Day 44

So I learned tons about Zack at his conference when I heard from the lead vision teacher, the speech therapist and the physical therapist--it was great! So according to the lead teacher, Zack's interaction in class and his ability to sit and listen and follow directions have improved greatly since kindergarten. She mentioned some of the ways I have worked to include him (calling on him with the same frequency as the other kids, mentioning his name occasionally to cue him back to our class discussion), and I was thrilled to hear that positive feedback.
The speech therapist's report was probably the most interesting to me. She has been working with Zack on staying on a particular topic to carry on a conversation. As she said this, I realized that he does have much more trouble than a typical six-year-old when it comes to staying on a topic. Also, she said that she is having to really work to get him to stop asking so many questions (apparently appropriate questioning is a skill he worked on last year) because he is only asking questions instead of answering them or having a normal conversation. It was like a light turned on for me when she said that as Zack is incredibly curious and always asks questions to the point where it's more than you're typical child. We all discussed his fascination with adults, and once again, this was something I hadn't identified yet. It's true, though--Zack is much more interested in talking and interacting with adults than his peers. Is this because he always has an adult with him? Where is this coming from?
Next, the speech therapist talked about helping Zack to understand his prepositions by having him place an object around on a tray (or table or something). She thought he was having some trouble with them, but the vision teacher thinks he may be acting up when he's not performing for the speech therapist. Also, she thinks he may have some confusion with his pronouns. He'll occasionally say something about "you doing something" when we think he is trying to say "I am doing something." He does it when he talks about blowing his nose and will sometimes say "you need to blow your nose" when we think he means to say "you need to help me blow my nose" or "I need to blow my nose."
The physical therapist talked about her struggle and creativity in teaching Zack how to run naturally with opposite arm and leg movements. She said she'll occasionally carry him (all 30 pounds of him, I'm sure!) and run with him so he can feel the motion. How cool is that?! I am curious to hear more about what she's doing.
I have another conference with his father and step-mom/girlfriend tomorrow, so I'm excited to hear what other cool things I am going to find out about Zack's education.