Merry Christmas to me..........

The best Christmas gift is the Autism Bill. Somehow I managed to convince the insurance company to start coverage on Januaty 1, instead of October 1. This means big things for the Hill household. Nate and Noah each get ABA therapy covered for up to $40,000 a year, per child. At $25 an hour, this gives us 1600 hours per boy. With 52 weeks in a year, that's 30 hours a week for each boy. That's a lot of help.

Here's my plan:
Two people will be here Monday - Friday from 6:30 am to 8:30 am. They will work with Nate and Noah to get dressed, wash faces, brush teeth, make beds, eat breakfast, and clean up. These are skills that Tim and I don't have time to work on before we go to work. The people will also put the boys on the bus here at 8:20 instead of me taking them to the sitter's at 7:30. This gives them an extra 50 minutes to work on skills. This may also help Tim get to work on time, since he won't have to make sure the boys are dressed before he leaves.

Two people will also be here Sundays from 9:00 am to 1pm. Nick and Tim go to church every Sunday and I usually stay home with Nate and Noah. Depending on Noah's mood, I am sometimes tied to the house instead of getting the shopping done. I also haven't been to church in years since taking Nate and Noah is not relaxing for me or anyone around us. This will give Noah time to work on some academic skills such as body parts and counting items. Tim and I hope that Nate's person will be able to help him come to church and possibly attend Sunday school.

I also want a session on Saturday afternoons for both boys. They both attend gymnastics classes for special kids in the morning, but need some structure in the afternoon.

We all agree that the top priority for Noah is potty training, potty training, potty training. we always seem to take 1 step forward and 2 steps back. We are hoping that having more adults in the house will help. We also have a list of academic skills for him to work on. The preschool teacher told us last that year that his academic skills were on track, but we just don't see it. For example, he can rote count to 20, but can't count out 5 items.

We are looking to increase Nate's independence with daily living skills. He needs to develop his self care skills so he will not need help when he is older. We also want him to expand his leisure activities beyond Elmo and v-smile.

One of the best parts is that the company that is supplying the therapy is going to hire Vicki. This means that they will pay her, not me. They will also pay her much more than I can. This is good for both of us financially. Vicki will make more money and I will save a lot of money. I usually pay her $600 a month. During football and track seasons, this amount is much higher. This is on top of the money that I pay the sitter to get the boys on and off the bus.

Nate and Noah will now be very busy:

Monday-
ABA 6:30 to 8:30 am
OT 4:30 to 5:30
Speech 5:00 to 7:00

Tuesday-
ABA 6:30 to 8:30 am
Speech 5:00 to 7:00

Wednesday-
ABA 6:30 to 8:30 am
jumping at Skyzone 4:00 to 5:00

Thursday-
ABA 6:30 to 8:30 am
Speech- 4:30 to 5:30
Speech 5:00 to 7:00

Friday-
ABA 6:30 to 8:30 am

Saturday-
gymnastics 9 to 11
ABA 1:00 to 4:00 (I hope)

Sunday-
ABA- 9:00 am to 1:00 pm

This is when I wish we had an extra bedroom to turn into a therapy room........

Noah's going to Southview........

Yipee!!!!!!

Noah's meeting went very well today. It was 2 hours, but this time, we were all on the same page. I sat down across the table from the Principal at Southview and said, "We can do this the easy way or the hard way." He replied by telling me that the data provided by Noah's teacher supports him going to Southview and he wasn't there to fight with me.

Boy, did they have data. When we looked at his IEP goals, he wasn't meeting them.....not even close. Usually goals are written to achieve the objective 80% of the time. There were goals that he was meeting the objective 0% of the time. 0%!!!! You don't have to be a math teacher to know that's not acceptable. I chose to just gloss over those 0 percents and focus on the main objective.....sending Noah to Southview.

We were also able to increase his Music Therapy from once a week to twice a week. Music Therapy is the only area that he is having any success and everyone agreed that more success would be good for him.

Tim and I are so happy! It's funny how we are acting like we just got both of our kids into Harvard. We just hope that Noah will have as much success at Southview as Nate. We were hoping that he could stay in the regular school for a few years, but it just wasn't working. It's not that the regular school was bad, he just needs more.

I wish I could see the future. I know this is a good move, but I am always wondering what else should we be doing? I won't rest until I know that we have exhausted every resource.