Bedtime Battles

It's 9:52 PM. My alarm is going to go off in exactly 6 hours. My day starts at 4am so that I can do some chores in the house before I leave for work. I work 7 am - 3 pm so that I can be home when my boys get off the school bus. At this time, I refuse to put my boys in the after school program because we had a bad experience a couple of years ago with a teacher who just doesn't understand the inflexible thinking of my son who has Aspergers.

Just before Jared went to bed he told me that he doesn't know how to go to sleep. He said he just can't relax to be able to fall asleep. The product of ADHD I guess. I responded to him that he knew how to go to sleep when he was a baby, however, I had to swaddle him tightly in his blanket for him to fall asleep. I swaddled him until he was almost a year old. I thought I was so good at swaddling; little did I know that I had a child with an Autistic Spectrum Disorder and who had a nervous system that preferred deeper sensations. Things seemed so simple back then.

It's 10:02 and the house is quiet. I think the consequence of not being able to play on the computer before school did the trick. It's funny; when the kids were small, I did not try to tiptoe around the house when the kids went down for bed, and now it seems that's what I have to do so that there aren't as many distractions in the house for Jared to be able to let his mind go in order to relax and eventually fall asleep.

Summer Camps for Aspergers

I'm reading "The Best Kind of Different" by Shonda Schilling. It is a story about Shonda's family and her son who has Aspergers. Shonda's son is a few months older than my son who has Aspergers and all of her challenges that she talks about in her book are my challenges with my son. I think the one thing that is different with Shonda's situation is that her son likes school. My son hates school and cries every Sunday night because he has to go to school.

In the book Shonda talks about how she found this wonderful camp for children with Asperger's in the Massachusetts area where they help the kids with social situations and how to deal with stress and anxiety. I wonder is there a camp like this in the Western New York area and if there isn't how do you start one.

I remember last year and the troubles that Jared had in the summer day camp that he goes to and the challenges that Jared has to face because the counselors don't understand Aspergers. If anyone has any answers, please respond. We need more of these camps and support for our children.

May 29, 2010

I haven't written in a while because I really didn't think anyone was reading my blog, but I've received several emails from people who have seen my blog. Things have been crazy. Jared is doing pretty well, but having some problems in school. Homework is very challenging and this year has been tough. Jared is finishing his year in second grade and is moving into third grade which is very scary for me. His reading scores are low and I've arranged for him to have his ELA tests read to him and extra time for test taken on his IEP. I just found out that his IEP will follow him through high school and some colleges. The trick is finding the right college that recognizes IEP's, but we will cross that bridge when we come to it. I'm looking forward to the summer. Right now we are revisiting Jared's fear of bees. I hope all is well for everyone out there, and if you see this, please let me know. I will try and continue doing daily blogs!!

Thanks!