Last night we had parent-teacher conferences for Cade. I have to say I was cautiously optimistic, but was also trying to prepare myself for the possibility that Cade could really be struggling in several areas - after all, he is in a regular classroom for the first time this year.
What I first heard from the teacher was this: "Oh, my sweet Cade! You have to tell me more about this diet of yours because I've never seen anything like this!". Well, that certainly was an encouraging start to things!
The summary is: He's doing awesome!
The details are:
Attention to task - He's sitting at the table and completing his work just as well (or better) than the other kids in his class. He remembers to raise his hand. His teacher sometimes needs to direct his attention to her and make sure he's looking at her, but once she has his attention, he can follow directions well.
Social Skills - Cade is making friends and interacting well with his peers. Just recently a friend was sitting very close to Cade at the table. The teacher asked Cade's friend to move over some and give Cade some personal space. The friend's response was, "But I love him!".
Sensory Issues - Cade's teacher reported she's seen hardly any sensory issues in the classroom. No hand flapping or tip toe walking at all. Just in the last couple of days as the weather has changed and has been wet and cold, he's been a bit more sensitive and needing personal space a bit more. When friends crowd him, his response has been minimal, but enough to let the teacher know he needs some help getting some space. Once she helps his friends back up a little, he's fine and can carry on with whatever it is they're doing.
Academics - Cade is doing great academically. He's understanding all the concepts well and completing his work. One day the class was talking about bikes. His teacher had showed the class the words "My bike" at one point in the day. Later, the class was drawing pictures of their bikes. Across the top of the paper, Cade had very clearly written "My bike" from memory and without assistance. He then drew a pretty convincing picture of a bike. Recently the kids were all tested for pre-reading skills. This is a timed test looking at letter and sound recognition (called the Dibble for you teacher-types out there). When the test was administered orally for auditory comprehension and response, Cade didn't do so well. This is pretty typical - he still takes a couple of extra seconds to process information auditorally. Since it's a timed test, he wasn't given a couple extra seconds and didn't do as well. The teacher assured me that when she's worked with Cade on the same test, but given him that little bit of extra time, he gets just about everything right. When the same test was administered visually, Cade scored the second highest in the whole class. No doubt, visual is still (and may always be) his strong suit.
Mom and Dad - It was such a treat to hear how well Cade is doing. At times, we've wondered if our own observations were too optimistic and if this diet really is working for him. It felt great to have some observation and concrete measures from a professional that validated what we've been seeing at home. I felt almost giddy as I walked away from the conference. It was an even better report than I'd expected. We are so encouraged, and I think that maybe our "cautiously optimistic" is slowing becoming just "optimistic" about Cade's future successes.
We are so proud of him and all the progress he's made. Way to go, Cade!!!
Looking ahead,
Becky
