Thursday, August 7, 2008

The last couple days...

On Tuesday night I went to my autism support group. It's only once a month and I really enjoy it. This week we had a speaker. This lady was very passionate about what she does. I'm saying passionate but I really mean obnoxious. The first thing she started in about was vaccines. I didn't even get into it with her. She is going to school to be some sort of behaviourist. She has a son with autism also. She is the kind of Mom that goes around threatening schools if her son doesn't get the best of the best. I hope she never gets a job where I have to run across her. She says she is like an advocate, but she is just too into it. I was asking her if Parker had enough OT, just to make conversation. She told me no and that I needed to demand all these tests and stuff. Wow.

OK, on to yesterday. Yesterday his ABA people put on a playgroup at the zoo. It was really nice. There were 4 other boys there with autism. One was from Parker's preschool. Parker got so embarrassed when he saw his friend. It was so cute. It was really interesting to watch the other boys. They all seemed a lot alike to me. Most of them didn't like the singing or having to sit with the other kids. They were telling their parents or aids that they were done all the time. All but one seemed higher functioning.

I could see the parents and aids pushing them to join in or stay in their seat. The kids all looked unhappy when they did this. Most of them did what they were told. Someone bought zoo t-shirts for the boys and only one of them would wear them. It's funny, it seems like they all had new clothes issues like Parker. I was asking his Aba supervisor about how many kids they had. They have 17 that they work with. Guess how many are girls? Only 1. Isn't' that strange. It really makes me wonder why it mostly hits boys. Anyways, overall it was nice. We sang songs, did crafts, went on an animal hunt and played duck duck goose. I think everyone liked it but boy were the boys happy to leave. It's nice to have experiences like this so you can see what your child might be like when they are older and also to see how similar they are to other kids with autism.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

How nice that you got to have a playgroup at the zoo!!! It sounds like a fun time. It was nice to hear about how Parker is and how the other boys were...Daniel is the same way. :)

I've never been to an autism support group. They're always at the worst times for me. I get my support online! I'd love to go to one, though.

I've found that I have to do what I think is best for Daniel. There are so many different theories out there, so many therapies. You can drive yourself crazy trying to figure out what to do...and something that helps one child might not help the next. You're a great mommy- keep doing what you're doing and follow your instincts when it comes to him and you'll both do great. :)