Criminal Autism

by | Sep 21, 2007 | Autism

I was directed to this story of a six-year-old boy with Autism that has been criminally charged with assault.

6-Year-Old Autistic Student Criminally Charged After Alleged Assault

The only thing I can think is what my DH said. “The school took responsibility for the child.” If the school, and it’s teachers weren’t prepared for a special needs child, they should have said as much. A school shouldn’t attempt to integrate a child if they have no business doing so.

And the aide that charged an autistic child with criminal assault should be ashamed. I can’t even comprehend how the parents feel.

They just don’t know…

by | Sep 17, 2007 | Hypotonia

We have reached that terrifying point. The doctor’s are baffled…the therapists are baffled. We ALL know there’s an issue…but not one person can pinpoint what that issue is.

The issue is with K’s swallow. She chews GREAT. Her tongue lateralization is perfect. She goes to swallow and everything falls apart. You can see the struggle on her face to swallow. She blinks, winces, and sometimes even tears up. We reached the breaking point over the weekend.

Thursday I tried to feed the girls some PopTarts (they are an FTT parents dream – but that’s another post), as I have been for weeks. M was eating away happily. K was eating away happily, but then it all came tumbling down. K must have had a terrible swallow…because suddenly she was screaming top of her lungs. I turned my full attention to her and she’s spitting out a bite of PopTart. I try to comfort, and she refuses most of it. I try to offer her more PopTart, she screams again. We finally get settled and I try to offer her more PopTart. She takes a bite out of instinct, but the minute it hits her tongue the screaming starts again…like I’d poured acid on her tongue. She refused any further bite of it.

We switched to yogurt, and she was fine. Since then my nearly-18-month-old has been on BabyFood alone. We tried a nice soft cheese sandwich with her sister on Sunday and didn’t get halfway through before she was gagging and spitting it out. She just can’t eat solids anymore. We’re back on stage 3 babyfood diet. We’re using duocal to boost its worthiness and praying for answers.

As of this point the GI doesn’t know. Our speech therapist and occupational therapist are at a loss. The GI is scheduling us with the ST of the children’s hospital (since we’d had swallow studies done just within the past six months w/o any answers)…and hoping that we’ll get answers that way.

So…we’re now at a point where there’s no answers…and none too close in sight. It’s…an uncomfortable place to be.

SSI Challenges

by | Sep 13, 2007 | SSI

With the experience I’m currently undergoing I wanted to give some free advice to those considering applying for SSI.

If you have one than more child to apply for…do them one at a time. Applying for two children at the same time (even if their conditions are totally separate) for some reason they get run…TOGETHER…which takes TWICE AS LONG.

I applied for SSI on my girls May 7th. In 90% of cases people hear a yes or no within about 90 days, 120 at the longest. It has now been over 4 months and our cases are STILL PENDING. We are on our last penny with me having been out of work taking care of them, and in danger of losing utitilities and/or our house…and SSI is taking their sweet time. They have sent the girls for every test possible, contacted our doctors and therapists insane amounts of times and still no decision has been made.

Last week we went for the “final” (we hope) evaluation, a speech evaluation, on the 120th day of our application period…at which point the Speech Therapist informed me she had ‘two weeks’ before she had to have her report in. TWO WEEKS! I’m wondering how to feed my kids…and she’s going to take her dear sweet time grading my daughter’s evaluations.

I should have done the one I KNEW could get coverage and waited on the elder. I am pulling my hair out.

So, yes…do them one at a time, or wait a month in between…you’ll wait LESS time that way…I guarantee it.

Preschool

by | Aug 22, 2007 | Autism

Today I got a call from a local special needs preschool. One of our therapists is employed through them and told me about them/them about us. Today they called and started to let me know about their program. I’m very excited now. Molly can start there in about two months, so long as she meets their standards and they hold an opening for her!! We go next week for an evaluation to make sure she qualifies. If she does, we can alter her plan through her Early Intervention program and they will cover the cost. After that the cost is minimal for us!! So I’m keeping my fingers crossed for next Thursday. I’ll find out much more information then!

Also today my oldest came home with a letter from school. They’re putting him in an advanced Math program! My little science geek is getting ahead!! I’m so proud of him!!

All in all a very good day. Therapies went smoothly, only one more appointment with the therapist I don’t care for too much and our favorite comes back!! Our service coordinator faxed over what will (hopefully) be the last file the diagnosing doc for SSI requires so that they can (finally) make their decision!!

Meltdown

by | Aug 19, 2007 | Autism

Today was a twelve hour long meltdown. Starting at 8AM, out of the blue, Donna started crying. Moaning, whining, crying. It was normally something I would let slide, but I knew without even letting it go for a few that this was different. It was the start of a full blown meltdown. So, I dragged myself out of bed, made bottles and got the girls up. The bottle didn’t soothe her, a dry diaper didn’t soothe her. She clung to Daddy, then clung to me…and it wasn’t enough for me to hold her. We were up and walking for an hour. I finally managed to sit down and she was asleep on my shoulder. The meltdown remained through to naptime. We put her down and she slept for a while, and woke up the same way she had this morning. She spent the entire afternoong clinging to either daddy or me. She remained so until 8PM. At which point she climbed out of Daddy’s lap and within half an hour was a happy chatty girl. We have no idea what triggered it, or what ended it. It was a long, worrying day. The worst part is not knowing what caused it…and that there was nothing we could do to help…