Jonah's Journey

the parent education series

I finally convinced Andy to go with me to the Autism Parent Education Series instead of my dad, who has been attending with me once a month for 3 months now. It is really for parents, as the title suggests, and I know Andy didn't want to go but it seemed stupid to have to tell him everything I learned every time I learned it. The program is run by CARD (the Center for Autism Reserach) at SUNY Albany, and the leaders are practically kids....all in their early twenties, if I'm correct -- probably grad students at the University. It's held in a too-bright, too-cold, too-white room with maybe eight other sets of parents, all of whom have older children on the autism spectrum. There is one father I instinctively dislike because he holds himself in a very arrogant way and tends to sound condescending every time he talks. I hate that I dislike him when I don't even know him and I hate that we have to go to the program at all. It's boring and I don't know how much good it will do us or Jonah.

We are supposed to be graphing problem behaviors to find patterns, but it seems pretty obvious to me where the 'patterns' are. Jonah will hit and bite when he's doing something he enjoys and then it's time to stop doing it. This seems like typical toddler stuff to me. Of course Jonah's verbal communication piece is missing, but he understands a stern voice saying "no" just fine.

I refuse to think too much about what it will be like when he is 5 or 10 or 20.

We can only do this autism thing one day at a time.



"Whenever I'm caught between two evils, I take the one I've never tried."
         ~ Mae West (1892 - 1980)

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