Jacob loves his bus ride, and he loves school. A couple of weeks ago I had an update ARD meeting for him to get him into adaptive PE. To request the extra service, they had to do another round of testing on him, since they hadn't done any sort of IQ testing on him since his intake testing at age 2. The thing with testing kids with autism, is that, if they don't feel like dealing with you that day, they won't. If they don't know you very well and don't feel like dealing with you, they won't. I knew that that would play a part in the testing. We knew pretty much what was coming, but it was still hard to hear. They scored his IQ as 41, which is well within the mental retardation range (around 90-109 is considered the lower level of normal). I guess I just don't see that. I know that he is behind in several things, but the way his brain works to figure things out...I just can't reconsile that. Anyway, they added the MR designation on his file, but in a way it's not such a bad thing, as we can now get him on a waiting list for services for when he transitions out of the school system at 21.The MR label amuses me to some extent, especially during things like his parent teacher conference yesterday. He is nearly potty trained during the day and they are going to put him in regular underpants during the day. They've started taking the boys in the class into the main boys bathroom to use urinals (getting him ready for middle school, in a sense). Apparently this amuses the teachers and the kids. He is stubborn and, while he knows the answer, will sometimes refuse to answer questions until they ask someone else, and then they can't shut him up. They have to continually remind him to let the other kids answer to let them do their own work (he tries to do it for them). He can write his name, do anyting with math they put before him (right now it is learning simple addition), he is learning to read, can spell several words or give you the letter sounds) and can read compound words. He also apparently has a crush on a fifth grade girl who comes into help him. He won't play ball with the pe teacher, but he'll play ball with her. He'll refuse to do work for the teachers, but he'll do the work for her. This bout of con-artistry does not surprise us.
His teacher, who's opinion I trust very much, says not to worry about the iq test and score. She says he's extremely smart. Stubborn and mulish, but smart. She thinks he'll be one of the kids that will be able to have some sort of employment later on, it will just be a matter of finding a good fit for him.
