Hi Sandra, What city is this in?

Hi Donna,

You might want to connect with Respite Services (https://respiteservices.com/ )
Respite Services provides a short planned break from the physical and emotional demands involved in caring for a family member who has a disability. Respite creates greater opportunities for all family members to live actively and participate in community activities and allows parents/guardians time for themselves.

For more information please contact Intake and Information at 416-322-6317 x 1

Don

Hi alivery,
Respiteservices.com’s CHAP program provides a list of respite staff. Here is the link to the Toronto directory http://www.respiteservices.com/Toronto/index.aspx?CategoryID=14&lang=en-CA

You can contact Brendon’s office at 416-860-7572

Hi Noshir,

Here are a couple of suggestions that might be helpful:
The Ontario Speech and Language Association web site allows you to search for a Speech Language Pathologist on the site. https://www.osla.on.ca

The Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre might be a good resource to check out http://www.jccc.on.ca/en/

Hi Elizabeth,

Here is a response I am posting on behalf of Helen:

“I have a daughter with Down syndrome who I track when she is on TTC surface routes. My current tracking device is by Trackimo http://trackimo.com/
I have their newer model 3G Trackimo® GPS Tracker . I initially purchased the previous model but it was defective and the manufacturer replaced it with the newer better model at no extra charge (though I did pay to ship back the defective one).

I like Trackimo because the first year of tracking is included in the purchase price that I paid and thereafter the annual cost is $5 USD per month which is pretty reasonable compared to other companies.
The device does seem to be pretty accurate and the battery life is very good so far (we’ve had this device for 6 weeks or so). It presents the data on a Google map when I log in and I can see where my daughter is.
The customer support so far is good since they did respond promptly when the first device was defective and did help with troubleshooting.
However it did take a few weeks before I received the replacement device. Shipping is a bit slow.

Keep in mind that these tracking devices don’t work indoors and don’t work on the subway so are only useful when the user is outside or in a car or bus. Sometimes if there is heavy cloud cover, gps does not work –and this applies to all gps devices.

Prior to purchasing Trackimo, I did buy a Thinkrace gps tracker on Amazon. It was good for about 1 year and then the battery started to die and I could not easily obtain a replacement battery. The battery life on the Thinkrace that I had wasn’t very long 15 hours at most. I believe their newer models have better battery life but they have increased their monthly monitoring fees, so they are considerably more expensive to maintain, compared to Trackimo.

Overall I do find the gps very useful as my daughter has difficulty telling me exactly where she is and it’s just easier if I can look at the map and see for myself how she’s progressing on her way to and from her programs on the TTC.
Helen”