Autism Therapy on a Budget continued

3. Play therapy can be a lot of fun and it doesn't have to cost a lot. Autism Games has a lot of low cost ideas at http://autismgames.googlepages.com/.

4. Evaluate relatives for the characteristics needed to help. If grandma is healthy, loving and can handle your child, you could have grandmother trained to do therapy at home. Nieces and nephews might be glad to help, with your supervision of course. You might want to pay a little, if you can. Books like "Engaging Autism" can be a place to start.

5. There are inspirational interviews with famous Temple Grandin on www.npr.com for free. Just search her name.

Be patient this is a work in progress!

Autism Therapy on a Budget

I can remember, when my child was diagnosed with autism, investigating all the therapies and options available for her. And boy, were some of them expensive! I was a single mom and I had to so the best I could with what I could get. I would have loved a list like this back then. There are a lot of suspicious ‘therapies’ out there, be careful. In one treatment, that cost $5,000, you were given activities which you could have gotten from a $13 sensory integration book and a booklet of $5 scratch and sniff stickers.

Although many people with autism will need lifelong care, they can work, marry, and lead normal lives on a variety of levels. There are even people with autism who are geniuses, but have problems with sensory pain which causes outbursts. The future of your child still lays open before them!

1. Use free school resources like early intervention classes. Use the school speech therapist or any other therapist your child needs. Some people have moved because the school cannot provide the speech therapy, physical therapy, and occupational therapy which their child needs.

2. ABA can be expensive but you can do matching games on your own and add that to a school based play intervention with speech therapy. You can mix this with other free and low cost therapies. You can make your own flash cards by searching the internet. Laminate the cards for wear and tear.

I will add to this list in the upcoming days...

Autism Therapy On A Budget Continued

And Again

More of My List

Getting To the End

Autism and Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)

The full spectrum lights seem to be helpful for people with Autism and Seasonal Affective Disorder. Some of the professionals working with the people who have autism call these lights ‘Seven Spectrum Frequency Lighting’. Unfortunately these lights are very expensive on the order of $15,000 for the set. A relatively inexpensive solution is ‘grow lights’ that would be used on a planetarium or fish tank. You might be able to buy one every so often until you had a bank of these to use in the mornings.

Other Local Blogs

My Penny Pile is in Texas.

Walmart

Walmart in my area-Southwest Lousiana-does let you have overage with a coupon. They also have travel sizes of products in the pharmacy department. And will let you use a 'any' coupon on a travel size. I appreciate living in such a good area.

Target

Target in my area-Southwest Louisiana-does not allow you to have overages with your coupons.

Tip

If you haven't tried Vocalpoint, you might want to sign up at this site. They are going to pay me $75.00 to open my mail for 6 days and write in a journal about it. I open my mail everyday now for free! They have also sent me free coupons or large coupons for products to try.

Spending My Money Twice

I like to spend my money twice. Let me tell you what I mean. I went to Walgreens last Friday. I'm on the Walgreens email list and got a coupon for $5.00 off of $20.00 purchase. I also had the Walgreens flyer in my car. I had a coupon to get the already on sale for $1.00 Pringles for $0.79, the regularly priced $0.79 and candy bars for $0.39. I also got 2 twelve packs of toilet paper which had a $2.00 rebate in the Walgreens supersaver and a bottle of calcium pills for $5.99 which I will get my purchase price back with the supersaver.

By the time I was finished I had $30.43 cents worth of merchandise. After coupons and rebates I paid $14.33. I get to spend the $16.10 I would have spent over again. The only thing I purchased which I might not have normally purchased was the calcium pills. With 3 females in my family and the fact I got the full purchase price back, I felt it was worth buying.

I know people do much better than this on their shopping trips. When you consider the time I have available to devote to my 'spending money twice' hobby I am very satisfied with my savings.
Till Next Time,
Mylinda

Introduction

Hello!
I hope to be able to share tips I have acquired being a single mom and raising a child with autism and a large family. Being in a family with a member with a disability has it's own techniques to learn. Being in a large family has budgeting considerations. I plan to combine both of these viewpoints in posts to come.
Till next post,
Mylinda