Teacher's Report

I can’t think of anything more I would like to share today, than the report we heard from my son’s teacher at school on Friday. We keep in touch with her often because my son has troubles in the classroom. He has been described by the school therapist as ‘having a thousand receptors coming out of his body and not knowing which ones to listen to and which ones to ignore.” To me, that says it all.

These little casual conversations we have with the teacher are dreaded. We have simply agreed to find out how he is doing each week when we pick him up from school on Fridays. It seems like every week, there is always a major issue that needs to be addressed. It is never the same, it is never simple, and the conversation is never fully positive.

The teacher used to complain about many issues, from mild to severe, such as lack of concentration, taking too long to complete simple classwork, suddenly jumping up in class and interrupting, finding endless reasons why he shouldn’t do his work, arguing with the teacher about anything and everything he disagreed with, emotional outbursts in frustration or anger (usually in response to another child), poor interaction with other children, and even once a physical encounter where the teacher had to take him to another room and he tried resisting.

As parents of a child who was diagnosed with having sensory processing problems, ADHD, and Asperger’s, we are prepared for the problem reports about our son in school. We have heard from the teachers since kindergarten; it has simply become part of our lives. We do all we can to help our son and his behavior, but it has always been the same.

Most of his problems boil down to his reactions to other people and his environment. They are always extreme, be it positive or negative, life is black and white, and he will fight tooth and nail to have others see things his way. He doesn’t want to control the whole world, he just wants to control his own, and it’s too bad if you are in his way!

I have written before about the changes we have seen in our son ever since we put him on a gluten-free, vegan, high raw diet. Over the last 3 months, we have seen more dramatic improvements than the last 3 years of avoiding artificial chemicals like preservatives, colorings, and flavorings in his food and body care products.

We tend to forget how well he is really doing at the present moment until we are reminded of what ‘used to be.’ This last talk with the teacher was one such example. Her reports have been continually improving recently, but there is always the element of some problem still existing.

Last Friday, I braced myself for the next problem to be addressed. To my great surprise, she said, “Well, what can I say? I have no comment! He has worked well this week, finished his work without complaining or wasting time, and there were no behavior problems!” This was truly a shock since the good reports are usually laced with words like ‘partly, half-half, so-so, and somewhat…’

This was a joy to hear and completely confirmed our belief in this way of eating. I realize that it won’t be perfect from here on out. This isn’t a place we have reached where we can put the problems behind us. It is an ongoing journey, but after years of trying to find the answer, it sure feels great to have one good report. Our son will always have to work with his problems that stem from the autism spectrum disorders. What his new diet has given him is means to control his extreme reactions. They are stabilizing and it isn’t just what we think. Others see it, too.

Thanks for letting me share my excitement with you! Now I am off to continue my happy dance!

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