Potty Training and Special Education Preschool

When Braden turned three, it would be time to get him into preschool, but first we would have to work on POTTY TRAINING! (Dun, dun dun!) I was terrified of trying to teach a child who couldn't even talk to go potty in the toilet, but our awesome ABA therapist was with me every step of the way. We did what's called the "Potty Party", where you practically live in the bathroom for a week, but you know what—it worked! Braden loved Star Wars (thanks to Jeremy for exposing my toddler to it) and so, we did not let him watch it for several weeks until we were ready for the party. It was literally a party in the bathroom. We took the laptop and a TV tray into the bathroom and we had treats and everything. We all sat in the bathroom watching six hours of Star Wars while Braden sat on the toilet and every time he would potty in the toilet, he would get a treat. He is a very smart boy so he figured it out very quickly. Peeing in the toilet = treats! Yay! Pretty soon he was going in to pee every ten minutes, and even if it was a few drops he would get a treat. We made good progress, and I was very proud of him and of myself for having survived this terrifying milestone. He was still a long way from being potty trained at night though (and still is, unfortunately).

 Every school district is different and has different ways of doing things, so if you happen to live in a crappy district, you're basically out of luck. So, I had to do more research and asking around about the local school districts. We ended up having to move into a certain area just to get into the district we heard had the best program. This particular school district had special autism programs and classes, so we began the IEP (Individualized Education Plan) process. It is a long process and basically, you end up meeting with a team of people to decide exactly what goals you want your child to accomplish that year. (I will do a later post exclusively about IEP's, but this was our very first of many, and wasn't too painful because I had our ABA coach there with me.) Once this is all decided He begins school; I was so scared of him going to school. He was still a baby to me and he was my baby! I was so worried to leave him in the care of people I didn't really know, even if it was going to help him. The other wonderful (heavy sarcastic emphasis on the word wonderful) thing about special ED programs is that your child will go to the school that has the right program (the one you choose during your IEP) no matter how far away it is from your home. In our case the school was about 5 miles away, but they graciously offer you transportation for your child—The bus! It completely freaked me out! Here I was, imagining my three year old getting on the wrong bus and leaving me forever. I really did worry about this! I rode the bus as a child and you had to know which bus to get on and where to get off! Braden couldn't say more than ten words! How was he supposed to do this? Well, they set my mind at ease and encouraged me to let him ride the bus because they assured me that he would love it. They would come straight to our house and I would walk him out and an aid would help into the bus and into a seat (with a safety harness, thank goodness!). Once the bus arrived at school, the aid would help him off the bus and hand him off directly to the teacher or teacher's aide. This made me feel a little better, but I guess I'm just a person with trust issues because deep down, I worried that they wouldn't do what they said they would. Thankfully, in the end I was wrong. The bus worked out wonderfully and Braden really did love riding the bus. He loved it so much that on the days that I had to pick him up from school and go straight to therapy he cried—that always made me feel great. School (this particular school anyway) was a great thing for Braden. He had a great teacher and good aides that would send home daily reports on his daily activities. His speech started improving drastically! It was just amazing to watch him learn and develop new skills. I think most parents take this for granted, because it's normally such a natural process that they don't even think about it, but when you have to work that hard to get your child to say one word, it's amazing to you. We watched him go from 10 words to 30 in that year—he was making great progress. He started having a desire to interact with other kids, which he had never shown before. We were really starting to feel good about life and had more hope for Braden's life than ever. We even talked about the possibility of having another baby (I will talk more about this later), but we knew that it would be difficult to do (if possible at all) with the insurance we had not covering any fertility treatment—then Jeremy gets a job offer in North Carolina. (Cue dramatic and ominous music because things are about to get very scary!)

 

My little guy ready for his very first day of school.