[kj] OT Film about my family, a few years ago, to benefit a non profit

TB planetary at socal.rr.com
Thu Mar 11 11:41:07 EST 2010


Cliff Livingston wrote:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4V56A0PsSc

++++

Very nicely done, a great document of what it's like day to day as parents with children with autism. About the only thing I would
dare to suggest is that you might want to include more direct contact information about The Arc for people who wish to donate or may
have need of their services. Also, are you and/or your wife officers of this organization?

Our son, who just turned 13 also suffers from autism and while he isn't non-verbal (although he was up 'til 6) and not as severely
involved as your kids, he's presented many of the same challenges as your kids do. One of the biggest challenges has been dealing
with our school district from the beginning when he was pre-kindergarten and getting fair and appropriate services for him. We've
had to go to due process twice and even sued the district (and won) for things like an aid for the entire day, speech and OT. All
that hard work has paid off as he's close to being mainstreamed in regular classes and we're phasing out his full time aid before he
goes into High School.

Throughout our own journey, we've met other families who have children with autism, so we've seen kids who run the entire gamut of
barely noticeable issues to extremely severe. My wife is very active in TACA (Talk About Curing Autism) which is more geared
towards support for parents and advocates for other families in our area who are just starting down the road of getting services for
their kids. She been interested in starting an NPA in California very similar to what ARC appears to be, which is *lifelong*
support for autistic and other special needs children through adulthood.

Here's a few photos of our son Jason, one from around 4 when he was non-verbal but loved banging away on guitar and one several
years later in 2005 just before he inexplicably developed an aversion to loud noise (we take him to movies and other "events" with
earplugs and headphones so he can handle the noise issues) and one from last week during his 13th birthday with another boy who also
suffers from autism:

http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h26/Partyslammer/JASON.jpg?t=1268323015

http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h26/Partyslammer/TBandJason12-05-1.jpg?t=1268322934

http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h26/Partyslammer/Jason13thBirthday4.jpg?t=1268325484

T.B.



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