On Sunday morning things were so different.  Monday brought a new set of troubles!  Actually, the home troubles blossomed into school ones when our boy took IT out during a mainstreamed class.  While I was at work, the phone rang at home and no-one had the guts to say why I had to call them back.  Of course it was late so I telephoned the administrator and got my answer. 

He doesn't acknowlege why he did it, only repeats when.  He fell short of tellling and that's all we want to know. 

PS:  Did anyone read about the woman in England who torched herself and disabled daughter in a car?  She was being harrassed by youths and couldn't take it anymore.  She left a 16 year  old boy to fend for himself.  

Hello All,

We are a family of four with Mr. Autism as our first born.  (I call him that out of love.)  He is 14 and well into puberty.  Next came another son age 13 & attends regular middle school.  We have two dogs, both of which we feel teaches there are other living things and the world does not revolve around one person.  One of the dogs is 9 and we had told a neurologist we were thinking of a puppy.  He seemingly without thinking said no..Needless to say, we threw his opinion out the window.  Thru this, we have found doctors are not all-knowing.  One must take what they say and think long and hard about it!

It takes time for a pet to get into the heart, some get there quickly but others take some getting used to.  Mr. A still says to me, We love our dog, right? During this past summer we have a new puppy- a little dog.  Bob/Mr.A doesn't like the smell of their food and has for years refused to go down the pet food isle while shopping - but overall he is very tolerant of both dogs.  He is even petting them now- although the older dog is too big to pickup comfortably he will pickup the small puppy and hold him like a sack of potatoes! 

My point is we must take life and trust our judgement.  There are days that we ask why but there are also the other ones that make it worth doing.

I am so glad to have found this forum!  Have a great Sunday. 

Hi my names Bekki.  I have Aspergers but was not diagnosed until I was 21.  I was actually in prison at the time due to my anti-social behaviour.  I went through all my school life not knowing what was wrong with me.  Despite my mother telling the doctor at 6 months old that she thought I was autistic.  Nobody ever listened.  I ended up rebelling against society, because I blamed them for not allowing me to fit in.  Eventually I ended up in prison, where I was diagnosed as having Aspergers.  I feel that if I had been diagnosed earlier, prison could have been avoided. I found it very hard to adapt to life outside of prison and reoffended twice to get back in.  Due to my AS I found prison offered me a routine, one that I couldn't get out of.  I had no hope for the future and expected to spend the rest of my life in jail, but upon my release in January 2005, I was offered a place at ESPA colleges,  Since starting there I have used my experiences to help other students and became a peer-mentor, student committee respresentative and equality & Diversity committee representive.  I was nominated by the college this year for the Equality North East wards and was one of the fnalists.  I have also completed my level 2 in counselling along with other basic qualifications that i couldnt manage at school.  I believe I wouldn't be standing where I am now if it wasn't for ESPA www.espa.org.uk They offered me a chance in life. I would definately still be in jail if they hadnt given me this chance.  I'm no longer at ESPA, due to the LSC pulling out of a third year funding. But I keep in touch regularly, I am still involved with my fellow students and the equality & diversity committee. I am now writing my book as I feel it is important to get my story out. Nobody should have to wait till its too late for a diagnosis like I did.  read more »

At times I used to find it difficult to explain properly to my husband exactly what life could be like on a daily basis at home with our son (a 5 year old with an autism spectrum disorder).  It's not that I couldn't find the words, but it's more that it's one of those things that you really have to experience for yourself.

That was until recently... a few weeks ago my husband spent a weekend on his own caring for our 2 children whilst I had a 'break' and went to stay with family.

Whilst I was away, he took over the posting on our blog www.managingautism.com and gave the lowdown on the happenings of the weekend.  All I can say is, I'm really glad I wasn't aware of what was happening until I returned home.  I would have probably cut short my time away and returned home to rescue him!

It did him good to have time on his own with the children, and overall, he managed really well - and learned quite a few lessons in the process!!

The only problem is, the next time I decide to have a weekend away, the story's of this recent weekend will be lurking in the back of my mind.

We have been really busy lately 'practicing' social situations with our son who has Aspergers.  We have found that roleplaying has been a really good way of allowing him to explore different social settings and the various ways that he might respond (and the natural consequences that come with each response, of course).  Roleplaying is a very 'forgiving' way of learning social behaviours.  More about this topic on our personal blog http://www.managingautism.com.

Our son struggles to cope with many social settings so this has been a really beneficial thing for us to do as a family.  Hopefully as we 'practice' more and more he will become more comfortable with the social environment.

Hello, we are new to the 'Online Autism Community'. We have had the privilege of spending a number of weeks reading and enjoying blog posts from other community members and decided it was time to join ourselves.

Our son has been diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder, and whilst coping with the turmoil of adjusting to life with 'the diagnosis' we have spent a great deal of time researching and learning as much about autism as we can.  We share a lot of our story as well as our tips and advice on coping with autism on our blog http://www.managingautism.com.

Autism is an important part of our lives and we look forward to being a part of this community and learning from others as well as sharing ourselves.

 As a parent of a young man with autism, I can not tell you how many times well meaning adults made rude comments when our son was having a melt down in a public place. I think today it may be a bit easier as the word Autism is more well known. We adopted our son when he was four and when he was small it was a bit easier to get him out of the store quickly before things went flying. Now that he is 5'11 and 165 it is a bit of a challenge. We have had run ins with nurses who have written down our license plate and turned us into child protective services, police officers, etc. I am a firm believer my son has the same rights as anyone but with so many bad experiences we had become a bit gun shy at taking Chris out. We learned to scope out places before taking Chris. We would talk to the store managers and restaurant  workers about our son and when we would be bringing Chris.  We became more at ease and with us being more at ease  so was Chris. He loves to go to the big hardware stores and using this idea he has made some great friends. Our kids and  adults have a right to be out in public they and others just may need a little support along the way.

Autism: Did you know...

We've just added in a new free resource that is specifically designed for parents and teachers of kids with Autism Spectrum Disorder. It provides strategies to help kids stay focused for longer periods of time, to help them focus on the things you want them to and not get distracted plus tips for teaching kids with limited pencil skills.

happy learning