Class Helper

I spent the day today in Ethan's class as a helper so I could observe him. I know that he probably wasn't exactly how he would have been had I not been there, but I did get a good sense of what goes on and I saw enough. Ethan really does struggle with focusing. He is in his own little world sitting at his desk, but I know he listens because he always tells me about his day and he makes good grades. But watching him sit at his desk, or should I say trying to sit at his desk, was almost painful. I showed the teacher the pencil I made with the velcro and she thought that was a FANTASTIC idea. She was very excited about it. She and I were kind of thinking on the same level because she happened to bring in the tiny koosh ball thing for Ethan to hold today while he was at his desk. He still picked the eraser off of his pencil, but the velcro did keep his hands busy for a little while, too. The little koosh ball might have helped some in the beginning, but he ended up just playing with it and then I would catch him putting it in his mouth. Actually, I think the velcro seemed to work the best because he couldn't really play with it. Overall, I was able to have some good conversations with his teacher today and come up with some good plans and ideas for him. And one of the things that is funny is that Ethan has a hard time holding back from blurting out the answers. I had to hide my smile.

There were a couple of times this morning when I looked over and Ethan was totally out of his chair and under his desk for some reason. My guess is that he kept playing with stuff and it was falling on the floor and he was picking it up. Whatever the reason was, he was the ONLY child in the room that was having this kind of problem. He doesn't have behavior problems at all, nor is he hyperactive. The only problem he has is focusing long enough to stay on task, and paying attention.

We went to pick up Ethan's medicine tonight, but the computers were down at the pharmacy and so we couldn't get the medicine. I will be getting it tomorrow and we'll start Ethan on it the next day. I'm really keeping my fingers crossed that this is the answer for us.