Noah at school

It was Noah's IEP on Monday and because I sensed some behaviour issues at school I persuaded Paul to come along with me. Of course then it didn't turn into the battle I half expected. What became apparent is that his new teacher, special needs teacher and teacher aide are quite inexperienced and were happy to listen to some of our suggestions.
Things that were blatantly obvious to us like 'wait, use humour, give him some responsibility, make things part of a routine, give him warning of transitions' they were still feeling their way through.
You could see they didn't quite accept that we believe he doesn't behave vindictively and doesn't respond to consequences. They also didn't quite 'get' that as we also parent an adult with DS we have some idea of what really matters long-term. For example his special needs teacher spends a long time trying to get him to write by hand which he finds very hard. I suggested they teach him with predictive texting which is how most of Lily's friends communicate but that's too far from normal writing for them to consider.
A compromise however is bringing in the "clicker' programme on the computer (this has been in the last few IEPs but I think may happen now)
I left the IEP feeling quite good that the school is now finding Noah harder to manage than we do at home, whereas last year when the behaviour therapist was visiting us, the school told her he had no issues.
I think it just shows how Noah reacts to the personality (especially calmness and humour) of who ever is dealing with him. It's interesting that he was much better behaved today when the rest of his class went on camp and he had to go back into his class from last year.

So with Noah's IEP out the way, tomorrow is Isaac's!
At his last one I remember having a long moan about how hard it is having a child who doesn't eat and how academic stuff just doesn't matter compared to that. It will be interesting to see if they've seen the same wonderful changes I have in Isaac since his surgery in December now that he's managing his own eating and not in pain.