This daily correspondance between schools she attended and us give you a glimpse on our daily life. Most parents of typical children do not communicate on daily basis with the teachers. This gives a reader an insight to how important daily communication is for a child with autism.

Kat has attended school since she was 3 years old. These are school notes that were result of correspondence with her parents and her teachers. We have made comments at a later date reflecting back on the impact of these events.Kats School Notes Index

Kat had a very good weekend.  She is showing a lot of eye contact and affection (towards mom).  She smiled a lot and fought (physically) with her older sister.  I am enclosing her favorite video tape. 

T. (Father)

Thank you for the tape, the kids really enjoyed it
  
K. (Class Aide)

Kat is doing pretty well in the classroom.  She is showing some increased eye contact and some improved attending skills.  Still having difficulty identifying body parts.  She will, though, point to eyes and nose consistently on a doll but not on self or others.  Kat is beginning to label and/or point to some functional objects such as :
Doll, block, spoon, cup, banana, apple, cookie,  more consistently now. 

The objects we are emphasizing are things that she comes across in the classroom.  She is also now sorting the colors of red and yellow on a consistent basis, and sorts blue and green inconsistently.  (the color sorting has improved!)

She seems to respond pretty well with only a few reminders, simple requests.  Her play is also expanding some to: playing with blocks, dolls, some dress-up-play and playing in the kitchen area for brief periods.  (Although staff tries to consistently direct her to new toy items!)

We are seeing some improved imitation of simple movements such as hammering, stirring with a spoon, rocking baby to sleep & clapping.  She does seem to interact more with staff now but no peer interactions is observed.  Actually, Kat usually gets quite upset if another child comes to play next to her.  This week art & circle activities focus on “winter” and the following two weeks we are working on Christmas theme.

L.G. (Teacher)

Over Just a reminder.  Tomorrow I will be visiting the class at approx. 10:30.  See you then.

T. (Father)

Kat is generally doing better with eating.  She put on her coat with little assistance after it is placed correctly in front of her.  Managing objects such as doors, caps (requiring forearm rotation) has progressed well.  Kat prefers play with a drum, looking at self in mirror & singing to herself.  She tolerates directed play with fine motor activities only briefly.
           

Thanks, J.E.(Occupational Therapist)

I appreciated having the opportunity to visit Kats class.  Kat has made great strides in the last few months and I’m sure a lot of that is due to you folks.  Keep up the great job.  We sent some gifts in with Kat today.  Wrapped gifts are for teachers and therapists and toys are for her classmates.  Hope everyone has a happy holiday.

T. & D. (Parents)

Kat has been getting confused with some words lately.  When she gets upset, she has started saying the word “Pee Pee.”  We caught her pulling her hair again.  We’ve been trying to get her to brush it and she will tolerate this but still if we don’t watch her she will go back to pulling it.  We have packed a video tape in her back pack.  Thought Kat and other kids might like it for play time.  The pulling hair and biting things have been 2 habits which have been difficult for Kat to break.

D. (Mother) 

Thanks for sending the tape in – unfortunately, we didn’t get a chance to watch it.  Would you be able to send it on Friday?  Glad to hear Kat is at least tolerating the hair brushing.  Hopefully, if we consistently use the brush, some of the hair pulling will decrease.  We’ll purchase a brush for here at school as well.

L.G. (Teacher)