Beau's Book: Puppies

Thursday evening was Hansen Night at the kids' elementary school.  It was a chance for the student to show their parents what they are learning in school and showcase some of their hard work.  

We started off in Delaney's 1st-grade room.  This little lady was so excited for us to see what she has been working on.  She had written a book and created the illustrations for it as well.  She read it to us and she was so proud.  She showed us all of the great things they are working on in class and it was fun to see her in her element.  Her favorite place, aside from home, is school.  She has told us that many times.  I have to take a moment to brag about sweet Delaney.  Not only is Delaney an incredible sister to Beau, she is extremely intelligent.  When we recently got some of her reading testing back from school she is at twice the level she is expected to be at her age.  It's such extremes with these two kids.  Delaney is way down in one direction and Beau is at the other end.

The Weichers Family

She knows her blends!

Delaney showing us how they use their tablets for learning.

She is such a smart young lady!

After finishing up in Delaney's room we stopped and spoke with Beau's special education teacher, Mrs. Katie Reed before heading to his general education 5th grade room.  Let me stop for a moment and talk to you about Mrs. Reed.  She has been working with Beau for a couple years and she is the kind of special education teacher you would want for your special needs child.  She works extremely hard, she thinks outside of the box and she pushes Beau every single day.  She believes he is capable of so much and she will do whatever it takes to help him show the world what he knows.  Katie is a quiet hero.  She doesn't make it known all of the incredible things she is doing behind the scenes.  There is so much that she can give to future teachers and I hope that she can be recognized for the amazing work she has done with Beau. 

As a part of Beau's assignment in the general education 5th-grade room, the kids were to write a non-fiction book.  His classmates wrote about the westward expansion however Beau chose a different topic.  He worked with Mrs. Reed and his para, Ms. Erin to do this project with as little assistance as possible.  Here is how Mrs. Reed explained it to me: 

"He picked the topic with his communication device.  He navigated to therapy and then the animals page for puppies.  I asked him to brainstorm what he would like to write about dogs.  He picked 4 sub-topics.  We then found 3-4 books/articles that talked about service dogs and the play section of his book was his own personal experience with the service dog at therapy as well as his dog Nyala at home.  He then used his device to summarize with 3 details he found in the books.  We would work on one section of the book: get an idea, where does the idea fit with your 4 sub-topics?  He would then choose.  We needed some prompting to make it a sentence but otherwise the idea/facts he got from the book.  We wrote his sentences from what he had put into the device as he created them under each sub-topic.  He then used his computer to spell as we dictated the sentence out loud.  He didn't look at our spelling or his device.  He just spelled the words phonetically if he wasn't sure of the actual spelling."

Once he had completed the written portion of the book, his 5th-grade teacher, Mrs. Pease, asked for 2 volunteers to assist Beau with the photos for his book as well as the "About the Author" page.  As I was informed by his para, as well as the teacher, kids tend to "fight" over who gets to work with Beau.  Mrs. Pease explained that she generally has too many volunteers and has to limit them and take turns.  For this project, two young men, Asher and Will, signed up to help Beau.  These 2 boys had to miss some recess and use some of their independent work time to be able to work with Beau on this.  

Inclusion matters.

When we got to Mrs. Pease's room we were so excited that Asher happened to be in the room as well.  He graciously offered to read Beau's book to us and he explained what he and Will had helped Beau with.  Asher stated that they looked through a bunch of pictures of dogs and had Beau choose the photos he wanted that best went with the book he had written.  Then Asher and Will wrote the "About the Author" portion of the book.  Beau looked on with pride and was so excited to see Asher and hear him read his book.  

Inclusion matters.

Asher reading us Beau's book about Puppies

Asher and Beau

Here is Beau's Book about Puppies:

Cover Page

 Here is the About the Author section that Will and Asher wrote:

Here comes the even more amazing part: reading the story that Beau actually typed out.  Non-verbal doesn't mean stupid.  Non-verbal doesn't mean he doesn't have something to say.  Just because Beau can't talk, doesn't mean he can't type or use assistive communication to express himself.  This book is powerful for so many reasons.  Some of the items he included in this story aren't things that his teacher, para or classmates would know.  He talks about the "therapy dog" that he walks and states that the dog is a boy.  At therapy at EDI, one of Beau's therapists has a therapy dog named Ammo which is a male dog.  It's a black lab that Beau has completely bonded with and he looks forward to every Wednesday because of that dog.  He mentions the dog going outside to swim - he and Nyala swim in our pond together all summer long.  He connects with dogs, and they connect with him, and it brings out something amazing in him. 

I wish nothing more than for Beau to have his own service dog.  Some day, he will have that. 

There are lots of different thoughts in this post, so I guess I will end with the highlights!

• Hansen Elementary is amazing for both our children.  When inclusion is a priority, everybody wins.  
• Beau's classmates are special kids.  Inclusion matters.
• Katie Reed is a forward thinking, think outside the box, amazing special education teacher. It took a lot of extra time - but that meant that Beau got to write his book just like his classmates. Inclusion Matters.
• Non-verbal doesn't mean stupid.
• We WILL find an organization that will train a service dog for Beau, no matter what!

As always, thank you to the incredible teaching staff at Hansen Elementary.  Delaney and Beau love school because of the love they experience while there.  Thank you to the special education teachers that have a very challenging job!  Thank you to the gen ed teachers that value inclusion and work to make adaptations to their classroom so that EVERYONE is included.  Thank you to Beau's classmates for making him a valued part of your entire class.  He will need you in the years to come and I hope that you will continue to see how important your friendship with him is.  

Inclusion matters 💗