I thought I was going to be working with the same teacher and assistants this year but have different students. Instead I have the same students, but I'm working with a different teacher and assistants. The change was made because our nonverbal autistic student needs a one to one aide and apparently I was chosen for this task. It was a rather stressful transition. I like the people I'm working with, but they're very different than what I'm used to. Since the students are now in 2nd and 3rd grade we're focusing more on academics and less on social skills. This was hard because the students really need the social skills component and my nonverbal student isn't capable of academic work. Instead he needs to focus on learning how to communicate via an ipad and we still need to try and reinforce as much speech as we possibly can. We worked on getting him to say "eat" last year. He sometimes remembers how to do that. He also remembers how to make the sound of "m" when asking for milk. Thankfully with some adjustments to the schedule and curriculum things are going smoother this week. My student and I can also go back to the other class whenever he needs a sensory break and I just need a few moments of sanity :).
BTW, when I mean sanity I mean going and seeing the new autistic student we have who screams in the presence of loud noises, will randomly stand up with his pencil to "practice his golf swing", finishes his work by saying "Thanks for playing! Come again next time!", and who has literally thrown himself on my lap to giggle hysterically into my neck when he sees something funny on the computer screen. He keeps me laughing, that's for sure!
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