[Norm Tailless]

Studies Showing Fever Improves Autism Symptoms
————————————————

This is amazing! I am wodering what other parents have observed regarding fever.
We always joked about how "nice" our son becomes when he is sick. I have also been amazed that he can catch up with a whole month's worth of homework in 1 hour when he has mild fever, but when he is healthy just one night's homework takes 2 hours!!

CBC
http://www.cbc.ca/quirks/archives/08-09/qq-2009-05-02.html

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090401145312.htm

[Norm Tailless]

Registered Disability Savings Plan

I did a little Google search and found that Royal Bank will also have this type of account from Monday Feb 16th. I don't know if any others will soon or not. We need choices.

For more info:
http://rdsp.wordpress.com/

http://www.rbc.com/newsroom/2009/0209-plan.html

[Norm Tailless]

Another Question About RDSP:

What happens if all these years of ABA pays off and a child is eventually well enough to not be considered "disabled"?

…I am sure many of us with young kids dream of that and some might have a shot.

Will this account get taxed (all in one year…the way RRSP gets taxed when a person passes away)? Does the child have to return the government contribution?

[Norm Tailless]

Transporters – Simon Baron-Cohen's DVD from Cambridge University

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090115/ap_en_mo/eu_med_autism_video

Hi All,

I've seen a few posts regarding Simon Baron-Cohen's DVD from Cambridge University. I got it a couple of years ago (through my English relatives. My son was already too old, and perhaps too advanced, and he was never into trains anyway.

So, it didn't do any magic for us. But I imagine it would be interesting and educational for the 3-5 year old kids on the spectrum.

Assuming I can find it, I can pass it on to anyone interested….and if they can be so kind, perhaps they could pass it on to one of the autism resource libraries.

Thanks!
tailatrophy@yahoo.ca

[Norm Tailless]

Has anyone identified a list of "good" school board trustees in each municipality that we should vote for?

[Norm Tailless]

Girl's writings opening new window on autism

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080217/favaro_carly_080217/20080217?hub=Canada

[Norm Tailless]

“Medicare for Autism Now!” Rally

Sorry if this is a dumb question. I am very new to this sort of thing. I also am quite aware that even the services that we do have today are because of the very hard work done by some of the speakers and all the parents that were doing this sort of thing in the past.

However, my question is:
What is the purpose of this rally? It seems to me all the people who would be attending are painfully aware of the problems. How do we get the attention of the people who aren't? Won't the speakers be "preaching to the choir"?

Shouldn't we be doing something more attention grabbing like what Stefan Mariniou is doing? Shouldn't we be marching on Burrard street bridge, gather in front of the Children's Hospital, or line up across Lion's Gate bridge instead?

Again, I am sorry if this is naive or dumb, but it seems like all the other groups pull some sort of stunt for media and public attention.

[Norm Tailless]

Hi Luke's Mom,

Originally we even hired someboy who was already an SEA on our ABA team, hoping to use her in the school as well. But she was from another school district. It turned out she couldn't work for two districts.

Another problem was that at the time our ex-consultant who had promised to help with this process, did not come through at all. While waiting for her, we lost much valuable time. By the time we were able to talk to the school about this, although the school board was open in principle to us suggesting a qualified candidate for the job, they couldn't (or wouldn't?) give us too much time to do so. So the job got posted. Frankly I think the school was reluctant to do this. It works a lot better for them if the SEA is directly one of their staff. They treat them as a pooled resource. They want somebody who works for them and not for the parents.

At this point I think the correct response for the parents depends on the individual case and the needs of the child. I think for some kids, the nature of their needs would make it absolutely essential to have one of the team members in the class (and at recess). The parents of these kids should not compromise. These kids would need their ABA-trained SEA full-time. For our kid who is high functioning, we drew the line for "minimum requirement" at the need for the SEA to have ABA training and be willing to work with our consultant.

Also if all kids get $16,000, which doesn't cover a full-time SEA, then I thought parents with high functioning kids should be more flexible with sharing SEAs so resources can be freed-up the kids with higher needs. Again, I think we can do this as long as we ensure the needs of our child are met. In our case, I think the school is appreciating our flexibility and has taken great steps to ensure our child's needs are met. On a few occasions when we asked for certain things for our son, they took it further and implemented the measure for the whole class.

Anyway, this is only our experience. I am sure it is different for each kid. However, I think the only constant for any kid on the spectrum is the need for the SEA, teacher, and IEP team to at least understand the basic principles of ABA, and be able to apply it appropriately. I wouldn’t accept anything less than that.

Good Luck,

Another Mom

[Norm Tailless]

Hi Luke's Mom,

We have an Asperger boy too and we are lucky to be dealing with a very cooperative school. But despite the fact that both the school and the school board are very cooperative and eager to help, we did not manage to get one of our therapists to be our SEA. Sometimes that is very difficult for the school to arrange. However, our situation still works very well.

I find that the success of your IEP is very much dependant on how good your consultant is. Some consultants treat the school like the "enemy" that you need to "control". If you have a professional consultant who is able to meet with the school team regularly and understand their issues and provide constructive suggestions instead of making unreasonable demands (given the school's reality) things will go a lot smoother.

One of the school's realities is that the $16000 or so they get per child will not fund a full time SEA. So, it is natural that Asperger kids will lose many hours of their SEA to the kids with higher needs. Then there are all the kids who are not diagnosed, but still need help. We started having our SEA full-time and we are losing her time more and more, because there are a few other undiagnosed kids who need her help. But that is not so bad as long as our son's needs are met. In fact I prefer that his SEA helps many kids, because it makes him stand out a bit less.

The thing we need to do is to determine what our son really needs, make sure that need is articulated clearly and professionally (it helps if it comes from a professional consultant rather than an emotional mom) at the IEP meetings and is reflected in the IEP goals.

There will be times that for some reason or other the school will not do the thing you really believe should be done (e.g. they might keep sending your kid to the resource room to avoid the problems his behaviour can cause for the class, instead of trying to work harder to help him adjust to the class schedule). In these situations, I get quite excited and my first impulse is to march down to the school. However, I have had more success with subtle work arounds to make sure the school's concerns are addressed first, before bringing up my issue.

Also I have watched our consultant at the IEP, she can really speak the same language as the school team. She never makes a direct demand. She listens to the school team and works her suggestions into something that they brought up. So, even if the person in charge of the IEP is not coming around to do something that we might want, our consultant indirectly enlists one of the other professionals on the school team to back her up. When she wants to suggest a strategy for the school for dealing with our son (instead of saying "we should do this"), she often refers to actual cases from her experience in other schools and describes what worked and what didn't.

Anyway, this is my experience and I think I have been lucky to deal with a very nice school and a very good consultant (after we fired our very bad one). I feel we all have mutual respect for each other and that helps. On the other hand, there were many times when the school did not want to do things the way I wanted and I backed off to make sure I didn't become a "problem parent" in their eyes. If you just stick to the issues that need to be addressed and not try to tell the school how to address them, I find they can come up with creative ways to deal with the issue on their own. For example, since the SEA can't be attending to our son all the time, they make sure he is sitting with the types of kids who are more likely to "look out" for him to make sure he finishes what ever task they are doing. As long as it works, it's up to them figure out how to do it.

Good Luck,

Another Mom

[Norm Tailless]

Another TAX Question – Line 318

When I filed our taxes last year with our T2201 Disability Certificate, they sent me a letter telling us how much child tax credit we get etc. They noted that I had not put anything in Line 318 and told me how I could re-file etc.
This was pretty nice of them of course!

But I can't figure out who can claim line 318 (Disability amount transferred from a dependant). I thought a "dependant" had to be an adult. Can I claim it for a 6 year old?

Thanks!

tailatrophy at yahoo dot ca

By the way, for those who asked before about Disability Tax Credit Certificate:

We had no problem getting it with a simple application (form T2201) through "normal" routes for our verbal Asperger son. The psychologist who diagnosed him and had done it before filled it for us and we sent it in.

[Author]

Posts