Possible new blog adress/name

We may be moving to a more inclusive blog title due to some... not completely unexpected, but wrenching news for our family.

Our youngest, Rowan, has just been diagnosed on the spectrum as well. Things moved very quickly as we knew straight away where to go. Following a mutually-requested teacher conference where we learned of the teachers' concerns (our concerns had been about her loss of skills since last year and concern about the curriculum), we made an appointment with the speech path to have her speech evaluated. She ended up testing as having a mild speech issue, but the path referred us to the developmental pediatrician in the practice from observing her in combination with the teachers' concerns that I related.

We have only been told this week that she is "on the spectrum". We still have a meeting and more paperwork to do with the child psychologist, and the teachers' Conners and other forms had yet to be done scaling.

I had hoped that some things I was seeing were simply her copying Caitlyn, but she has presented several things that Caitlyn does not at all, and is not presenting others that Caitlyn is (such as the meltdowns). She is now at the exact same age, however, that Caitlyn's issues became truly apparent in school.

We have been recommended to have our oldest, Ashton, evaluated as well and to have genetic testing done (in hopes that perhaps in the future the information gleaned may be helpful to our own family or someone else's).

Our household is going through a .. paradigm shift right now. My husband and I decided to hire out some of the housework to take some of the pressure off our schedules and stress levels, in hopes of increasing our family time (or at least making things not quite as rushed.)

We are also renovating/redesigning much of the house to accomodate more of what will work better for all the children, including the PECS schedule and similar things. We are also continuing to declutter and reorganize the entire house so that we are not trying to deal with so much stuff in the middle of so much "stuff".

If you or anyone you know would be willing to design a new blog template, please let me know.

Very positive news, Caitlyn made A/B honor roll again this 6 weeks. We are very proud of her!

PECS is working wonderfully!

We've done a trial for two mornings in a row using our morning visual schedules. Everyone has one, including dear husband and I (this also lets the kids know where to find us at a given time).

In two days we have gone from constant chaos in the mornings and lateness to a mom's dream!

We're up at 6am (according to the schedule) but haven't acclimated yet and have accidentally been sleeping till 6:30. The PECS are still working though and everyone has been on time or early to work/school.

When we all leave, the following chores are already one:

1. Everyone has eaten a hot breakfast and the dishes are washing in the dishwasher
2. Table and counters have been cleaned off
3. One load of laundry has been washed and is in the dryer
4. ALL beds are made
5. ALL dirty clothes are downstairs
6. Everyone has their hair brushed and teeth brushed
7. DS and I have had our showers (the girls and DH wash hair at night)

There has yet to be any major drama or meltdowns. Everyone knows what is expected of them. I'm really not having the online time in the mornings that I'd gotten used to, but I can either get up earlier to enjoy that or really, I'm doing fine without it.

I get to come home to a house that is fairly clean and not too cluttered, which has me less stressed and means I will be able to get to the deeper-cleaning things that were taking up a lot of our evening and weekend time before people get home from work/school. The kids do have some afternoon chores, but very few. (Summer will bring more in terms of yard work, but there won't be 8 hours gone to school to balance that.)

I had them all laminated at the teacher's supply today and told them to expect me back frequently :) At 50 cents per foot heat laminated (and that's 36" WIDE!) it's a bargain.

20% off and free shipping on Chewelry + free 30 day PECS program access

Mayer-Johnson is offering free trials of some awesome software right now, including BoardMakerStudio, BoardMaker Classic Family, and BoardMaker Player. This is a very valuable *full use* trial valid for 30 days. You are able to save and print during the trial.

So far, I have made morning schedules for each of the kids and several sequencing boards for things like "How to Clean Your Room" and "How to Use the Bathroom". You can either make solid sheets to have laminated, or there are many different templates that will allow the laminated sheets to be cut into squares that will use the velcro coins to move around onto other sheets.

What a PECS schedule may look like:

My child is verbal, but there is a ton of material available in the software to assist with non-verbal children and storyboarding. The possibilities are almost endless. How many things can you create in 30 days? Of course, if you'll be relying on the software frequently, please purchase it. The developers have done a wonderful job in including many customizable options.

 What an "I want" board may look like for a non-verbal child:

As a bonus, Mayer Johnson is now carrying the Kids' Companion Chewelry that we love so much! The lanyards are available in 18" and 20" length necklaces, and also as clip ons for clothing. Many of the lanyards are now available in an organic material.

Until March 14th, you can use code TWENTY11 to receive 20% off and FREE SHIPPING on your order of $100 or more. That's amazing!

I really suggest you check it out, if you can. Do be warned, the software is a large program and probably will not run on a netbook or older computer without a lot of RAM.

Disclosure: Not I, nor anyone in my family, is receiving any monetary compensation, goods, kickbacks, or other proceeds from Mayer Johnson for "pimping" their site or any other reason. I just want to share the awesome deals that I come across since so many of the therapuetic tools can break the bank for us and our kids.

First week back at school

I really don't understand what the school is expecting of Caitlyn, or of me. I feel like even though she may have the correct "label", no one there still understands that she is a child with autism who presents particular difficulty with things they take for granted with NT kids.

After three years of evaluations where they minimized her trouble with transitions, I received an email griping at me about the difficulty she has coming back to school after a break. Yes, people, this is what I have been telling you. She might be able to handle minor transitions relatively easily - going from a reading assignment to group work - but larger transitions for her are very hard when they involve her *entire routine*.

I'm also very upset - and angry - that they continue to use language like her being "belligerent" or not doing something "because she doesn't want to."

Very rarely is that ever the reason behind her reaction of shutting down. Even this morning, which resulted in a horrible meltdown making her late for school again (wow, I'm sure truancy court will be fun) it wasn't due to her not wanting to go to school. There was a paper I'd forgotten to sign, and she escalated super quickly into gibberish that I couldn't understand. The reason? MeanTeacher keeps threatening her with the loss of recess if she doesn't bring things back. She completely shut down out of terror for losing reccess - for something that was not HER fault! I forgot to sign the paper, that is on me! She should not be punished for that.

In a very bad mood this morning. I keep hoping there is a light at the end of the tunnel but it's escaping me right now.

On the one hand I cannot wait for her to be done with the staff at this elementary school in a few months; on the other hand I'm worried about her transition to middle school and the same or different problems we may encounter there.

I wish for a money tree to send her to a school that can really help her succeed, but everything I've found only offers partial scholarships that would still not let us afford the adjusted tuition.

Happy New Year

Haven't had anything to report since the holidays began with a madness all their own. I hope everyone had a great holiday and that this year brings progress for us and for you!