The Newest Battle

One problem with Cassidy and kindergarten is that she refuses to write or draw or anything that involves putting pencil/crayon to paper. She will freely paint. Anyway, I have made it my newest battle to MAKE her write. She can now spell the words red, blue, green, yellow and purple. She can also recognize them and read them. Now I am teaching her to WRITE them. She gets so angry when I ask her to try.

Friday night we had a one-hour stand off where I would not stop insisting that she write the word "red". She wouldn't do it unless I was holding on to her hand. I finally got tired and gave up. The next morning she came to me unprompted with her notebook and said, "write red". She then wrote the word red on the paper in red crayon.

She has been at least trying to write since. I noticed an attempt to write "green" in her notebook yesterday. I think that becoming comfortable with writing will help her so much in school. How can she move on if she won't pick up a pencil/crayon?

Cassidy is a French artist. 

Cassidy using stamps. 

Kindergarten Readiness = Poor

I don't think they are going to let Cassidy go on to Kindergarten. I received an evaluation report from the school district yesterday. When you have an autistic child you have to be aggressive and fighting for them all of the time or the world will pass them by. She is smart enough, they just don't want to make the extra effort.

I wish I didn't have to work so I could tend to her more often. She can spell her name and the words red, blue, green and purple. She knows the whole alphabet upper and lower case, can count way passed 20, she knows all of her colors and shapes. She just won't WRITE! Autistic kids don't like to write.

I meet with the school in April. I am going to fight for them to put her in Kindergarten.

More referral Trouble

I called to make an appointment with Sheila Irick. I was told that she is not taking new patients and that they had no one at the Anderson Center that was taking new patients. It seems that she IS taking new patients at the Lotus Group in Fishers Indiana.

http://www.lotusgroup.biz/

Patrick Hall is also there. Maybe I will try to get her in there. What makes me hesitate about that is that they do not accept Health Insurance and I don't see how I can afford it.

Visiting Miss Jill

I have mentioned earlier in this blog that Cassidy had a very special teacher named Miss Jill last year. And I also mentioned that I ran into her at an autism workshop in Muncie last month. We talked about reuniting them and finally got to it on Saturday.

We arrived around 10 AM on Saturday. We were greeted on the porch by Jill and her old, blind bichon named Opie. Being the intense animal lover that she is, Cassidy was so happy to see Opie. Miss Jill didn't mind being upstaged by her sweet doggie. She was just so happy to see Cassidy again.

She had a present waiting for Cassidy and it took no time for her to locate it on the kitchen table. It was a karaoke machine. Cassidy was so happy but there was so much to see and do at Jill's house that she couldn't think about it too long.

Cassidy got the privilege of getting to play with Jill's turtle collection and a lovely box of wooden bees. She also couldn't get enough of poor Opie. That kind, gentle dog waited patiently as she dressed him in hats, glasses and towels (pajamas).

Miss Jill was impressed with the progress she had made and told me that she was learning at an appropriate pace for a child her age. I talked to her about Cassidy's behavior and how I felt that her coping skills could stop her from advancing on into Kindergarten.

She remembered Cassidy's fragile temperament and agreed that it is a problem. She told me that I have a RIGHT for the school to send her through and supply her with an aid. Talking with her was very helpful and informative to me. It's nice to have her on our side.

We will definitely go back for more visits. This was very good for Cassidy. She is able to reach her like no one else.

Thank you for everything Jill.

Giggling at Opie. 

Poor Opie was kind enough to let her play dress up with him. 

Miss Jill has nice bugs! 

Miss Jill's glasses look good on her. 

Miss Jill, Cassidy and the hats! 

Referral Trouble

When I took Cassidy to Riley last month, I was given 3 referrals to therapists in my area I could take her to see. I called the number for the one that was most highly recommended to be told that he no longer works there and no one had his new number. I called a second doctor on the list and was told, "I don't know why you were referred to me. I do not work with children."

BUT she did give me the name and number of someone I should call, Sheila Irick 644-1414 at the Anderson Center. I know they have good doctors over there and I am going to give it a try.