Well, whatever Collin brought home from school nipped me in the bum on Friday. About the only thing I was able to do was to make a list of all the supplies I wanted and ordered the nutritional supplements recommended by The Cherab Foundation.
I also found a really good blog called "Testy yet trying" written by a Speech Pathologist who's daughter was diagnosed with Childhood Apraxia of Speech. She has a lot of great resources on her site as well as a bunch of free downloads (like practice cards). I spent a good chuck of the day reading, learning and downloading.
Collin stayed home because he was still feeling kinda puny and running a low grade fever. Hopefully, he'll feel well enough to go to school on Monday.
The speech therapy book that I had ordered from Amazon arrived today. It's called "Improving Speech and Eating Skills in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders." When the box arrived, I was both excited and nervous. After all, what the hell do I know about teaching someone how to talk? Isn't it supposed to be something that every kid just kinda learns naturally? I know my parents used to wish that I had never learned to talk because I never shut up, not even when I am sleeping.
So here sits my conundrum; how do I teach someone, in this case, my non-verbal autistic son, to use something that I was overly blessed with? I'm hoping this book will give me a few pointers and direction (straight down isn't an option). And, I promised myself (ok, it was more of a veiled threat) that when the book arrived, it was time to get serious and start mapping out a plan of action while I wait for his speech DVDs to show up.
Here's the rough draft of my action plan:
Read the book. (I know...DUH)
Create a lesson plan (yeah, I have no idea how to do this).
Get a notebook to journal the lessons, nutritional supplements, thoughts, and progress/failures.
Organize my day to make it most efficient to get in all the normal stuff as well as speech.
Seek out resources.
Commit to a daily blog post to summarize the day
If there are any educators, special education teachers, therapists, parents that have had this issue, or someone that might have a brilliant (heck, I'd even take luke-warm) idea or can point me in the direction of some great resources, I'd love to hear them in the comments.
I think I'm ready to start down this road. I hope it's a journey filled with positive advancements. Failure is NOT an option.
