There’s an axe throwing place downtown. The worcester public market and green/water street have cute shops and plenty of food to choose from. The worcester historical society is free for the month of February and it’s a really cute place to spend an hour or two before going to get food. Lots of picture opportunities. There’s so many hiking trails to explore, check out the cascades if you want a romantic scene. Have a picnic in the car at Bancroft tower (it’s too cold to eat outside) tower hill botanical garden is really really nice to walk around. And I think there’s a couple of escape room kinda stuff.

If we had better public transit to get to areas where nightlife is happening, people wouldn't have to drive drunk and these kinds of checkpoints wouldn't be needed

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My experience as a parent has been a privilege, I cannot speak for all or relate to many others on the subject.

It's concerning the opinions regarding ABA.

The practitioners should be operating within the parameters developed by the parents.

I certainly believe there are more parents out there concerned with the "symptoms" of ASD and many parents refuse to get a better understanding of how to modify their life/perspective and opinions to generate inclusion for their child.

Sure, many, if not most parents do as they're told in the treatment of their children... But if the therapies are being considered abusive, then I think the fault lies on the parameters that were defined and not the therapy.

As for ABA being the gold standard... Well, it's not of the same quality for gold standards as say Volvo is for safety... But it's a start. I mean, come-on, we used to drill holes in our skulls for the most ridiculous things...

So yeah, there's definitely room for improvement, as there is for all things. But improvement won't come if no one participates.

And I have less faith in people being parents than I do the scientific process...

So the abuse assigned to ABA I say is the result of parents trying to reshape their child, vs parents utilizing ABA to help their child develop skills needed to survive in a world the quite frankly does not give a shit about them, or anyone who doesn't have a voice that can be heard above the nonsense of humanity.

Whenever you see a result of the scientific process being abusive, racist or discriminatory... Was it the process or the practitioner?

Just my 2 cents.

Birchtree

Beachwood..

Via hasn’t been open on Sundays in years

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Seconding Deadhorse. Absolute best pancakes and lots of fun stuff including cocktails. Their food quality is excellent, if good eggs are important to you.

I mean it's completely knocked down. It was awesome 20 years ago when you could go in there legally. What an experience

The palladium is haunted and has tunnels underneath that lead to the catacombs

Deadhorse Hill. So delicious and great drink options too

Heberts Candy Mansion or Wegmans

City Line Diner, Main Street.

I've only ever seen one of these on the bridge between Worcester and Shrewsbury, do they ever set them up elsewhere or in multiple locations on the same night?

Altea's Eatery off Park Ave is pretty good. Flying Rhino on Shrewsbury Street is my second choice.

Livias Dish! Their food is not too expensive.

Understatement of the decade thus far

Armsby is my favorite, then Via.

The same can be said for public school. 🤷🏻‍♀️ At least there kids can get out of the house and experience living socially. At least at school there are mandated reporters.

That was your experience and I'm sorry that happened to you but if parents are good and loving it will be good for them

Westborough has great schools.

…yeah neither of my autistic kids have needed ABA or anything like it to develop social skills outside of school and neither have I. And before you say “hem hem you must be MILD,” both of my boys are considered moderate needs. Both of them have speech and occupational therapy to help them adjust to a neurotypical world, and beyond that, they have accommodations in their classrooms to help them with their sensory needs and other areas that can’t be helped with therapy. We opted out of ABA for both of them; the ABA we DID get for my younger son before he started public school was roughly useless.

ABA by definition is about behavior, not social skills or coping skills. It’s about training autistic kids to act less autistic, which can be absurdly traumatic. I understand you’re drawing on your experience as a special Ed teacher, but in ignoring the experiences and opinions of autistic adults and autistic kids, you’re coming across as the kind of teacher I’d want to stay at least a thousand miles away from my kids.

That’s not how the autism spectrum works. It’s not more or less autistic, and those within the autism community prefer to talk about high versus low needs as a reflection not of a person being super duper or a little autistic but rather of what they actually need.

And yes, the language matters, at it focuses on what the autistic person needs, not how inconvenient they are to the people around them.

Nah this is a pretty standard feeling among adults with autism as well as those of us who’ve experienced ABA with our kids. What autistic kids need isn’t to be trained out of their autism but rather to have a program that actually works with them and their neurodivergence. Models like floor time are significantly more in line with more modern research that’s not looking to erase or cure autism, as it’s not something that can be cured.

Which isn’t to say that I think homeschooling is necessary, but ABA is useless at best and abusive at worst.