Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Cost of Having Autism...

This is a breakdown of our insurance bill for Nick from August 3rd-August 13th. That is ten days of therapy:

8/3: Consult with BCBA(Head tutor) $250.00
8/3: Tutor for 3 hours $150.00
8/3: Tutor for 2.5 hours $125.00
8/4: Tutor for 3 hours $150.00
8/4: Tutor for 2 hours $100.00
8/5: Tutor for 2.5 hours $125.00
8/5: Tutor for 2.5 hours $125.00
8/6: Tutor for 3 hours $150.00
8/6: Tutor for 2 hours $100.00
8/7: Tutor for 2.5 hours $125.00 (So far, we are up to $1,400.00)
8/10: Rehabilitative Services(another word for Tutor) $262.50
8/11: Rehabilitative Services $225.00
8/12: Rehabilitative Services $100.00
8/13: Rehabilitative Services $250.00 (that is another $837.50 for those four days)
That is a grand total of.........
$2,237.50 FOR TEN DAYS OF THERAPY Most insurances DO NOT cover AUTISM, so this is what would have to be paid by the FAMILIES. THIS is what it takes to raise a child with Autism.

Our New Routine....

School has been going for almost a week now, and both Michael and Nick are settling in to the routine. This morning I have a few minutes of peace before I wake up little man again. I say again because he was already up earlier; around 6:30. He was playing in the curtains hung on the window by Michael's bed. I told him frankly to get back to HIS bed and go Night Night. Michael wanted me to drive him to school today, and for some reason he was already up as well. And dressed. In the same clothes as he wore yesterday. I told him to go change clothes, and that he cannot wear the same stuff again. He looked at me like I was speaking a foreign language. Of course I was. Mommy is not speaking "Male", which unfortunately is the predominate language in our house. I come from planet "Female" and there we change clothes every day without thinking about it. Apparently, those from "Male" have to be reminded. They also have to be reminded to brush their teeth. After he got ready I went ahead and did some dishes and I took Michael to school. There he gets a free breakfast. Great. Another meal that I don't have to feed him. Saves on our cereal budget.

Little Man loves riding the school bus. He is getting to be such a big boy. He gets on the bus by himself, all I do is fasten him in. Yesterday he was so excited he could not contain himself. We were waiting outside for the bus and he was a stimmy mess. These were happy stims though. Lots of humming,flapping, hand twirling, and doing a modified happy dance on the lawn. I am so happy that he is in the right school now. They know how to handle him. It is a smaller class, so I know he is getting what he needs. Makes me mad though to think that we lost an entire year due to the stupid move that people who don't even know Nick made for him.

We had another meeting with all of Nick's home tutors yesterday as well. They are adding more programs as he is mastering the old ones pretty quickly. Diane told me that they just started on identifying numbers like 13,14,and 15, and that Nick was already able to ID them! We are now going to start him on the Touch Math as Ana now has all the materials, and also work on spelling some simple words and learning to recognize those words have meaning. He will also have a tutor come in the mornings to help him with basic skills like dressing himself and going through his morning routine. It helps to add in new stuff to keep him from getting bored. It is hard to describe how much he actually likes this. When his tutors first started coming here, he would run and hide in his room. They would have to carry him to his "work room". Yesterday, he went in there ahead of Diane and was ready to do stuff. Ms Tracy not only got a "hi Twacy", but a hug as well. He gets cheeky with them and now goes into their goody bags to see what they brought. For Nick, these are all the more people to play and interact with. He is progressing much faster than I ever thought he would. The daily sessions of ABA are much more helpful than just once a week. Nick is already doing more stuff now than he was at UW.