacher, he might take a while to warm- up to be able to participate. Also, if you do rotating activities such as centers, he needs personal cues to help him know it is time to transition.

 

·        He can get overwhelmed with too many things in front of him or too much information at one time. He is most successful when given three step instructions and a few items at a time. For this reason, it is probably best to sit him at the end of a table where there is not as much clutter.

 

 If you have any questions or notice any new behaviors, please let me know, so that I can inform his therapists.  We are so excited about this school year and look forward to a fun successful year. We appreciate all you do!