Middle School Transition for a Child with Autism – Part Two

The middle school transition

In my previous blog, I discussed how I helped my son get comfortable in his new digs. We started early, and visited the campus often.

What else did we do?

We took our child to the important day for incoming seventh graders.

Howdy Day

Howdy Day took place on the Monday BEFORE the start of school. It’s the week when the teachers are back, but not the students.

Howdy Day is extremely important for your middle school student. 

Your child attends in order to get his/her schedule, books, and locker.

What else can they do on Howdy Day?

They can sign up for clubs.

Plus, they can walk around the campus, with their schedule in hand, and figure out how to get around from each assigned classroom.

How was Howdy Day for my son?

Successful.

First, we were warned that Howdy Day was typically crowded with long lines.

With that in mind, my son and I walked to school and arrived at Howdy Day early. We sat together during the Howdy Day administration welcome orientation for seventh graders.

Second, we headed off to get his schedule.

Crowds

The gym was crowded, but the lines moved well and we got the schedule.

Books were next on the list. Again, the lines were long, but my son did okay with it.

Lockers

After the books, we found his locker. 

We practiced opening it since my son had never used this type of lock.

We put the books inside the locker and headed off for a couple of trial runs.

What were the “trial runs?”

A trail run was my son practicing his route from one class to another.

How did it work?

My son looked up the location of his first class. We went there.

I asked him to walk me to his second class.

After that, his third class. And, so on. 

We physically walked from class number one to class number two, all the way to his last class.

We did this twice.

During the trial runs

We figured out when would be a good time for him to visit his locker. When would he have enough time to switch out his books?

Of course, we factored in the recess and lunch periods.

He figured those two periods would be good times to visit the bathroom and/or his locker.

The result

We left late that morning with my son’s schedule, his books, his PE clothes, and a whole ton of confidence.

My son seemed happy to have shown me around his school, specifically to show me the location of his classes.

His confidence made me feel great (meaning less “overly nervous”).

Did we do anything else?

Armed with my son’s schedule, (which listed classes and teacher names) and a list of email addresses found on the school’s website, I sent each teacher a brief email before the first day of classes.

What did I say in the emails?

My intention was to introduce us, the parent and the student.

I briefly explained my son’s diagnosis and mentioned some issues he may have in school.

In addition, I reminded each teacher that my son had an IEP, and hopefully they would review it before the start of school.

Communication

My husband and I are big on communication. We wanted to make sure that each teacher knew that we were involved parents. We wanted an open line of communication.

If there was a problem with our son, we wanted to help.

They did not have to handle issues on their own. We support them. It was our way of telling a teacher that we can talk to our son to help out with any in-class issues.

Was that it for emails?

Nope.

I sent yet another email to the person in charge of the school’s special needs kids.

First, I wanted to introduce ourselves and our son.

Second, I wanted to make sure we were on the same page with the special needs department.

My son was scheduled to get an aide for the start of the year, with the goal of weaning him off the aide.

Aide instructions

We asked that the aide sit well behind our son in the classroom and let him walk the halls by himself. We wanted our son to begin to feel like he didn’t have an aide and we didn’t want the aide to be all that noticeable.

It was part of the transition of getting off the need for the aide.

School hadn’t even begun, yet we were ready.

Middle School Transition for a Child with Autism – Part Two

Here is a helpful article on middle school and your child with autism:

http://www.education.com/reference/article/Ref_Living_Autism_Going/

In my next blog, I discuss the beginning of middle school for my child with autism.

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