Lost

Swimming

School has been out a few weeks now and our poor Joseph seems to be lost.  I am not a parent that wants my children to be away from me all the time.  Actually, I'm enjoying the time with the other children.  But Joseph would do much better going to school all summer.  It made me start wondering why special ed children who seem to thrive on routine and schedule are given 3 months of free time?  Why is there not more for these children?  I started trying to find something for him to do to fill in his time.  I came up with a schedule of fun activities for each day of the week thinking that keeping him busy would be for the best.  But it is impossible to do 24/7.  So my difficult hours of 4 to 6 p.m. (after school hours) has now turned into several hours a day that he has time to meltdown as my attention has to be given somewhere else.

I started looking for camps he could attend.  It got us involved with the brain injury group here in Nebraska.  They do not have any such camp for children but at least it got things moving.  I got in touch with the disability department of the state to see if they offer anything.  Upon reviewing his medical history we discovered, or should I say REdiscovered, that he has an official diagnosis of autism.  So that opens more doors for us as there are camps for autistic children.

One thing that he loves doing is going swimming at the YMCA.  He learned to dog-paddle very well in his  swimming lessons.  He gets to go down the slides now because he can make it to the side of the pool well enough.  We also do library days and he enjoys this.  Yesterday we enjoyed a day at the park with friends.  The key seems to be keeping him as busy as possible.  But once the moment arrives in which he realizes he misses school he gets upset.  He does not understand that this is a really long extended "holiday".  He gets excited for Sunday mass because he thinks Monday he is returning to school. 

He is regressing in many areas especially in his physical abilities.  I will be contacting the hospital today to get him back in PT and OT over the summer months.  I am seeing many left side issues again and this is being witnessed by friends.  His left foot is turning in again.  There is more drooling.  He started playing with his gums and this has caused an infection in his mouth. 

There have been some touching moments I have been able to witness.  Sometimes he is so aggressive that it scares me for the other children but then when all seems hopeless I see him sharing with his siblings.  Or yesterday I saw him pushing his little sister on a swing.  Or I see him console a sibling after they have been corrected by mom or dad.  Those moments are few but are priceless.

So today we will deal with today and not focus on tomorrow or next week or next month.  I am turning to the older siblings and asking for them to each take a day to help with him.  He needs undivided attention from some source and with so many other children I can not do it.  He misses his teachers so much.  If you are reading this he misses you and loves you!  He is longing for school to start!  You gave him so much joy this past year and you have become such a huge part of his life.  May God bless you for all you have done for him and our family.  Good teachers are a gift from God!