Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Personal Story--Mindi, JC and AJ


This Personal Story was included in the May HSNPTA Newsletter. Every month, we hope to include a short personal story of the journey of one of our families. If you'd like to write a personal story for us to use in the newsletter or the blog, please email us!


Personal Story: Mindi, JC and AJ

We moved from Massachusetts to Oklahoma when our son A.J. was 17 months old. Soon after, he stopped using the few verbal words he knew and stopped all baby signs. He began to have repetitive patterns and would look at things out of the corner of his eye. We took him to our new doctor, who thought A.J. perhaps was delayed due to our cross-country move, but after a few months of insisting something was not right, we finally were referred to Early Intervention.

At age 3, A.J. was diagnosed with autism and, soon after, we discovered there were very few resources for him in our part of Oklahoma. We began searching for new positions and last spring my husband was called to a church in Bellevue and I began interviewing in Burien. We moved to Burien in August and began the process of learning a new school district and new ways of providing services for our son.

It is a journey to navigate new systems and to learn the resources inside and outside of the school system. I encourage parents to reach out to other parents for support and insight. We started the “Parent and Play” support group on the first Tuesday of the month just for this purpose, so that we might get to know other families on similar journeys. I also encourage parents to get as much as they can in writing when decisions are made, because so often there are misunderstandings.

For families new to Highline, we say “Welcome!” We understand the struggles of learning an entirely new school district and system and ways of writing and understanding I.E.P.’s. We hope that you will come to one of our HSNPTA monthly meetings—that is how we first became connected with other families, made friends, and learned more about Highline. Whether you’re new to Highline or you’ve been around for a while, we’d love to get to know you, your child and your journey.

Monday, May 13, 2013

Welcome to our blog!

This is the Highline Special Needs PTA Blog! We will invite authors from our HSNPTA community (parents, students, educators and community members) to share stories of their personal experiences here. We hope this blog can be a resource and inspire others to be involved with the Highline Special Needs Parent-Teacher Association and the greater community we serve.