When is Enough, Enough? Why We are Choosing A Different School for Logan

When is enough just enough? 
I have had some issues ever since Logan was diagnosed with Autism and finding a decent school for his dayhab as they like to call it but I prefer to say preschool. That is basically what it is but he gets his OT, PT and ST during this time. 
Logan started out at Friendship Community Care and I was happy with his teachers and his classroom. The downfall was the fact he was not receiving all his therapies and the times that he was supposed to get them weekly. They had a huge turnover rate and could not keep therapists. I then went on to get him outside therapy services so I was taking him to school, picking him up then going to therapy. Our days never ended. Fortunately we moved. The move meant a different school. 
This particular school had some rough starts. They did not send home daily notes or anything. I am somewhat of a picky mom I guess because I wanted to know how his day was daily. I wanted to know what therapies he went to, how long he went to them and what they were working on. I also wanted to know what foods he ate and how much of it he did eat. He has tons of allergies and I wanted to make sure they were not giving him something he was allergic to and also I could keep up with his food intake because he is one picky eater at home. If they gave him something new and liked it I wanted it to be known to me so that way I could introduce it to him at home. With some advocating and making my own copies of daily notes they finally sent home these notes in a binder. The teachers seemed to have had a hard time keeping up with it in the beginning so with lots of phone calls this started being a resolved issue. Logan was the only child they did this for. In my opinion they should have done it for every child. The daily notes were sent to me and I do read them every single day and kept noticing they were giving him food that contained milk (he is allergic) No wonder I could not get his eczema under control. We got that solved. His classroom, therapies and diet was running smoothly until...Time for evaluation. Ugh this was a mess. We had an issue and disagreement with the Physical therapist who told us Logan had improved so much over the last 6 months that he did not need but 60 minutes per week of therapy. In this meeting we asked about his orthotics. Oh my this therapist did not even know he wore them!! How in the world did she give him the proper evaluation without taking off his shoes and pulling up his pants, taking off the socks to see how his Achilles tendon was doing (both were curved)? Oh yes an argument broke out. She was rude and hateful and told us in her professional opinion he no longer needed orthotics (even though she did not even know he had them). 
We got a second opinion and his PT stopped with this particular therapist. She would not even allow her other girls to work with Logan because we disagreed with her opinion. Our second opinion proved us in the right. We brought this proof to the attention of the school director which he did nothing but relay the info to her. We had to go above to the top of the line to get anything done so my son could resume physical therapy. Not only did my son need orthotics but he needed better ones and also a build up in one of his shoes because one leg is longer than the other. We were told it was like he was stepping off a curb with each step he took. 
If this Therapist did this to my child I wonder how many others she has given this horrible advice to? Anyways she was told by the big bosses that she had to follow the second opinion. She then would not work with Logan at all and had one of her girls do it. How unprofessional. 
Logan was then moved to a different classroom. Problems began again........Giving him food he was allergic to, not writing down how much he had ate and not letting me know anything about his day. We had minor issues that was taken care of with a phone call here and there and then he came home with dirty hands....All the time!! I realize that children get dirty but I had to clean his nails out everyday. I would let it slide and not say much.
Logan receives ABA therapy at home after school and when the therapists started noticing how dirty his hands were I tried to bring it the schools attention. I was told basically kids are kids and will get dirty. Okay that is the truth so I let it go. During this time Logan was having issues with his classmates. I kept getting accident reports sent home. Logan has been bitten several times by the same child, a toy thrown at him which we were told it was a accident and that the wind caught the toy just right and happened to hit Logan. He has a scar from this incident! He had a chair pulled out from under him and fell and hit his head. It was numerous things and he would come home with new bruises all the time. We were never told how these bruises happened but yet when he went to school with a bruise from our pool ladder we were notified! The therapist at our house even took note of this. I had about had it and called and talked to the director and was told once again that nothing could be done because they will not kick a kid out of the class because of behavioral issues. But there was not another classroom for Logan or this other child to go into. Not only that but Logan was going to be moved into a new classroom in a month and the ratio was 2 to 14! Umm no!! My son is autistic and needs a better ratio than that. So here I was contemplating on whether or not to switch school. The last incident happened about a month ago and my son came home with poop on his hands! That was it, he was no longer going to that school. That was the last straw. How unsanitary was that? It was crap!! Literally he had crap on his hands and he had not even had a bowel movement that day. None of the teachers could tell us where it came from. Imagine that. 
So currently we are waiting to get everything done for Logan to go to Pediatrics Plus. I am excited about this new school and hoping for the best. Its been a longer wait because we just found out that Logans previous speech therapist did not do his evaluation right so he has to have another in order to start the new school. We do this Wednesday! Hopefully he gets to starts soon because I feel so horrible that he has been out of school for a month and has not received his therapies but the ABA therapy. 

The booboo he got from the toy hitting his head.

So when is enough, enough? Have you had issues with your child's school? 

Its Not A Gift

Many Many times I have heard people say that they thought of Autism as a gift. 

In my head I am thinking "seriously?" In no way shape or form have I ever thought of it as a gift for my son. I do not think I ever will and I have had people try to persuade me into thinking different. 

I consider my son a gift. Not his "diagnosis". I know a lot of people will not want to hear this but Autism is a disability. We have to learn how to cope with it. 

My son was given a preliminary diagnosis at the age of 18 months. If it was not for my mother I am not so sure I would have even had the thought of Autism cross my mind. He was (and is) the perfect little boy I always wanted besides having some skin issues and some delay in his development. I actually passed this on as me being a stay at home mom and him not being around very many children. 

My mother pointed it out to me, Melissa, he does not really want to make eye contact. Have you thought about asking your doctor about Autism? Of course I had not. The doctor just always said he is probably just a late bloomer. 

I came home and researched and researched and decided I needed to discuss this with his pediatrician. At 18 months they have checklist of developmental skills your child has reached. Logan failed. We were referred to a Developmental Pediatrician and he sent us on to evaluations where he was given the preliminary diagnosis. They recommended he be enrolled in a day-habilitation program along with speech therapy, occupational therapy and developmental therapy. After attending for 6 months they wanted to re-evaluate. 

He has been and was given the diagnoses moderate to severe autism. 

Not a gift. 

Do you return gifts? Last I checked its not proper etiquette. 

I would take it all away from my son if I could. I would give him the gift of being about to speak. I can not help but wonder what the future holds. Will he be in his teens and still jumping and flapping at the t.v.? Will he never be able to communicate verbally? How long until he can potty train? When will he get over his texture issues and enjoy some good foods?

This is not a gift. The difficulties he has to face is not a gift.

The only thing we can do is learn to embrace it and learn!!!

We have embraced the fact of his disability not the gift. 

I am sorry if this offends anyone who has a child on the spectrum but this is the way I see things through my eyes.

Therapy Shortage

Last night I decided to go through a lot of my sons paperwork from his school. As many of you know my son has been diagnosed with "preliminary autism".

The motivation for this project was the fact that I have noticed his little check marks in his cuddle grams for going to some of his therapy had not been checked off. (for over a week) Now my son is supposed to receive 135 minutes a week of physical therapy and occupational therapy and 180 minutes a week of speech therapy. You add all this together and it equals roughly to about 540 minutes of each one a month. I did the math since I do save all his papers from school and he has never, ever received the amount of therapy recommended. Give and take it has been the holidays and he does miss school due to illness but he has yet to break even close to 300 minutes per session. This month I will say the speech therapist has been doing really well and is in there everyday working with Logan. 

I made a trip into the school to see one of the directors and ask why my son does not receive his therapy. I could not get a straight answer of course and she used the excuse that they are short handed. So because of their lack of being able to keep people employed my son and others kids have to take a back seat to therapy. Therapy that is important in helping these children learn the basics they need. 

Not only have I heard that this is an issue with this school but once you bring it up to their attention it will be addressed. I was basically told by another person who has had the same issue with this particular problem is the fact that parents do not keep track themselves so they don't bother with it. I am somewhat obsessed when it comes to my sons care. From what I have learned not many parents care as much and there are only a handful of us that do. It is a shame if you ask me. Makes me very very sad for those kids. 

Needless to say if I do not start seeing improvement and an increase in therapy I will be finding other ways to get my son his therapy. 

One of the downfalls living where I do, not enough resources for kids with Autism. There is only one school. Yes one choice for us parents. As far as extra therapies there is only one other choice here. Equine therapy. Which I need to check the age limits to that. Logan just may enjoy the horses. 

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