Archive for the ‘My Boy’ Category

We took our tour of the Rich Center for Autism, and found it to be a delightful, well-equipped place, withwell-trained staff, and wonderful services that JJ would no doubt more than benefit from. But he did not like it at all.

I liked it fine, but you know when you just know that something is not right for you, or in this case, for your child. Well, that’s how I feel about this. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with this school, but I don’t feel like it’s the right “fit” for us.

So we talked to JJ’s case manager, and she’s going to see if she can round up all of the services that are provided at the Rich Center. He’ll have to get them after school most of the time, but that’s ok because he’ll be able to stay at his current school, Summit Academy, which he really likes. He gets OT there, as well as Therapautic Martial Arts which he also really likes.

Whew, I’m glad that’s settled. 

I spoke with my son’s case worker yesterday, and she wants to set up an appointment with me and his dad to meet with the administrators of a place called the Rich Center for Autism.  I’d heard of it before but thought that is was something that we couldn’t afford, not knowing that their services are free of charge to parents of children within the autism Spectrum – which includes Asperger Syndrome.

The caseworker feels that JJ would greatly benefit by attending school there, and also taking part in their therapeutic services, counseling, etc.  They also have support groups for parents, and many other family services.

I looked up the Rich Center on the internet last night, and I have to admit, I am impressed. More than impressed, actually.  I didn’t know that it is connected to Youngstown State University (YSU), nor did I know that it provides classes/services/degrees for educators to learn about the autism spectrum, and learn how to teach children on the spectrum.  Further, I guess I had assumned that once you send your child to an autism center, that they would be labeled and have to attend a school “like that” for the rest of their lives. That’ll teach me to ‘assume’.  The Rich Center actually teaches children to reach their full potential so that they can be ‘mainstreamed’ into public school – hopefully by high school age.

Additionally, the children go to school year ’round.  They do this because these kids do tend to regress during long summer vacations. I know my son seems to be regressing already. 

If you’re so inclined, check it out. You may know someone with a child on the spectrum who could use this kind of help.  The Rich Center for Autism.  There are many other centers like this, possibly one in your area.

I’m truly looking forward to taking a tour through this center.  God seems to be opening the doors for us.

We are finally getting somewhere.  It took a couple of weeks, but we have appointments at last for auditory processing evaluation and Occupational Therapy evaluation and treatment for my son.

UGH these things take so long to get rolling 

Now I ask you, does this look like a mohawk???   NOT!

uuuggghhh! - but the kid's cute!

My son’s dad took him to get a haircut while I was sleeping after work this morning. He came home with a mohawk. Which in and of itself would have been fine. But, it wasn’t even a good mohawk! I mean hth can you screw up a mohawk, I ask you?!? You leave one slim strip of hair down the middle of the head from forehead to neck and buzz the rest of it, right? This guy left a WIDE strip of hair, didn’t even really cut the hair of the mohawk short either, it’s about 3″ long. Didn’t clean up his neck at all, I had to do that tonight.

I could have given the kid a better mohawk than this, and will probably end up trimming it down this week.
ugh.

Today is the last day of school. We now have 2 months and 3 weeks ahead of us. For most kids/families, this is ok.
For a child with Asperger Syndrom, and ADHD, this is not cool. At all.

God? Help??