List/Grid Tag Archives: ASD
Testing 1, 2, 3
Near the end of September I had scheduled Sean to have a psychological evaluation. It was part of criteria the county was requesting. As Sean gets older, I’ve come to realize that I need to have steps and measures in place to help him navigate and be as successful as he can be in society. Any type of evaluation with Sean can be difficult at best. Saying that, I must let you know how well he…
Coming Home
Sometimes the best part of a trip is returning home, to the comforts and familiarity of our household and to those who have missed our absence. Much harder to return home after five fantastic days in New York City – it’s tough to compete against great Broadway theater, gritty subway rides, expensive meals that are worth every last penny, people watching in Chinatown, Little Italy, Chelsea, Greenwich Village, sauntering across the Brooklyn Bridge and some lucky run-ins…
Seasonal Shift
In the mornings I struggle out of bed, the room an inky darkness. I move slower these days, the dog taking up way too much space at the foot board and Sean, somewhere in the nighttime moved from his bed and splayed himself in the middle of our bed. Now he clings like a jellyfish to my husband’s back, his need for constant pressure and contact one of the main reasons he awakes in the…
School Daze
Sean is ten. He isn’t capable of washing his own hair. He can’t tie his shoes or dial the phone properly. Can’t sit quietly and read a book or do addition and subtraction problems up at the kitchen table with his big brother. On the Welcome Back To School letter it says that Sean is entering the fifth grade, but that’s not entirely true. Sean is an inclusive structured learning center classroom for children with…
Soul Surfing
Remind me, please, on the hardest days, when my heart is twisted in knots, when I see my youngest child, Sean burst through the door, his body wrecked with chaos and irrational anxiety, fingers bent into monster claws and tears bubble up like fountain spouts in syrup-y green eyes, that this too shall pass and that what I’m feeling is not shame, anger or frustration but connection. When his heart breaks mine breaks, too –…
A “To Do” List With Substance
I was tidying up my desk the other night when I came across a pile of To Do lists written on post-its, back of junk mail and scraps torn from an old calendar. Furious writing in many shades and thickness of ink, some blacked out with a thick line triumphantly stabbed through words, while other items were left free and clear of checkmarks or slashes, clearly “to do’s” that were forgotten and left behind. As…
LET’S CONNECT