Educating the Educators: The Battle to Keep my Son in School Begins

…the saga unfolds…

In my previous post, I introduced you to my son, who has Adhd, Odd, Anxiety Disorder, and some Post Traumatic Stress. (Believe me that’s a lot for a child to handle, never mind the parents.)

Not only is it a challenge at home or out shopping, it is a very big one keeping them in the school system.

When I brought my newborn son home from the hospital, I knew my patience would be tested due to his sleep patterns (or lack thereof), but I had no idea what awaited me when he finally made the step from preschool to kindergarten.

When my son attended preschool, I remember asking the ‘teachers’ if he exhibited any signs of Attention Deficit, as I was having a difficult time getting him to stay on task at home with things like keeping his room tidy, getting dressed without supervision, eating, brushing his teeth….all normal things that involved giving a directive and having the child follow through with it.

I was repeatedly assured that no, my son did not have any problems, regardless of the fact that the teachers were tested daily to come up with new and interesting ideas to keep my son interested in what was being taught. The only problem they noticed was he refused to sit in a circle with the rest of the children for ‘listening time’. Then he started kindergarten….

Within a week of attending class, the teacher called me aside and suggested that I put my son on medication. I was flabbergasted! I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Needless to say, I kept in constant communication with his teacher, checking his progress to see if there were any improvements.

Unfortunately, there weren’t. Not only was he having trouble concentrating in class,he was starting to show signs of behavioural issues at recess and lunch. It became a daily routine to talk with his teacher after class to see how he had behaved.

October came and with it his first field trip. I was rewarded at the end of his day with a decent report…he hadn’t been very enthusiastic, but had listened fairly well to instructions, and there had been no problems. I was told however, that it would be appreciated if I could attend the next field trip as they felt he would respond better to me while away from the classroom.