What were you going to be? I mean before you became an Autism momma or Autism daddy? I had gotten my notary liscense and had signed up to take a course for my real estate liscense.
When I look back I don't think I knew that she had Autism yet. I just knew that wasn't where my life was going. I mean who else but us? They can't do it at least not as children.
Now I have a little breathing space. Both the daughter with Autism and the daughter with Aspergers are grown. I don't have to be 'on' all the time. My work and my life has revolved around Autism.
I don't regret it. As a matter of fact I think I'll keep doing THIS.
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Managed Care Approach and Autism Services
I live in Louisiana. The Govenor's Executive Budget presentation to the Joint Legislative Committee on the Budget says long tern personal care services in the NOW Waiver will be handled with a managed care approach.
I wonder what that means. Do any of ya'll have experience with that expression in your state? How did it go?
I wonder what that means. Do any of ya'll have experience with that expression in your state? How did it go?
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Posting
I haven't written in awhile. Sometimes I get so overwhelmed with my own health and making things work for my daughters that I forget. It's not fair to my readers though. I mean after all how can we learn from each other.
It was like that in the school system too. You work so hard at figuring out which different programs and techniques that might work it gets too big. I hear homeschooling families go through the same struggle.
Now I'm working on things like employment for one of the daughters. Some problems though... Anyway I'm working at it.
It was like that in the school system too. You work so hard at figuring out which different programs and techniques that might work it gets too big. I hear homeschooling families go through the same struggle.
Now I'm working on things like employment for one of the daughters. Some problems though... Anyway I'm working at it.
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Autism Classes and No Child Left Behind
A lot of the parents, raising children with Autism, struggle when discussing placement in the school system. Some of the families and the educational professionals believe that the ideal placement is and Autism class.
An Autism classroom is usually in an ordinary school. The idea being that your child has access to typical classrooms and typical activities. My experience is that most children in that type of class spend the majority if not all of their day inside that class. They do not really get to experience the things going on in the rest of the school.
This makes for some interesting situations. A lot of the parents of children with Autism in these classrooms find that their child is calmer and gets into less trouble. They also feel like their child is teased less. Those things may be true.
Unfortunately your child may be missing out on a lot of important and necessary things as well. The children spend a majority of time in a classroom with other students with Autism. There are more staff in those classrooms and sometimes other people in the school just see a child that is in that classroom as those teacher and aides responsibility.
I found that the more my daughters were around other students who had processing disorders, problems with self-stimulations, and difficulty communicating they had these difficulties more. I also have spoken with other parents who in hindsight have made the same observations.
Where it becomes more critical is when academic expectations are changed because a child is in that classroom. If a skill or concept is difficult to learn many times it will be left out of the teaching process.
An important example is No Child Left Behind and children with Autism. One of the important effects of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) is that all children are being tested. After all we test and examine what is important to us as a society. That is a value that with NCLB carried over into the school system.
Unfortunately because teaching children with Autism testing skills it difficult it a lot of times had been left out of their programming. Even when a specific child had the intelligence and skills to learn the material those skills had been neglected in the Autism class.
Your child may have still gotten many other accommodations that they needed for standardized testing. Extra time and staff support routinely is provided. Unfortunately those things do not help the child with Autism understand about bubbling in those little circles. Then our children are doing poorly on the test even though they might know some of the information.
The funny thing is that ALL children are learning these skills in the typical class. As a matter of fact they generally are practicing them several times a day in different subjects. To me that was a major reason that my daughters with Autism needed to be in typical classes. It was not the only reason but it was a large one.
An Autism classroom is usually in an ordinary school. The idea being that your child has access to typical classrooms and typical activities. My experience is that most children in that type of class spend the majority if not all of their day inside that class. They do not really get to experience the things going on in the rest of the school.
This makes for some interesting situations. A lot of the parents of children with Autism in these classrooms find that their child is calmer and gets into less trouble. They also feel like their child is teased less. Those things may be true.
Unfortunately your child may be missing out on a lot of important and necessary things as well. The children spend a majority of time in a classroom with other students with Autism. There are more staff in those classrooms and sometimes other people in the school just see a child that is in that classroom as those teacher and aides responsibility.
I found that the more my daughters were around other students who had processing disorders, problems with self-stimulations, and difficulty communicating they had these difficulties more. I also have spoken with other parents who in hindsight have made the same observations.
Where it becomes more critical is when academic expectations are changed because a child is in that classroom. If a skill or concept is difficult to learn many times it will be left out of the teaching process.
An important example is No Child Left Behind and children with Autism. One of the important effects of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) is that all children are being tested. After all we test and examine what is important to us as a society. That is a value that with NCLB carried over into the school system.
Unfortunately because teaching children with Autism testing skills it difficult it a lot of times had been left out of their programming. Even when a specific child had the intelligence and skills to learn the material those skills had been neglected in the Autism class.
Your child may have still gotten many other accommodations that they needed for standardized testing. Extra time and staff support routinely is provided. Unfortunately those things do not help the child with Autism understand about bubbling in those little circles. Then our children are doing poorly on the test even though they might know some of the information.
The funny thing is that ALL children are learning these skills in the typical class. As a matter of fact they generally are practicing them several times a day in different subjects. To me that was a major reason that my daughters with Autism needed to be in typical classes. It was not the only reason but it was a large one.
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Autism: An Innie or an Outie
One of the hardest things I run into is the difficulty of people who do not have children with Autism to understand children on the Spectrum. Just recently I even ran into a professional that said just because a child could look her in the eye the child did not have Autism.
As any parent of a child with an Autism Spectrum disorder can tell you, children and adults with Autism can, at times, look you in the eyes. It is just torture to try do it all the time and should not be expected. It is not necessarily even a skill that should be high on the list to learn in some people’s lives.
I also run into people on a regular basis, that just do not believe their child with Aspergers has Autism. I will probably upset many parents with these comments. Just because Aspergers has some different characteristics or responds to different techniques they believe their child is better or more elite.
Since I have daughters with both Autism and Aspergers I get to compare the two on a regular basis. Children with Autism usually do not like to look at people. They like things quiet and ordered.
A child with Autism may not like people touching her stuff. They may or may not look you in the eyes at any time. Many children with Autism have difficulty getting what they want or need across to another person.
A child with Aspergers is the same but different. They like life busier, but may respond better to structure. My daughter with Aspergers likes things jumbled and bright. Many children with Aspergers will routinely look you in the eyes, unless they are stressed.
If a child with Aspergers is stressed they like to keep moving and be difficult to get to focus. Children with Aspergers can overwhelm everyone with words. They are trying to communicate what they want or need so hard that it gets lost in the words.
When I watch my daughters they remind me of the difference between an ‘innie’ and an ‘outie’. They are both a belly button. Depending on which one you see first you may not realize they are the same thing. In isolation they look drastically different. But…they are, sort of, opposites.
As any parent of a child with an Autism Spectrum disorder can tell you, children and adults with Autism can, at times, look you in the eyes. It is just torture to try do it all the time and should not be expected. It is not necessarily even a skill that should be high on the list to learn in some people’s lives.
I also run into people on a regular basis, that just do not believe their child with Aspergers has Autism. I will probably upset many parents with these comments. Just because Aspergers has some different characteristics or responds to different techniques they believe their child is better or more elite.
Since I have daughters with both Autism and Aspergers I get to compare the two on a regular basis. Children with Autism usually do not like to look at people. They like things quiet and ordered.
A child with Autism may not like people touching her stuff. They may or may not look you in the eyes at any time. Many children with Autism have difficulty getting what they want or need across to another person.
A child with Aspergers is the same but different. They like life busier, but may respond better to structure. My daughter with Aspergers likes things jumbled and bright. Many children with Aspergers will routinely look you in the eyes, unless they are stressed.
If a child with Aspergers is stressed they like to keep moving and be difficult to get to focus. Children with Aspergers can overwhelm everyone with words. They are trying to communicate what they want or need so hard that it gets lost in the words.
When I watch my daughters they remind me of the difference between an ‘innie’ and an ‘outie’. They are both a belly button. Depending on which one you see first you may not realize they are the same thing. In isolation they look drastically different. But…they are, sort of, opposites.
Monday, September 19, 2011
Remembering
I overheard a young mother, who has been an trained advocate for a while, ask another mom if there was a name for what her child had. It brought back memories of wondering if there was a name for what my child had. I didn't know anything back then. Let alone what Autism was.
Saturday, September 17, 2011
This post was stimulated from one of the blogs, Achieving Extraordinary Success, I read and enjoy. You can see it here. Hopefully the link works...
Hello,
Hmmm. I'm definitely one of the parents that continue to blog about the sorrows and more importantly the joys of raising two children with Autism. I guess the reason I do it is because I don't find alot of parents with adult children on the spectrum continue to blog. I also have typical children. One of the things I have learned is that parenting isn't over once any of my children has become adults.
It has changed dramatically. I have become more of a consultant than a teacher at this point in all of my children's lives, well except maybe the last one. (Almost though, he’s 17 years old.) All of them, except the youngest, live on their own. This includes the ones with ASD. Given that I still am involved in their lives, I still have something to blog about.
I baby sit my grandchildren. I still manage the extensive services one of them receives. I try to keep the 18 year old focused. I’m still raising the last one, sort of. I’m kind of busy for a hobby. Oh yes, I also work as a disability advocate for a living and am on at least one group working on Employment for people with developmental disabilities, like Autism and Aspergers.
So maybe you can answer a question for me. I read several blogs by adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders. At least a couple if not more of them are really antagonistic towards their parents. I’m at a loss to figure out why. We did this before our children are able. We do this when some of our children are not able to do it.
Please, really, explain. I definitely would not be doing this to hurt my daughters. And please don’t lock me off your blog, I really learn from it.
Thank you!
Hello,
Hmmm. I'm definitely one of the parents that continue to blog about the sorrows and more importantly the joys of raising two children with Autism. I guess the reason I do it is because I don't find alot of parents with adult children on the spectrum continue to blog. I also have typical children. One of the things I have learned is that parenting isn't over once any of my children has become adults.
It has changed dramatically. I have become more of a consultant than a teacher at this point in all of my children's lives, well except maybe the last one. (Almost though, he’s 17 years old.) All of them, except the youngest, live on their own. This includes the ones with ASD. Given that I still am involved in their lives, I still have something to blog about.
I baby sit my grandchildren. I still manage the extensive services one of them receives. I try to keep the 18 year old focused. I’m still raising the last one, sort of. I’m kind of busy for a hobby. Oh yes, I also work as a disability advocate for a living and am on at least one group working on Employment for people with developmental disabilities, like Autism and Aspergers.
So maybe you can answer a question for me. I read several blogs by adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders. At least a couple if not more of them are really antagonistic towards their parents. I’m at a loss to figure out why. We did this before our children are able. We do this when some of our children are not able to do it.
Please, really, explain. I definitely would not be doing this to hurt my daughters. And please don’t lock me off your blog, I really learn from it.
Thank you!
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