Moving Up and On
May 26, 2008 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
The class mom in Charlie’s class has been sending out emails in preparation for their year end party. Charlie’s entire class is moving onto middle school and we’ve been planning a special ceremony and a party, with special (secret) presents for the teachers and therapists: It’s the boys’ last week at their elementary school, as they will be attending Extended School Year at the middle school and with their new teacher. (And here is a recent article about new classrooms for autistic teens opening in nothern New Jersey.)
And—in Jefferson City, Missouri (the state Charlie was born in)—22-year-old Chad Winkler is is graduating from college. Diagnosed at 4 with autism and in the 4th grade with Asperger’s syndrome, Winkler is graduating cum laude from the Missouri University of Science and Technology in Rolla, with a bachelor’s degree in ceramic engineering with a minor in history and chemistry, NBC Action news reports. Kudos to Winkler, who’s moving to Illinois to start a new job. I’m not sure that Charlie will be able to move away from us but certainly, in this season of commencements, my boy is moving onward and upward too.
My son is moving on to a new school as well, and it scares me to death! Good luck on your transition.
Congratulations to Charlie! My son will be going to summer school once he is done with third grade. Once he is in middle school, I doubt he will get such services over the summer. He is so boarderline as to need/doesn’t need, we just can’t predict yet. Still, I am nervous…wanting all that will benefit him; yet, at the same time, wanting him to have progressed enough not to need it. Keep us updated on Charlie’s new experiences as a middle schooler!!
Good luck with the transition! I appreciate that you are dealing with issues relating to autism which is a challenge, to say the least. I just wanted to add that a transition to middle school is a challenge in itself for any child, and we took it upon ourselves to offer a free service to parents to make that challenge more manageable and structured. Maybe you would like to check it out:
http://www.easierparentingmiddleschool.com
I just signed up and asked a question about locker rooms and boys. I like getting one tip a week instead of doing the whole thing for twenty bucks since no time to read a lot.
FYI – Kristina – I am going to post a link next here that will most likely end in moderation, but it is a positive spin on a school in FL. Guess there is some good in that state.
Ave Maria graduates eight in first class
By JENNIFER SHEA CORRESPONDENT
Published Wednesday, May 21, 2008 at 4:30 a.m.
http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20080521/COMMUNITY/805210635/-1/newssitemap
“At first glance, Tim Girard, 6-foot-3, sapphire eyes, classically handsome, seems to be a typical high school senior. He works part time at Publix and runs the school concession store; he debates the merits of bringing a date to his prom.
Ave Maria, on Tuttle Avenue in Sarasota, just south of Fruitville Road, was founded in 2004 by Sister Gilchrist Cottrill in order to serve the students she advocates so fervently for, the ones she calls her “special kids.”
Ave Maria serves students with a wide range of special learning needs: LD, ADD, ADHD, autism, Asperger’s syndrome, delayed development, sensory disorders and auditory processing deficits. The preparatory school partners with and is housed at Girls Inc.”
It went through! And very glad to read it—-thanks much. And thanks to Caroline Gaibel; I had a very difficult time in middle school myself. (Though I later taught middle schoolers and really enjoyed it.)