Author: Dad Enough

In Public

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My wife’s been preparing for a few weeks to be in a production of Rapunzel in a local community theater, and this weekend, we took the kids to go see her performance.  The biggest issue, of course, is preparing for the idea of the kids being out where the Monster’s behaviors can be a problem.

Now, we’ve tackled a movie on the sensory days, and we’ve been to a few things where his being quiet has not been an urgent matter.  On this occasion, though, it was more important for him to be quiet, so he wouldn’t disturb the other patrons. Continue reading →

Not a Nibble

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The feeding therapy is a whole bunch of “two steps forward, one step back”.

To rehash why the Monster’s in feeding therapy – he’s very picky about what he’ll eat.  Over time, we’ve been watching how his selectivity of what he eats has been increasing, removing old favorites from his repertoire and quickly making it quite impossible for us to have just one dinner for the entire family.  Eating at the holidays turns into a bit of a guess as to what he’ll be willing to try, or requires us to have at least something on the menu that we know in advance is on the approved list. Continue reading →

Catching Up

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It’s been a few days since I wrote, mostly since I’ve been busy with a couple of things offline – between Halloween and schedule conflicts for the wife and me, it’s been a very full boat.  Yesterday and today, I’ve been home rather than at work, since the Monster had the days off of school for an in-service day and then the election.

But one thing that’s been going on in the interim has been the issue of getting the Monster further toilet trained. Continue reading →

His Own Take On It

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My company does a lot for Halloween every year.  It’s our eVP’s favorite holiday – back when we were more concentrated in one spot, there was massive decorating of our areas, trick-or-treating in the office, things like that.  Since we got bigger, the celebration got moved out to a central location (though we’ll still have something in the office tomorrow – pizza and beer, though I’m missing the beer due to scheduling).  This year, our party was at The Cloisters, which is really just around the corner from our house.

For Trunk or Treat on Saturday, the Monster was a pirate – today, he was a cowboy to go along with R.  (Frankly, it’s an easier costume that has him fidgeting with it a heck of a lot less.)  But the fact of the matter is, he still really doesn’t ‘get’ Halloween. Continue reading →

Once More With Feeling

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Yet another IEP meeting today.

This was the circle-back after we’d requested the evaluation to see if the Monster was eligible for a one-on-one aide, what Baltimore City calls a TAS – temporary adult support (with emphasis on ‘temporary’).  Basically, this meeting started off with a person-by-person recitation of how the Monster has to be constantly redirected in class, to the point that they’re not sure that he’s learning anything at the moment. Continue reading →

Trick or Treat

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My wife belongs to the Baltimore Mommies, a group for mothers here locally that’s associated with a national network.  Somehow, she got roped into doing a Trunk or Treat thing, which I’m perfectly okay with… because it seems to me to be a good way to do trick-or-treat for a child with Autism.

But of course, it also highlights things to consider with the mixing of the two things. Continue reading →

Accidents Happen

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It’s been a while since I’ve had a post dedicated solely to toileting, I think, since the Monster’s made it to a plateau in his toilet training.  He’s now, largely, going to the bathroom on his own when we’re home, but more often than not, he’s only doing so for having to pee.  We’re not up – dependably – to him making it to the toilet for poop.

And therein lies the problem. Continue reading →

Talking About the Weather

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One of my daily tasks is taking the Monster to the school bus, since it no longer just stops in front of our house.

Last year, when the Monster was on IEP transportation to get to Garrett Heights EMS, our daily procedure was that he waited inside, and I tended to either watch from my study, or go outside to stand on the curb myself to watch for the bus going up the nearby street on its way to us.  This year, though, there’s a couple of centralized pick-up locations, and so I drive him around the corner to one before I zip off to work. Continue reading →

Math Matters

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This evening, part of my task was to get the Monster’s homework done.

I don’t know how much the Monster really gets the basic concepts of math in the abstract.  He does, certainly, recognize numbers and can read out a ‘math sentence’ (what most of us recognize as an equation) to the point where he’s required to fill in the answer.  But he’s not making the mental jump to do the problems in his head. Continue reading →

Forward Progress

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Two weeks ago, we had the Monster’s first IEP meeting at his current school (see Talk About It).  At that meeting, we discussed changes to the current IEP to try to bolster his progress, since he’s been showing very little forward progress since moving from Garrett Heights EMS to The Mount Washington School.

Just to refresh: at that IEP meeting, we discussed increasing his special education (more than doubling it) and getting him an assessment for a one-on-one aide. Continue reading →