After a really rough morning and a much better afternoon, the Lost and Tired family sat down to eat dinner. Everything was going well until all of the sudden, out of nowhere, Gavin tells Elliott that he was kicked out of his old school for having #Autism.
Lizze and I were in shock as this was completely out of left field and we were not prepared to have this conversation with him.
For the record, what Gavin said was true. Elliott was basically kicked out of his old school for being Autistic. Essentially, they just wouldn’t let him return for kindergarten, even though he had never had a problem.
While this is true, Elliott doesn’t know about this. We purposely didn’t tell him because we didn’t want him thinking there was something wrong with who he is.
Not only did Gavin say this once, he repeated it about 6 times. Each time making Elliott more and more upset.
Thankfully, Elliott never directly asked me to explain and I was able to redirect him so I didn’t have to fumble through an explanation. All I told him was that sometimes kids can be kicked out of school, even through they haven’t done anything wrong.
While I’m sure this will be brought up again, as Elliott has a memory like an elephant, I’ll at least have some time to think about what to say.
Right after this happened, Emmett apparently got tired of chewing his dinner and decided to hack it back up and leave it with me, as though it was a present. The first thought that popped into my head, aside from how disgusting his chewed up food looked, was that it reminded my of what cats do for there owners sometimes. They go outside and kill and animal and then level its broken and mangled corpse at the front door.
Anyway, here’s to the rest of the night going better. 🙂
**Thanks for reading**
-Lost and Tired
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This was posted via WordPress for Android, courtesy of Samsung’s Galaxy S III. Please forgive any typos. I do know how to spell but auto-correct is working against me.
Nothing like a sibling to set the record straight. Kids seem to thrive on pointing out not so nice stuff for each other. Congratulations. Today Gavin was just being a typical brother. As far as Elliot goes, well, tell him that the school he goes to is a way better school for him, and that's why you decided he should go there instead, because you need him to get a very good education so he can be (whatever he really wants to be at the moment). Brothers are great!
What is his cognitive level? If it's close to his current age then you could tell him that his old school could not teach him properly and so he had to move to another school. If he asks if it's related to his autism, you could say that he thinks/learns in a different way than some people and so he needed to go to a school where the teachers could teach him in that manner. This could also help in the future because then he could have a basic understanding of why he sees/experiences things from others and could potentially explain to others his points of view. Good luck when you have that talk!
That's probably what I'll do. Although, I'll wait until he asks. If it ain't broke don't fix it. Elliott is extremely advanced, both emotionally and cognitively. He'll understand if I have to explain it to him. I don't think Gavin meant anything mean by saying this. He just has no filter and says whatever pops into his mind.
Thanks 🙂