My boy doesnt eat that well either. Its hard to get him to try new things. He doesnt like milk. We were happy that we were able to get him off the soda. He loves Sunny D and he loves water so thats a good sign. He weighs about 90 lbs and he is 10. We just keep trying different things seeing what will stick

Chance and Tad singing together

Does anyone think its a good idea for a child with Autism to be in Private School? We are debating that for our 10 yr old.

I am new to this site and found it through Facebook.   My son is 8 years old and has terrible eating habits....  Most of the time it seems to be ok but sometimes he just throws up out of the blue.  Not because he ate too much just "because"....  is this typical of other children??  It is the most horrible thing ever... especially since he can't tell me before it happens. 

We live in NJ, which practically screams "History!".  George Washington was here and there and everywhere around these parts.  As a result, there are often Re-enactments to be enjoyed.  Wait!  did I say 'enjoy'?  Oh no, Sher, there's much more to be gained from these programs, especially if you have autism. 

If you have a child who has Central Auditory Processing Disorder, go to re-enactments.

If you have a child with attention problems, go to a re-enactment.

If you have a child with visual processing issues, or a child with reading difficulties, head to a re-enactment.

Dedicated, creative people get together and re-create what life was like back in the Olden Times.  In our area, there were Revolutionary War battles and skirmishes galore.  Washington crossed the Delaware not 20 minutes from our house.  Going to a re-enactment gives my son with autism the opportunity to see history first-hand!

Last weekend we attended a day of revolutionary war activities, which included seeing them in their tents, then making breakfast (they plucked and cooked a chicken over a fire, and stewed corn grits in a tin pail.  They cleaned their weapons, made candles, played fiddle and danced, and explained to all the observers what life was like.  We were able to talk with women spinning thread and sewing, a beekeeper preparing his honey, and see what was inside the packs of the soldiers.  The day culminated with a skirmish, blanks being used in the muskets instead of pellets, and we were very impressed.  All the people involved stayed in character, which made it even more real!

History now means something to my son.  What a terrific way to teach history.  I'm looking for other programs like this, and perhaps we'll try a Reneisccence Fair with jousting and feasting, to look at the Middle Ages.

Historical Societies/museums may be helpful in finding programs like this.  Good luck!

I saw this guy downtown in one winter. I don't know his name or anyting but I do know that he has an older brother who loves to rollerskate. He skates a night most of the time. These guys stick together no matter what. I would've drawn his brother but it's hard to catch him around the town, and this amazing image just sort of stuck in the corners of my head. Now you can't catch either of them around town. I haven't seen them around at all. They probably went to  different town or got a home. I hope they got help and stuff.

Tyler’s Autism Journey

 Pages 1-5

Views from Tyler’s mother, OT Therapist, Family Friend and Aide

This is Tyler. He is our little three year old boy who we love very much! Tyler has Autism. It affects him from everything to sight, sound, smell and touch. 

At 10 months old Tyler was walking and talking. Around 18 months Tyler changed drastically. All of a sudden, the Tyler I knew was not there. He would not look you in the eyes, he played by himself, and he had many, what we call, big melt downs. He lost the words that I had recorded in his baby book that he had spoken many times before. He didn’t want to be touched and held as much, let alone to be kissed.  read more »

Tyler’s Autism Journey

 Pages 1-5

Views from Tyler’s mother, OT Therapist, Family Friend and Aide

This is Tyler. He is our little three year old boy who we love very much! Tyler has Autism. It affects him from everything to sight, sound, smell and touch. 

At 10 months old Tyler was walking and talking. Around 18 months Tyler changed drastically. All of a sudden, the Tyler I knew was not there. He would not look you in the eyes, he played by himself, and he had many, what we call, big melt downs. He lost the words that I had recorded in his baby book that he had spoken many times before. He didn’t want to be touched and held as much, let alone to be kissed.  read more »

I know that I do not live with another adult and that I have limited contact with other adults, but most of the time I do not miss it. I guess I am usually so busy that I am not worried about it. But now, with the kids being with their father, I miss other people. I am not and never have been a social butterfly, so I  have a limited circle of people that I talk to. Some are very specialized people, compartmentalized maybe is the word I am looking for. You know, they are people who are only in my life because I have twins, or I have autistic children or I have a girl or I have a teenage son, blah, blah, blah. I have very few people in my life who are there because I am who I am. I just don't have a lot of me left at the end of the day, maybe? Have I done this to myself intentionally or is it an accident of my life? I mean, did life just shove everything out that was not paramount to survival? or did I just get lazy? Something that crosses my mind occasionally, I guess.

The twins birthday was yesterday and they are 11. I know they are getting old enough that a lot of the specialists in my area are ignoring them. They want to treat the 2 and 3 yr olds that are just being diagnosed. My sons they will try to slip thru the cracks. I wonder if it is because they just don't know what to do with them. Do they run out of ideas when they get older? My beautiful, beautiful boys. I remember they were so small when they were born. They were decent sized for twins, but when you are holding a baby no heavier than a sack of flour, they seem awful small. They are no longer that small, but they are still so sweet to me. Thane was walking around the other day and he was saying "Im a baaaaad boy" and he looks it, but he can be so gentle and loving. His little sister was walking around telling him he was a good boy. Issac sat and tore up tiles off his floor. What a birthday.  read more »

Hello All,

I a proud moma of a 7 yr old boy who has autism! Daniel is going into 2nd grade this year, but school alone worries me.  He isn't very good with large groups of children and they have him a regular classroom for 30% of his day.  My biggest worry with little man is his interaction with other children.  When he gets upset he will attack others, or get very angry and upset and cause other trouble because he is.  Often times hes wanting to go over to friend's houes or go to birthday parties and I'm scared to say yes because I'm afraid of what he might do.  I worry about my lil' man and what other parents might think of him because of who he is, or that they might not know how to handle him when he reacts in these ways.  I'm working on this, and could use any advice I can get  from moms with older children.  Daniel has two older siblings, Tori 11, and Curtis 9.  He loves Sponge Bob but his main focus is viedo games, rocks and, yes vacume cleaners!  He will stand in our living room for hours and put our viedo games in order on the shelf, from ratings to game types.  He often times will go find rocks and names them all "gary", and well his obsession with vacume cleaners has been since he was very little.  He always asked for a toy vacume at christmas,I cant even begin to tell you how many he's had. He's often times a challenge, but I dont have to tell you how wonderful I feel when I look into those big brown eyes! 

Today was ...... well, lets just say I brought his trampoline in the therapy room.. Hey! what the heck, he was so needing to stim and I let him stim! It was fun though, I held his and hands and jumped with him, didn't trust myself on the trampoline with him. I am not all that graceful! I also incorporated facial expressions with it, I only jumped with him when I received eye contact.

I have this thing going on now, I am always looking for stim and sensory toys at the second hand stores like Goodwill and thrift shops. The other day I bought (this is hard to explain so please bear with me) a child computer. It has this little (annoying sounding guy if you ask me..) talking the child through different academic programs, it plays songs, you can type on it, it has science and history stuff on it. It's very cool and I can remember buying one just like it for my daughter many many years ago and she really enjoyed it. ANYWAY! I brought it into the therapy room and sat down with it and he didn't seem all that interested in it. So, I just continued on with other programs. Towards the end of the session I brought it out and just started playing around with it. He came over and was amazed by it. One of my reasons for getting that is because he likes to use letters (prefers plastic magnetic) and copy words out of a book. And he'll do it anywhere. On the floor, dry erase board anywhere. So I'm going to try and get him to type out the words on his little computer. It's a start!  :D

I named it this because my fictional characters were getting beaten in their kind of world. So this time I put myself into my drawing to interact with my characters. I gave them different clothing and heightened up technology a bit. Team Armageddon is what I call the team. My friend liked this drawing most of all. I appreciate you guys liking the pictures!!!

This is for all of us.  Our kids are wonderful!  If we never give up everyone will know just how wonderful they are.

My name is Lainne, I am 31 years old and the proud mother to an Autistic Angel, Kaelyn Grace. She is almost 4 yeras old (time flies) and we are a Biomedical family.  I have become an Autism Activist, I volunteer for Generation Rescue as a Rescue Angel in my area for Biomed.  I also signed up with the IAN Project, so that our experience with Autism becomes a part of the ever growing database of parents information BECAUSE I believe that we, the parents of Autism are the front lines in this battle.  We are the researchers and the labs.  We are the ones trying new techniques, threatments and therapies and we see the results. We all know our children never portray themselves accurately at visits.  No one sees what we see. So I have become commited to doing what I can to spread the information I have gathered and our experiences with the rest of the Autism community.

I have a blog/website of my own for my daughter's Biomedical progress dating back to a year ago when we recieved her diagnosis.  I would like to link it here, so that I don't need to c/p it over, but I see myself spending an exceptional amount of time here. I imagine a wealth of information in your experiences.  I want to add to that, be a part of this, share my story and hope that someone finds something helpful in things I say. 

So, I am honored to be a part of this community.  I will be honored to get to know most of you and learn about your lives and children.  I truly believe the answers we seek are in the minds of us parents and in the minds of our special children. 

Free appropriate public education. Has a nice ring, doesn't it?

While its a great concept, I am left to wonder if it truly exists -- at least here in Colorado.

Personally we haven't seen it in action when it comes to my children. We've had too many teachers tell us they "didn't have the time" to follow the IEPs -- which frankly are pretty pathetic themselves, but that's another post all together. Administrators were even more blatant about the fact that resources could not be spared. That is when they actually replied to a phone call or email. You see, a response could be used against them at a later date, so avoidance has been a key tactic.

Coupled with the outright lies that have been thrown our way, I have no faith in the system.

I wasn't always this jaded. In the beginning I was very nice. I spent years educating, volunteering and then fighting -- everything I could to get my children the help they needed to be successful. I brought treats to teachers, was a help to the SPED teacher and everything was peachy.

Then came the day I first questioned my son's goals. Or the time I mistakenly brought an advocate (the nicest, least confrontational person on the planet I might add) to an annual review. Later I was told, rather forcefully, that if I continued to bring THAT ADVOCATE, my relationship with the school would always be an adversarial one. So much for collaborative thinking.

To add credibility to my requests I brought in experts. Lots and lots of experts. But nothing seemed to matter. They just shook their heads and laughed. Yes, we were actually laughed at when it was suggested my son have an aide.

"We don't have the budget for that."  read more »

I'm new to this whole blogging thing, but I needed to vent and I'm tired of filling up my fb page with random autism rants.  Anyway, I was having a bad day with my son and I was thinking that I wish I could just check out sometimes.  I know it sounds horrible, but the constant attention, demands, tantrums, rituals, etc., that comprise the life of the autism mommy is just sometimes too much to take.  I'm human.  Love my son as much as I do, I do not always want to deal with this.  Sort of like that required course you had to take but didn't like - some days you just want to skip out and not go back.  But you always do.  Go back that is.  And you sit through another boring lecture, and suddenly you realize you're actually learning something.  And then you realize the course was worthwhile after all.

Location(s)

For those of you in the RI area, please come out on Sunday, September 6th, 2009 to the Warwick Mall to support the Maisie Marchers as we hold a bake sale to benefit Autism Speaks and our team in the Walk Now for Autism Speaks, 2009!
We will have a variety of delicious baked goods to choose from, with all proceeds going to Autism Speaks, whose mission is to raise autism awareness and funding for autism research.
And, if nothing else gets you out, I'll also be making my awesome monster chip cookies, which are super yummy. So, come on out, even if you can't buy anything, to visit our booth, grab a brochure and get educated.
Thanks guys!!

Hi all,

 I am new to this site.  I am Co-Chairing a motorcycle ride for Autism Awareness in Pepperell, MA......Saturday, August 1st.  Please visit either Kyle's Facebook page at "Kyle's Ride for Autism Awareness" or www.firstgiving.com/charleyne.stumpf or www.firstgiving.com/kylesride.

 Below is the route if you are interested in coming or passing the word.  You do not have to ride to come.  There will be a band, food, raffles and bouncy house for all to enjoy.  Call or email me with any questions or comments.....Charleyne Stumpf  978-502-6783 Cell  charleyne.stumpf@century21.com  email.

   read more »

A little reminder of how we must always keep an eye on our autistic children happend to me last week.  My autistic son went over to my parent's house to play.  My mom arrived home and all the grandkids piled out of the vehicle, except my autistic son.  No one noticed that Owen did not get out of the vehicle.  Owen was left, standing in the vehicle, watching the other kids play, for 15 minutes!  Owen didn't know how to open the door and let himself out.  When my mom told me the story my mind went into over-drive!  How could they have missed him?  It proves that we have to constantly pay attention to Owen-we can't let our guard down!  They story saddened me and made me want to keep Owen right at my side!

Most people have had a time in their life when they felt like they didn't belong. We've all felt awkward in a social setting, and most of the time, those moments pass. But for children with autism, those awkward moments happen every day and those days can stretch to a lifetime. It's not that children with autism don't want friends or don't want to play like other children, it's that they were born without the tools to do so.

But for the week at Camp Rising Sun, the campers get a chance for an ordinary experience, just like any other kid.

"For a week, we make sure these kids don't feel like outsiders," said Laura White, the camp's founder and director.

Click on the newslink to read the full story.

I am new to autism-blog.com.  I just wanted to share my blog with you all.  It details my crazy life as I trunge through autism treatment for my four year old son.  Check it out.  :)

http://crystaldavidsonengler.blogspot.com

Whenever I tell someone that I have an autistic daughter, they ask whether she is a savant. To me, this implies that if she is somehow superior to them, she is acceptable. If she isn't, well then, she must be retarded. Why does our society pay so much attention to labels?  Katie herself pays too much attention to labels! She objects to being called autistic or developmentally delayed. Whatever she is-- that's normal for her. So she's normal. She doesn't have to be anything other than what she is to be acceptable. Society, I'm sure, would prefer for her to get a job in order for her to be a contributing member. One time, the local MRDD board decided to place Katie in a job. They picked her up in a van, took her to the county next to ours, and tried to put her to work in a factory filling boxes. Naturally, Katie's mind began to wander into her own world, and she quit working. A supervisor told her to keep busy, but unfortunately, he had on a name tag that revealed that he was of German descent. Katie called him a Nazi and said she didn't have to do anything he told her to do. They brought her back home after an hour of employment, and never picked her up again. End of employment history.

I have a 14-year-old son who will be starting high school in 2 weeks.  When we picked up his schedule today, we noticed that he was registered for several classes that, quite frankly, are irrelevant in meeting his needs.  He is actually registered for Honors Geometry!  This for a kid with an IQ of about 80 and "scattered intelligences."  I have met three times with the special needs coordinator at the school, and he assured me (twice) that Ben's needs would be met as far as vocational training and training toward autonomy.  My question is this, is there anyone out there confronting the same situation, i.e, a schedule that needs to be completely overhauled and now a complete lack of confidence in the ability of the public school system to meet my son's needs before he is an adult?  I realize I am a late bloomer in this, but the bell finally rang in my head, and I have to take a proactive role in his future.  Also, there are few, if any, resources available in my town or county to accommodate autistics.  Thanks for any information you can provide!

Today Ted had an appointment with his doctor, his psychaiatrist. She thinks he is doing well. She adjusted his med dosage and is concerned that he has lost a little weight, which he is excited about. The doctor says to give him smoothies to increase his calorie intake, and Ted loves smoothies, so he is reminding me that it is doctor's orders that he gets smoothies to drink whenever he would like one.

 He doesn't have another appointment with her until after school starts. She wants to see how he is adjusting to middle school, so we will go back in September. Thanks for the encouragement I received on my other post, I really think I will enjoy this blog. It is really inspirational to read what other families are doing and to read the other ideas you all have.

This is a Black & White type drawing. One of my friends like drawing black and white so it was kind of a tribute to him. This was also an experiment for me as well. As you see, she says to herself she doesn't want him leaving her that way. The thing I meant in the picture is that I've witnessed countless people treat others as if they were always going to be there, but they haven't left yet. Well unfortunately for this woman that happened. Even though you know you love a person, don't treat them mean and expect eternalness. Because they can be taken away either by death or spirit.

     Hello my name is Judith and I have a 11 year old grandson who has PDD a high form of Autism. It stands for Pervasive Development Disorder. Zane, my grandson does not have very good verbal skills but he lets you know what he needs or wants. I live in Alabama and there is very little help here for children with autism. I learned most of what I know on my own. Zane has the classic hand flapping and contant movement symptoms. He does not rock, but he has to be moving and it is hard to get him to sit still at the Doctor's or anywhere. I have raised Zane since his diagnoics at two years of age. I have found that scrapbooking his life has helped him with he speech. He tells me what is going on each page of his scrapbooks. He looks at them everyday. He had a little feature in an oline scrapbook web site http://www.thedailyscrapper.com/    

  archive Issue 007 Sep 19 - Oct 03.

Hello

I am new to this website and don't quite know what to expect.

 My son Rick has autism. He is 7 years old and we first suspected something was wrong with him when he was 2. Ricks biological father has late onset scizophrenia ( he became scizophrenic at age 32). He was not a drug user.

Therapies for Rick:

We have tried the gluten free, dairy free diet. He was on that for a year. We continue with a Dairy free diet as he appears to be allergic as is his father.

Rick has had ABA therapy for years now.

I am signed up with the local regional center.

I have medical for him to assist with covering the costs of his evaluations.

 Schooling for Rick:

Rick has been in special day classes since he was 2 years old. He has been in public school during the year and summer school over the summers. I am frankly NOT really happy with the public school system. They have taken away his one on one aid and cut back his speach therapy to once a week in a group setting.

 What I am looking for?

1) Knowlege on what I can do to get him into a better learning environment. Private school? A better public school? What should I be fighting for in his IEP? How should I be evaluating the care and treatment he gets at school?

2) Input on health insurance and how to get Rick better evaluated. So far all I get from doctors and the school is "he is somewhere on the autism spectrum". NOT, these are difinatively his problems and here is how you should work on him and these are the programs he should be involved in.

 3) Notes on local resourses I should look into. I am just outside of San Francisco, CA.

 Thanks to any and all that respond. - Susan

My son, Danny, is 15.  He is very high functioning and gets almost straight A's in school.  His problem is his behavior....and food.  Which are intertwined I guess.  Food often causes behavior problems, but sometimes it's just because he doesn't get his way.  He is getting bigger and it's getting scarier when he's out of control.  He also likes to look at inappropriate things on the computer.  He's found these "Hentai?" cartoons and they are VERY explicit.  So we have to constantly monitor his computer use.  I would love to hear from someone who has a similar child and compare notes. 

I signed her up at the local YMCA, figuring it wouldn't be like one of those high pressure dancing schools that my town is littered with. One of the Moms I met during this whole experience told me that she had her daughter at one of those local dancing schools. After informing the dance teacher that her sons confirmation and her daughters dance recital was the same day, the dance teacher promptly asked her to reschedule the confirmation. That is why her daughter is at the 'Y' now.

Our first class (and the hour leading up to the first class) was a success. Jessica was eager to get dressed in her leotard, tights, and skirt. She went right into the class, and did great...well her version of great. I had wrestled with the idea of telling the teacher before Jessica started the class, that she had Autism. I decided against it, thinking that I would wait to see how she did before I showed my hand. About half way through the class, the girls filed out down the hall for a water break. It was quite a sight because the were all wearing their new tap shoes all the while trying to steady their gait.
The teacher came out, and made a beeline for me.
"Is this Jessica's first dance class?" Miss Angie asked.
"Yes!" I blurted out.
"She is doing great."
"She has Autism" I screamed...well I didn't scream so much as I released the words from my mouth.
"I KNEW it!" she said.

The way she said that last line was so positive, it made me know immediately that this was a lady that 'got it'.  read more »

My 7 year old son is sometimes still quick to tantrum and yells, throws items and stomps his feet when things are out of his control.  His behavior has become less frequent in recent months, as he is slowly developing more strategies for coping.  One morning, quite early, he was playing his hand-held game system and was shouting at it due to the character's inefficient abilities to do what he wanted it to do.  He threw down the game system, and shouted about how "stupid" it was and how he "hated" the game.  I calmly took the game from him and said that he wasn't allowed to play it again until he could regain control of himself and not tantrum.  Later on, after he had calmed down and was able to earn the game back,  we heard him getting frustrated again.....only this time he said (not yelling) "arrrggh....Zero flags, Zero fun--this game!"  (Anyone hear the Six-Flags commercials on radio & t.v. would know this reference) and then closed it and put in down gently on the table.  With those small moments, we re-establish hope that KJ won't always continue to have explosive "blow-ups".  : )

Today Katie was in a bad mood at first, but after a while she began to cheer up. Over the years, she has been on several different medications that are supposed to "improve" her mood. What are your thoughts on this? Anybody? Partly, I feel guilty for even taking her to see a psychiatrist, because she isn't "mental" in the usual sense. Her meds may make life easier for ME, but be giving Katie side effects that will never go away. Does she really need this? When she was younger, her weight was normal, but after doctors began giving her psychiatric meds, she gained 50 pounds in 6 months. That med was discontinued, but the weight never came off. Also, her appetite remains increased, even though several years have gone by since then. Isn't the very idea of giving her medication the same as saying, "There's something wrong with you the way you are. We're trying to fix you." Maybe there's really nothing wrong with being different or individualistic, and she doesn't need to be fixed at all. I love her just the way she is, but she does seem to enjoy going to see her psychiatrist and being the center of attention for that little while. Rescue Remedy helps her to calm down when she gets too nasty!

Discussing Manding in my last blog and the steps to took to help my little guy try to understand the concept of

facial expressions paid off in a huge way! He's got it at a complete 100%. As soon as I walk over by him he looks directly into my eyes. Now I've taken it one step further. For example, he doesn't like to color, he makes other people color for him. (This is part due to his pattern of needing to be perfect, he can't stay in the lines and he doesn't like it) He picks the page and will put the color HE wants you to color in your hand. Soooo, I allow him to pick the page and when he trys to give me the color of crayon he wants I don't take it until he gives me eye contact. Then I'll color! That took him approx. 1-5 minutes to figure out.  I also incorporated that into his cartoons he likes to watch. If I see he is trying to get to the television I will put my hand over the power button and when he gives me contact.. well, you guessed it! I turn the TV on. That he picked up on very fast. 20-30 sec. He still is having very awesome days with smiles, No more tantrums... shhh did I just say that???

Location(s)

Save the date for the 3rd Annual Take a Step for Autism Walk at the Pavilion area at Washington Park in Springfield, Illinois.  Take this opportunity to raise money for a wonderful cause.  The Autism Society of America Central Illinois Chapter (ASACIC) has used the money raised to provide community resources for central Illinois which include: Camp ASPIRE, a social skills camp for kids on the spectum, movie events, and many more family opportunities!

So it is 2009, I have been using the internet for roughly 15 years, and this is my first blog entry on any message board. I met my husband on the internet 13 years ago. We have 2 children, 1 has asperger's syndrome. He is a wonderful boy. He adores me and his dad. But his lack of social skills has left him virtually friendless and it makes me so sad to see my sweet boy alone so much. But he doesn't mind. He likes to be alone and if he isn't alone, we are with him. He has play dates that I arrange for him, but he never asks for any children, and as far as I can tell they never ask for him.

When I was in the hospital giving birth to my daughter 9 years ago, one of the nurses asked me what was wrong with him. I was very upset and told her that there was nothing wrong with him. And as far as I knew there wasn't. He had collic when he was a baby. But otherwise, he had been a wonderful baby. He didn't cry or fuss. He never threw tantrums, he was very content. He spent a lot of his time lining his toys up. We thought he was brilliant, so we have lots of pictures of our wonderful boy lining up his toys. 

But after the nurse asked me what was wrong with him, we started to notice that he was doing things differently than all of the other children his age. We asked the doctor, and he said Ted was fine. On a hunch I called our school infant and toddlers services, they came out and evaluated him. They decided he did qualify for special services. No one ever said the word asperger's or even autism to us. Not until he was 7.  So for 5 years, our son was in special ed, and we didn't know why. It really leaves you feeling stupified when  you know there is something wrong with your child, but you don't know what  what andhow to help.

   read more »

This one I drew my friend in. He's the one with the red suit on. He's also the one with autism and the only best friend I have. I drew this and called it Diverse Members because it's the differences sometimes that could make a group stronger. That's what these 3 people had to realize.

This is pic a drew based of the story I'm making called, "Eyes That Shed Flames". I did it on computer, but with no fancy high tech stuff. Just good old fashioned Microsoft Paint and used just the mouse. I drew it out on paper first though. In this pic the Princess accepts Aliijah and confides the love for him.

I was walking on this day. It was early this time, but I was hungry. Not normal hungry though. I wanted my favorite, Chinese food. I love the buffet thetown square has. Well I recently moved into a new part of the city, and I wanted to find a new resteraunt with about $15 in my pocket. I felt this day was going smoothly, until I was still walking around. I couldn't find a reseraunt for anything. I actually remembered seeing one, but didn't remember the location. So I went to Culter Square and I came across one, but guess what, it was just opening. It's grand opening wasn't until like 4 days later. So I walked futher down the main street about where I would see Walgreens. I saw a sight I wuld only see in downtown. A battered man holding up a sign saying, "I'm Hungry and Have No Money. God Bless." It wasn't as surprisin because I've seen it before, but it wasn't a great sight for me at all. I was about 5 steps away from him and he was just a cheerful old man, abut in his mid 50s. He had a 2 liter pop smothered in his back jacket pocket which was a good start but that wasn't enough. I did a little test. I stood next to him a bit to see how many cars would pass before one would help. Over 50 cars passed by until a man with a jeep came by and gave him a nice big wrapped donut cake. I nodded my head negatively. It's a shame y'know. I took out my money and gave him 5, which ended chances of me going to a Chinese buffet. "Thank ya partner! And God Bless!" He said stufing the money inhis pockets. After that, I just went home.

I told my mom, she was amazed. But then she said, "You gave him 5? Most people only give out a dollar." I told her, "What was a dollar going to do?" I then even asked myself what was 5 going to do I should've gave him all my money. All those cars that passed could have gave one dollar or some food to help him. Right?

Is this one main symptom of autism? If it is I wouldn't give it up because I love it. Examples are, my autistic friend knows nearly every important person's birthday and sometimes their height. He's also facinated by the 80s. With me, I love the 80s and 70s even though I wasn't born there. I still listen to music that dates back then and I love it. Then with numbers, I know the height of every basketball player in the NBA. Typical for a sports head right? But I know all their statistics and I'm obsessed with scoring averages. I also know that this is common for most Savants too as I've seen the things a Savant does which is amazing. I'm just wondering is this a common thing as I've seen it many times.

Havent been on for a week or so been really ill,but feeling better now. I spoke to my sister in law yesterday asking why my son wasnt invited to her kids party and got such a bad response, she reeled off a list of how my son would ruin the day for everyone else involved, I couldnt believe it so I told her that if they cant accept Ryans autism then non of us would be going.

She spoke of my son as if he was an animal, i said im sick of everyone in general not including my son and that family is all me and my son have. I explained that I would never have a party and only invite half the family that wouldnt be right, she was so negative about my son and it really hurt for someone in the family to react like that, ive always put myself out for them even tho my life is so crazy at times ive even had them over to sleep for the weekend when they have been struggling.

They are so ignorent to my sons autism it makes me so angry. 

Katie is my daughter. She's 26 years old and autistic. Until I started reading these blogs, I thought Katie was high-functioning, but I'm realizing that she's pretty far behind the rest of you bloggers. The best thing about Katie is her sense of humor. We have a great time together, and have lots of "inside jokes". Still, she has bad days when she hates everybody and goes ballistic for no apparent reason. She isn't high tech or a "geek" like many Asperger's seem to be. In fact, she has never placed a phone call, has no interest in computers, and no desire to learn to drive or be independent in any other way.  Last year I had to have a complicated surgery on my right foot, and it had to be elevated and non-weight-bearing for several months. I had worried in advance of this, wondering how Katie would deal with it and how she would prepare her own meals, etc. To my utter amazement, she stepped right up to become my caregiver! She seemed to anticipate my every need, and had things set up for me, such as making me instant coffee and putting the newspaper beside my chair.We had a ball as the months passed, and it was almost sadly that I returned to work. I look forward to getting to know other autistic people through this blog.

Hey there everyone! My name is Shade. But my real one is LaMont Griffin Jr. I'd say about 98% of people who knows doesn't know that I have autism. The other 2% includes m family and such. It's because I'm not quite the social person, but I'm not mean neither. I just don't prefer to be all out there. I've had autism ever since I was born. Majority of experts say I don't have autism on the outiside, but that's because they never got to know me. I have all types of symptoms, including "stimming" I think it's what it's called. They way I stim I think is truly amazing to me and my mom.

My most passion in life is art. I love drawing and would love to display some on here. But most of all, I want to be able to interact with people of my kind and make friends with them. I only have one autistic friend and I count him as family.

Hi everyone....

      I am new here and from what I have read I think I am going to like it.....Lots of helpful advice and stories. I have an 9 year old son who has had several different diagnosis only to realize that he may be autistic after all this time. We have an appointment this Thursday with a specialist. I am hoping he can help! When you don't know what you are dealing with it is almost worse because you don't know what you should be doing to help make things better. Thanks for all your information!

Chelle   ~Nathans Mom~

Hi everyone! My name is Tami and our son has Asperger's. He is 12 and was diagnosed 5 years ago. He is funny, brilliant, handsome and my joy. He enlightens me every day with his unique outlook of the world. He is doing great now after years of searching for information on how to help him. He struggles with social skills and some behaviors but he has come SO far! I remember how lost I was when he was diagnosed. I didn't know what I was supposed to do for him? How do I find a good doctor, navigate the education system, keep him safe, fight the insurance companies, deal with negative comments in public and on and on? 

I am writing a book about my quest for information to help Kyle as well as his wonderful story. I want to include your stories in the book in order to help parents whose child has been recently dagnosed. This project is very dear to my heart and since I have started writing it has been a therapuetic experience for me! The book is intended for the average family. There are books out there written by celebrities who have unlimited recsources. They are able to drop everything in their life to help their children. That is fantastic and I applaud them, however, most of us don't have that luxury. We have families, other children, jobs, etc. I would love to hear your stories about the daily struggles with Asperger's or PDD. Any information that will help parents who are at the place where we all began.

If you are interested, please email your stories to tamiladd@cox.net. Please include your contact information. You may remain anonymous in your story if you like or use your actual names. It's up to you. I will send a free copy of the book to you when it is published (praying that it will be.)  I feel so hopeful about this project. I want to help others who don't know where to turn. Let then know they are not alone. Please send me a message here or email with any questions you have.

   read more »

Uh gee we're not much for surveys on this site, are we folks lol? So dont be surprised if you dont get alot of response to one here on AB. We're busy parents. In my case if its loooooooong forget it. Just tossin' in my two cents worth =)~~~

Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to fill out our survey thus far! We still need more surveys about caring for a child with autism because the more we have the stronger the results will be. We'll be done collecting surveys by THIS WEDNESDAY and are hoping for about 30 more completed surveys. Thank you so much for taking the time to complete the survey!

As a reminder, we are 4 occupational therapy graduate students deeply personally and professionally interested in helping caregivers of children with autism. This survey will help our profession to better support the parents we work with, so PLEASE fill one out (it's annonymous) and pass it along to your friends, spouses, etc. To qualify you must be over the age of 18 and care for at least one child with autism fulltime.  

 Just follow this link: http://www.csudh.edu/actech/otsurvey3.htm

Thank you again for your support. We know your time is precious and greatly appreciate that you have spent a few minutes helping us with this project.

:)  Kristen, Whitney, Colleen and Amy (California State University Dominguez Hills OT Masters Students)

Issac is still destroying stuff, it just seems to be stuff that is a little easier to replace. He tore up his boxers and two shirts and then when he went to bed he tore a  blanket into strips. I am running out of blankets. I am also wondering why the seamstress has not finished the blanket I asked her to make.... She has had all of the materials for about 7-8 wks. How long does it take to sew them together? I have made plans to pick up the material for Thane's mattress cover next week. Then I can relax at night, not have to worry about Issac tearing up mattresses and what have you. I may have to have her make Thane a blanket too.

Seth has been so helpful keeping an eye on the boys while I am picking berries, never mind that I am within calling distance, it is the fact that he is willing to do it. Blackberries are slowing down here. The cooler weather and no rain is keeping them red. But it stormed here night before last and knocked a tree down in the back. It is supposed to warm up too so all them red berries may turn ruby black all at once. 

The twins birthday is this week. They will turn 11. Hard to believe it has been that long. I don't feel that old. They seemed so small when they were born. And now look at them, strapping lads. How long before they start eating me out of house and home? Not much longer before they are teenagers. 

The kids' father has said he will meet me in Springfield, where I take Issac to get his allergy shots, to pick them up and take them to his place for a week. I will believe it when I see it. I am thinking of all the stuff I can get done while they are gone, and how much I am going to miss them. I will miss them alot.

My name is Jocelyn.  I am 31 years old and live in Northeast NJ.  I have a three year old boy, Joshua, who has autism and SPD (sensory processing disorder).  I first thought that Joshua was autistic around his 1.5th birthday; he wasn't speaking and still does not - he is non-verbal to this day.  Joshua I guess would be classified as low-functioning - he needs help with everything he does.  Right now he is attending a summer program for autistic children and then will be off for 3 weeks and then to pre-k!  It's a great class however I am a little nervous since they will have a larger student to teacher ratio, and I doubt sincerely that my school district is going to provide a shadow.
I also have another son, James, who is 4.  He is in "Pre-K Disabled" because he has a speech disorder, and to me personally, he seems a little bit developmentally behind; he is incredibly smart though with memorizing things, putting puzzles together and other things - things that would make you go, "Wow".  He will be re-evaluated at 5.
I have been married to my soulmate, Jimmy, for almost 7 years now.  Life it hard with Joshua here.  Even with James, and his "quirks" it's not easy. I am really glad that I found this place where I can meet others and blog.

I just wanted to welcome our new members. I suggest you read the blogs. You'll learn alot.., mostly that you're not alone. This site will make you laugh AND make you cry. Alot of us are on Facebook. Im under D Cynthia Legros if you'd like to friend me. Just add a note that you're from AB blogger. Fair warning, I have a wicked sense of humor lol and I can be very blunt. Glad you found us, we're a fun bunch. Im sure this site has helped many parents from just LOSING it. We're better than a shrink and we're free lol. Todd runs the joint. He made this wonderful site. Have fun, play nice =)

Hi,

My name is Diana from Palmdale.  Im and have 2 Autistic boys.  Robbie 14 Autism, ODD, OCD, ADHD & Andrew 10 severely Autisitc.  He doesnt speak and uses diapers 24/7 uggg a nightmare.  I'm pretty much on my own.  My husband works night shift and doesnt deal with them.  He tells me I am lucky not to work and stay home and have it easy.  I wish I worked to get away from this screaming all day its hard.   Makes me mad he doesnt even realize what I go thru because hes never here.  He works 7 days a week.  I have no life no friends etc...  Its impossible with Andrew he screams all day throws everything I cant wait till its bedtime or school sad i guess.  Even the meds there on doesnt help anymore.  The doctor says give it time, right..... 

Went to visit his school, they were prepping the parking lot for paving so the boys got to see a motor grader and backhoe. Then we walked around the buildings a bit and went to the playground. Zare went achingly slow on the slides, which tells me we need to come here often. Half-day kindergarten has their own recess thankfully, but you can't be the boy that stalls out at the top of the slide, not cool. I pointed out the grassy fields and the basketball hoops, thats where the boys will play most at, I said.

"where will the girls play?" He asked, I shrugged and said maybe at the monkey bars. So then he pretended to be a monkey and I was monkey queen.

I think its his low-muscle tone, he's nervous he will fall playing sports, girl activities seem safer. When we have him practise playing ball, its hard to get him to throw the ball, mostly he just wants to play with the ball. Thats when I get nervous, thinking of him holding the ball walking around a playground, not bouncing or throwing. Do kids still play foursquare?

Hi Everyone,
 
I hope your summer is going well.  This email is for those of you who would like to start mentally planning some ideas for your classrooms this fall.  Attached you will find a checklist to give an idea of the layout of an effective autism classroom. Below, you will find some links to pictures or video of well organized classrooms. 
 
Tips for starting off the school year:
1. Be sure to get to work early if you can to read through all of the IEPs for each of your students (this takes about 1 hour).  You will need to know their services, their objectives, their behavior plans and any accommodations the student may need.  It sometimes helps to copy the behavior plans for all members of your classroom team.

2. Make a data sheet for each objective.  Identify which objective will be placed in the student's work bin. Use ziplock baggies and write the objective on each baggie.  Then place the materials for the objective in the bag. for other objectives, not placed in student work bins, place them in a folder or in the area where the data will be taken,   read more »

I LIVE IN LOUISIANA. MY 3YR OLD SON HAS AUTISM. MY PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM HAS FAILED TO PROVIED HIM WITH THE SERVICED REQUIRED. DOES ANYONE KNOW OF A SCHOOL IN LOUISIANA OR SURROUNDING AREAS THAT HAS A GOOD PROGRAM. NEEDING HELP!

Learning Styles - yeah, baby!  My son's learning style is HANDS-ON.  Academically, he can take or leave work sheets and books and lessons on the board.  Mostly they make him frustrated and/or anxious, due to his visual learning disabilities.  Know what he loves?  Doing It!!!

   What I mean is ....actually doing what he is learning about.  So for math, he learns to add by measuring 2 surfaces and adding them together.  Or measuring a length of fence, and then cutting it and putting up the fence.  For science, he learns about preditors and prey by adding the weights of animals he might "eat" (as a preditor), and then comparing it to the weight he needs to stay alive, as that preditor.   He paints walls, he plants and waters gardens, and then he comes home and cuts up green beans for dinner and sets the table and fills the salt shakers and folds the laundry...he is one happy guy.  I always thought his fave thing to do was "movie talk".  I was wrong.  He likes to use his hands and in doing so, he's using his brain.  The best part is - he feels useful!!  You know, like Sir Topham Hat always praised the trains by calling them "really useful engines". 

My son is a really useful engine.  Really!

PS - his behavioral problems have drastically decreased during this "work phase".  I want it to continue, for the rest of his life!!  He feels better about himself than I could have ever made him feel.

Invitation to Families – Autism Risk Assessment Survey

Dear Parents,

My name is Parth Desai, a Florida resident at St. Pete High.  Many states are grossly underrepresented in the studies and birth registries that track childhood outcomes of prenatal exposure to medication and folate.  For example, regions such as the  Midwest, Southeast, and Southwest have low representation in the National Children's Study; the National Pregnancy Registry for Atypical Antipsychotics; The North American Antiepileptic Drug Pregnancy Registry, and no representation in the CHARGE Study of environmental exposures; the prospective NEAD Study (Neurodevelopmental Effects of Antiepileptic Drugs); or the national EARLI  Study (Early Autism Risk Longitudinal Investigation).

This summer,  I am working on this issue as an intern for the national FEND-Folate Study sponsored by Georgetown University Medical Center (IRB # 2009-162).  “FEND” stands for Fetal Exposure to Neuroactive Drugs.   Please help us expand awareness and accelerate understanding of fetal exposure to neuroactive medications and folate by participating in this 5-minute, anonymous and encrypted survey.  The FEND Study would like you to be our collaborator and help us disseminate this online, national risk assessment survey: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=qY4du_2bdtYao2HumBxcYjRA_3d_3d.

Would you please read the following information and forward the survey to parents within your organization? Thank you for your cooperation! Please call the principal investigator Dr. McVearry (202-687-4966 or fendstudy@georgetown.edu) if you have any questions.

Knowledge Gap:  Human Studies of Prenatal Exposure to Neuroactive Medications and Folate  read more »

It's been a quiet couple of days. I caught Issac tearing off the slide to the swing set so that he could put it up against the fence so he could climb over it. Interesting way of crossing the fence I thot.  He has really been good tho lately. He tore up 3 shirts, but nothing else. No blankets, mattresses, sheets, etc. He removed a wasp nest the other day and got stung. He just wanted to squish the wasp's nest. They didn't like that idea. He is not, thank goodness, allergic to bees of any kind.

Thane has been in a better mood. Not much hitting. He hits himself. I don't like that, but we can't seem to kick the habit either. He still wants everything at full volume.

The boys are going to bed around 12 and up around 6:30. Of course, there are exceptions. Like yesterday when Issac didn't go to bed until 2:30. Ugh. But the melatonin is completely unaffective on him. He just keeps going like the energizer bunny. 

We have to make another trip to the allergist next week. Issac has to get another allergy shot. Yippee! It's just making the trip. I hate that. The shots are not that bad.

It has clouded up here about every other day, but no rain. It is not really helping my berry picking at all. 

Ok,

So like I said, "tomorrow is another day". Today was that day. I endured 30 min. of non-stop blood curdling screams... WOW!  Mom, mentioned to me that he had a rough AM session with the same behaviors. We ruled out headache because he we usually head bang in the middle of his forehead and there was no headbanging, just sreams. I thought sensory but he wasn't physically doing anything to demonstrate that like, covering his ears or throwing himself on anything. The funny thing was he was 100% on all programs. His manding was amazing and last half of session I started to get the little giggles that makes me smile!

Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to fill out our survey thus far! We still need more surveys about caring for a child with autism because the more we have the stronger the results will be. We'll be done collecting surveys by next week and are hoping for about 30 more completed surveys.

As a reminder, we are 4 occupational therapy graduate students deeply personally and professionally interested in helping caregivers of children with autism. This survey will help our profession to better support the parents we work with, so PLEASE fill one out (it's annonymous) and pass it along to your friends, spouses, etc. To qualify you must be over the age of 18 and care for at least one child with autism fulltime.  

 Just follow this link: http://www.csudh.edu/actech/otsurvey3.htm

Thank you again for your support. We know your time is precious and greatly appreciate that you have spent a few minutes helping us with this project.

:)  Kristen, Whitney, Colleen and Amy (California State University Dominguez Hills OT Masters Students)

Subject:  Needed – Parents of children with autism

If you are the parent of a child with autism, only you know the daily reality of this disorder.  Your participation in a short survey will help physicians and therapists understand how families cope with autism.  The survey will take less than 5 minutes to complete and is completely confidential.  Your contribution gives your child and family a voice which must be heard.   

Please click on the link below to take the survey.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=TI4X9J_2b2AA5uXRts3EKwoQ_3d_3d

Thank you for your support!

This independent study is being conducted as part of the academic requirements for a PhD.      read more »

Location(s)

<!--[if gte mso 9]> <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]>  read more »

Invitation to Families – Autism Risk Assessment Survey

Dear Parents,

My name is Parth Desai, a Florida resident at St. Pete High.  Many states are grossly underrepresented in the studies and birth registries that track childhood outcomes of prenatal exposure to medication and folate.  For example, regions such as the  Midwest, Southeast, and Southwest have low representation in the National Children's Study; the National Pregnancy Registry for Atypical Antipsychotics; The North American Antiepileptic Drug Pregnancy Registry, and no representation in the CHARGE Study of environmental exposures; the prospective NEAD Study (Neurodevelopmental Effects of Antiepileptic Drugs); or the national EARLI  Study (Early Autism Risk Longitudinal Investigation).

This summer,  I am working on this issue as an intern for the national FEND-Folate Study sponsored by Georgetown University Medical Center (IRB # 2009-162).  “FEND” stands for Fetal Exposure to Neuroactive Drugs.   Please help us expand awareness and accelerate understanding of fetal exposure to neuroactive medications and folate by participating in this 5-minute, anonymous and encrypted survey.  The FEND Study would like you to be our collaborator and help us disseminate this online, national risk assessment survey: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=qY4du_2bdtYao2HumBxcYjRA_3d_3d.

Would you please read the following information and forward the survey to parents within your organization? Thank you for your cooperation! Please call the principal investigator Dr. McVearry (202-687-4966 or fendstudy@georgetown.edu) if you have any questions.

Knowledge Gap:  Human Studies of Prenatal Exposure to Neuroactive Medications and Folate  read more »

Let's remember that we are talking about using restraints only if the child is in danger of hurting others and/or himself rather than using it as a consequence for inappropriate behaviors. Obviously, restraints must be used to help protect the individual as well as others. Unfortunately, there is a serious issue in terms of appropriately trained staff and a suitable environments. Throwing a mat on a floor and wrestling the child to the ground is not correct procedure. We need to  look at this situation and recognize that there are dangerous flaws. The fact is that our school system is not presently equipped to deal with aggressive and self-injurious individuals. This is an example of how institutions like the school system like to sweep problems under the rug and then, when they can no longer avoid the problem,  try to apply a band-aid to a gaping wound. It's no different in terms of how the country is dealing with the issues of the adult individuals with special needs.

There are solutions here. Rather than make this a black or white issue, we need to look at several factors: When to use restraints, training staff to recognize when to use them and how to use them appropriately, constructing suitable rooms for the restraints to be implemented, utilizing professionals to help devise better behavioral interventions for behaviors that do not merit restraints, and as unpopular as this may sound, where to educate children with aggressive and self-injurious behaviors. I plan to try to be involved in the solution to this problem.  read more »

My son recently took some auditory integration training sessions. Is anyone familiar with this type of training and if so does it really work? So far I have seen some improvement in his attention span and I'm and he is making more sounds than before. So i'm just hopeful that soon he will regain the speech that he had lost. Supposedly the training is supposed to stimulate the speech center and it takes about 4-6 months to see results. So I will keep you posted on the results.

Had a really great day today.  Got to see Luke - the boy that I feel he is trapped underneath the Autism.  That is how I think of it - like he is this adorable, fun, easy little boy underneath this layer of Autism.  And today, it shined through.  He had great eye contact, he was engaging, he was sharing, and he wasn't as controlling.  I enjoyed him so much.  These are the days that pull me through all of the other days.  (Like the last two weeks - thought I was going to go around the bend!)

I'm so thankful when I get to see him like this.  (It reminds me of that movie with Robin Williams - Awakenings.  When all of the catatonic patients "awaken" and come alive for the first time in years.)  I am hoping to see these glimpses of him more and more as his therapy progresses.

Today was just one of those days I could have stayed and done sessions all day! (well, maybe not alll day!)

He was in such a silly mood, just made me smile.. We had 7 different programs and 100% on all 7!

I cheated... shhhh don't tell on me

Most of you may have heard of, manding or facial expressions, it's a technique ABA uses to help the child make and maintain eye contact. Some therapists will take something away of interest to the child and wait for eye contact and they receive whatever it is they had. Well, I bring in M&M's cause he loves them. So, instead of taking things away I give him something he wants when he makes eye contact. Today I asked "what color?" and he would tell me the color of the M&M WITH eye contact! As a therapist you just can't have a better day than that!

Tomorrow..... well, need I say more??

Tomorrow is another day..   :)

In deep water, a swim vest works. In shallow water a swim-vest doesn't work. We were at a friends house who had those flexible wall pools, so I put his swim vest on.

Lets just say if he knew how to curse, he would have, he just kept yelling. Its too cold, too splashy, he wanted out, I kept telling him to calm down, give it a try, warm up.

"I WANT OUT!" ok, fine, go ahead. So then they set up the sprinkler, and the kids and fun with that. Then the friends started running from the pool to sprinkler and back. So Zare ran in with them.

"Hey Mom! It works now!" what? without the vest? What works? Oh, well it was more like jumping up and down, not exactly swimming. But somehow he did not trust that vest in shallow water.  another lesson learned.

Ok dumby me got this idea in my head that if i spin around in a circle like my kids can then i will have a better understanding of what they feel like when they do this.  I often found myself wondering what it is thats going through thier heads while spinning.  Here is what went through mine.  My arms lifted by themselves hmm that is G-forces pulling them ok cool....i wonder what it is in the grass im looking at or nothing all i see is that the closer to my feet i look the faster it seems i am spinning and the farther away i look the less it spins....whoa stop.  I try to walk to my daughter who is laughing her head off and i promptly fall over the world spinning in the opposite direction.  I can't get up im to dizzy.  Finaly the spinning stops.  I get up and do it again but this time i change directions every so often...what do i feel?  My arms are being pulled into two different directions simultaneuosly, my hair gets in my eyes every now and again. and i can't stay focused on thinking about anything other than trying to not throw up at this point.  Oh yeah and im numb now.  Is that the point? to get to where you can't feel your body anymore where you can't even think anymore...? 

It seems that the more I try Yoga the more interested Izzy is becoming. He is actually trying the moves and says "go mom go look Yoga pose" and tries some of the  moves. I think this might be a great start to an excersice program for him. He doesn't really like cardio unless he is in the park running around. I will continue with this. Has anyone else tried this? Let me know how it went for you. Oh yes I will try to take a picture of him doing this for all to see. It's quite cute.

I am going this week to get the material for the second mattress cover for Thane's bed. Issac will not leave his bed alone. I am going to have to cover it. The past couple of days have been quiet, but the boys are getting up around 6 and Issac is wanting to stay up til 1. I am going to try Melatonin either tomorrow or the next day as I am feeling the effects of staying up. Issac stayed in the house with Seth watching him play PS2 or outside on the swing. It really has been too cool for the pool so they have been playing in the yard.

Their father called and he is wanting to take them for a week, like a wed to a wed. because then he can still work part of the week, his words, not mine. We will see. Less than 4 weeks until school starts up. 

For all the new people the points dont mean anything lol. If they did I would have surely earned a big screen tv by now I've got so many =)

I just wanted to welcome all the new people. Seems like we've got new members almost daily now. Feel free to read. You'll learn ALOT on this site. Nice folks. Glad you found us =)

Thank you to all who took time read my blog about my grandson. My family and I appreciate it and look forward to being more involved in this blog. It's great to find a way to communicate with others going through similiar things we are. I hope that someday that all this hard work and fighting we go through with these special children who have Autism makes a difference and gets recognized by governmennt officials to getting more help for families like all of us.

Have a great day!

I'm so sorry I had to leave for a while. Burn out! I tell ya, there's just not enough time in the day!! WithSummer classes, and working the 2 jobs I just couldn't keep up the blogging!  Here's a quick little update on

"My little guy".

Mom decided to take him off his adderall completely. He was having more behaviors during sessions, such as head banging, screaming, crying just to name a few. ( I have to admit, not to brag or anything, but I didn't have any behaviors) So, anyway his behaviors did stop but lost his fine motor skills and was distracted at the smallest things during sessions . Table time therapy went down the hill. He wasn't interested in anything and I couldn't get anything out of him. It was very discouraging on my end. I just loved watching his progress and how excited he would get when he would master a program. I can understand where mom was coming from though. Off his adderall he is more verbal and his social skills improved greatly. Playing with his brothers and sisters is a great thing! The behaviors stopped but like I mentioned, he was so distracted during sessions that somedays my 3 hour sessions seemed like 6.

Ok, so here is another little dilemma we have. He won't wear a swimming suit. I am assuming that because he doesn't wear a swimming suit in the bath tub he shouldn't wear one in the pool. ( The family has a fenced in backyard with a family size pool) He also trys to take off his brothers swimming trunks before they get in! 2 funny!

So now it's trying to get him to understand the difference...  ;)   wish us luck!

Like I mentioned above and probably in other blogs, he has siblings with one being a younger brother who is 2 years old.  He is now acting like his autistic brother.  I mean acting as in copying him and his behaviors...

Not good...

Mom has her hands full!  read more »

Many people question why there seemed to be little autism in the 1950's-60's, yet so prevalent today. Why there seems to be little or no autism in Africa. As a scientist involved in congenital research, I posit that in the 1950's-60's, parents were having their children at a young age: late teens/early 20's. Now we delay child birth into the mid 30's, 40's, 50's. That combined with the advent of electromagnetic and radiation producing cell phones, laptops, PDA’s, desktop computers and video games all potentially combine to deteriorate the genetic quality of the male reproductive output. In the male, research has shown that when the genetic quality of output deteriorates through age or radiation exposure, it specifically increases the risk for congenital defects in offspring. This potentially can cause autism, epilepsy, schizophrenia and manic depressive disorder, especially in male offspring. If you think about it, most Africans have their offspring at an early age and they don't have a high propensity for cell phones, laptops and PDA use.

My husband of 38 yrs passed away suddenly in Feb. He and I were the main caregivers of our 26 yr old autistic daughter.It hasnt seemed to affect her much until now.She is reverting to old behaviours.Panic,anxiety and constant pacing. has anyone dealt with death of a parent? Please any info will help.

My daughter is 9 and she has autism. We live in Florida. She has been on the waiting list for Med-waiver( Medicaid waiver state program) for 6 years. We are willing to relocate to any state that has shorter waiting period for her to be eligible to get services like speech and ABA. Please write back to me with any suggestions. Thank you

Ellie

Thank you to everyone who read our blog and took our survey thus far! We still need more surveys about caring for a child with autism because the more we have the stronger the results will be.

As a reminder, we are 4 occupational therapy graduate students deeply personally and professionally interested in helping caregivers of children with autism. This survey will help our profession to better support the parents we work with, so PLEASE fill one out (it's annonymous) and pass it along to your friends, spouses, etc. To qualify you must be over the age of 18 and care for at least one child with autism fulltime.  

 Just follow this link: http://www.csudh.edu/actech/otsurvey3.htm

Thank you again for your support! Kristen, Whitney, Colleen and Amy (California State University Dominguez Hills OT Masters Students)

To all readers,

 I am a grandmother of a 7 1/2 year boy who has Autism. He is nonverbal and does not communicate at all.  Until now, he is entertained for a couple of hours a day by videos and tv. Recently, he stopped watching any tv or videos. It's been difficult to keep him entertained. I was wondering if there is anyone who went through the same thing and/or has any ideas on ways we can keep him busy so he won't get bored.  Keep in mind that he does not play with toys or other children.  Some of the things he does now are like going in the pool or going to the park.

Also does anyone know places in New York for families to take their children who have Autism.

 I look forward to hearing from you. Thank you for taking time to read this messge.

Well rummor has it that those touched with autism do not have the mental capacity to show empathy, sympathy, or compassion much less imagination.  Well again i found my children have proven the rummor wrong again.  It all started with my daughter finding a bat at walmart.  It was much to my surprise still alive, i was afraid that with the heat of the day (going into the 100) that it would die a terriable death from the heat.  so we got an old doggie t-shirt from my trunk and a box to transport the little thing.  We brought it home, i thought if it lives great, if not we'll perform funeral services for it.  either way it was a learning opportunity.  I had to explain to the kids that under no negotiations the bat doesn't come into the house that it is to rest to help it get better.  We then went on line to see all about bats and to call the bat conservationists for our state.  at some point my son went and hunted down a grasshopper and fed the bat...i didn't know till after the fact, thank goodness he didn't get bitten.  Good news the bat ate it.  That same day the kids were playing in a small area in the yard that has mud and they have built a house for this bat.  I don't knock it down i admire it in all its crudeness and amazing functionality.  sturdy little thing too.  So here is the thing.  Both of my children touched with autism not only showed empathy, sympathy, compassion, and imagination, they also showed that they could work together to accomplish one goal and show amazing problem solving skills, oh can't forget the amazing engineering and building ability useing mud and sticks.  It's like looking at those old can't be destroyed indian dwelings.  Needless to say the bat is fine flew off sometime during the night all to the thanks of my children that rummor says can't.

Hi It has been a while since I have looked at this website I have logged on to havve a look at all the information. Not had a busy day to day. Just shopping locally and looking around my local shopping mall.

 As there are no jobs I am looking towards extending my volunteer career path with in the charity sector. I will be volunterring with Breakthrough Breast Cancer in Holborn.

 Will get back to you with in the next couple of days to let you know of the outcome.

Hey all!

As promised, here is our survey about caring for a child with autism. As a reminder, we are 4 occupational therapy graduate students deeply personally and professionally interested in autism. This survey will help our profession to better support the parents we work with, so PLEASE fill one out (it's annonymous) and pass it along to your friends, spouses, etc. To qualify you must be over the age of 18 and care for at least one child with autism fulltime.  

 Just follow this link: http://www.csudh.edu/actech/otsurvey3.htm

Thank you! Kristen, Whitney, Colleen and Amy (California State University Dominguez Hills OT Masters Students)

Well, we are on the way to having a sensory room, geared up for what Kaylee and Michael each need with the help of their dedicated OT, Desi.  We have a pop up tent, a mattress for jumping....working on a felt board, pillows and blanket, some books....next I need a boom box for quiet, instrumental music, and a mounted small fan for the air circulation and white noise...so  I am really excited and determined to have this done sooner than later.  There is also a big tub full of pillows to wallow in and an old easy chair to hind behind and curl up in and climb over.....the last step is to bring in the indoor slide that we presently have outdoors.  I hope to take a photo when all done to show it...so far I only have had to buy some tape and poster board and felt...pretty cheap thus far.  Not much for a fan and little cd player.

I met someone today who seemed very miserable about life and not very happy, my first impression was that he wanted to run away from reality and work and family..  please don't get me wrong but I met him in a bar, just talking and he was mostly talking about living away from society and I thought he just meant work, but he kept mentioning society. I was trying to pump him up with work advice. he was really down on society and how he wanted to live with out the conditions that society has put on him. Frankly I thought he was running away from something. 2 houirs later, i'm asking him to be specific, whats going on?  read more »

So, this is thursday, tomorrow is the last day of this VBS, thank goodness.

On the first day, our paperwork was done properly so his badge was waiting for him. Match the color of the badge to the name and group, great. Plus worship videos made saying goodbye a breeze. Um, picking up? MAYHEM, I come in and there parents and people everywhere, I follow the traffic flow to find Zare in the hallway, by himself, on the floor, reading the books that were displayed on the wall. Zare tells me he made something I look up and sure enough there is a room labeled "craft" so we go in, find our labeled table and leave.

I call my sister, and tell her about finding him. "WHAT THE HELL!" She says.

 So the next day I pull the teacher aside, and tell her about finding zare.

"Oh. Sorry about that, I thought I had everybody" uh,huh.

"Where should I pick him up today?"

"Here, in the sanctuary."

So on tues I come early, 11:50 (it ends at noon). I notice sometime peculiar, all the volunteers are peeling off one by one to turn in their badges at the badge table. Why are they doing that I wondered. Then as the last song ended, the head teacher waved good bye. And us parents had to wait as 5 or 6 helpers LEFT the sanctuary before we could go in.

"Go get your kids!" One said in a backhand way, like "Dinners in the fridge!" kind of thing.

So I wade upstream, kids are going every which way, I am holding onto little bro. Get Zare, then we have to move through to get to the craft room, rubberneck over everyone else trying to get their kids craft. oy.

"Zare? do you like camp?"

"yes, this is the best one."

"Why this one?"

"the music movies." oh. the music videos, that show all the hand motions to the songs. ok.  read more »

I told myself that I wasn't going to write about MJ but I feel I have to. I feel so bad for his family I know that this has to be very hard on them. He seemed to be a good person. I liked him. I feel that it doesn't matter who was his biological mother or father because my experience has showed me that your parents are the ones who raise you, not the ones who make you. It's harder to to raise a child than make a child. I feel that Debbie Rowe needs to just stop. She gave up custody before for money and the kids don't know even know her so she needs to leave the family alone. I think since Micheal willed his mom to have them that she should, think about it I know that the news is saying that she is so old but the one who will be taking care of those children will be the nanny anyway. So her age doesn't matter. Does anyone out there know if they even burried the poor guy yet? My prayers go out to this family and may Micheal rest in peace. I hope that the kids will be in an environment that they are used to and with people that they know and love. I would like them to go to Jermain only because Micheal did go and live in Bahrain for a while with the children so the kids are used to him. Last but not least I feel that if someone helped him overmedicate than they need to be held accountable.

My husband is at a concert in NYC tonight, with several friends.  This is my night to break loose.  Not as wild as you might think.  I have 4 kids at home, after all, so "breaking loose" usually means an open bottle of wine, plus the usual work involved.  So instead of doing the laundry, I'm doing it while staggering.  Instead of doing the dishes, I'm doing them with bubbles flying.  I have the added fun of a swollen foot, since I was bitten (by a spider) last week and it's really getting ugly below the knee.  But don't feel sorry for me - I really don't like going into NYC to concerts.  Too loud, too late, too hip for me.  I would rather stay home with my kids and eat Italian ices for dessert.   And then watch late night TV and laugh!! 

Today I stayed home from work, in order to have my foot seen.  The doc said that it was probably spider bite, and that it would run its course over 5 days.  Wow. it hurts.  So I'm tanked up on red wine and salad, and just trying to relax since it's summer.  I really want to come up with a social skills curriculum for next school year, to better serve my k-4th grade students, so I'm trying to read whenever I can.  I have a book on 'sensitivity', and 2 books on cooperative games...perhaps I can create a curriculum for autistic kids and their mainstream peers so that our 'socials skills' program can be more than "manners".  Any ideas??  I am very open to them, and welcome your help!!  Sher

Hey guys,

Sorry i have't been writing any blog entrys. I am trying to go to school to learn more about Autism Education.my son's ABA teacher told me about ''grants'' .Does anyone knows more about  Grants.He told me that they could be albe to help me with paying for school.Please if anyone knows any information about it or any other  ways to get help.I would love to know.

Thanks alot.

The seamstress finished the mattress cover yesterday and we tried it out last night. No problems. Issac left it completely alone last night. Today, however, he poured orange juice all over it. I was prepared for that by putting a vinyl mattress cover over the mattress under the carhart mattress cover. All I had to do was take off the carhart and wash it, then put it back on. No biggie.

It rained all day here so no picking berries. I will go back at it tomorrow. Yippee! I wish I was a faster picker. It does wear on a body trompling thru briars and all the sticky heat. But I have made some money toward that floor. Maybe I will have enough after next week. They have left the floor alone today.

My ex called asking if I would send Seth and Mallie to Chicago to stay with his family for a week. My answer was "How would that help me?" "Are you going to take the twins on a different week?" No answer to either question. My guess is that his family is pressuring him to phase the twins out of his life. Maybe I am over reading the situation??????? He then said that his father was going to have foot surgery because he broke his foot and that the reason that Seth and Mallie could come and not the twins was so they could be a help. I said I had 3 words for that. "Kiss my a**". This man who is their grandfather sees them maybe twice a year and that is if my ex takes them to their house and insists his parents spend time with them. And he wants me to send my kids to take care of him???? He then complained that he would have to take off of work if he had to take the twins too. He told me that his grandmother who is around 80, would even take Seth and Mallie, but not the twins. None of this adds together... either he wants them to care for his father or he just wants them, but nothing about taking the twins at any time. What am I supposed to think?  read more »

As everyone out there knows Extended School Year is a service that they give to alot of children with disabilities. Usually, they give the ESY because they (the Child Study Team) feel that if the child is away from school for some time that the child might regress. I see what they are saying and I like ESY. I personally feel all kids should have the option whether special needs or not. Well, Ihsan and Akyli started and Akyli who is going to be a senior in September is doing well. He is also doing a program at home from the school called the ALEKs program. It's a math program and it will help him improve and get to where he needs to be in September (god willing). Aklyi likes ESY because he gets to see alot of his friends there and he gets to keep intouch with his favorite teachers. He is also training in Martial Arts this summer so we will see how that goes. He used to train with his dad when he was younger. His dad teaches martial arts amongst other things. He seems to be developing well and surprisingly  to me he seems to be picking up on the moves fairly quickly. Ihsan or as some of you have gotten to know him as (Izzy) he started ESY but I am having a problem. He is 3 now and as he is going there when he comes home is having major fits and he cries and screams all the time now. It's to the point where sometimes I feel that he is outta control. Calming him down is getting harder and harder. I'm considering pulling him out and just working with him this summer myself.

Hi all...

We are four master's level OT students from California State Dominguez Hills in Carson CA who are researching the "experience of caring for a child with autism." Our interest in autism stems from working with some of the most wonderful children and families, as well as our deep desire to find out the experience caregivers have had as a result of caring for their child with autism. Our short electronic survey is almost ready to go, so please stay tuned and we will post it ASAP.

 Thank you so much!

Kristen, Whitney, Amy and Colleen...future occupational therapists

Why does nobody get it when u try 2 explain 2 people how difficult life is with an autisic child and when they comment and they say "isnt he gettin better" not the fact that it is the parents hard work that has helped in the reduced melt downs by reduced language and puttin things into place to try and reduce the situations which they find difficult, why dont they see its not an illness its a disability which is life long, you can get better from an illness but a disability never goes away, but u can do everything u can 2 cope differently with it and 2 help the person reach there potential, it just frustrates me when people will not except autism is a life long disability and they think when u r positive that everything is fine and your sons cured and when your honest about what the future holds 4 u and your child they think u r milking it when all u r being is honest and just want someone 2 listen.

Hi everyone, I previously posted the following blog on the surveys and studies category, I REALLY NEED MORE HELP so i can fully explore my topic and give an accurate account of YOUR thoughts! Any help will be so appreciated!

 ...

It is so nice to get such quick responses to my blog entries. I've never been one to blog, but I'm glad I'm doing it now. I will let evryone know when my book is coming out. I don't feel the general public truly understands what it is we go through. I have not yet read another author's book that gets into as much detail as I have done. I have also written about new ideas that have come to me concerning my son's development which have been quite helpful. My son has had an early diagnosis of low-functioning autism, and a recent diagnosis of high-functioning autism. I hope that which I've written can help other families of autism. Thank you for writing to me.

Sincerely, Brian

As educators and parents, we can’t help being impressed over a 5-year old child speaking in words suitable for a grad-school thesis project. Perhaps we associate this feat with over-ambitious parenting ability, or a suspected higher-than-average IQ. As the little professor enters the classroom, our amazement turns to puzzlement. Is there a reason beyond stubbornness that little Billy can’t write?

About The Ability of Asperger Syndrome Children to Hyper-Focus

Asperger Syndrome is a form of Autism that produces children who can blend into their surroundings in a classroom setting. Until recently, many of these children fell through the cracks while displaying signs of higher IQ’s that were coupled with non-functioning classroom abilities. An Asperger Syndrome or AS child can have an extreme interest in vocabulary at a young age, be an advanced reader, and show extra skill in sketching; with a teacher completely convinced that they are refusing to write out of stubbornness. With some AS children, there are issues with a form of hyper-focusing trait that is coupled with an inability to relate to communications directed at broadening their perspectives. If the hyper-focusing is directed at building a vocabulary, all other areas of the educational experience are simply unimportant to the child who is only focusing their attention on one thing.  read more »

Sorry for not being on for a while. It's just sometimes I don't know what to write about. I'm not sure if I should write about how life is going or if I should write about something in the Autism domain. I think too that sometimes I really feel I don't have nothing special to write about or sometimes there is so much going on I don't even know where to begin. I think I probably would be writing all day if I could. I will try to write at least twice a week. Just let me know what I should write about or what your interested in. So I can decide which way I wanna go.

Thank you for writing to me so quickly, and taking interest in my book. It will be titled "Autism Nation," and I have seen some interest from a few publishing houses. I agree with what you said in your comment. After wittnessing harsh words from family and friends, I too began to withdrawl a bit myself. I have read several books on autism, but none went into deep enough detail as to what our families endure.  I believe the general public needs to know more than they already do. I'm hopeing to get the part of our society that is not living with autism, to open their minds a bit more and understand our children instead of shunning them.

When the book is finished, I want to begin working on a documentary for autism. There is so much controversy that, I like many others, only wish to find the truth. I believe the writing of this book has been good therapy for me during the trials of autism. I hope the autism community will like it. Thanks again for contacting me.

Brian

OK. if this link is up already, forgive me, but I found it and I am jazzed about the ideas here...I am determined to make a sensory room for the twins and Alex too....we are moving Liana in with Kaylee, since presently Liana is in the sunroom...she can do sleep overs in the sun room still, but on school nights, sleep with Kaylee....and the sunroom, a tiled floor is going to be my sensory party room....and I am so excited that so many of these ideas are cheap and easy to do!  Just wanted to share the link!http://reclaimingthehome.typepad.com/home/2009/01/building-an-autism-sensory-room-on-the-cheap-tactile.html

I picked four gallon of blackberries yesterday. I sold two. I figure I can get about 3 more today off the other patch. Then I am going to take Wednesday off. I might go back to picking on Thursday. I would like to send some to Chicago with my ex, but he doesn't sound like he is coming down to get the kids this weekend. I did get scratched up, but not bad enough to keep me out of the patch.

Seth watched the boys while I picked. Mallied helped pick for a little while. Issac watched a little bit and then went to visit grandma. They were pretty good for Seth. But he was ready for a break. No major mishaps, just some more floor missing. And a shirt.

I gave Thane the melatonin this morning to see if he would go back to sleep and I got to sleep in until 8:30. They are all still asleep. It is wonderful! Thanks for the tip! I know this is not going to work when school starts, but it is a temporary solution for now anyway. I was trying to read a book in bed last night and Mallie was laughing at me because I fell asleep and was still holding the book up and trying to read it. Glad someone thot it was was amusing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiwnf6J_01g

Thanks for watching!!!