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Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Our school goals for Janey

Lately, for various reasons, I've been thinking a great deal about what my goals are for Janey's schooling.  In thinking about them, some are much like everyone's goals for their children, and some are quite different.  It's been an interesting thought process working them out.  I thought I'd post them here, and see if anyone has any thoughts or ideas about them.  If you do, I'd love to hear them!

Our goals for Janey
  1. We want Janey to be happy, as much as is possible.
  2. We want Janey to be safe, physically and emotionally.
  3. We want Janey to learn to the extent she is able to learn
  4. We want Janey to be around people who love her and understand her.
  5. We want Janey to be part of a community of all different people, not just those with autism. We want her to be around typical kids and adults as well as others with disabilities.
  6. We want Janey to be exposed to as much music and dance as possible, for we feel those are her strongest areas.
  7. We want Janey to have consistency in her life---to be at a school that she will be able to continue at for many years. We want to minimize transitions in her life.
  8. We want others to get to know Janey, in order to enrich her life and theirs. We want to give other children a realistic and true view of autism.
  9. We want Janey to be able to experience as many of the normal parts of childhood as she can---holiday celebrations, school programs, classroom jokes and drama and community, playground time, all the parts of public school that we look back on as adults fondly.
  10. We want Janey to know she is valued for just who she is.

3 comments:

Mary Leonhardt said...

These are all wonderful goals. I guess I'd just add the goal of her developing friendships with other children. I understand that this will be very difficult, but it seems clear to me that she has a loving relationship with her family, so she is capable of forming attachments. Her family may not always be able to be there for her. The more skills she can develop that help her make friends of her own, the happier she'll be, I would imagine.

Suzanne said...

That's a great idea, Mary. It certainly would be one of my goals. Right now, she barely seems to notice the other kids in her class, although they are very sweet to her! But I'd love to see her make a real friend. It would be wonderful.

Suzanne said...

My husband Tony reminded me of a goal I'd totally forgotten---to give Janey an opportunity to be physically active each day. She loves to run, and it would be wonderful if she could be on something like a modified track team.