Partners

A good partner makes all the difference. Ms. T has so far, proven to me, to be a wonderful partner for Aidan. She is really the biggest key to making this full-inclusion experience work. She has been with the district for 15 years as a health care assistant. And for most of those years she has been working with special needs children in full-inclusion. When I first thought of having Aidan fully-included in a regular school, I strongly considered hiring my own private assistant for Aidan. My thought was that I could have complete control and monitoring of my own hired aide, and that person would have complete accountability to me. But for various reasons, I decided to go with the district provided assistant. Though, Ms. T wasn't just assigned to Aidan, I specifically requested her. I became familiar with her from her summer working at Aidan's special ed preschool in his classroom. Aidan's preschool teacher thought very highly of Ms. T and she recommended Ms. T to me to consider to be Aidan's future aide. Before Aidan's school year at his special ed shool ended, Ms. T and I connected and we were both enthusiastic and excited about working together.

Now that school and their partnership have been in full-swing, I think getting Ms. T was the best thing that could have happened! She is enthusiastic, diligent and caring. She accepts suggestions and directions well. And she even doesn't mind when I ask for the details of the school day....though, she is often more detailed and long-winded then I need. When she reports back to me how things went at school, I am often surprised at the things she does with Aidan. she has proven to not be intimidated or put off by Aidan's idiosyncracies. She has gotten good at reading Aidan's body language and knowing when he would be feeling uncomfortable. She has proactively gotten him up and out of his chair and sat him on her lap for classroom rug time. I've often seen other adults who don't know how to react or don't know what to do when Aidan gets into his hyperextension, stiff posturing. Without my telling, Ms. T knew exactly how to handle him and help him relax. She has been good about getting Aidan into his special equipment. She has even been mindful about maintaining Aidan's integrity. One kid had asked, "Is he wearing a diaper?" And Ms. T responded, "No, it's a pull-up," making it sound a little less babyish. Since Aidan has been vocalizing more, she's really encouraged the children to continue to talk to Aidan and embrace him to get more out of him. She really gets him in the mix and mixes it up with the other children. I learned from her that Aidan likes to play in the play kitchen with the other kids in his class. Who knew? Apparently, younger brother Connor likes to play in the kitchen at school too...little known facts that Dad is not too pleased about or willing to brag about his boys!?

I hope Ms. T is willing to stay with Aidan for a long time. She's told me that she has been with her past kids for several years and usually until the kids change schools for one reason or another. But, I always secretly worry about the future though....what happens when Aidan gets too big and heavy for her to continue to lift for diaper changes, and getting him in and out of equipment? Will they try to assign a male assistant for Aidan? Aidan is probably different from the other kids she's had since he requires maximum assistance, complete lifting for all transfers and positioning. Regardless of what the future holds, at least Ms. T has helped us get off to a great start.