Archive for the 'therapy' Category
Wednesday, July 16th, 2008
Waiver Woes
Alex, being forever autistic, has a Medicaid waiver, which opens the door to funding for a variety of services, from dental insurance to payment for recreation camps and activities. The social services people, however, keep sending us the wrong forms year after year. We dutifully fill them out, his waiver gets axed, and Jill has to go stand in line in an office neither of us ever dreamed she’d see the inside of. Here’s how we intend to attack this problem, and tips for special-needs parents wrangling in their own version of this growing problem.
Posted in special needs, Autism, Frustration, Parenting, financial planning, therapy, medical, PDD-NOS, developmental disabilities, services, service coordination, bureaucracy | No Comments »
Friday, February 29th, 2008
In a perfect world, parents of autistic kids would have every need met.
But Jill and Jeff don’t live in a perfect world, and in this cast they
talk about what they’d like to see available for services to autistic kids
and their families, with ideas — playgrounds, insurance, rec programs,
tax breaks — ranging from the fantastic to the commonsense.
Posted in Family, special needs, Autism, Frustration, Parenting, financial planning, therapy, medical, PDD-NOS, school, developmental disabilities, sleep problems | No Comments »
Sunday, October 14th, 2007
Jill and Jeff would love to see Alex start to mainstream with typically developing students. They discuss the pluses and minuses, the worries and hopes of putting him in an unfamiliar situation for a few minutes a day. Will the new teacher accept him? Will the other students? Will it help him learn some social behaviors?
Posted in Family, special needs, Autism, Frustration, Parenting, therapy, PDD-NOS, school | 2 Comments »
Thursday, August 23rd, 2007
Jill and Jeff’s friend Mindy is the mother of a special-needs child — and a whiz at fashioning devices for him with little more than everyday household materials and a glue gun. In the first interview on “Today’s Special,” Mindy discusses what she’s built for her son, how she got started, where she gets her ideas, and how adaptive devices for special-needs children don’t always have to look so “medical.”
Posted in Family, special needs, Autism, Frustration, Parenting, Early Intervention, therapy, eating, medical, devices | No Comments »
Sunday, July 29th, 2007
Whether he knows it or not, Alex is having a great summer. For the first time since he started school six years ago, he is not going to the summer school program. He misses school, but thanks to Grandpa’s generosity, he is at a Y day camp with an excellent program for kids with special needs. Jill and Jeff discuss tips for making camp a successful experience, their hopes for next summer, and the advantages of day camp over summer school.
Posted in Family, special needs, Autism, holidays, Parenting, therapy, PDD-NOS | No Comments »
Tuesday, June 12th, 2007
For autistic kids, learning how to go to the dentist can be at least as critical as toilet training, but the visit can be a real trial: screeching, squirming, bolting, and an almost unbelievably tight clamping shut of Alex’s mouth. His latest visit went well, and Jill and Jeff share their thoughts on getting him both through this appointment and comfortable with this vital and lifelong part of health.
Posted in Family, special needs, Autism, Frustration, Parenting, therapy, eating, medical, dentist, PDD-NOS | No Comments »
Wednesday, May 2nd, 2007
Jill has come up with 10 can’t-miss tips and pointers for Early Intervention providers and service coordinators, based on her (sometimes exasperating) experiences with Alex in EI. With just a right amount of edge she recalls the bad stuff that could have been done better and the great stuff that was done well to make her family’s EI work the best it could, and to give Alex a start toward school.
Posted in Family, special needs, Autism, Frustration, Parenting, Early Intervention, therapy | No Comments »
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