Hi — I'm Mrs. Gaby.

I first walked into a special day school as a high school volunteer, and I never really left. Something about those kids pulled me in and stayed.

Now I have a master's in special education with a focus on high-incidence disabilities, plus a certification in low incidence. I've spent more than six years in special education, working with students from kindergarten through twelfth grade — though elementary has always been my sweet spot. I teach at a special day school, which means I have my students all day, not for a period at a time. You learn a child differently when you're with them from morning drop-off to dismissal.

One student changed how I teach.

He'd been sent to our school years earlier because of his behaviors, and he'd been struggling ever since — in and out of class, not learning, labeled difficult by almost everyone who met him. That year I took a new position helping students transition back to their home schools, and he was on my list.

What I found wasn't a behavior problem. He simply couldn't tell anyone what he needed. So we gave him options and visuals — ways to ask, ways to choose, ways to say no that didn't require words. The behaviors nearly disappeared. He stayed in class. We transitioned him back to his comprehensive school, and this past year, he graduated from it.

That's what all of this is built on. Behind a great deal of hard behavior is a child with something to say and no way to say it.

If I could tell parents one thing earlier, it would be this: start with the basics of communication long before you think you need to. Bathroom. Break. Water. Snack. Those few words, given to a child who doesn't have them yet, change how the whole day goes — at school and at home.

My walls were always covered in visuals: first-then boards, morning schedules, choice cards, a feelings chart by the beanbag. Parents kept asking for copies. So I redrew them for home — clearer, warmer, and simple enough to use on a hard evening.

I'm also a mom of two, with one on the way, so I know what a hard evening looks like from the other side too.

There's no program to follow here and nothing to fix. Just tools that make the day a little more predictable, and room to notice the small wins when they come.