Mission Statement: This blog was created to provide information on getting help for autism in general while focussing on locally available resources for families with newly diagnosed children in Belleville and Quinte area.

Please browse the blog at your leisure. You are welcome to comment on the posts. If you are a parent, an autism consultant, counselor, teacher with information on autism resources available in our area, please email your information to benziesangma@gmail.com. Your information will be added within 24 hours.

Local Autism Support Groups

Parents Engaging Autism Quinte (PEAQ), an autism parent support group, meets once a month on the first Tuesday of the month (no meetings in January, July and August) at Kerry's Place, 189 Victoria Avenue, Belleville at 6:30 to 8 p.m. If you have questions or suggestions for autism topics that are important to you please go to our FaceBook account and post your suggestions so that we can invite appropriate autism professionals to speak at these meetings.

Autism parent support group meeting hosted by Mental Health Agency, Trenton and Military Family Resource Centre (MFRC) is on every second Thursday of the month (from September to June) from 6 to 7:30 pm. For more info, please contact Bryanna Best, Special Needs Inclusion Coordinator at 613 392 2811 ext 2076 or email at bryanna.b@trentonmfrc.ca

For info on Community Living Prince Edward County Parent Support group, contact Resource Consultants @ 613 476 6038

Central Hastings Autism Support Group meets in Madoc at the Recreation Centre. Contact Renee O’Hara, Family Resource & Support, 613-966-7413 or Tammy Kavanagh, Family Resource & Support, 613-332-3227

Parenting your child during Covid-19 pandemic

Friday, February 5, 2010

Food for thought, maybe?

Choice autism treatment offers benefits, has limits. Read further: http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/03/31/autism.applied.behavior.analysis/index.html
Limits or not, in Ontario you get placed on a waitlist to recieve such treatment for a period of as much as 3 to 4 years depending on different communities. Meanwhile, your child doesn't stop growing and he/she loses the best window, his/her earliest years (2-5 years, to get the benefit out of this treatment. So, then you are really left to your own devices, to plan your own program and carry it out as best as you can while you wait. I think many parents of children on the spectrum are well-educated on the subject and they know their children well, what works and what doesn't. That's a big plus and a big advantage over professionals who come to our child's life. I believe we can do a lot to redirect the path of our child on the spectrum at home.
Geneva Centre in Toronto now offers a whole lot of courses online for those who might want to look into it for their own training. My son is on a waitlist and may not get the treatment for another two years, which is when he turns 8. It maybe even get closer to his turning 9. I thought I might as well learn to do the job somewhat myself and got my training with Geneva Centre and I feel quite empowered to do what needs to be done for my son at least during this waiting period.

In it for the long haul...

I created this blog with my sincere wish that those of you reading this will want to share your own stories, both good and bad, what worked for you and what didn't and together, we can make it easier for the next family beginning their own journey of discovery. By posting what you know, where you have recieved certain services, who you have talked to, whose expertise you trust, how you navigated the school education services and by responding to questions in the discussion thread, know that you have helped a family in need. So, parents, experts in the field, counsellors, teachers and everyone who has any information on resources available, please feel free to post on this blog.