Transitioning to a group home Laura Shumaker www.laurashumaker.com My son 22 year old son Matthew and I were cruising our neighborhood for garage sales early one November morning, and we weren’t having a lot of luck. We needed to find furniture for the apartment that he would be moving into the following weekend. Matthew has autism, and would be part of a Supported Living arrangement that we had designed with the help of our regional department of developmental services and Camphill Communities in Soquel, California. “Supported Living Services (SLS) consist of a broad range of services to adults with developmental disabilities,” said Mary, who had been Matthew’s social worker since middle school. “With a supported living program,” Mary said, “Matthew will be able to exercise meaningful choice and control in his life, but with enough support to help him achieve his long term goals.” “How long term is “long term?”…
Month: September 2010
Lou Tecpanecatl ourlifewithdiego.blogspot.com Christmas is supposed to mean a day of relaxation and family meals. But last year, we decided to visit my parents in Ohio, and we booked a flight on Christmas Day. We knew in advance that flying with our older son, Diego, was going to be stressful because he might feel the need to get out of his seat to walk around and we were not sure how he would handle the airport crowd. We arrived well in advance of our departure in order to check our luggage and to make sure the kids had a chance to eat. Things were going relatively well until we got to the security checkpoint. I was in charge of keeping Diego from getting out of line and running somewhere else. My wife and I frantically unloaded the stroller and removed the baby’s jacket and shoes (he was six months old…
Caitlin Wray www.welcome-to-normal.com “We fear it. We fear passion, and laugh at too much love and those who love too much. And still we long to feel.” – Jeanette Winterson We long to feel. This is the irony of a child like mine who feels too much, in a world that is losing its ability to feel at all. Have you noticed that most children have an inborn passion? Even if they cannot understand or express it outwardly in typical ways. They are grounded not in thoughts or assumptions or judgments, but in feelings. And when they have those feelings, that passion, they let it fill them up completely. Because they haven’t learned Control. Control has come to represent the zenith of success in our post-modern society. Control your weight, control your behaviour, control your finances, control your future, control your children, control your self. And yet … we still…
Alysia K. Butler trydefyinggravity.wordpress.com One night two months ago I spent some time in the company of some amazing women. All mothers, all with school age kids under the age of ten, all of whom “get it.” Earlier this year, a friend and I had the idea to start a small support group, to gather mothers or fathers of kids on the spectrum. With the help of our school district, we reached out to parents to see if anyone wanted to meet, just to talk. Our first meeting was so nice that we decided to meet again. And that night two monhts ago, our group expanded. Friends brought friends who had kids on IEPs. Friends brought friends who had kids with diagnoses but couldn’t get IEPs. And as the sangria and wine and spinach dip flowed, we sat and just talked. Some of us were meeting for the first time.…
Sara Chapman, MA www.playconnectlearn.com Navigating the world of autism is no easy task for parents, particularly with so much information — and misinformation — currently available. Parents spend hours searching for what is best for their child, understandably so, often confused or uncertain about what will truly help their child learn, develop, and grow into a warm, independent, and emotionally connected individual. The DIR®/ Floortime™ model provides a framework for helping parents better understand their child and to re-establish those early connections that once seemed lost or unattainable. It is about finding the “gleam in the eye” and falling in love with your child all over again, no matter what your child’s challenges might be. In turn, this will lead to healthy foundations for social, emotional, and intellectual development. What is the DIR® Model? The DIR® Model, or Developmental, Individual-Differences, Relationship-based Model, is an interdisciplinary framework for assessment and intervention…
Frances Vega-Costas www.viviendoenotradimension.com dimensionautismo.blogspot.com Autism is a very complicated disorder and not only affects each individual differently, it strikes anywhere in the world. Never in my life would I imagine that I would be a special education advocate nor that would I use the “A” word almost on a daily basis. Almost ten years ago the “A” word moved into my house and it has been a very interesting relationship with its ups and downs but as any regular couple we learned to live with each other in peace, accepting each other as we are. My son was diagnosed almost at four with PDD-NOS, which by that time I did have an understanding of, and to be honest for me is a fancy label for “we don’t know in what part of the ASD Spectrum your son is”. Since he was 18 months we began to see that something was…
Pia Prenevost www.thecrackandthelight.com Hello? New teacher, or therapist, or doctor? Is that you? Oh hello… I just wanted to chat with you a second. To caution you. Or warn you. Please, tread carefully. You see, what you might not realize as you look at me, talk to me, tell me your opinions, our options, our lack of options, and your predictions of our outcomes is that; well … you see that heart? The slightly broken, definitely bruised one? Yeah, that’s my heart. My slightly-broken, definitely-bruised heart. Now, I realize that as you look at me you might see … a confident parent … or an angry parent … or a happy-go-lucky parent… You might think that I understand everything … or nothing … or that I have all the experience in the world because I have done this before … or that I know the rules … or that I…