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Hello!
Thank you for taking a moment to listen to our story. As someone raised to value independence and hard work it isn’t always easy to reach out and ask for help and I would never want anyone to feel pressured or obligated. So I will preface my story by saying that we are blessed with an amazing community that you are a part of. Support comes in many forms and even though this is a money raising platform, all types of support are welcome. Thank you for being a part of our lives.
Even before COVID began, back when I was homeschooling my three kids, there were many areas in which they all struggled. School was hard, food was hard and even doing day to day tasks like teeth brushing was hard. I always thought everything was this way because of the chaos in our lives and that once we found stability everything would fall into place. Unfortunately, seven years later, not much has changed and I have become very concerned for each of my kids in different ways. They each have been struggling with school and friendships, as well as regular tasks from home. Meltdowns and panic attacks have become a common part of our weeks, as well as school based meetings, phone calls from principals and trips to counsellors when we can afford them. After reaching out to multiple resources and hours of research I have come to the conclusion that I would like to rule out a subsection of autism called Pathological Demand Avoidance (PDA). Though it has not been formally recognized as its own diagnosable disorder it still falls under the Autism Spectrum, and at first glance presents very differently than what we typically think of with autism. People who identify with PDA can make eye contact, are great at masking and can do quite well -appearing to handle the world like everyone else does. The difficulty is that perceived, implied or direct demands can trigger the sympathetic nervous system to respond thus making even the simplest or basic needs debilitating. If you’d like to learn more, please check out pdasociety.org or send me an email and I will forward an excellent infographic explaining some of the nuances.
I have found a highly recommended clinic that is familiar with PDA that does Autism and PsychEd Assessments and have already taken the initiative to get B💜 started on this process. She likely needs both assessments and A🩷 and S💙 will need the autism assessment (they have both had psych-eds done).
The costs that come with these assessments are very prohibitive and I initially planned to apply for grants with the Variety Children’s Club but they have paused acceptance of new applications for the time being.
Autism and Psych-Ed Assessments cost $3200 each, but because we are doing them with the same clinic (if we can raise funds) they are offering us discounts ($3000 for the autism and $2400 for B💜’s psych-ed) making the total for all four $11,400. Heather has already contributed towards B💜’s autism assessment (our highest priority) and I am in the process of applying for the Disability Tax Credit for S💙 which I hope should contribute significantly. Likely, we will do what we can afford right now and hold off on the other assessments if necessary, but I wanted to offer the opportunity for your help to get the most assistance for these amazing kids.
Goal 1: $3000 (one autism assessment)
Goal 2: $6000 (two autism assessments)
Goal 3: $9000 (three autism assessments)
Goal 4: $11,400 (all four assessments!)
*Once a goal is reached I will raise the amount to the next level*
Thank you for reading this far! I appreciate you taking the time. Please let me know if you have questions, I am happy to answer them - it can be hard to write down our complicated situation into a couple short paragraphs but I’m happy to share!
Sincerely, Teressa Gomez
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