Understanding

Last night started off a bit shaky- Little Bug cried for over an hour for varying reasons. None of them were things that would normally bother him, so it was a bit confusing. The night steadily got better but included a few bumps- including two new bruises for me from being bitten. I really hope that we can nip this in the bud, no pun intended. Little did three new signs yesterday- cookie, cracker, and hot. It is really exciting to see him constantly grow and change. We busted out the markers and did some art time and continued our art time in the tub with bath crayons. If you don't have them, get them. They are fun for everyone involved and provide distractions from sensory issues that make things like washing hair and rinsing a little better.

We heard back from the state child care referral yesterday. We reached out to them through our FRC in order to find drop in child care for Little Bug for important meetings like IEPs, etc. As we mentioned before, one of our biggest concerns with getting childcare for Little Bug is that his cargiver must know ASL. Another concern is that his caregiver must not only be familiar with ASD, but also realize that a child with ASD is not a brat. (more on that later) The good news is that our contact found one person with ASL experience and one person with Autism experience. DN and I have to discuss, but I am thinking that we should take the time to meet both and see what they have to offer- it can’t hurt to see.

So, I have realized that some people don’t get it- they don’t get ASD and they don’t get SID and they believe that children affected by these are simply brats. Or maybe, they just believe that we are bad parents. I have run into this a few times in public- you know, the snide comments about how their kid would never act that way and if that were my kid, I would spank them. Well, I feel sorry for your kid because this isn’t something they choose to do on purpose. This is becoming something that is apparent with some members of Little Bug’s extended family. They don’t seem to understand- regardless of countless explanations- that he doesn’t deal with surprise transitions and even sometimes known transitions very well at all. They constantly call the day of or before an event and invite us, even though we have know and have told them that he needs preparation and we need at least a week to get him ready for a change or plan. We will talk about what we are going to do, show him pictures of it if possible, etc. One thing that we are doing to gain some ground on this for him is to create a picture schedule. I have a lot of the pictures done, however I need a few more. Once the final product is done, I will take a few pictures and post them and also let you know if it works.

Little Bug has his first Autism Education class at the center today. Here’s hoping it goes well and that he makes the transition from class to break and then to play group well. We should hopefully find out if the Child Therapy Center in Tacoma takes our insurance and what the waitlist for speech therapy is soon.