Our Journey Into Shared Living
Here is an essay I wrote for our service provider’s newsletter, about Shared Living for Nat. Enjoy! (Source: Susan's Blog)
Source: Susan's Blog - August 28, 2014 Category: Autism Authors: Susan Senator Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
New Development for Disabled Housing Mortgages!
Valuable home-purchasing information for anyone in the country with a developmental disability looking for a possible low percentage down mortgage. I received this information from Autism Housing Pathways’ Cathy Boyle. It may now be possible for parents to buy with very little down through Fannie Mae if the property is for a son or daughter with a developmental disability!
How to get a 5% down mortgage from Fannie Mae if you are buying a property for a son or daughter with a developmental or physical disability:
A parent (or parents) who is a natural person (i.e., not an LLC, or a co-op) can get a Fannie Mae loan fo...
Source: Susan's Blog - August 27, 2014 Category: Autism Authors: Susan Senator Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
Thinking About Autism Housing?
Another great resource for Massachusetts autism adult housing: Housing 101 Workshops you can set up for your own organization. Autism Housing Pathways will bring their workshop to you!
Autism Housing Pathways* has now developed “Thinking about housing” to be “Housing 101″ for families. This free 2 hour presentation introduces families to the range of public funds available to pay for housing and supportive services (including for those without DDS supports). Some examples are given of how these can be combined with private funds to create housing. The presentation also introduces a checklist of things to do...
Source: Susan's Blog - August 26, 2014 Category: Autism Authors: Susan Senator Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
Massachusetts Families: Terrific Opportunity
If you are a Massachusetts resident living with a developmental disability, or if you are a Massachusetts family with a loved one with this diagnosis, pay heed! Especially if you are unlikely to qualify for a Priority One from the Department of Developmental Services at age 22. Priority One is for the most severe cases. Priority One is residential funding — home and staff. Most people in the DDS system do not qualify.
My favorite nonprofit in the entire world, Autism Housing Pathways has received a grant from the Mass. Developmental Disabilities Council. As part of the grant, Autism Housing Pathways will take a coh...
Source: Susan's Blog - August 26, 2014 Category: Autism Authors: Susan Senator Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
How Does He Know?
Life is not a bowl of cherries, but you might be able to get a lot out of a bowl of strawberries. I’m sure you don’t know what I mean, but you will.
I am a writer, a word person, and an idea person, so I am obsessed with the way people say things and know things. Also, I am a mother deeply connected to my sons; put it all together and I am fascinated with what they know and how they express it. They are all three young men by now and so I have the added challenge of trying to figure out what’s going on with them while not seeing them all the time.
Most of the time I write about Nat, because it feels like ...
Source: Susan's Blog - August 2, 2014 Category: Autism Authors: Susan Senator Tags: Uncategorized autism communication development parenting Source Type: blogs
Is De-Auticizing the Goal?
This New York Times piece came my way, and frankly I’m pretty disappointed. “Kids Who ‘Beat’ Autism” is the title, so right away you can see the bias. The author, Ruth Padawer, obviously thinks she is onto something new (decades-old Applied Behavioral Analysis, ABA, of all things) by showing that sometimes such treatments “work” and the kids lose all their autism symptoms. But what she is not seeing is the harm such a viewpoint can unintentionally cause.
The thrust of the article is to draw our sympathy for the families whose kids do not de-auticize, no matter how hard they tried; ...
Source: Susan's Blog - July 31, 2014 Category: Autism Authors: Susan Senator Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
Loving Nat
— The Jewish Advocate, July 11, 2014
My day suddenly became very dark when I got the call: “Nat’s had an incident.”
This happened when he was at his most anxious, and we did not know why. He was biting himself. Yelling, stomping. He’d punched a wall, apparently. He had to leave the store he was in. No, Nat, no! I moaned in my head. Not after all your hard work.
Nat is 24 and has autism, alleged developmental delay, possible sensory issues, suspected processing disorders, really a whole smorgasbord of challenges and disabilities. He also has a keen eye for detail, an open mind, and he’s very, very beautiful...
Source: Susan's Blog - July 12, 2014 Category: Autism Authors: Susan Senator Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
Are We Sure We Should Close All Sheltered Workshops?
How to balance the will of the majority with the needs of the few? In the case of the Inclusion movement, balance may prove elusive. Like so many movements, the cause of disability rights is saddled with a heavy history that advocates now want to be sure to avoid. In the past we had institutions. The documented abuse that inmates suffered is the stuff of horror films. Now the trend is to close all sheltered workshops. Vermont and Massachusetts are among the first to take measures towards that goal. Of course; these are two of the most progressive states in the country, and sheltered workshops is a social justice cause if t...
Source: Susan's Blog - June 12, 2014 Category: Autism Authors: Susan Senator Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
Great Father’s Day Book
PERFECT FOR FATHER’S DAY!
I just found out that my New York Times “Lives” column from 2010 is being published in a small NYT anthology of Lives columns, “Moms and Dads” From the Lives Column. Available at the following places:
Featured TBook this month, available for free (?) to Times subscribers, iTunes, Amazon, B&N
And elsewhere. (Source: Susan's Blog)
Source: Susan's Blog - June 10, 2014 Category: Autism Authors: Susan Senator Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
No Wholesale Blame; Instead, Reframe
The Washington Post, which ran a story last week about how a new study is attempting to tie autism to serial killing. The Post published the article even though researchers involved were quick to point out that their work was nowhere near complete. And for those who had the patience to read through to the end, it also became clear that the study was based on some very spurious techniques (such as looking at certain historic killers and speculating about their lack of eye contact, their inability to empathize). To its credit, the Post quoted The Autism Society of America, a longtime advocacy group with this response: “To ...
Source: Susan's Blog - May 28, 2014 Category: Autism Authors: Susan Senator Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
One Size Does Not Fit All
The institutions are closing. The sheltered workshops are closing. Group homes must be small or else they come under suspicious scrutiny. We don’t want people being clumped together by disability. We don’t want people isolated anymore. Damn right. We want inclusion.
Ah, Inclusion. That beacon on a darkened sea, that oasis in the dessert. The siren song that lures the autism parent onto the rocks.
Hey, I’m all for it. Really. How could I not be? Inclusion is about fairness. Inclusion beckons the outlier into the warmth of the crowd. Soon after Inclusion, there is no more Other, there is just Us.
That’...
Source: Susan's Blog - May 24, 2014 Category: Autism Authors: Susan Senator Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
Empathy
Here is my latest column on NPR/WBUR’s Cognoscenti Column, written about 9 year old Benj and how his empathy button got flipped on by a video game character:
It’s easy to associate video games with violence. I used to worry constantly about this connection, especially when my youngest became a dedicated gamer. But even before his affinity with technology began, I worried about his seeming lack of compassion, and how he angered so easily.
Finally we decided to have Ben evaluated at Children’s Hospital. The official diagnosis was, “Normal but stubborn,” which seemed exactly right — but was no help at all. Be...
Source: Susan's Blog - May 23, 2014 Category: Autism Authors: Susan Senator Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
What, Exactly, Is Normal?
I just now drove down into the busy part of town and while I was stopped at a light I saw a man standing alone, smiling. I looked back at the red light and then quickly back again at the man. Sure enough, he was smiling still, the same full-on toothy genuine kind. I gave him another nanosecond, glanced again. Yep, still. I concluded that he was autistic. To back up my conclusion: he was swinging his body slightly. He tilted his head back, and the sudden breeze touched his hair as it breathed through the leaves overhead. He rolled his head downwards, still smiling.
A velvety pain spread through my chest, but I wasn’t ...
Source: Susan's Blog - May 16, 2014 Category: Autism Authors: Susan Senator Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
Poem for the IM Age
I came downstairs and found ur note
(on instant message, of course)
It was just I love you
Just and all
When you’re really there
Even just
lower case
In bits
I rise out of my words
to my surface
to meet you.
(Source: Susan's Blog)
Source: Susan's Blog - May 13, 2014 Category: Autism Authors: Susan Senator Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
PBS World’s Airing of “Rachel Is”
Here is the link to the 90 minute PBS World show “America Reframed,” which aired the documentary Rachel Is last Tuesday night, May 6, 1014. Rachel is an intellecutally disabled 21-year-old about to graduate from school. She and her mother are working very hard to find her independence in the form of housing, but it is a struggle. The relationship between Rachel and her mom often are severely strained, which is what makes this film worth watching — the honesty in filmmaker Charlotte Glynn’s style makes you stop breathing sometimes, cringe other times, and always cheer for the family. After the docume...
Source: Susan's Blog - May 10, 2014 Category: Autism Authors: Susan Senator Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
