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

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Back to school matters

Summer's about to end and the mention of the dreaded word "school" is not going very well with my little one. He still wants to, and I do too, go to the beach and camp under those tall trees swaying in the breeze, feel the sand under our feet and jump in the warm water at Sandbanks, Ontario, where we love to go. He'd like to play on the computer, watch his favourite movies etc. etc. But I earn an impressive amount of shush-ing, deep frowns and closed eyes when I bring up the unmentionable topic. I know summer's over at least for me and it's time to start preparing to make that transition from unending-and-sunny all day long- beach-days to six-hours-a-day school days. I guess I should get started with my preparations for getting him back to school.
One of the things currently working for me towards this goal is setting up a calendar on the fridge where we can mark off each day. Sometimes, we use a bingo dauber to dab on the day to cross it off. Maybe inviting his friends from school would work too. That way he will get to know them again. It's been a while since we had them over. Another thing I need to do is visit the school with him, both inside and outside. Maybe that would help him re-orient himself. New clothes/shoes/pencil case with stuff inside might just do the trick as well. A new Transformer toy? Well...why not? I don't know, really, what would work but I gotta try. My last one is to write a summer story with him. Let's see what he remembers doing these past two whole months. Hopefully, he'll say we went camping, dug holes in the sand, caught weeds, picked up shells, buried his brother in the sand, trembled inside the tent during a lightning and thunder show one stormy night while camping. Maybe he'll remember his swimming lessons or the way he walked on the beams or jumped into the pit at the gymnastics camp he attended with his sister. Or... maybe he won't. Oh, well!

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.