The Quiet Crisis Next Door

Tag: ABA

  • It Will Cost You

    After I finished last Sunday’s update, I promised family and friends I would keep today’s post shorter to compensate for that extra bit of reading. I know each of you have busy lives, and the words in my head can multiply on a screen quicker than dust bunnies for a pet owner. But I promise…

  • Public Therapy Here, There, & Everywhere

    As I have mentioned previously, when it comes to successfully working with Tony, his bond with a person matters. Evidence of this can be seen in many areas, and currently he is at his most cooperative only with the people he has more trust in. This is something that always has to be respected when…

  • Rocking A World Of Constant Motion

    When people meet Tony in an environment he’s less threatened by, I am often asked: “Is he always this active?” I can only go with the truth here, and that would be…Yes. Now go ahead and close your eyes, imagining that word as a flashing neon sign. While Tony certainly struggles to do certain movements,…

  • You Say “Hello,” He Says “I’ve Gotta Go!”

    By November of 2016 we had reached the point where Tony was no longer vomiting if people got too close to him, but it was still extremely challenging to get him into most public places. There are a number of reasons for that, many related to the differences in his sensory systems, but our little…

  • Public Therapy Fireworks

    Some things changed for Tony on October 17th, the day Whispie died. He had done amazingly well in our vet’s office just 5 days earlier when Dickens, our beloved Catzilla, passed on. I think it was too soon for Tony to be back there after such an emotional scene, too soon for all of us,…

  • Torn Between the Two

    I could hear the sound of children talking excitedly and calling to one another before we even crossed the doors. Inside, the noise was everything you would expect from an elementary school assembly devoted to building school spirit and honoring the achievements of certain students. A few teachers were leading some of the kids in…

  • Dealing With the Words That Wound

    Some days when Tony and I are tackling our list of stores, he’s having a hard enough time getting through the environment that I end up feeling like a thoroughly punctured tire by the time we are done. And other days, he’s doing absolutely amazing and things are going so well I feel like there’s…

  • Never as Easy as a Picture Makes it Seem

    A picture hints at a story like a cuttlefish…a moment of time is captured, and it looks a certain way. If the shutter closed one second quicker or is slightly delayed, perhaps a very different story would be implied. We all know pictures can give life to a lie…they can be redrawn so that nothing…

  • Photo Field Trip Into Therapy Territory

    This week we’re journeying a bit into Tony’s current therapy territory so that each of you can see some of what we spend so much time doing. There are going to be lots of photos with brief explanations about what we are doing in them to provide all of the support we possibly can for…

  • Surviving My Post Amazon World

    Diagnosis labels shouldn’t matter to people we don’t know…but they do. I wish I was able to walk into a store without having to explain so much as one of my son’s conditions…but I can’t. If you’re a parent of young children, you know…no matter how much you treasure your kiddos, store shopping with them…