Jen Rosenblum

Recent Activity

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  Jen commented on the article | over 2 years ago

  Dentist Visits For Everyone

  There is an excellent dentist here who sees special needs kids, but I think have been told this person doesn't take insurance. The website seems to indicate otherwise though. I went with a client, who for the first time when I went, actually saw the dentist. They have a certain hygentist who always sees the kids with autism, and she was great. They went slow, provided lots of reinforcers, and didn't push to the extent of making her upset. They also provided some things to practice at home to help get her used to things to come in the future, like x-rays. Being terrified of dentists myself (I haven't been in almost 5 years due to the extreme fear) I wish I could get something like this.

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  Jen commented on the article | over 2 years ago

  Back on the Road to Find a School

  Not sure if a certain residential placement in PA, located near Sesame Place has ever come up, or if it ever will. I just know this particular place gets children, and adults from all over the country. However, I also know in certain programs at this place, there is a very high teacher turn over... about once a month.

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  Jen commented on the article | over 2 years ago

  Still a Long Way to Go With IDEA

  Is there any part of regular gym he could do? Maybe not the team sports, or at least in thinking of some of the kids I work with, team sports times wouldn't be it. However, and I went to middle school in the district where the kids I am thinking of will go to, we always did a few laps jogging around the gym. I know they also have, at least now, mountain bikes at the middle school, and they do that for a few weeks of gym. They also have weight training and cardio equipment that we used for a block. Once you get to high school here, typical students have a choice of three categories of gym classes, I believe they were team sports, lifetime activities, and something I don't remember, maybe individual sports. Not so much in the team sports, but particularly in the other categories, I see a good number of opportunities to include kids with disabilities. We had weight training, tennis, table tennis,  and actually, I think one of the classes was just walking/running. No reason why kids with disabilities couldn't learn and participate in these activities, and also have these skills for the rest of their lives as well. I may just have to mention again that there is no reason why the boy I work with couldn't go in to stretch and run a few laps with everyone else. He might just get more from it than going to a morning meeting where they talk about things he hasn't been involved in.

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  Jen commented on the article | over 2 years ago

  Not a Large Child

  I work with a preteen, about a year younger than Charlie, whose mother treats him like a little kid. It drives me up a wall. He's 11, he's not cute, he's handsome. It wouldn't be cute to buy him a game intended for three year olds that has no educational purpose. I can go for it if there is an educational outcome to it, or if we might start with this easier version and move him along to a more adult version, but not just because you think it's cute. Oh, and it wouldn't be cute to send the same type of thing to his classroom. They're all abou the same age. It would be cute to send it to the classroom with the 8 and under kids.
  You wouldn't have kissed and hugged your typical son at this age in public, and it's not cute to do it with your son who has autism.  It's not cute or appropriate for anyone to be doing that with him in public at his age, and it some people's opinion, public displays of affection are never appropriate. Either way, it won't be appropriate by any measure for at least another 5-7 years.
  Last, I never realized just how annoying it is to talk about someone like they aren't there when they are in the room until a parent of another client did it to me, and I was actually a part of that conversation. It took everything for me not to walk out in frustration, and wait until myself and the third person had left to say something to him about it. I never realized it until it was done to me, but I think perhaps some people need to have this done to them to get the point across.

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  Jen commented on the article | almost 3 years ago

  Safety Concerns

  After a kid was left in a van here, I see the buses now driving with a sign that says something to the effect of the bus has been checked and has no children sleeping in it. However, I see these signs all the time, when kids are in the bus, and they are obviously in the middle of a run.

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  Jen commented on the article | almost 3 years ago

  Safety Concerns

  After a kid was left in a van here, I see the buses now driving with a sign that says something to the effect of the bus has been checked and has no children sleeping in it. However, I see these signs all the time, when kids are in the bus, and they are obviously in the middle of a run.

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  Jen commented on the article | almost 3 years ago

  It's All Part of the Design

  I got some of these http://locklaces.com/ a few years ago after I had surgery on my right wrist. I wasn't exactly going to be tying my shoes after that. They fit into any pair of sneakers. I have also bought these before  http://www.yankz.com/ . These ones honestly, a lot of people can't even tell that you don't have real laces in the shoes, and they come in tons of colors.
  

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  Jen signed the petition | almost 3 years ago

  Tell Lindt Chocolates that Autism Speaks Doesn't Speak For Us
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  Jen commented on the article | almost 3 years ago

  Going for Proloquo2Go?

  I am slightly more impressed with it than I was originally, but not entirely. I have heard about it through someone else, who I guess has seen it in action a little bit. As far as I am aware, you can use your own pictures in the system.
   It sounds nice, but unfortunately, I feel it lacks in some of the same places that other devices do. A big one, and I think this is true of the kid the people I know saw using it, is of course that it does not require the user to learn to approach someone in order to communicate (but neither does speech for a number of kids with autism, if we hear it, we run to them). The kid I work with who uses PECS, will hunt me down and chase me through his house to give me picture. He knows that picture has to go to a person, and I think he'd figure that out with one of these as well. The kids who speak, but don't approach someone, probably still won't.
  All the hype I've heard, and I have heard a lot, and it hasn't won me over from my PECS love, at least for kids with autism(though I think it could be a nice next step). PECS has yet to run out of batteries, and a laminated PECS book isn't damaged by water, among other things. It is much more portable than those brick like devices available now, which is an advantage for some, but a clear disadvantage for the kids I know who leave their stuff laying around all over the place.

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  Jen signed the petition | almost 3 years ago

  Tell President Obama to fully fund IDEA