Social Skills Class Eval

We met with Mrs. G this morning to discuss Joshua's participation in his socialization classes. This was series one for him, and she seemed very impressed with him. Mrs. G said that she is happy that he was in the class, because she was able to see him in a group atmosphere and it reiterated the fact that the skills tests he was given intially were indeed an underestimation of his abilities. She went over his strong points, of which he has many. He is very good at remembering names and is extremely good at connecting them with people. He has the sing-song voice that is very typical of autistic kids, but she said the way his sounds is inviting to other kids. He has a very positive sound to him and therefore other children and many parents would feel comfortable around him and not think of him as out of place because of it. He has a positive attitude and seems very happy (though not so much this morning lol) and that helps tremendously. He also tends to want to learn socialzation skills, where some autistic children want nothing to do with it. He also is really cute and both Mrs. G and her assistant love his cheeks. LOL

Overall, his disabilities are subtle, and she feels that having his sibling group has been a big help to him. We need to work more on eye contact. He has improved quite a bit in this area in the past 6 weeks of classes, but he still needs a lot of verbal reminders to do so. We also are needing to work more on his initiating play. He has improved at home in this area, but we will be working on trying to do it at the park and beach this summer with other children.

We again talked about schooling, and she still is ok with my homeschooling. I was planning to wait and really dive into it this fall with him, but she feels maybe I should go ahead and start now. So, I think I will start prepping this week and get started full force with him next week and really focus on school a lot with him while Jacob is on summer break. That should be fun. I have heard that homeschooling kids like Josh at times can be more fun than with other children because of how visual they are. I guess I shall soon find out. :) I think I am going to learn a lot from teaching him. It will definitely take creativity on my part, but I think he will do well.