This post is in reply to Sidheag's query, which I was pleased to get as it gives me a handy excuse to blog about a couple of things that are not the stuff of which nail-bitingly thrilling blog posts are made but that I like recording for myself. (I haven't forgotten that I also promised to write another post on autism, by the way – but that's a little way down my list of planned blog posts, and a long way down my depressingly long to-do list in general.)
Jamie's hours at nursery have increased – as of a few weeks before the recent Easter holiday, he's now there for a day and a half each week instead of just a half day. I'm delighted about this; I've thought for a long time that he was ready for more time there and would benefit from it, but, unfortunately, the only free sessions clashed with Tumbletots, which I didn't want him to have to give up. I'd resigned myself to having to wait until September before he could extend his hours, but then another child left and Manda, the supervisor, had already arranged for Jamie to be at the top of the list for any free places that came up. So now, once a week, he heads in with packed lunch in his backpack to spend a stretch of almost six hours engaged in exciting pursuits such as planting a mini-garden, cooking gooseberry crumble, or making a sandwich. Then he goes back the next morning for more.
The other thing worthy of passing mention is that Jamie had his IEP (a sort of action plan thingy that children with special needs get – I think it stands for Individualised Educational Plan) last Easter. I'd anticipated that this would be worth a post, but in fact it was a bit of a non-event, as it happened. It just means that the stuff Manda – the nursery supervisor – had already been talking about trying with him is now written down on a complicated-looking official form. Manda stayed behind after the nursery session just before the Easter weekend to discuss it with me and we chatted about it while I changed and fed Katie and Jamie played with some of the toys. She'd picked two goals – I think the first was building up more of a relationship with Jamie herself by doing things like chasing games and the like, which he enjoys. The second was encouraging him to get to build up a bit more of a relationship with other children there, and she was going to start this by getting him to hold hands with the other children during activities like singing or going for walks. She'd left the space for the third goal blank so that I could put one in, but I couldn't think of any current short-term goals I have (my long-term goal, of course, is the ongoing and constant one of getting him to turn out as a decent, moral, productive, happy person, but that seemed a bit complex to put on an IEP) so we just left that one blank. We spent a bit of time discussing all this in between dealing with nappies and finding Jamie stuff to play with, and then I signed the form and took Jamie home. That's about it. I haven't actually seen her since as I'm now back at work (I had the day off on that day), but they've been great about letting us know when there's anything they want to discuss, so I'm sure they'll alert Barry at drop-off or pick-up if they feel there's anything else we need to know.