A boardmate of mine on one of my ASD parent boards saw a conference by Tony Atwood yesterday. In her cliff notes from the conference one thing jumped out at me:
For people with AS, the degree of stress or the degree to which they will "withdraw" is directly proportional to the number of people present in a given setting.
I want to scream and shout that this is further validation of what we experience with Cam. Having him in a large classroom setting or even a large Karate class BOTH proved to be unsuccessful... he simply could not get past the various forms of input/external stimulation going on around him.

Which leads us to the quandary of what to do about school again. Schools around here are CROWDED. We opted to enroll J in our local feeder school which as I said in an earlier post is HUGE. It had almost 1000 kids last year and with the various school closings and rezoning around here it's expected to be more this year. And taking into account what our experiences have been with Cam AND what Atwood said... it simply would not work for Cam. And with limited choices we have around here even our local private schools are busting at the seams. And truthfully, the only Cam had addressed in public school was speech therapy twice a week. At least during homeschool (where he excels academically) we CAN work on critical thinking skills, social skills and this year Brain Gym exercises. But we HAVE to find an active homeschool group local which is proving VERY difficult.
All of this is so frustrating for me personally in the sense that we know our only option right now IS to homeschool. Not that I don't love homeschooling him but the truth be told, we're completely broke. We need me to work but I don't know how this would be feasible unless I give up sleeping. I'll have C and B home this year because we cannot afford preschool for B. Which is OK, it makes working with C a little bit of challenge but it works out. We've done it before. So whenever I get the $ to take boards here in FL and IF (hopefully) I pass I'm hoping I can work weekends (maybe 7p-7a) but since J works on Saturdays...there goes any hopes of sleeping prior to going in to work.
Blech. I did YEARS of night shift and ultimately it just made me sick. I'm a morning person so it was not conducive to my system LOL. Unfortunately we need the money and I need to homeschool C and still have B home. So it should be interesting.
I'm TIRED of people telling me it will work out. Because you know what, it hasn't. We're barely making ends meet. We need basics... shoes, pajamas, clothes, our plumbing fixed, dental and doctor appointments. Hell, gas in my car.
((sigh))
Sorry. I'm just feeling like there's no way out right now. It's been tough since March and it has just continued to go down hill.
How this post turned from my Tony Atwood story to this... I have no idea. I apologize for my stream of consciousness.