Comments on: Daycare: A lot more than a “perk”

By: Special Needs Daycare Center (!)

Special Needs Daycare Center (!) — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 20:28:36 +0000

[...] been needing such a center for the past, oh, 8 or (to tell the truth) 11 years. Charlie was in a daycare when he was 16 months old and this was actually helpful in determining that he “had [...]

By: Kristina Chew, PhD

Kristina Chew, PhD — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 09:58:23 +0000

@Sarah, thanks so much for writing about the program—-it sounds really good. Charlie goes on one field trip a week in the summer. I know there’s an after-school program for older kids with autism and other developmental delays that has them go places (bowling etc.). It’s in the NJ county that we used to live in (as I recall there was a waiting list…unerstandably). Thank you…….

@Melody, Was your sister able to tell your parents about the babysitters who were abusive? Not good, to say the least…

@farmwifetwo, jury duty! am not ready for that (is one ever)…..

@Laura, was talking to a friend who has a young child and had the message reiterated, daycare is expensive for any child! she noted that she knew of families who had left where she lives (midwest) for the west coast and come back for the daycare.

By: Laura

Laura — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 18:20:28 +0000

Quick note on the economics: the $33K (to $57K) price is the cost for two children. Still outrageous, but comprehendable. My daycare in Boston was $24K/year for infant care. Which is precisely why we hired a nanny when my second son was born. I think that’s Google’s idea as well – it’s affordable for one (RELATIVELY speaking, this is San Fran where the salaries are higher), but prohibitively expensive for two or more.

By: farmwifetwo

farmwifetwo — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 16:56:31 +0000

Due to the funding mechanisms in this province I am able to stay home.

The boys have been to sitters/daycares/programs and will continue to do so.

I did jury duty for a week 6mths ago. The Mom had a harder time being away from home than the boys in this house (incl. dh)… I’m not ready to go back to work, and thankful, I don’t have to.

By: Melody

Melody — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 06:25:47 +0000

I’ve never been in daycare before. My older sister used to have some babysitters, but a number of them were abusive and after that my parents only got a couple nights out in 20 years.

By: Sarah

Sarah — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 05:23:34 +0000

I have been reading your blog for months but never had anything to post until now. I work at a summer program for autistic children called ACAP in Portland, Oregon. There are two sites each with four classrooms: Older, Younger, Older High-Functioning and Younger High-Functioning. Our staff to student ratio is always 1:1, or on a crowded day, 1:2 with the more mellow kids. This is a non-profit organization and only runs two months a year, but we provide a great deal of relief to parents who work year-round.

The way the classrooms work is by including several teaching assistants and one main teacher per room. Every day we go on field trips in the community (swimming, Children’s Museum, the zoo) and have classroom time with both play and learning activities. I also work with neurotypical children outside of this program, and I find it hard enough to be outnumbered by children, and so the key part of ACAP is that the kids do get the complete attention of an adult and are encouraged to socialize with other children (both autistic children within the program and neurotypical ones in the community).

The point of my grievously long comment is to let people know that such programs exist, especially any parents living in the Portland area.

For anyone curious, the website is:

http://www.autismwebsite.com/acap/summer.htm

By: Joeymom

Joeymom — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 05:09:36 +0000

Eek. Childcare. With all the running to therapies we do, I’m not expecting to get a regular job anytime soon. We have neighbors with an ASD child and they are both full-time profs at the college- no idea how they manage, especially since there’s no childcare place here who will take a special needs child and provide appropriate care.

By: Kristina Chew, PhD

Kristina Chew, PhD — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 04:43:42 +0000

@Janice, you wrote—

“That’s kind of hard when your life pretty much revolves around supporting your autistic child and you live somewhere far away from family networks. *sigh*”

that’s exactly us.

I’m feeling lucky that Charlie will be starting school earlier (7.45am) so I can start teaching at 9 am—have to leave by 1.15pm; Jim and I have been working on making sure that we teach (mostly) on different days, so if Charlie is sick someone can be home. And he can do evening courses. I’m acting chair of my department in the spring so I guess I can have a bit of a choice about my schedule…….

juggle, juggle.

By: Janice

Janice — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 04:08:44 +0000

We had a few, blissful years where autistic youngest attended a daycare that got support from an agency to provide training and monitoring for her care. (Although the agency was very unhelpful at first — wanting us to pull her from that daycare and go back on the interminable waiting list for the university centre that wouldn’t give us the time of day, simply because they’d worked with the university centre before.)

That ended when she started into school and we haven’t been able to get after-school care or more than a week or two of appropriate summer camps since. It’s all on us which is why I become such a nag with my department as to my teaching schedule: nothing after three unless Mike’s got the evening off from the library so I can teach night classes.

Her older sister can now watch her for short spurts of time but we’ve never gone out for more than a walk around the neighbourhood on those terms. And we’ve been granted, but unable to spend, thousands of dollars in respite care subsidies because we’re supposed to find someone ourselves. That’s kind of hard when your life pretty much revolves around supporting your autistic child and you live somewhere far away from family networks. *sigh*

By: Bonnie Sayers

Bonnie Sayers — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 03:36:17 +0000

I once had an issue where I could not find care for my kids due to my having to serve jury duty. Luckily you can postpone it for three months and I did that so it would be summer and then still no respite agency (tried 3) and just used before and after summer camp and got regional center to fund it after the fact. This was the best outcome since they just went to camp early and stayed after the other kids left and watched tv with two workers watching them. Luckily it was only for about 8 days while I was on a case.