At School Social Stories
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
Monday, July 8, 2013
Off to his first full-day summer camp ever!
I did my homework prior to the camp as usual, of course. I called up the staff, who was a bit overwhelmed when I said aloud the word "autism" in connection with my son. She asked if my son has a TA or teacher assistant at school and I said yes but one whose 20 minute time in the classroom is thinly spread among 5 or 6 students. Then she said that summer camp instructors are not equipped to deal with children with disabilities. I'm not sure if she heard me say that my son has mild autism and high-functioning and independent and easy going and laughs a lot and very much verbal. I guess it might have been too much to drop the autism "bomb" on an unsuspecting person like her. But I wonder how establishments that run these programs for ALL children can afford to not know what autism is and at least the basics of what works for them. I'm thinking basics such as information on what the day looks like, when the breaks are, where they will have lunch etc. etc. So, I decided that I'll have to handle this the same way as I did other new situations involving my son. I went on a tour of his camp location, walked him back and forth from the washroom so that he'll be able to do it himself, talked to his instructor and found out the details of the day and the type of computer tools that they'll be using during the camp. This all happened within the week prior to his camp starting. All these steps so that the day will become predictable for him and reduce his anxiety of the unfamiliar. All I can do right now is hope that I did enough to make him comfortable and be successful at his first ever day camp. So exciting and at the same time a nail-biting experience this!
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