Autism Blogger

Hi everone,

I have never done a blog before so this is  all new to me.  I have a son Michael who is 12 that has Autism. He will turn 13 in Oct.

Also I am I single mom. Michaels dad is not involved in his life. I have been staying with my parent who have been helping me with my son.

I am planning on moving out soon but Im worried because  I will be loseing there support as they will have to move out of the area because it cost to

 much for rent. So I will be on my own. Anyway that is all there is to know about me. I will blog again later! Bye!

"Our daugher is two and a half.  She is lively and energetic.  Our son is four, and he is on the spectrum...." the father stated letting his voice trail away.  I was sitting at an interview with a potential new family.  The mother and father were seated around me now waiting for my response.  We had communicated over the course of several days via email about their children, and my possible employment.  They had of course told me a bit about the children.  Their ages, interests and dislikes had all been shared with me.  The fact that their son was Autistic had not been stated until now.  I had worked as a nanny for four families prior to this time.  I had taken care of many children.  I did not have any experience with Autism.  My first thought was "can I handle this?" I knew little about Autism. 

It is now one year later.  Elizabeth and Jacob are now one year older.  I am now one year wiser.   I have become part of a new community.  A community of parents, caregivers, teachers, and children who all care about and are affected by Autism.  As I have watched Jacob grow over this past year I have become his biggest cheerleader.  Each time he greets me when I pick him up from school my heart aches with pride.  When he independently drew a cow instead of just writing numbers over and over again I wanted to shout from the rooftops.  When he mocked me as I started to ask him to please not climb on the bookshelves I could not have been any happier. This is a battle and we are winning I want to tell him!!! His victorys may seem small but they are so big! Everyday is a new opportunity for us to grow and learn.  Everyday is a chance to make progress.  This is a fight, and we will not be defeated for Jacob is a champion! 

TV News story about a 14 year old girl who wrote a poem about her mother and younger autistic brother. She has since made it into a song "Silent World", recorded it, and is attracting attention worldwide. She's also on myspace at:

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=395905462

Our new business is going to be featured on The Big Idea!  This is a CNBC show for those of you who do not know.  Tune in on Sept. 11th and learn a little more about our business!

I tried it and was surprised at how much it taste like Starbucks =)

 Ingredients

1/2 cup milk

2 tablespoons chocolate syrup

1 tablespoon granulated sugar, plus

1 teaspoon granulated sugar

1/3 cup strong coffee

1 cup ice

Directions

1in a blender, combine everything but the ice, and blend until sugar has dissolved.

2add ice and blend until smooth (sometimes you will need a bit more ice).

*Top with whipped cream & enjoy! 

http://tackyraccoons.com/

  http://www.amyoops.com/2008/09/private-palin.html enjoy =)

I have some questions for you experienced autism parents about anger issues in my 3 year old.  His agression level has increased and become violent.  He is a very high functioning autistic child and is soooooo angry.  He has been throwing chairs, bitting himself, talking very ugly, hitting, yelling and screaming and other angry behaviors.  While I do know that some of these behaviors are consistent with autism,  I am concerned at thier increase and intensitiy.  I was told that I should have him screened for ODD by the autism school that he is currently attending.  He is very quick to get angry and will argue most of what you say or tell him.  Anyone is the same boat?????

I've never done this personally but uh might come in handy for some of y'all. 

http://www.cyberbeg.com/ 

This week I had the gas company out to inspect our oven, which has been smelling of gas lately. Actually, for months. They told me I had a bad igniter and that it could cause the oven door to blow off. Also, a part of the burner inside had an enlarged hole in it, which does something weird to the flame. It's $40 plus labor to replace the igniter but they don't make the other part anymore since the oven is almost 25 years old and from a manufacturer no one as ever heard of. So I guess we're going to have to buy a new oven/range. Or, I could just cook everything on the stove and microwave. Those are working fine.

To top off our week, we got a $1500 bill for a report portion of assessment that we had done for Wyatt in March of 2007. I had paid $2000 toward the assessment with the understanding that we would owe the remaining $1500 upon receipt of the report (a total of $3500). Back in 2007, we had asked for a reduction in the bill since we didn't need certain parts of the report. When we never received the report, we thought the Dr. was giving us a break on the bill by not giving us the report at all. We needed the report for a legal issue and the legal issue was resolved. After speaking to the Dr. today, it turned out that the Dr. had emailed the report to the wrong email address. And now, 18 months later, their office has asked for the rest of the money, promising to email the report to our correct email address. What a mess. And now that the report is 18 months old, it's not that useful to me. Although, their office says it is because we can use if for comparison to chart Wyatt's progress.

Aaargh!!! It's just that this bill comes at a really bad time. We just spent over $600 to replace that window that Wyatt broke. I thought it was only going to be $400 but it morphed into more. Of course!

My 8 year old son is mainstreamed in public school with an aid.  He has a serious problem when leaving the lunch room to go out to recess.  If his class is not the first group dismissed from lunch for recess he has a complete melt down.  Nothing I've done seem to help, I'm now going up to his school everyday just to try to get him to walk out with his class for recess.

I just wanted to let y'all know that Google has a free browser. I downloaded it yesterday. It's pretty good. If

you wanta try it just go to Google & put Google Chrome into search =)

Thirty-four-year-old Bradley Huie measures success with a different kind of yardstick than most. But then he's lived his life from a different kind of perspective than most.

"I'm like the Rain Man," says Huie, comparing himself to Dustin Hoffman's autistic character in the 1988 film by the same name. "I have a message and that's, 'Don't give up on your hopes and dreams and what God has given you because we each have a different piece of the puzzle.'"

Huie was in his teens before anyone could put a label on his "piece of the puzzle." That's when he was diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome, a neurological disorder that makes communication and social interaction difficult. Some experts believe Asperger's could be a form of high-functioning autism.

Now, Huie and his mother, Cherylyn Grant, want to share their experience with Asperger's, from both the child's and parent's points of view. The two have co-authored a book, "What is it About Me You Do Not Understand? Living the Life of Autism and Asperger's."

"It's about me, about where I've been and what I do," Huie said. But it's also "a survivor's guide that talks about milestones, challenges and what to do in certain situations."

Click on the newslink to read the entire article. 

A physician who sees autism spectrum disorder as a biomedical illness that results in "brain malnutrition" will give a free public talk Sept. 26 and a clinician seminar Sept. 27, both in the Cameron Center auditorium.

Dr. Jaquelyn McCandless, who is the author of the best-selling "Children with Starving Brains," is appearing at events co-sponsored by the Autism Research Institute and the local Lokelani 'Ohana.

McCandless will hold the free talk on biomedical approaches to autism, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Sept. 26.

The clinician session "Defeat Autism Now," which will run from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sept. 27, is geared for those who provide primary medical care to children and to adults diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders. The seminar will cover the diagnosis of autism spectrum disorders that can be treated medically and strategies for development of treatment plans and review case histories.

Cost of the seminar is $295 with lunch and light refreshments provided. Checks may be made payable to Lokelani 'Ohana and mailed to 2315 Kahekili Highway, Wailuku 96793. The deadline to sign up for the seminar is Sept. 12.

Click on the newslink to read the entire article. 

Thereby she highlighted new findings on the role of gene mutations, their association with synapse abnormalities, and -- surprisingly -- a connection between circadian rhythms and autism risk. These insights will nurture applied projects on the development of new therapeutic strategies.

The autistic disorder was first described, more than sixty years ago, by Dr. Leo Kanner of the Johns Hopkins Hospital (USA), who created the new label ´early infantile autism´. At the same time an Austrian scientist, Dr. Hans Asperger, described a milder form of the disorder that became known as Asperger Syndrome, characterised by higher cognitive abilities and more normal language function. Today, both disorders are classified in the continuum of ´Pervasive Developmental Disorders´ (PDD), more often referred to as Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD).

Click on the newslink to read the full article.