Wednesday, May 13, 2009

ACC & Your Child At School-Part 1



Sending your child off to school for the first
time is not an easy thing to do. I think any
parent will tell you that.

When you have a child who has Agenesis
of the Corpus Callosum or a corpus callosum
disorder, sending that child off to school
for the first time becomes much more difficult
not only in terms of letting them go (through
tears sometimes) but also in terms of making
the best decision and choice about what kind
of classroom will best suit your child’s
educational needs.

It can be challenging!



Should they be placed in a mainstream class?

Should they attend a special education classroom?

Should they be in mainstream and be pulled out
to receive resource room help?

Should they be placed in special education and be
mainstreamed?

Do they need to be mainstreamed with a one-on-
one aide?

And the list goes on and on…



There are so many choices to make.

Even if you have a child with ACC or a
corpus callosum disorder who is already in
school, it can still be a challenge and
confusing sometimes when deciding what
the best option will be for your child
in the upcoming school year.

I will write more about this topic and share some of
my own thoughts and experience pertaining to
school and my child, Matthew, next week.

One very helpful thing you can do to help
inform and educate your child’s teacher
(and many of you may already do this) is
to create a small packet of information
about ACC and provide your child’s teacher
with clear and concise information pertaining
to your child’s strengths, motivation,
struggles, behavior issues (if applicable),
medical issues, etc. Include informative
information, tips and hints that you
believe will help the teacher better understand
and relate to your child in an effort to create
a very positive educational experience for all.

Try to be as brief as possible, while still
giving pertinent information, and definitely
highlight the very important things so that
they will easily stand out for your child’s
teacher.

Considerations For Educators Of Students With ACC:

This document is written by Mr. McCallum and
he is a teacher who taught a child with ACC in
his classroom. He offers detailed and valuable
information. The web page version of this
document is no longer available. If you would
like to receive a copy of “Considerations For
Educators Of Students With ACC” by Mr. McCallum
please E-Mail me. In your e-mail it is helpful
to know if you are a parent or a teacher
requesting the information.

Just thought all of you parents would like to
know that there have been many teachers over
the years who have e-mailed to request the ACC
document by Mr. McCallum because they have a
child with ACC in their class. I think that is
wonderful and it always makes me smile. :)



ACC & Your Child At School-Part 2

2 comments:

  1. Hi Sandie, my name is Loretta, i'm a parent of an ACCer, his name is Jake and he's 4 years old. I think his ACC according to the doctor is "isolated C-ACC".
    I tried placing my son in junior kindergarten in regular classes, due to his high functioning ACC, but he's not adapting. The teacher without sounding like she's descriminating told me in between lines my son should stay in school, and told me JK is not mandatory.
    I would love to receive a copy of Mr. McCallum's document "Considerations For Educators Of Students With ACC". I clicked on the "e-mail me" link but i cannot access it. Here's my e-mail if you please:

    loretta.isabel@hotmail.com

    This thing with school is a nightmare...i don't know what to do anymore. If i could, i would homeschool my son, but i was told i cannot, i've even thought of becoming his educational assistant but i don't have a certificate, plus with the government funding cuts i will not get a special educator.

    Your blog is wonderful and filled with a lot of info. Thank you kindly for sharing,

    Loretta and Jake

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Loretta,

    Thank you for your very kind comment and for sharing the situation with your son, Jake, and school.

    I just finished e-mailing you and I sent you the ACC document written by Mr. McCallum that you requested. I also addressed some of your comments and concerns in my e-mail and I would be happy to share more with you.

    Thank you again.

    Sandie

    ReplyDelete

I am very interested in reading your comments and
look forward to hearing from you. Thank you.