autism

Socially Speaking

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Thursdays are gymnastics day – I pick the Monster up from school at the end of the day (rather than his riding the bus home) and zip over to Rebounders to let him get some playtime on the equipment with one of the wonderful instructors in the I Can Do It Too program, which is a good cover for his getting at least some PT that the city’s not giving him.

This afternoon, his instructor Ms. J suggested that we start considering the idea of putting him in a small group session rather than one-on-one like he has now. Continue reading →

Towards Deeper Water

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The assessment meeting finally took place this morning.

Now, setting aside that the rep from Early Learning included a FAPE meeting as part of the discussion on the “miss” of the 90 day rule, the meeting was essentially what we had expected – a discussion of the assessments that were ordered in December, coupled with placement discussions for next year and the decision on ESY services for this summer. Continue reading →

Rollin’ Along…

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The local Autism Society chapter here sponsors a monthly ‘social outing’, and this month’s outing was to a roller rink.  (This is not news to those who follow my tweet feed, @DadEnoughBlog.)

Now… the wife and I probably haven’t been on regular roller skates in about fifteen to twenty years, and the kids have never been on them.  But, there’s a few things about going roller skating that are probably good for social adaptation, or at least for trying out something in an environment that’s all about sensory stimulation: Continue reading →

Moving Backwards

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This weekend’s been a little bit rough, really, on getting things moving in the right direction.

We had been, for the most part, to the point that we could have the Monster in regular “big boy” underwear during the day.  He’s only occasionally had an accident – more often than not, he’s told us when he needs to go to the bathroom, or at least he’s signaled it by touching himself, and he’s made it through most of the last few months of school in a similar fashion.

So far this weekend, we’ve had two accidents, with a third at school during the week. Continue reading →

Harder Than It Should Be

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This morning, our official state complaint dropped into the mail.

I’ll admit that I’ve been dragging my feet about getting it done – despite how my getting angry gets results, filling out the form is not really a time for my being angry.  Instead, it was a time for me to write it the right way, and that meant doing my research and quantifying what the school is doing wrong, and therefore, why we’re complaining. Continue reading →

Homework

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“Together We Grow”, the program that the Monster is enrolled in at school, is a standard kindergarten for the purposes of the school system.  They follow the regular curriculum, such as it is, and that includes homework.

Of course, the Monster had homework all last year, but this is different – it’s more in-depth now, longer, and tends to be something that entails more of a fight with him at certain points. Continue reading →

Home and Away

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As we’re preparing for next week’s assessment meeting, I’m still struck sometimes by the differences between the child we see at home and the one that his professionals see at the school.

Now, I think all kids are different in front of their parents as opposed to the school environment.  I was probably more respectful of my teachers than I was of my parents growing up – there was, after all, a limit to what teachers were going to be willing to put up with as opposed to my parents who were kind of stuck with me.  Likewise, I was certainly not as diligent about showing off what I knew at home versus at school, since I wasn’t being graded at home… Continue reading →

Where Are You Going?

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On Thursday night, during the Autism Society of Baltimore/Chesapeake meeting, there was an interesting discussion about what a school is actually required to provide.

The conversation started with a parent discussing that her child – who is four – is showing an interest in writing, but the school system is asserting that they’re not required to provide OT to teach the child a proper tripod grip because that’s a “kindergarten” skill.  The basic thrust, as the members of the panel asserted, is that the school is not required to pursue ‘advanced skills’, but to provide a ‘free and appropriate public education’ as they define it. Continue reading →

Slow and Steady

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It’s a rare Saturday morning post from me, while I’m at home with both kids – the wife is at her book club while I’m watching the women’s National Championship final in curling by webstream.

Now, granted, I do wish I were in Philadelphia to watch it in person, the way I was able to two years ago, shortly after R was born.  Doing what we want is not always possible – something us parents with special needs kids understand very, very well – but it also lets me look back on how far we’ve come since the last time I was able to go in person. Continue reading →