We're still in our own little world around here. Me watching the playoffs (GO SENS GO). Dh working an awful lot. Patrick doing really well in school and at Beavers. Older brother becoming a mouthy 7 yr old. We're thinking of taking the whole family to a sports bar to watch the game tonight. Matthew's started talking with friends at school and is a sens fan and Patrick just loves any hockey....he's already asked if he can play (be still my terrified heart).

I came out of my own family long enough to mourn the tragedy in Virginia. I'm sickened at how autism has been brought up in relation to this massacre and refuse to discuss the ludicrous things I've read. Enough said.

Here's a question. Why do people of authority always lump special needs kids physically in the same group. Patrick is in a lodge at Beavers with another child who has some kind of special needs and it definately involves bad behaviour. I've heard rumours about lack of parenting but that really doesn't factor into my question.

This kid is driving Patrick nuts. Patrick's special needs worker has said he's doing a wonderful job learning how to relate to and be safe around all the other children but this child is just beyond Patrick's scope at this point.

I understand they were both put with the strongest leader. But I'm going to call the head honcho and suggest that it doesn't matter who Patrick's leader is because he has his worker with him to keep him safe. He does not need to be exposed to behaviour he can copy at this point. He also does not deserve to be pushed and poked either. He doesn't know what to do in situations like that and Patrick is a big kid and would definately land on top in an altercation (although he's never been violent I believe if this other child hit him he'd take him down).

Ya know, as an autism parent I feel terrible saying that. I don't want my son excluded because of his autism so why should I be asking them to keep this other child away from mine? I'm hoping that because I'm requesting Patrick be moved and not the other way around that it's not such a terrible thing to ask. Patrick really just can't handle it right now and he has to be my main concern. *sigh*

That kind of leads into something else a friend and I have been discussing. She really believes every child should have a place in school. I agree with her but only to a certain extent. We've always agreed that if Patrick was violent or a danger to other children we would not persue inclusion as an option for him. It just isn't fair to the other children. We would find a special classroom or we would school him at home. We've not had to deal with these behavious so it's a moot point I guess. She was surprised that an autism mom would feel this way. Is my view really that different??

I know it's a tricky subject

There was a small news story on my morning news about Autism. The two people interviewed were from the Canadian Autism Society and from the Ontario Chapter. They talked about the new government initiative and then basically implied that ABA should be fully funded. We got one anecdoctal story about how ABA has helped her son improve a lot.

I don't have a problem with ABA in general. We tried it with Patrick and it turns out he doesn't really learn that way. The few (arguably dubious) studies we have show that it helps about half the kids. And even then, nobody will ever know if those kids would have improved because of maturity at the same rate anyway (Patrick, for example, has improved amazingly without it...just thought I'd trade anecdotes). I do believe that it does help some kids in some areas.

As a taxpayer, this just doesn't seem like reason enough to fund such an expensive therapy. The compassionate side of me doesn't want parents to have to mortgage their homes to pay for therapy. But I don't want to have to pay for someone else's therapy if there's no proof that it's effective. It's a quandry for sure.