Monday, January 8, 2018

First Day Back...A Wonderful Success!

On her way home after school

Taylor was so excited yesterday packing up for school, picking her outfit, making lunch and snacks. I was so paranoid. She was up with the birds this morning to go to school. She texted me this morning to let me know she was going to school, LOL, she usually texts me every morning. Mindy forgot to snap pictures as she was more focused on getting Taylor all settled, so no early morning shots, LOL.

To say I was on the edge of my seat all day, is an understatement. I checked with Mindy if she had called to come home, but nope. The kid stayed ALL DAY, what a trooper!

She was so proud of her full page of writing that she did, so freaking awesome. So proud of my little wiener.


She was apparently starving when she got home, so they made some mini pizzas...tough not just eating whenever you feel like it, LOL


Taylor had an AMAZING day! Teachers, Educational Assistants, and all the school staff were/are awesome. The kids were are wonderful too! Thank you everyone in Taylor's world today for ensuring she had the best day ever. 

One thing I will mention as I had forgotten, and it annoyed Taylor today, was in questioning her how her day was. Sounds silly, but if you recall she gets overstimulated and her ability to communicate is reduced. Because she made it through the day, she was exhausted by the end, as she does not filter out stimuli that the normal person does without thinking. This means her brain doesn't always get "breaks", which can be super exhausting for her. All day she of course had totally normal sorts of questions:

“did you have a good Christmas Taylor” 
“so happy to see you Taylor” 
“we missed you Taylor” 
and then all afternoon 
“how was your day” 
“did you have fun at school” etc...

These are totally NORMAL, not offensive questions. This is what I did too, because I forgot. So I am mentioning this for future dealings with Taylor. So although Taylor of course talks, seems rather normal, she isn't. It can be really deceiving. So when she gets all these questions, repeatedly, I am thinking she is getting frustrated because 1. she is tired. 2. She doesn't always have the ability to answer, or know what to say. These seem like such easy things for someone to respond to. They are questions to try to gauge where she is at, and how to help her. 

So I am not putting this here because I want anyone feeling bad, or second guessing themselves. I put this here to raise awareness when dealing with Taylor that she may get irritable, or respond rudely, not because she doesn't like someone. Not because she isn't actually having fun. It could be because she is tired or can't come up with the right thing to say. It may show in her getting defensive and flippantly saying, "I don't care", or getting upset, or overwhelmed, tearful. It tends to be more the actual questions that require response that frustrate her, which makes me think its a communication thing. 

I know Mindy is going to talk with her psychologist about this to see what we can do to help with this, as these are sometimes going to just happen with well meaning people. My guess is we need to find alternate ways to get that same information and not bombard her too much. Remember, me, Auntie extrodinnaire, made this error. I did hear she did awesome with not using her "colourful" language at school all day, it was only when she spoke to me, her potty mouthed auntie that she slipped a few more exciting adjectives. LOL

Again, thank you teachers and Woodbridge staff, parents and kids for helping Taylor have an AMAZING first day back! She is super excited to go back tomorrow. 

No comments: