Ahead of the Curve

  Our family seems to be ahead of the curve on a lot of things.
  It's merely humorous when we're talking about giving the babies unusual names that suddenly become every baby's name.
  But it's not funny  when we're talking about services for Max.
  When he was little, he wasn't ready for the activities offered for neurotypical kids his age.  And there weren't a lot of options for autistic kids back then.  Most of what there was, he'd already aged out of the qualifications for the activity.
  But later there were options for a kid of a given age with autism.
  They usually were offered too late for Max, but after Max was too old for them, the activities started showing up.
  We're hitting the aging out thing again.  Now Max needs a new speech therapist, MyGuy wants us to no longer use the hospital service, and i'm finding that most places either don't treat autistic speech deficiencies at all, or only treat them in children. 
  This is not an uncommon phenomenon.
Maureen Brenner notes that while individuals with greater support needs will often receive services through the state after turning 22*, “there are people at a higher functioning level like Kent that we describe as ‘falling through the cracks’ and may not have eligibility for services that could make all the difference in their lives,” she said. “If we don’t prepare as a society for that, they aren’t going to be the contributors to this country that they could be.”

Awards Day; Max and a favorite teacher

*This is an issue mainly because the cost of these services makes their private provision, without support beyond the family, impossible.  Like, do you choose to provide daily sustenance or services which will improve future conditions?