The following article arrived to my email in box a few days ago. Summer = Stress for Many Caregiving Families. Summer time is a favorite season for many families. It’s a season of vacations, backyard grilling, pool parties, happy campers and other fun activities. However, the summer months for parents and caregivers of special needs children and dependent adults can be quite stressful. With schools closed, lack of community resources and little or no relief caregivers’ are becoming overwhelmed with the continuous and demanding care their loved one requires. The stress they experience is equivalent to the stress associated with soldiers in combat.

Wow. That explains my situation exactly. It’s good to know what I am feeling is not uncommon. I’m not alone. That helps, a little.

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Josiah’s teacher called me last week. Josiah has been having issues getting on the bus at the end of the day during summer school. Not every day. Some days he walks down the hall and walks up onto the bus. Most days though, he doesn’t.  I’ve been noticing it on my end too. Though the first couple of days went pretty smoothly, the last few have been rather difficult. I had hoped we had somehow glided past this bus issue. It was pretty rough the last few months. I had hoped it would all simply end on the last day of school.

Two weeks had passed between the end of the school year and the beginning of summer school. That’s enough time for Josiah to ‘forget’ about whatever it was that was bothering him, right? I mean, for him, shouldn’t it be like starting over? Shouldn’t riding the bus be a whole new, exciting experience? An enjoyable adventure?

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We are nearing that time of year I love and dread. School will be out in just a few short days. It’s awesome to know my children will all be home. We can sleep in. We can stay up late. We can enjoy some quality family time. Those are all the parts I love.

The not so fun part is keeping Josiah engaged in appropriate activities every day. His routine changes drastically over the summer. With no school, there is alot more unstructured time. Time I need to fill. Time I need to structure. Time I need to be with him one on one, constantly. Not an easy task.

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Yesterday was rough for Josiah. He screamed off and on for almost 2 hours. This time it had nothing to do with the bus. Yesterday was Sunday. He was home with us, just hanging out. For most of the day he was perfectly fine. He was smiling. He was content. He was well behaved. Then, out of no where, he started to scream. Each time he screamed, he reached up with both of his hands, grabbed fist fulls of his own hair and pulled. He yanked hard.

He did this repeatedly. Sometimes, after he was finished screaming and pulling, he’d smile or even giggle and go back to just relaxing. During these screaming episodes, he climbed up on my lap. I held him close. I know he needed me to comfort him. I had no idea what was bothering him.

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I am still no closer to discovering what it is that’s distressing my son. I’m not sure why he screams everyday after school. I called for some back up. Thursday afternoon, the Autistic Support Team Specialist arrived shortly before Josiah’s bus pulled up. She is well aware Josiah has been having great difficulty getting off the bus and into the house. He melts down right on the side walk. I’ve tried everything I can think of to help him. She has given me some great suggestions to try as well. However, nothing has helped.

So on Thursday, she hid in the front room and peeked out the mini blinds to watch. Maybe together, she and I would pick up on what is triggering Josiah’s behavior. It was a huge relief to me that she was here. I was excited to know her expert eyes and ears would pick up on whatever it was I was missing. She would put the missing piece of the puzzle together for me and we would get past this hiccup.

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