THE SHADDOX BOYS

Jacob and Elijah Shaddox are brothers. Jacob is 21 years old and just moved into an apartment with his girlfriend. He graduated from a technical college with an Associate's degree in Computer Maintenance. He works for a school district as a computer technician. Elijah is almost 18 years old. He is hearing impaired, has Tourette Syndrome, OCD and ADHD. He is a junior in high school. Elijah lives with his mom Mary and her wife, his stepmom. Mary has a bachelor's in deaf education and a masters in special education, and is an educational diagnostician. Life is always changing and this blog has chronicled many of these changes and will continue to do so!






Sunday, April 12, 2015

NBC Dateline Episode 4/12/15

Tonight's episode of Dateline covered young me with autism who were "aging out" of school when they turned 21. The episode highlighted two families' struggles with finding services for the sons after they turned 21. All parents of special needs students should be watch this episode of Dateline. This affects young people with intellectual disabilities, physical disabilities, and other developmental disabilities.

We had a transition meeting at Elijah's last ARD meeting (IEP meeting) back in February. Elijah attended the ARD and I asked that a representative from the Department of Assistive and Rehabilitative Services (DARS) to attend his ARD. The DARS representative works only with students who are deaf and hard of hearing. I signed consent for her to meet with Elijah at the high school next year and in the years to follow. I am hoping that we can come up with a plan for him for after graduation. Elijah can stay in school until the age of 21 since he is under special education. I don't know if he will need to stay in school until he is 21 or graduate when he completes four years of high school and passes his classes. He will be 19 at that time. He repeated second grade back in elementary school.

Like the moms in the Dateline episode I have educated myself on Elijah's rights and am his strongest advocate. I also have my experience as a teacher in special education to assist me. I am not sure how parents who don't have this background navigate the system. I don't usually write about work, but I do worry about my own students. All I can do is try to educate the parents as best I can.

Saturday, April 11, 2015

I'm Hungry!

Elijah seems to always be hungry. I guess it is part of being a teenage boy and he will be 15 in just about two weeks. However, there are times that I know he is NOT hungry! Last weekend, my honey and I took Elijah, Jacob, Jacob's girlfriend and my mom out to eat for my birthday. We went to BJ's restaurant and my honey brought a cake from the "Nothing Bundt Cake" store. They make some awesome cakes and she got me a white raspberry cake!

We ordered two appetizers and Elijah did eat quite a bit. He ordered a small pizzas for his meal and ate three of the four slices. We all finished our meal and the waiter brought some plates for the cake. Elijah got his piece of cake and then told us that it didn't taste right. I told him he didn't have to eat it and he seemed fine with that. He then looked down at me as he rubbed his forehead looking quite sad. He says "I am hungry" with a tone of despair. My mom chuckled and I tried not to laugh. There was NO way he was hungry. He wanted one of the desserts from the restaurant. They have hot cookies with ice cream and that is what he wanted. I told him we were NOT ordering desserts because we were having cake. He sighed and just sat there looking all forlorn. He looked at my mother to see if she would get him something and she avoided eye contact. We all ate our cake and talked. He then looked down at me and said, "Can I have my cake back?" I gave him his cake and he ate it. My honey and I have laughed about this all week, because it is a running joke that Elijah is always hungry! In this way, he is a very typical teenage boy!