Sunday, May 8, 2011

Denial, I has it

About a week ago we sent Butters to a parent's survival night. I dropped him off and one of his favorite teachers was there. He went right to him and started playing with shakers in the gym. When I returned to get him Jesse (favorite teacher) told me that he was rambunctious and ran circles between the gym and lobby but other than that said nothing else. I got a call Monday from the other teacher that was there (also a program director) who told me that when her husband showed up to get her kids he ran out of the door. The entire staff now knows what he did and they are all very worried. Her tone was also of that he really wasn't wanted there anymore. I know she probably didn't mean it but everything that she was saying just made it sound like she and the staff don't want him there. She said he could still do them if I stayed but then what is the point. She also then informed me that she and many others had never worked with an autistic child like him.

Since this happened I've talked to the owner of the gym but I've had some hard decisons to make regarding him staying in the gym. He is signed up for summer camps but after this incident I start wondering if its even the right thing.

I say all of this because on Saturday we were at the Seattle Children's Museum for their early open for autism. I got just a couple of minutes to speak with the intake coordinator for the University of Washington Autism Center. She gave me some more resources to go through and asked what we were doing. I told her and she suggested ABA therapy through UW. She also said she would be happy to send me more information regarding summer programs.

Ever since this meeting I've had a lot on my mind. We are close (45min) away from a great resource but yet we haven't really pursued it.

I finally came to the conclusion that a part of me is still in denial about what is really going on with him. If we aren't pursuing private and intensive autism therapy I just can ignore things. Yes he is in a special education classroom but everything he does just seems normal.

I guess the thing is that we don't baby him or treat him any different than his sister. Maybe the denial all comes from feeling in many ways that he is a normal 4 year old.

I'm honestly not sure what is going on. I did decide one thing this weekend. I am pulling him from summer camp at the gym. I just don't feel like its the best thing for him. I think that if he gets more intensive autism therapy through UW it will help a lot more than just going to the gym and not really being forced to work on things.

My question for anyone who reads this is simple.Did you go through a stage like this? How did you come to terms with what was going on and really begin to move forward?

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