Thursday, June 8, 2006
Stepping In
I got a call at work today, from the police. They were going over to visit the neighbor today. They will tell the parents to do their job, and tell the kids to stay away from Nathan, and if they don't do it, then, "We'll step in. And they won't like it if we step in." He gave me his direct phone number, and said to call if I have any further problems. He said he would call me and let me know how it went, but I haven't heard from him yet. You should have heard him. He sounded like he was glad to go over there and scare the living bejeebees out of them - he kinda scared me, lol.
Monday, June 5, 2006
Calling All Cops
I finally got a call from the police department, the Community Services division. He said my letter drew the attention of the mayor's office, and that office forwarded it on to him. I'm supposed to call him back tomorrow.
Thursday, June 1, 2006
Bullies
It went really well, I think. The IEP was finished. We did get the para minutes, and I found out Nathan's teacher fought very hard to get them for us. The para will be here for the most challenging times for Nathan - the times of the biggest transitions, and the majority of the meltdowns. The para will also be on hand in the building in case Nathan has a tantrum during the other hours, and needs to be removed from class.
My niece sent me a book on Social Stories that looks really interesting. The IEP mentioned Social Stories, and said they would try to set up one for Nathan about his new teacher, with pictures and the classroom rules and such. However, he only has a partial day of school left, and I haven't seen it. They did tell me if they didn't get it done this week, that I could talk to them during Registration, and they would have one for me then.
I did go to the Easter Seals Seminar/Autism Support Group last week. It was pretty good. I got hooked up with the woman who runs a local Aspie Support Group in Rockford, and met a few parents and relatives of kids with autism. The support group usually meets once a month, but they take off a few months in the summer, so I won't see regular meetings pick up again until September. But they did have a few suggestions for me. They said to register Nathan with Milestone, and The Arc. Milestone has services available, such as respite care. They have people trained to work with autistic kids that can babysit for Nathan, and they give you an allotment of free babysitting hours that you can use in a month. The Arc has some services too, and one thing she told me was that The Arc is known to pay to send people to conferences and seminars, such as the Tony Atwood seminar in July. I also got signed up for an online bulletin board for the Rockford Aspie Support Group, and for another national bulletin board that is for high functioning autism.
We're having a major problem here with the two neighbor kids bullying Nathan. They are really getting nasty. I've told the kids' mother about it, but she won't do anything. I spoke to the kids and said that the bullying had to stop, that Nathan was getting (physically) hurt, but it hasn't stopped. A few weeks ago, the kids tried to use a collapsible basketball hoop as a catapult, and Nathan as the ammunition. He fell several feet to the blacktopped ground, landing on his backside. He couldn't sit down for a week. (It's possible they broke his tailbone, but I was told there is nothing they can do for a broken tailbone - they just give you a "donut" to sit on, and that's often worse than sitting on a solid surface).
On Friday, the boy next door threatened Nathan with a scissors, telling him he would stab Nathan, and that he would cut his head off. He made stabbing gestures at Nathan with the scissors too, making Nathan jump back to avoid the blades. The kid took the scissors and cut the buds off of our peony bush, to demonstrate how he would cut off Nathan's head. He scared Nathan half to death. Quite frankly, he scares me half to death too. Dh and I went over and spoke with the father, telling him that Nathan was autistic and that this left him particularly vulnerable to bullying of this sort. The father's response was to tell us "boys will be boys." He's not going to be any help, we can see that. Even after the talk, the bullying has continued, with an incident every day. It hasn't been as violent, but it's still going on.
I sent a note to Nathan's teacher when he went back to school this week, and asked that she keep an eye out for Nathan on the playground and stuff, because I was afraid the kid might go after Nathan when we weren't there to protect him. The teacher turned the note over to the principal, who called me at work and insisted that I call the police. Dh is very reluctant to involve the police, and fears it will make matters worse, but we did email the police department to tell them what is going on and to ask for their opinion on how to handle the situation. I haven't heard back from them yet.
On a positive note, I talked to the Park District today, and they will be working with Nathan in his daycamp for the summer. They are very familiar with autistic kids, and have interns that can shadow him all day while he is there. They sounded absolutely wonderful on the phone, and gave me hope that this would be a very positive experience for Nathan. We had a lengthy conversation, and I was pretty happy with the way it went.
My niece sent me a book on Social Stories that looks really interesting. The IEP mentioned Social Stories, and said they would try to set up one for Nathan about his new teacher, with pictures and the classroom rules and such. However, he only has a partial day of school left, and I haven't seen it. They did tell me if they didn't get it done this week, that I could talk to them during Registration, and they would have one for me then.
I did go to the Easter Seals Seminar/Autism Support Group last week. It was pretty good. I got hooked up with the woman who runs a local Aspie Support Group in Rockford, and met a few parents and relatives of kids with autism. The support group usually meets once a month, but they take off a few months in the summer, so I won't see regular meetings pick up again until September. But they did have a few suggestions for me. They said to register Nathan with Milestone, and The Arc. Milestone has services available, such as respite care. They have people trained to work with autistic kids that can babysit for Nathan, and they give you an allotment of free babysitting hours that you can use in a month. The Arc has some services too, and one thing she told me was that The Arc is known to pay to send people to conferences and seminars, such as the Tony Atwood seminar in July. I also got signed up for an online bulletin board for the Rockford Aspie Support Group, and for another national bulletin board that is for high functioning autism.
We're having a major problem here with the two neighbor kids bullying Nathan. They are really getting nasty. I've told the kids' mother about it, but she won't do anything. I spoke to the kids and said that the bullying had to stop, that Nathan was getting (physically) hurt, but it hasn't stopped. A few weeks ago, the kids tried to use a collapsible basketball hoop as a catapult, and Nathan as the ammunition. He fell several feet to the blacktopped ground, landing on his backside. He couldn't sit down for a week. (It's possible they broke his tailbone, but I was told there is nothing they can do for a broken tailbone - they just give you a "donut" to sit on, and that's often worse than sitting on a solid surface).
On Friday, the boy next door threatened Nathan with a scissors, telling him he would stab Nathan, and that he would cut his head off. He made stabbing gestures at Nathan with the scissors too, making Nathan jump back to avoid the blades. The kid took the scissors and cut the buds off of our peony bush, to demonstrate how he would cut off Nathan's head. He scared Nathan half to death. Quite frankly, he scares me half to death too. Dh and I went over and spoke with the father, telling him that Nathan was autistic and that this left him particularly vulnerable to bullying of this sort. The father's response was to tell us "boys will be boys." He's not going to be any help, we can see that. Even after the talk, the bullying has continued, with an incident every day. It hasn't been as violent, but it's still going on.
I sent a note to Nathan's teacher when he went back to school this week, and asked that she keep an eye out for Nathan on the playground and stuff, because I was afraid the kid might go after Nathan when we weren't there to protect him. The teacher turned the note over to the principal, who called me at work and insisted that I call the police. Dh is very reluctant to involve the police, and fears it will make matters worse, but we did email the police department to tell them what is going on and to ask for their opinion on how to handle the situation. I haven't heard back from them yet.
On a positive note, I talked to the Park District today, and they will be working with Nathan in his daycamp for the summer. They are very familiar with autistic kids, and have interns that can shadow him all day while he is there. They sounded absolutely wonderful on the phone, and gave me hope that this would be a very positive experience for Nathan. We had a lengthy conversation, and I was pretty happy with the way it went.
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