Kindergarten

Kindergarten can be a challenging period for every family, and I knew we would be no exception but I knew Mark was different and was really going to be a challenge . By now at age five, Mark was more hyper and it was getting harder to keep up with every year. With the new school year approaching I knew I had to enroll Mark in kindergarten even though  I knew his maturity level was nowhere close to the average kindergarten age child.  Despite my hesitations, I enrolled barely five year old Mark into kindergarten just hoping the school system would give him a chance and provide us with some direction.  I knew he was not ready and could not cope but at least I knew we would finally get some help.

After only two weeks, the principal called me and asked if I could pick Mark up from school and keep him home for a while.  His teacher could not keep him because he would not participate in class and she could not focus on the other students; keeping up with Mark took up all of her time!   I knew the school system had to keep him enrolled because it was required that every child be provided a free and appropriate education when they were of school age and that someone would be in touch with me. They couldn’t just keep him out of school.  Before long the school psychologist called to set up testing for him.  A complete psychological was done and the results were mystifying to say the least.  I had never heard the word AUTISM and had no idea what was ahead for any of us. Surely they were wrong…

Soon we made an appointment for a second opinion at a child development center for a private evaluation. Somehow, the results were the same.   The official term for Mark’s diagnosis was Infantile Autism.

We now had a name for what was happening with our beautiful blonde hair, blue eyed little boy, and a new road to travel.

Mother’s Day Out

I decided to enroll Mark in a Mother’s Day Out program at church when he became eligible at the age of three. I thought enrolling Mark would be very beneficial for him. I had noticed his preference for playing by himself instead of wanting to play with other kids; he had no interest and much preferred playing alone. His favorite past time was sitting in the closet with the lights off and door closed while tearing pieces of toilet paper off the roll and throwing it in the air!

Mark was so hyper and was always moving. I had to have one eye on him at all times or he would get away from me in a split second. I enrolled him in the Mother’s Day Out program knowing it would be a challenge for the staff, but I was badly in need of time to myself. I took him on the first morning, dressed in a cute little plaid pinafore and white shirt. I nervously left him in their care at 9am and would return at noon.

When I picked him up, I walked into the large room with ten to fifteen other toddlers, but could not find Mark. I asked one of the workers about him and she started looking and couldn’t find him either! All of the workers started frantically searching in all of the nooks and crannies of the classroom. I went out into the hall thinking how easily he could slip out of a room without being noticed.

I heard him talking to himself quietly while sitting in the stairwell. He was sitting in only his diapers, barefoot, next to an open window. I ran to him and took him back to the room! When I asked about his clothes, they started to explain how he was playing in the water fountain, and his clothes and socks were soaked. They had taken his clothes off and placed them on the radiator to dry, and had forgotten about them being there. It was too late when they remembered where his clothes were; they were badly scorched.

The staff did not understand how Mark got out of the room because they had placed him in the playpen while his clothes were drying. He obviously climbed out of the pin and got out of the room somehow, during the commotion at snack time, they had said! I left Mother’s Day Out that day obviously upset over the entire fiasco.

I was happy he was not hurt but realized Mother’s Day Out would not be an option for us. Mark was not going to be able to participate in any activity that other kids did and I didn’t know what to do about it. Other kids in our apartment complex played together both inside and outside; Mark wasn’t able to play with the other kids because he could not stay with the group. He had to be watched at all times. I couldn’t expect anyone else to be able to watch him.

There were other things such as this , that made me realize Mark was different.  This story among other stories throughout his toddler years confirmed my suspicions that something was not normal with Mark.