Yesterday was day two of Jonah having zero aggressions at school – not sure how long it’s been since we’ve had two days in a row, and once again the hope rises in me. The people at Wildwood are determined, wonderful social workers, teachers and staff…they do not give up but rather continually change and tweak and modify each child’s individual program, tenaciously working toward an answer, resolute in their skillful, caring methods to lead every child to his or her best self. I am so grateful to have them.
Yesterday after work M and I came over to the house to watch Jonah for a while. Andy went to the library and to pick up Jonah’s pull-ups, and I played with Jonah (he loves to jump on the bed, yelling “Jump! jump! everybody jump!”), fed him his dinner, and put him to bed. It was so nice to spend a little time with him, brief as it was, even though I had a nagging fear in the back of my head the whole time that we was going to attack me. On Saturday M and I took Jonah for a few hours but when I brought him back inside the house and asked him for a kiss, he tipped his little head up toward me and as I bent down to give him a kiss, he grabbed my glasses with one hand and pulled a chunk of my hair in the other. Andy quickly intervened, leading him away, and I just left, saddened by the end of what was, all in all, a nice visit.
Today it’s snowing hard – we’re expecting 7 to 12″ before the storm’s over, so there’s no school. Andy is taking Jonah to an early morning eye doctor appointment in this mess, and then maybe Jonah will want to play in the snow or go sledding. I hope Jonah is good for Andy today.
Yesterday I did some research on four more schools, all of which have 365-day-a-year residential programs for children with autism:
The Anderson Center for Autism (near Kingston/Rhinebrook) will be conacting us in a day or two to set up a tour. http://andersoncenterforautism.com
Devereux (Red Hook) Campus – 1:1 ratio – I left a message with them so I don’t know what our status is – supposedly all these schools have been sent admission packets about Jonah. http://www.devereuxny.org
Tradewinds Education Center at the foothills of the Adirondacks – Utica/Rome (serves cerebral palsy and autism kids) – they have a 12-month residential school program but have not yet received paperwork on Jonah. They have no current openings but there should be 7 or 8 this year. http://www.upstatecerebralpalsy.org
Springbrook (near Oneonta) – spoke with admissions coordinator Cheryl DeDecker; she did not receive any paperwork on Jonah yet. They are a 365-day-a-year program, and currently there are no beds available. There should be beds in April and May, and in September they are starting a brand new autism program which can handle 24 more students. www.springbrookny.org
There is another one in Massachusetts that I forget the name of, and our caseworker from Catholic Charities told us about a place in Baltimore, MD (I forget the name of that one too) that takes kids w/autism who have severe behavioral problems, puts them through an intensive ABA program for 3-6 months, and then sends them home again. We’ll be looking into that too.
If anyone knows anything about any of these programs or places, or knows of any other ones (the closer to Albany, NY the better), please share whatever you know. The more informed we are, the better.
The snow is so pretty outside my window at work right now. I’m going to just stare at it for a while and try to forget that I’m searching for a place to send my precious boy away.
The Never Normal 