Rowena's Book Launch

Tonight was an exciting event. It was the book launch of Rowena Mond's  book called Where is Autism.  This book was written as a learning tool for families and teachers with children diagnosed with Autism. It is a story about a boy who comes to play at his autistic friend's house. While the host is out of the room, the friend decides to try and find this autism thing that his friend has...so he looks all around his room. The back of the book provides informative notes for working with children with autism. The book was written by the parent of one of my students.

Rowena's book

Rowena, writing an inscription in my personal copy.

Imagine my surprise when after purchasing a copy of the book I read the following in the book's dedication.

'It takes a village to raise a child but a whole community to raise a child with special needs. I would like to give a special thanks to my family for their love and support and Judith Van Kooten ( Central School Teacher), Judith Price ( Teacher Aide, Central School), Juliet Ormrod ( Principal, Central School), and Floortje Bastin ( Senco, Central School) for helping to open the door for Isaac's learning.'

 

Rowena then inscribed my personal copy of the book with the following inscription

Rowena's son Isaac was in my class for 2 years. Through having Isaac in my class and through regular discussion with Rowena I was able to develop skills in working with children with autism. 

I learnt the importance of wait time in conversations, allowing him time to process his thoughts before responding. 
I learnt the importance of the use of visuals in the classroom so that Isaac could identify what his next tasks were and therefore reduce anxiety levels for him in his daily work.
I learnt the importance of chunking work into bite size pieces to promote independence and success.
I learnt the importance of asking him to share his worries so that he left school calm and happy with his day. 
I learnt that children on the spectrum have a very literal way of seeing the world and things are black and white to them. There is little room for compromise, and rules are not to be broken.
I learnt the importance of the need for regular routines for children on the spectrum and wherever possible to give warnings of changes to expected routines.
I learnt that with trust and positive connections, kids with ASD can take risks.
I learnt that small steps for some can be giant leaps in learning for others.( RTC 2, RTC8)

Because Isaac was in my class for a two year period ( I changed class levels), he became very special to me. He began his time in my room recognising only the letter I (for Isaac), and left reading at yellow level in the Ready to Read programme. It was inspirational watching this little boy who was diagnosed with autism and struggled to express his feelings gain a best friend, communicate and play with his classmates and learn.

Isaac and his mum made me a video clip farewell speech when he left my class. View his mums message via this link. (RTC 1 and 2)
http://youtu.be/Rius2Rjrs5w

I watched on with immense pride at the school's final assembly at the end of last year (2014) when Isaac stood in front of the whole school community and spoke. All the graduating children normally say a brief comment or reveal a special memory from their time at the school. I knew he was terribly nervous and did not want to do this but he did! ( He had come into my room with his mum earlier that day, saying he wasn't going to do it. He had literally taken onboard  an instruction from his current teacher to not thank individuals in his speech, as in previous years this had become rather long winded in some cases. He wanted to say his speech, but desperately wanted to thank his teacher aide for her help in his learning journey and the rule was not to thank people. I assured him it would be ok to do so and took him to speak to his teacher to confirm this and hopefully reduce the worry for him. Although very upset and with prompting from his classroom teacher he eventually calmed. He sat on the stage with his classmates and for a moment it was almost too much for him, but with coercion from his current teacher he finally stood and gave his own farewell message.)
Not only did he thank his teacher aide, but he recalled the happy times playing with a classmate, another maori student from the class.

The tears brimmed in my eyes as I thought about his immense learning journey so far. I wish him every success for the future.