Less whiny, more active
The past few days Liam has not been as whiny and anxious as he had in previous weeks. It seems like the Prozac has helped, but one thing we have noticed is Liam is more active. He has a lot of energy and likes to engage in large motor play. He will run from room to room and wrestle with his brothers or play his favorite, “Power Rangers”. When it comes time for bed Liam cooperates and goes right to sleep. Liam really enjoys his time in the bath. Water just seems to relax Liam and help him center himself.
Not too much really went on Monday and Tuesday. It was the same routine, school, home, play, dinner, play, and then ready for bed. Wednesday Liam had his class Halloween party. Jill was going to go and spend time with Liam. Jill also wanted to go and observe how a new child in Liam’s class is. This new child has sounded like a handful for Liam’s teachers. Other parents have expressed a lot of dissatisfaction for adding this child to their class. Liam’s class had 7 kids with 3 teachers. The other special class has 4 kids and 2 teachers. A few of the other kids in Liam’s class have more special needs than the other class. Adding one more child to the class, and one with that is clearly requiring a lot more attention from the 3 teachers, is taking away from the others. The parents Jill has talked to believe this child should have been put in the other teacher’s room. Liam has told us some of the things the new child has done during the class, and it sounds disruptive to others. Now, we have compassion and understanding for this other family, but if their child is requiring that more attention, the school administration needs to better manage this situation. If the other teacher is incapable of handling other special needs kids, then they needs to add help or find another teacher. This other teacher has not endeared many. Liam’s teacher is quite often requested.
Jill let Liam go to school on the bus like he normally does. Liam was dressed in his Captain hook outfit and was extremely thrilled she was coming. When Jill arrived the teachers said Liam repeatedly talked about her coming and kept asking if it was time yet. They ended up setting a timer for when Jill would arrive. When she got there he was extremely excited. All the other parents were there with their kids. After all the greetings were done the kids all went for a “parade” in the hall in their costumes. When they got back Halloween snacks were laid out for all the kids to eat. Liam ate his quickly and started telling Jill he was done and ready to go. They still had an hour left. Liam must have repeated he was done and ready to go 10 times Jill said. Jill had noticed the one child in question was quite active and a bit disruptive with his constant physical movements. She could not tell for sure exactly what his problem may have been. After school she talked to a couple other parents. They all seemed to agree the school has handled adding this additional child with his special needs to their class. One parent said she was going to call the school and complain. We’ll see how it goes. Jill is going to go in a couple days and help out just to see what a typical day is like in there now.
Tuesday night Jill attended a fund-raiser for a friend of ours who is dying of cancer. She is only 34 years old. She fought the cancer off once, but it came roaring back. She has undergone 2 bone marrow transplants that have not worked, and several rounds of chemotherapy. She has been in the hospital since the beginning of August. Right now we are hoping for the best. Jill ended up talking with someone else we know who is also a teacher. Jill didn’t realize she was a special ed teacher in Cleveland Public schools. Jill shared with her what Liam has done and is doing. They got on the subject of Liam getting Social Security disability benefits. Jill told her we tried this already and we were turned down because apparently I am rich and Liam is not disabled enough. She insisted the school district has to turn in paperwork to the Social Security Administration and that Liam should easily qualify. She also said she fills out reports for SSA all the time for families to turn in to maintain their benefits, and for those to get them. Jill talked with Liam’s teacher about this and she referred Jill to one of the school administrators. Thursday Jill will call her and talk to her about this. I did some research online about this and based on the reading I did, SS has made it harder for families to get any benefits. One of the things I read that bothered me was that a child who’s behavior can be controlled by medication is not eligible. Anyone can be controlled by drugs. The drugs may help, but they do not replace the fact that an Autistic child has a life long disability. Some may be able to work, many won’t. We came across one site that had recommendations on how to gain benefits. When a child applies and examiner will follow up and evaluate reports from schools and therapists. Basically their recommendation was to not be overly positive in the reports. Brutal honesty about how your child does is what is needed. I understand what they are saying. While Liam has made great strides, I still see where he is at, all the little things he can’t do but should be doing, and I especially keep in mind the kindergarten agenda I saw for Seamus. I honestly do not see Liam being able to accomplish those tasks right now, even though it’s 2 years away. We will see how this goes. We can only keep trying.
Not too much really went on Monday and Tuesday. It was the same routine, school, home, play, dinner, play, and then ready for bed. Wednesday Liam had his class Halloween party. Jill was going to go and spend time with Liam. Jill also wanted to go and observe how a new child in Liam’s class is. This new child has sounded like a handful for Liam’s teachers. Other parents have expressed a lot of dissatisfaction for adding this child to their class. Liam’s class had 7 kids with 3 teachers. The other special class has 4 kids and 2 teachers. A few of the other kids in Liam’s class have more special needs than the other class. Adding one more child to the class, and one with that is clearly requiring a lot more attention from the 3 teachers, is taking away from the others. The parents Jill has talked to believe this child should have been put in the other teacher’s room. Liam has told us some of the things the new child has done during the class, and it sounds disruptive to others. Now, we have compassion and understanding for this other family, but if their child is requiring that more attention, the school administration needs to better manage this situation. If the other teacher is incapable of handling other special needs kids, then they needs to add help or find another teacher. This other teacher has not endeared many. Liam’s teacher is quite often requested.
Jill let Liam go to school on the bus like he normally does. Liam was dressed in his Captain hook outfit and was extremely thrilled she was coming. When Jill arrived the teachers said Liam repeatedly talked about her coming and kept asking if it was time yet. They ended up setting a timer for when Jill would arrive. When she got there he was extremely excited. All the other parents were there with their kids. After all the greetings were done the kids all went for a “parade” in the hall in their costumes. When they got back Halloween snacks were laid out for all the kids to eat. Liam ate his quickly and started telling Jill he was done and ready to go. They still had an hour left. Liam must have repeated he was done and ready to go 10 times Jill said. Jill had noticed the one child in question was quite active and a bit disruptive with his constant physical movements. She could not tell for sure exactly what his problem may have been. After school she talked to a couple other parents. They all seemed to agree the school has handled adding this additional child with his special needs to their class. One parent said she was going to call the school and complain. We’ll see how it goes. Jill is going to go in a couple days and help out just to see what a typical day is like in there now.
Tuesday night Jill attended a fund-raiser for a friend of ours who is dying of cancer. She is only 34 years old. She fought the cancer off once, but it came roaring back. She has undergone 2 bone marrow transplants that have not worked, and several rounds of chemotherapy. She has been in the hospital since the beginning of August. Right now we are hoping for the best. Jill ended up talking with someone else we know who is also a teacher. Jill didn’t realize she was a special ed teacher in Cleveland Public schools. Jill shared with her what Liam has done and is doing. They got on the subject of Liam getting Social Security disability benefits. Jill told her we tried this already and we were turned down because apparently I am rich and Liam is not disabled enough. She insisted the school district has to turn in paperwork to the Social Security Administration and that Liam should easily qualify. She also said she fills out reports for SSA all the time for families to turn in to maintain their benefits, and for those to get them. Jill talked with Liam’s teacher about this and she referred Jill to one of the school administrators. Thursday Jill will call her and talk to her about this. I did some research online about this and based on the reading I did, SS has made it harder for families to get any benefits. One of the things I read that bothered me was that a child who’s behavior can be controlled by medication is not eligible. Anyone can be controlled by drugs. The drugs may help, but they do not replace the fact that an Autistic child has a life long disability. Some may be able to work, many won’t. We came across one site that had recommendations on how to gain benefits. When a child applies and examiner will follow up and evaluate reports from schools and therapists. Basically their recommendation was to not be overly positive in the reports. Brutal honesty about how your child does is what is needed. I understand what they are saying. While Liam has made great strides, I still see where he is at, all the little things he can’t do but should be doing, and I especially keep in mind the kindergarten agenda I saw for Seamus. I honestly do not see Liam being able to accomplish those tasks right now, even though it’s 2 years away. We will see how this goes. We can only keep trying.
posted by Jim McIlwee at
8:52 PM
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