Advocacy

Sunday Best – Labor Day Edition

by Trish September 6, 2010

This is a day late because I didn’t get online until late yesterday and ran out of time, but I have a number of links I wanted to pass on. Floortime What is Floortime? – K over at Floortime Lite Mama put together a great post with the basic concepts of Floortime. In it, she [...]

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Reasonable Expectations?

by Trish September 1, 2010

The events of the last two days have brought up questions in my mind about what are reasonable expectations regarding the implementation of an IEP, especially at the start of a school year. (Keep in mind that the effective date of the IEP was 4/29/10.) Is it reasonable for me to expect that the staff [...]

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Back to School Transitions

by Trish August 30, 2010

When I originally started writing this post, my first sentence read, “Every year I get a little bit better at this transition stuff, both in terms of what Michael needs and what I need.” After the day we had today, I think that is true in terms of better knowing what I need but not [...]

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Sunday Best, August 1st Edition

by Trish August 1, 2010

I have been collecting a bunch of bookmarked pages and emails with all sorts of information that I thought might be useful but didn’t have time to go through right then. I am finally getting to this project and wanted to share with you the fruits of my labors. No-Food Birthday Cakes at American Partnership [...]

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Which is Worse – Going to the Dentist or Dealing with the Insurance Company?

by Trish July 21, 2010

Usually, when you hear a horror story regarding a child with autism and the dentist, it relates to their sensory issues and other difficulties that make it a traumatic experience for everyone involved. In our case, the pain and suffering centers on my having to deal with the insurance company. Let me preface this by [...]

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Sunday Best

by Trish April 25, 2010

I have been reading so many great posts by bloggers lately, and whenever I see something that really speaks to me in some way, I feel an urge to share it. Rather than flood Twitter or Facebook with links that may or may not be seen by anyone, I decided to list a few of [...]

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Safe Crisis Plan

by Trish April 12, 2010

Besides revisiting the behavior plan and the level of positive reinforcement being provided, the other thing the IEP team did in response to Michael’s aggressive behavior at school was to add a safe crisis plan. We had had a safe crisis meeting earlier in the school year when the school secretary had (inappropriately) gotten involved [...]

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Letter to the Special Ed Supervisor

by Trish September 20, 2009

I have alluded to an incident that occurred at my son’s school, but haven’t gone into detail because I have been working on getting it resolved and have just not had the emotional energy to write about it. There have been several outbursts which could have been handled better by the teacher and/or TSS*, but [...]

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Persistence Pays Off!

by Trish July 12, 2009

Thankfully, I have a good report to follow up on my post about the DAN! doctor insurance woes. I did get a call back from the office manager on Friday and the paperwork is being re-submitted to the insurance company. I can’t really share all the details here, but I will say that I have [...]

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Persistence (Or Why I May Have to Drive 1 1/2 Hours Tomorrow)

by Trish July 9, 2009

Well, today has been a good day so far. I am getting into a groove with my new work schedule and actually feel like I am accomplishing something each day. It also occurred to me today as I was planning out my errands that this little bundle of joy (my niece Sophie) will be four [...]

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Try This Tuesday Guest Post

by Trish May 19, 2009
Thumbnail image for Try This Tuesday Guest Post

If you, like me, are already thinking ahead to back to school time and making the transition as smooth as possible, take a look at today’s Try This Tuesday. Amazing Grace from Moms of Special Needs Children is sharing a student orientation checklist that you can include with your child’s IEP so that everyone on [...]

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Home-School Communication

by Trish February 3, 2009

Although I have been pretty fortunate so far with Michael’s teachers and other staff (with only a couple of notable exceptions), just the mention of this topic still raises my stress level a couple of notches. The relationship between parent and teacher can be difficult to navigate, especially when you have a child with special [...]

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An Update and a Thank You

by Trish January 23, 2009

I haven’t written much here this week, it’s been so busy. But I did want to share more about the team meeting I had requested at school. You can read all about it at Thumbs Up for a Good Team Meeting. And for those of you who may have missed it, the topic for this [...]

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A Bumpy Road, Maybe, But Headed In the Right Direction

by Trish January 9, 2009

I’m over at 5 Minutes for Special Needs today sharing about a talk I attended last night related to the autism insurance bill passed last summer in Pennsylvania. If this topic affects you, you may be interested to know that the PA Dept of Public Welfare has devoted a section of their website to the [...]

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Try These Resources

by Trish December 30, 2008

For Try This Tuesday at 5MFSN today, I wrote about my introduction to 1-2-3 Magic, which is a parenting/discipline method we are starting to use with Michael. A big part of its success depends on the parent keeping their own emotions and words under control, which can sometimes be difficult when you have a high [...]

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