Category: Special Education

Social Group Is Suspended!

Posted on by MICHELLE N

William’s compliance is getting worse so Jody/Elizabeth recommended that we stop sending William to social group on Saturdays.  So from 7/20/2019 the session with Brenda will be at home instead at TasKids office.

“William bad behaviors of not listening and taking toys away from his peers affect other children” – Jody said.

I felt sad when I heard that; I’m always hoping that with Social Group, he can improve his social skills and learn how to interact with other children; so that he’s less likely to sit in the corner all by himself.

Another reason that I want him to go to Social Group is because I think it’s more fun to have sessions outside of the house settings. They have all kind of activities like read book, craft, dance; and especially when there’s a birthday party, he get to have a balloon which he likes.

Now that the session is held at home, a 3 hour session is too long!

“We will resume Social Group when his’s compliance level is improved” – Jody continued.

With William’s current behaviors, I can see that date will not coming soon!

Updates:

8/7/2019 We’ve had 3 sessions with Brenda on Saturdays at home since the stop going to the TasKids office. I could see that William is not enjoying time with Brenda; I guess he’s simply just bored. So I’m trying to find any events near by that we can go so that the whole session doesn’t have to be at home.

Typical ABA Session

Posted on by MICHELLE N

Currently, we have ABA sessions on M, W, F, from 5:30 PM – 7:30 PM. Mondays & Fridays we have Thomas as William’s BT. He’s been with us for about a year now. On Fridays we have Brenda; which is our new BT for about few months. Brenda is also responsible for Social Groups on Saturdays from 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM.

A typical ABA session at home would be Thomas/Brenda asking William what he wants to do or what game he wants to play. Most of the time I’d be cooking our dinner while listening to their conversations. Some times I sit down and watch them. We’re so lucky to have BTs who are patient and dedicated to their job.

ABA session with Thomas

Now it’s summer so some times we go out to the back yard and William plays in the trampoline. We also walk around the neighborhood to practice our goals of “Asking permission/Elopement”. William tends to run off to whatever he wants so the goal is for him to ask permission before he goes and to stay next to mom & dad when going out.

Handsome Boy

Posted on by MICHELLE N

William rarely looks into anyone eyes. Eye contact is 1 of the goals in ABA sessions; we always try to ask him to look into our eyes when he asks questions but he never really does it. Some times it’s just a quick direct look but then he looks somewhere else.

This is 1 of the reasons why we can never get him to look at the camera when taking pictures. Another reason being he does not like to take picture.

I Want to Sleep At Home

Posted on by MICHELLE N

1:00 PM

Picked William up at Martin Elementary School and dropped him off at Children’s World Preschool. While I was unbuckling, I said “Go in and sleep ok?”

“No!”, he said.

“Why Not?” – I was surprised.

“I want to sleep at home!” – I was a bit shocked because he’s never said that before.

It shows that he’s now trying to use words to express what he wants. Second, it means he’s actually thinking, he feels the difference between home and daycare.

“Mama has to go to work, so William sleeps at the daycare, ok?”

He did not say anything, looked like he was ok with that.

I’m happy and sad at the same time. Sad because we have no-one at home to watch him so that he can stay home; it’s only a 4 hours before we’re off work. Happy because my boy is growing up fast and his language skill is improved a lot. He observes more and talks more.

All the hard works actually pay off.

William has had ABA sessions since he was 2 years old: spend at least 3 hours a day with a therapist every day. While other children his age can learn simple things easily and naturally; he has to learn it over and over again so many times in order for him to get it. Lots of frustrations, tears and tantrums along the way, but I’m happy with the progress he has made.

There’s still lots of things William needs to improve and learn but regardless, I’m so proud of him!

Love you, Son!

Loves The Ground!

Posted on by MICHELLE N

Monday Morning, 7:50 AM. Took William to the school as usual. Ms. Newman was waiting at the gate but he refused to go in. So I picked him up and took him to get inside the gate but he sat down on the ground and refused to go. Then finally I persuaded him to stand up, I held his hand and handed it over to Ms. Newman then he sat down again and this time lied on his backpack on the ground!

He only stood up and went with Ms. Newman when I asked him if he wanted to to swim instead.

Today I had a meeting with Ms. Newman about William’s progress around 1:00 PM, about the time that they are dismissed from school. Ms. Birdie took him to the gate where Tim was waiting. From his classroom I saw him lied on his backpack again when they got to the gate! Ms. Birdie told me that as soon as he saw his dad, he lied on the ground and refused to get up.

William’s favorite place when we go out is the floor; whenever he’s not happy he’d just lie on the floor , doesn’t matter where it is: near the door, the shopping aisle, parking lot, etc.

I try to use the things that he likes to make him stand up but some time it doesn’t work. It’s so exhausted when he behaves like this.

William lied down right behind the gate.
Ms. Newman tried to get him up but he refused.

No Awareness Of Safety

Posted on by MICHELLE N

Thursday Morning. Woke him up at 7:30 AM, as usual he whined when I was trying to get him brush his teeth; but today he kept whining while I put on lotion on his body and dressed him up. When I carried him out the door he whined again, “I want to turn off the light”, so I put him down on the bench, ran back to the bed room to turn off the light.

Taking him on his stroller to school. At the traffic light stop, as usual he always wants to press the button on the pole so I took him there; and he pressed it. When the walk light was on, I started to push the stroller, and he started to whine and put his feet down on the ground that I could not push the stroller: he wanted to push the button again! Of course, we missed that walk light so had to wait for the next walk light.

It did not end there, we finally got to the school gate, Ms. Newman and Sandy were busy picking up his friends from the bus, I un-buckled his seat bell and was getting his backpack out of the stroller, he stood up and started to run toward the road. I ran after him; and only could catch him when he stopped. Luckily that he stopped on the side walk, not on the middle of the road!

Watching him walked with his teachers and friends to the classroom behind the gate, I felt so sad and helpless. This is how my morning goes everyday, mostly depends on his mood on that day (today he was cranky), which draws all the energy from me. I really don’t mind doing the hard work, but the thought that he’d never get better, and I have to deal with this for the rest of my life really makes me feel down.

“No Gary!”

Posted on by MICHELLE N

Wednesday Noon 1:00 PM. Picked him up at Lincoln school; He wanted me to carry him up and I heard him said “Time to go home, no Gary!”. I wondered what happened at the daycare that he did not want to go.

When we got to the day care and I carried him to his tiny bed, he threw away his lunch box, luckily it did not his anyone, and ran out of the door. Yesterday he ran out of the door too.

So something must happened that makes him not want to go to the daycare. I asked his dad how William looks when he picked him up: “He looked fine, he ran to me when he saw me. Some times he was playing in the room, some time in Mr. Gary’s office.”

I wish he could talk so that he can tell me what’s going on and what’s his feelings are. I guess not being able to talk about what he feels really makes him feels frustrated and he has to act out.

ABA Hours Cut, Again!

Posted on by MICHELLE N

Monday 5:30 pm. ABA session as usual with BT Thomas and PC Jody. Huy also came to go over the report that they will submit to the director. At the end Huy concluded that William has mastered most of the goals so he wanted to cut 6 hours more which means ABA sessions will be reduced to 3 days instead of 5 days per week. So we will only have 9 hours for ABA and 8 hours for PC, effective Mar 2019.

On July, 2018 Huy cut ABA hours from 24 hours / week to 17 hours/week , and then on Nov decided to not send BT to the day care; now 6 months later he reduced further to 9 hours/week. So that’s a total of 15 hours that he took away from us within a year. At this rate he will soon declare that William will no longer need ABA!

I understand that as William is mastering some goals and we would not need that many hours as before but cutting that many hours within less than 1 year is outrageous. I hope his decision is based on what is best for William, not because his ambition to graduate his client as soon as possible. William’s tolerance to No is no where near master but he marked it as Mastered! I’m just too tired to fight; mostly because I know for sure that I’d loose in this fight. He’s the supervisor and he has the final word.

As the supervisor, wouldn’t he know to add more goals to the list: he marked “Discontinue” for 20 goals but only adding 5 more safety goals, which I raised concern about. Other than that he doesn’t suggest any other goals, there must be some other goals that an autistic child need that we;re not aware of, as this is our first time being a parent.

I felt sad and helpless and speechless!

I’m trying to look at the bright side so that I’d not feel so down: maybe now that William will have some available time to take gymnastics or martial arts classes which are not offered on the weekends.