| ID# 69982 |
Bloomfield, NJ | Submitted: 2007-11-29 |
Total Cost:
$1,250.00
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Progress: We've raised 100% of the cost of this application!
Testimonial
This person has left the following thank you note:
To the Modest Needs community, WOW! What a Christmas present you gave my son and me, I decided to check my status while I was waiting for my son to get ready for bed. I must have reread 'My Applications Status: Funded' five or six times still not believing my eyes I called my dad and read it to him. Words cannot express how grateful I am to you. Being able to give my son one component of 'his necessities' without the stress of wondering how I am going to pay for it or if my parents will need to give up four months of prescriptions when in the Medicare 'doughnut hole' again this year so their grandchild can have one more tool. See it's not just ONE therapy or one activity-it's a collaboration of several coupled with support and dedication all the while only showing my son a smile and positive approach to any challenge. Thank you for being our Christmas Angels!
Give My Son The Necessary Tools
My Story:
I have Multiple Sclerosis, a single parent and my son has Autism and ADHD. Our only income is what I received from SSDI and what my son receives because he is the child of a disabled parent. (He does not receive SSDI for Autism because he receives 'parental SSDI' and we don't qualify for any other assistance because of it either).
Very little of the necessary therapies my son has needed and still needs are covered by insurance. My parents, both 77 years old would pay for these as well as everyday living expenses I couldn't afford. They also provided opportunities for my son to socialize with his typical peers outside the home and school environment since he was 2 ½. My son is now 10. At one point there were five different therapists coming to my home to work with my son completing 40+ hours a week. This expense was suppose to be picked up by the school district, but my parents decided to take the money and help my son rather than tie it up in legalities, which would have hurt him in the long run.
My parents can no longer afford to pick up what I can't afford nor can I afford to continue them. We even stopped the last of five therapist coming to the house for weekly therapy and the sole source of therapy my son receives is social skills at $75 a week; my parents pay that not because they can afford it but because my son needs it so they'll go without necessities in their life for my son and they don't regret it and would do it over again in a heartbeat for my son to grow to be a functioning self-supporting individual. He's in a mainstreamed classroom with an aide to facilitate social interaction with his peers.
He has a very hard time with the abstract and maintaining and understanding friendships. This is where my request comes in for his tuition in TaeKwonDo. It's been, and still is, very important for my son to be with 'typical' peers where 'typical' situations would occur so he can learn. From early on, we had him join activities; even when he wasn't speaking for his could receptively learn, which would provide the idea social setting while he was encouraged and he experienced 'typical' situations. In the beginning we would have one of the home therapist shadow him in different activities (YMCA, swimming, etc) giving him 'in the moment social skills' so he could relate to the situation. All paid by my parents. The goal was to teach him to be in disguisable from his peers. We found when we honestly enrolled him in an activity with a shadow he was turned away-How do you teach that to a child?
At 4 1/2 years old, I enrolled him in TaeKwonDo, (TKD) and I didn't send a shadow or say anything about his Autism. I did sit there on pin and needles waiting for him to be asked not to come anymore, and still do, but that never happened. He made friends and progressed with his peers at each level. He will be testing for his Black Belt on December 15, 2007. I won't tell you it's been easy, it's been a long and difficult road with many teaching opportunities for my son. Many have been difficult; he truly isn't in disguisable from his peers because of his high-level academics and interests, something that makes any child a target especially an Autistic child, but being in this TKD School has made that 'gap' smaller.
TKD gave him self confidence, something in common with his peers, self-control and self discipline are emerging and he takes his role of responsibility as Jr. Black Belt very seriously-he will spend two classes almost four days a week assisting the instructors with the younger students in addition to his own classes. He is also a straight A student in grade 5 and 6th grade Math, participated in United We Read, a read-a-thon to benefit 9/11 and was nominated and elected K-Kids Secretary (this is an elementary level Key club).
Up until now my parents have always paid for this, they cannot now. This isn't just a recreational sport for my son-this is a necessity, the more he's allowed to successfully interact with typical peers, the more he will learn. All those inferences read in a book are starting to make sense to him after we talk about what happened in class and his questions.
He would like to continue after he receives his 1st Dan Black Belt, he has dreams of going all the way to 7th Dan Black Belt-I don't know if he'll make it that far but for him to have a dream-is like a dream to me- something I never thought he would have. I renewed his classes for another year; I have no idea how I'm going to pay for it.
Thank you for the opportunity to request assistance from you and hopefully one day the Autistic kid of the mother would fought with every doctor not to put he son on medication to control him will show them THEY can succeed and change the stereotypes of Autism.
As of 2007-12-24, this application has been fully funded!
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This request for help was funded at the recommendation and through the support of Modest Needs' donors. |
Application Status Update: On 2007-12-24, Modest Needs sent payment via Check in the amount of $1,155.00 to Master Cho's Talium on behalf of this deserving individual.
