Overcoming the odds

Jonathan attends Anderson Mill Elementary School. He has a good friend who attends another school in district 6. Her mother and I have been comparing notes since they are both in kindergarten, and man are there lots of differences between schools! For example, Jonathan brings his work from the week home on Fridays and the other child brings home her work every day. We have even compared PTO events that should be similar but which were not.

Anyway, Jonathan brought his work from the week home today as usual. I started going through the papers and found a book that they had made at school entitled "my winter words dictionary'. It was so cute and I was impressed that Jonathan wrote all those big words like snowflake and snowman. He is also learning some about time and how to tell it as well as simple addition. I am impressed with his teacher and his ability to learn so well...

Many of you may not know this but Jonathan has what is called sensory dysfunction. It makes him very sensitive to loud noises. It is difficult for him to calm himself down at the end of the day or in hard situations. Jonathan has a hard time adjusting to new situations (and I mean more than the average child). It takes him weeks and weeks to adjust to changes in his schedule or routine. This syndrome also affects his fine motor skills. His pediatrician referred me to a physical and speech therapist when he was three so that we could help him work some of these symptoms. The therapy worked but now that he is in public school (which I was unsure of for him) the school psychologist is going to see if he can have some physical therapy through the school system. Through much study I have found out that he probably developed this due to the fact that he was premature and the fact that I had trauma during delivery. It is something that will always be with him but something that he can learn to overcome with physical therapy.

That is why I am so glad that even though we had a bumpy start to the school year he is doing so well now. His map test scores even indicated that he is ahead of the class and he is in the highest reading group in the kindergarten classes. I am so proud of him!