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Doing the Rounds – The Non-Public Side

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Having decided that the only public placements that we were aware of were not likely to be the right placement for the Monster, barring a program existing of which we had not heard, we decided to do our due diligence and go to see some of the non-public placements that might well be offered for our son.  The major issue, in our minds, was the fact that the summer was rapidly coming to an end – several of the private schools that are known for their work with children with Autism go on vacation during August, and there are processes that need to be followed to put a child into such a place.

But the question really was where to look… and we quickly decided to go with the most likely non-public schools that the city would send the Monster to – HASA’s Gateway School and the Shafer Center. Continue reading →

Doing the Rounds – The Public Side

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I’ve decided to start going back over the things that I couldn’t discuss while we were going through the IEP process, and talking about them as they occur to me to write them… so some of these things, over the next few weeks, might seem like they’re coming a bit out of right field.

When we were a few weeks into the school year, and it started becoming apparent that a mainstreamed classroom at Mount Washington wasn’t the right placement for the Monster, we started considering our options.  The Temporary Adult Support (TAS) helped to some extent, but it was clear that what the Monster needed really was to be moved to another placement. Continue reading →

Focus

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It’s very easy, with a special needs child, to get bogged down in the negative.

He can’t talk to me, a lot of us think.  He doesn’t have friends.  He’s not fully toilet-trained.  I can’t trust him alone in the yard or near a street.  What will happen when he grows up?

It’s… overwhelming.  And yes, there’s a lot of things to be negative about.   Continue reading →

Maybe He’s Just Three

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R doesn’t get a lot of entries here, if only because most of the time, I’m dealing with the Monster’s own behaviors, challenges and successes.  But… there are times where R needs to be talked about, as the younger brother of a child with Autism.

Because sometimes, you just can’t tell if he is just the sibling of a child with Autism, or if there’s a reason we should be worried. Continue reading →

I Hurt Your Shoe

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As I’ve discussed numerous times, the Monster’s not huge on novel verbal expression.  He can handle mildly scaffolded phrases that he’s familiar with and riff on them, and he can give one or two word utterances that express the general needs that he’s feeling at any moment in time, but most of the time, we understand him because we “get” how he communicates.

And then there’s times where he surprises us. Continue reading →

Thirty-Two and a Half Winks

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Things were quiet at our house last night, mercifully.

Okay, so we kinda took things into our own hands.  The doctor had okayed, once upon a time, the occasional use of Benedryl to knock the Monster out, and let’s be honest – he needs the sleep as much as we do.  It’s not good for us to be getting up every few hours because of his screaming, and at a certain point, giving him seriously large doses of melatonin’s going to not be doing us any favors.  (Plus, I imagine he’ll build up a tolerance to it.)  So last night, we medicated him – i.e., I ground up some and snuck it into some applesauce, and gave it to him as a treat after dinner – and he went to bed.

And then I spent most of the night worrying because of how quiet he was. *sigh* Continue reading →

Meltdown Mayhem

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So anyone who follows my Twitter feed will know that we’ve been having a problem of late with the Monster having more meltdowns than usual, if that wasn’t obvious from yesterday’s post.  He’s been up several of the preceding nights… and it’s honestly been worse during the day.

Of late, he’s been obsessing about riding in the car.  I don’t know what’s brought it about, but he’s been insisting more and more on getting in the car for a bit, and being taken for a ride before bed.  And then lately, it’s turned into a constant thing – we get out of the car, come inside, and he wants another car ride. Continue reading →

Disorderly Sleep

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The Monster’s been awful about his sleeping.

Now, this isn’t a surprise to us when we’re not at home.  He’s routinely been bad about sleeping when we’re in a hotel, to the point that I’m not getting much rest when we’re away from home, and we’re hating life about traveling.  We’ve come to the conclusion – confirmed through my working a couple of very weird shifts or getting up for my morning runs – that he’s actually waking… and we’re not hearing him being up.

That changed, in the last few weeks. Continue reading →

Fight the Power!

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I was going to write something more uplifting today, but…

Well, between the comments here and on our local Autism Parents group on Facebook, there was the question of what can be done to “Fight the Man”, as it were.  So, in the interest of offering up some tips that we either already knew or learned in the most recent process: Continue reading →