autism

Spoiling for a Fight

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I’m sure this isn’t news to anyone who has a child on an IEP – if you don’t make sure that they live up to the goals in the plan, they tend to go by the wayside.

Going a step further, bear in mind that we live in a major city with a record of having issues living up to the IEPs.  The biggest issue, really, is the lack of resources that the city has and their inability to really apply what they have effectively.  This is clearer still when you notice that our city is finally owning up to just how much deferred maintenance they have – to the point that several schools will be closing over the next few years, and most of the rest going under serious renovation. Continue reading →

Lazy Sunday

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Just a little slice of life from our house, perhaps.

Sundays are often our ‘down’ day – as you may have guessed, because I don’t update on Saturdays, we often have things going on.  (Yesterday, case in point: we had synagogue – wife’s choir was performing, and I had gabbai duties – then over to the grandparents’ to program their new phones, install a Slingbox and let the Monster run rampant for a bit.)  Sundays are the day where we usually have nothing at all to do, nothing pressing at least, unless we’ve specifically scheduled. Continue reading →

For Me?

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I’m going to call this serendipity.  I think it’s funny that Autism Speaks called this out this morning, but… it’s just timely.

Hanukkah starts tomorrow night, which means that we ran into the inevitable question last night from the Monster’s grandparents, when they were over watching the kids – what do the kids want for Hanukkah? Continue reading →

Differences of Opinion

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The Monster had another speech evaluation yesterday.

I find it interesting, as we go from therapist to therapist, at the differences in opinions as to his level of function.  (For a basic level of evaluation – they require a ‘greater than 25% deficiency’ in function here for services.)  He is currently just shy of 55 months, which means that he needs to be speaking at less than a 41 month level to be getting speech services in the schools. Continue reading →

Adaptive Fun

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Of all the things that I never knew about before dealing with having a child with Autism, it is often the sheer number of activities that are out there that stun me the most.

I mentioned the trip to Sesame Place a few days ago – that was through Variety Philadelphia – but that’s really just the tip of the iceberg when push comes to shove.  I’m sure there are similar resources around the country, but here’s a smattering of what I’m talking about: Continue reading →

Hanukkah on the Spectrum

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I’ve probably been fairly up-front with the fact that I’m not a huge fan of Christmas – at least insofar as how it seems that we’re all being smothered by it once we get to Halloween, and worse as we go through November and December.  (I’ll admit also that I’ve actually permanently banned, in my car, the two radio stations that switch to Christmas-only after Thanksgiving.  Do we really need a solid month-plus of holiday tunes?)  To me, the bigger problem is trying to make sure, with a son on the spectrum, that he understands about Hanukkah. Continue reading →

Word Meanings

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Let me lead off with a funny thing about the Monster’s use of language this morning, before I dig into what I really wanted to write about.

On Saturday evening, I went to a party celebrating the end of National Novel Writing Month (which I do almost every year), and because the wife had something going on at our house, I took the kids with me.  Monster was, as almost always, exceptionally well behaved in public once I made sure he was well fed.  At the end of the party, though, we got slices of cake, and I gave him a portion because he’d been good.  “Now Monster,” I cautioned him.  “You can’t eat it with your bare hands.  You have to use your fork.”  He nodded and took his fork and I turned to talk to someone for a moment… Continue reading →

On the Road – Sesame Place (A Very Furry Christmas)

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And before folks think I’ve lost total leave of my senses – yes, we went to Christmas at Sesame Place.  That may seem odd for me (being that I’m Jewish and not inclined to ‘accommodating’ Christmas with my family), but…

Well, let me start off by putting credit where credit is due.  Variety Philadelphia was responsible for this outing – they offer tickets to events for children with various disabilities, and Autism qualifies.  So, if you’re in reach of Philadelphia, go to their site and look up the criteria for applying to get on their list for these and other events. Continue reading →

Future Tense

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While I’ve mentioned over the last few entries that the Monster’s been showing improvement in some of his verbal skills, one thing that is clearly not improving is his grasp on tense.

The Monster grasps present tense and continuing tenses quite well – he can tell you what he’s doing at any given moment and what he is in the process of doing, even to the point of ‘very near future’.  (“going to grandma and grampa’s” would be an example of this.)  Ask him where he was, or where he will be, and he gets lost. Continue reading →

One of THOSE Posts

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And again, everything comes back to poo.

Obviously, one of our ongoing frustrations – and not an uncommon one for parents in our situation – is getting the Monster toilet trained.  While his IEP includes this as a goal, so we’re not going it alone, this is something he needs to master at some point if we have any hope of his getting mainstreamed down the road. Continue reading →