Sunday, January 10, 2010

Zakhquery Price

This 11 year old autistic boy is being pressed with FELONY CHARGES for assault. Read more:

http://www.examiner.com/x-4959-Special-Education-Examiner~y2009m12d30-Autism-is-considered-a-felony-in-fifth-grade
http://leftbrainrightbrain.co.uk/?p=3977
Or just google his name, really.

Zakh and his family need our help. As an autism community, we should condemn the school district. One, they refused to follow his IEP. There are LAWS against this. Second, he was in a meltdown and cornered, and probably didn't know what was going on. Wouldn't YOU panic if you were in this situation?

Please, everyone. Let's help Zakhquery Price and those like him. He is a disabled little boy, NOT a felon.

Senators:Lincoln, Blanche L. - (D - AR) Class III 355 DIRKSEN SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510 (202) 224-4843 Web Form: lincoln.senate.gov/contact/email.cfm
Pryor, Mark L. - (D - AR) Class II 255 DIRKSEN SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510 (202) 224-2353 Web Form: pryor.senate.gov/contact/
Governor:http://governor.arkansas.gov/contacts.html

Also your state's reps...

Congress:Representative Marion Berry (D - 01) 202-225-4076 202-225-5602 http://www.house.gov/berry/zipauth.shtml Representative Vic Snyder (D - 02) 202-225-2506 202-225-5903 http://www.house.gov/snyder/contact-form.shtml Representative John Boozman (R - 03) 202-225-4301 202-225-5713 https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml Representative Mike Ross (D - 04) 202-225-3772 202-225-1314 http://ross.house.gov/?sectionid=77§iontree=7677

Oh, lots of helpful info here:http://asansouthwestohio.blogspot.com/2010/01/action-alert-on-autistic-child-charged.html

Saturday, December 19, 2009

Winter Break

Winter break has started here, and I am glad. School has been so difficult this year, the classes just get harder and harder. Calculus is impossible, English feels that way some days. History, at least, I understand. Each year in Italian I seem to get further and further behind in the verbal skills portion, my disability tends to show up really clearly there.

My orchestra went to the school my mom works at on Thursday to play Christmas songs for the kids. Since my mom has been on medical leave all semester, she missed it, so she came with to visit. Several kids ran up to her and hugged her, really made her happy, since she hasn't seem them since June.

T has been in love with the snow lately. We've gone sledding twice and he likes to roll around in the snow and even tries to eat it.

Monday, November 23, 2009

Thanksgiving

I meant to update this blog before, but last week was quite stressful for our family, with K coming home, having dramatically changed her looks, and T-man having issues with it, and many meltdowns. Thanksgiving dinner was small and great, our cousin's daughter played with T and tried and tried to get him to talk to her most of the time. She is six and neurotypical.

Even though I've progressed over the years, autism still gives me a hard time with life. I have difficulties speaking, most of the time have no clue how to socially interact appropriately, and have many sensory issues. Academics didn't give me any issues until recent years, I have slight learning difficulties with story problems, applications of math, and abstract ideas. All of this is still better than the three year old who said nothing and understood nothing, and the six year old who didn't have any functional speech. It's been a long road, but it is even longer ahead of me. I'd like to teach special education some day.

T is just five, so a lot of his issues remain. He has only spoken a few times, and only since this spring. He is VERY bright and races through academics, he is on about a second grade level right now. He can read and write, and can communicate better this way. He is in special ed kindergarten. Yesterday, he spoke for the first time at school. He was finished with his work and wanted something to do, so he went up to an aide and said "book". We are so proud of our little T-man!

Mum is feeling better than she has in years, currently. We are very grateful for that, and that T and I are progressing, and for life.

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Who we are

Although about a family, I'll be the only writing this blog. I am Rachela, one of three kids in this family. I am 17 and diagnosed with pervasive developmental delay- not otherwise specified, or PDD-NOS, an autism spectrum disorder. But is that who I am? Maybe those are my thoughts.. how do you define who anyone is, anyway? So I'll stick with the basics.

Mom has a kidney disease called FSGS, or focal segmental glomerulosclerosis. I still can't pronounce it. It is an autoimmune disease that attacks the filters of the kidney, or glomeruli. About 20,000 people in the US are in end stage renal disease, or kidney failure, because of FSGS. Tens of thousands more are living with it. Every year 5,400 people are diagnosed with FSGS. It has no FDA approved treatments or cure. Most patients are treated with steroids. I think that most, if not all, patients with FSGS will reach ESRD. Mom has been diagnosed with it for over seven years now. In October 2009 she had her first kidney transplant, donated from my dad, but the new kidney already is affected by FSGS. She teaches special education.

Dad has Asperger's Syndrome, a high functioning form of autism, and sleep apnea. He works in a grocery.

K is my older sister. She has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD. She is 20 and is in college as a chemistry major.

T is my younger brother. He also has PDD-NOS. He is 5 and attends kindergarten in a special education classroom.

That is our family, three of us with ASD, one with ADHD, and one neurotypical but not typical in all senses. All of us have alphabet disorders, hence the name of this blog. The other posts will be more interesting, once we get past all of the introductions.