Looking around online I found that for the average family, autism costs them 40 000 to 80 000 American dollars. My government gives us $20 000 a year that only pays for 1/4 of the recommended amount of ABA therapy. Good thing we don’t believe in sticking a kid in 40 hours a week of ABA therapy. I read on another site that the average cost of autism over the person’s lifetime is 3.5 million dollars. That’s on Wikipedia under Autism.
The government will also pay for Silas to go to a speech therapist, but he’ll have to wait on the waiting list for at least two years. They’ll pay for Occupational Therapy too…but the wait list is three years. Silas doesn’t have that kind of time to wait, the time is now.
Silas will only ever get this $20 000 once, maybe twice. It stops when they turn five and goes all the way down to $6 000. I can only spend this money on ABA therapy.
We also firmly believe he needs to see someone to help with biomedical intervention, have extra special activities like swimming lessons and other special classes. It’s also recommended they do biofeedback therapy, go on extra special supplements (some are as much as $150 a month and medical wont cover it). Shall I mention all the tools that we need to buy for him as well? He should be eating organic food. Etc etc etc etc. I’ve failed to mention many other costs.
So really, we need thousands and thousands of extra dollars a year to get Silas the top notch early intervention that he so desperately needs.
I have a million ideas running around in my head as to how we can raise funds for his intervention. One of my ideas was to put a donation area up on this blog. I’ve hummed and hawed about it and finally decided to do so. I don’t want to be pushy about it. If you look under the photo of me taking a bubble bath you’ll see a link to Silas’ Therapy Fund and there you’ll find a link where you can donate money via paypal. You can use your own paypal account for that or just use your credit card, they take everything I think. Any amount of money would be greatly appreciated.
If you’d like to donate by another means you can email me at matriarch83@yahoo.ca
I feel kinda dumb doing this, but this money isn’t for me or for any selfish reasons. We simply need to advocate for our son the best we can, and he needs the best chance we can give him. We’re definitely realizing what the phrase “it takes a community to raise a child” really means. We need a really really really big community.
CLICK HERE to donate to Silas’ therapy now.
you are an inspiration my love.
this was a powerful, well researched, but calm realistic post and I applaud you for it.
like i said in the beginning – SILAS got the bees knees of parents. the best of the best. if only for your determination to try.
love to all your family.
talk soon ok.