Josh

Josh, out standing in his field. (Well, okay, it's someone else's field, but he's still out standing in it.)

Josh (born 1992-12-12) is the oldest of Sandy's children still living at home. He is autistic, and currently does not use verbal communication (except apparently at school, where he is able to write and speak more or less rote responses on request).

Josh is unusually interactive for an autistic person; he smiles, gives eye contact, laughs, and plays possum sometimes when he knows he has to do something but doesn't want to; his main issue seems to be with communication. On a good day, he will hover outside the office door if he wants something; on a bad day, he will whack Benjy so Benjy will start crying and alert us that something needs attention (at which point we notice that Josh is out of juice, hasn't been fed, or whatever it may be). (We are, of course, trying to discourage this pattern.)

• Josh category with a few things in it
• Josh and The System: the ongoing story of our attempts to get supportive services for Josh

Instructions for Caregivers

Ironically, Josh is actually the easiest of the three. At home, he normally keeps to himself and is almost self-sufficient; the only things he needs (from day to day) that a normal 13-year-old wouldn't need are (1) being cleaned up after a number-two in the toilet (relatively easy; he's very cooperative, and we keep a supply of surgical gloves on hand), and (2) food and drink preparation.

His fall-back diet, for between-meal snacks and meals when we're not preparing something he likes, is hot dogs:

• take frozen pack from the chest freezer (laundry room); microwave at 10% (careful not to accidentally select 70%!) for 8:88 (a.k.a. 9 minutes 28 seconds)
• open the pack, take out half of the dogs (usually 5), put on a plate and microwave on Defrost for 2:22 (usually I rinse off the ice first; they cook more evenly that way, and you don't end up with as much loose water)
• wait until Josh finishes, and repeat for the other half of the pack (he has been known to eat too fast and end up coughing up hot-dog chunks on the floor if given too many at once; 5-6 at a time seems to be okay)

He also snacks on veggie chips (kept in the laundry room above the chest freezer); the bag needs to be opened just a little and he can open it the rest of the way.

Links of Convenience

• After School program
• The Arc of Durham: respite care