Routines

As I mentioned in yesterday's post we have a crazy 5 days planned at St. Joe's due to Catholic School's Week. For most students it's their favorite week of the year; games, Wii tournaments, desserts at lunch, programs, and more! However, to fit all of this you could probably gather that our daily routines get slightly mixed up. Some classes are skipped, some are moved from the morning to the afternoon, etc. In your mind you're probably thinking that for students this is no big deal (maybe a little difficult on the teachers for planning reasons) but overall, the students are just excited about the activities.

This is a huge deal for some students. Specifically, students with autism. The autism spectrum is huge so I want it to be known that I am not talking about all students with autism. I'm actually just going to be talking about one, Kendra*.  We only have one diagnosed student at our school. With working with her previously in the year, and talking to her teacher and TSS worker, I knew how crucial a daily routine was for Kendra. As I mentioned before this week does not allow for any type of daily routine. I have been observing her a lot the past two days with how she was adjusting to Catholic School's Week.

I really noticed Kendra struggling. She was very apprehensive to get involved in the interactive dinosaur program today. She also had to keep asking teachers what was going on, what was happening next and when it would be happening. Her peers are very good with helping her out and keeping her on track. She usually is always near them and today I noticed her keeping to herself a lot. During a regular day, something as small as using a different stairwell will get her distracted from anything else going on until she finds out why they didn't use the "usual" stairwell. I can't even imagine the difficulty she is having comprehending all of changes going on this week. I'm hoping next week when we return to regular schedules she will be back on track.



*Name changed