Autism Blogger

I got a call from my brother this morning saying he and my neice were in the area and would be by in about an hour to do some tweeking on our computers, so today did not go as well as yesturday. We had behavior after behavior. My brother said what`s up with Mike and when I told him he had no idea you were coming he looked at me like huh, we are not the only ones trying to adjust here I guess. My dad too said oh well, he will just grow out of it, I said dad you just don`t grow out of Autism, to that he responded well I think your probobly not giving him enough attention you do have a prettyy big family. Ugh  Why do people just assume because your the parent you must be doing some thing wrong. Mikey gets more attention than the 7 other kids put together just out of sheer nessesity, his needs are time consuming. The last time I let him out of my sight for more than acouple of minutes he set the attached garage on fire ( he wanted to see if pullups burn) he hates pullups. Must have seemed like a good way to get rid of them.  He still did not melt down though and he wore the earphones all day, so it would have been worse I`m sure without them. My neice is 3 and our youngest is 3 so LOUD is an understatment, then you add 5 other kids and pouring rain and you have off the charts loud !!!  Oh well tommorow is another day LOL

Right now, we're stuck trying to get jobs on a couple of different fronts.

My son has lots of great skills to offer, but interviews and such require social networking skills.  I also have a couple of other young relatives who were laid off during the downturn and are having similar problems finding employment.  None of them have been officially diagnosed, but I would say that they do have some autistic-like traits (which helps to support a genetic cause of autism since in seems to be running in my family).  Anyway, they're all well educated and have a few years of experience in their respective fields.  They don't have any significant negatives in their work history (i.e. they weren't disciplined or fired for cause or anything like that), but their references seem to be letting them down (that is, they don't get the rave reviews that people seem to give people they're naturally buddy-buddy with).  Admittedly, they're somewhat shy and do keep pretty much to themselves... so, it goes without saying that they weren't the most popular people in their offices.

Competing for a job these days really does seem to play out more and more like a massive popularity contest and not having a long list of really good references is a big disadvantage.  I've just read a really disturbing stat that something like 90% of adults with autism are unemployed while the collective stat for people with all-types of disabilities is only 75% (still appalling, but still significantly lower, especially considering that many people with autism are very exceptional in their chosen fields of expertise).  A general lack of friends also means a lack of numerous contacts for getting a new business or service of their own up and running (plus a real lack of funding, too).

Seebert, you seem to have gotten around this somehow.  Do you have any advice or ideas on how we might work around it too.

Folks - I would really appreciate some blogger support on a project that needs PR. I too am a proud mama of a young man living with autism and I'm an equally proud mom of a young woman who veers more toward NT level of functioning. She is the "Sib Champion" in my world. Her needs must come to equal standing as those of her brother - she is his champion afterall. I started a nonprofit years ago to help care for the global needs of economically challenged families living with Autism (which includes an entire program dedicated to the academic, emotional, and recreational needs of Sibs) and I'm always looking for ways to keep the services going there (http://ihcenter.org/groups/bigskyfarm) - so here is one way I have decided to do it - write a fiction series for  folks who enjoy a good adventure. I have the sales going to our programs at "Big Sky" to hopefully beef up our ability to pay our valued intern therapists who stay on with us despite the non-payment due to horrific slashes in nonprofit funding this last year. I do NOT get paid - I am 100% volunteer at this point - and happy to be so. Would you encourage folks to hop over to this link to read a free chapter and then hopefully purchase full access to the entire first book of Wilder Nights at ( http://www.myebook.com/ksainz/ ) - there is a parental advisory sticker on the material due to a few mild words such as !@SS said in jest, but the book is very mild in nature - intended for the young adult to adults in their forties - readers who enjoy adventure, love stories, comedy, and family. Many thanks in advance to you for voicing your world as you know it.Our collective voices matter - most of all - to each other!  read more »

 So we found the earphones that block sound and today was the calmest Mikey has been in a long time so that was really nice, I also read something on another blog about why he won`t look at me in the face when I talk to him and I asked him, Mikey do you like to look at my face when I talk to you and without hesitation he said no, he could not tell me why but that`s ok, so I told him from now on he does not have to as long as he listens. He seemed to think that was a good deal and away he went to line up all his wooden trucks in a very straight line on the seam of the wood floors in his favorite corner of the living room. So one more piece of the puzzle, just the discovery of it is beggining to feel like a very rewarding challenge, I don`t expect to always get these kinds of instant results but when I do I will enjoy knowing I was able to connect with Mikey in a way I couldn`t before .

Need some inspiration?  Do you know someone with autism and don't know how to interact?  Are you a parent struggling to navigate the "simple things" like potty training or teaching your autistic child the alphabet?  Let me direct you to my blog about my son Matt.

Matt is 24 years old and has been autistic since age 2 1/2. He has overcome almost every autistic behavior - no drugs, no expensive therapies, and I don't sell anything.  Matt is now very high functioning and an inspiration to many people.  I have taken the stories of his childhood and our own growing pains and put them down in short stories on my blog.  Learn more by reading the daily stories of the "World According to Matt" website.  The address is http://autismrevealed.webs.com 

I have links to autism information so everyone can learn the basics.

Parents, teachers, family, friends and those wanting insight into the mind of an autistic individual will all find something useful here.   

Our children's future!

quality of life into adulthood  read more »

Elementary school students here are working on a project to raise awareness of autism.

Based on a national campaign to "find the missing pieces of autism," students are creating paintings with missing pieces, much like an incomplete jigsaw puzzle.

The paintings will be sold at a silent auction on Saturday from 6 to 8 p.m. at Worden Art Studio, 4789 SE Dixie Highway, Port Salerno, with the proceeds going to pay for autism research, according to Kristina Burrows of the school’s Parent Teacher Organization.

"Each year the PTO chooses a charity to support. This year, we chose to help the local chapter of Autism Speaks," she said. She attributed the idea to Joy Burgener, chairperson of the event.

Burrows also noted that a group from the school called the "Stingray Shufflers" would participate in a walkathon at Jensen Beach High School on March 20 to raise money and awareness for Autism Speaks.

She said all 32 classes – some 650 children from kindergarten to fifth grade – hand a hand in the project.

"The kids really enjoyed doing the ‘missing pieces’ paintings particularly as they knew the project would benefit autism," said Burrows.

She said she was expecting a good turnout of parents and local business people. "Actually anyone who wants to support autism research is welcome," said Burrows.

Click on the newslink to read the full story.

I was given a copy of The Autism Mom’s Survival Guide by Susan Senator. I'm offering this book to the first Autism Blogger member with at least 30 points who contacts me, with the caveat that you must write a book review on Autism Blogger when you are done reading it. This book lists for $16.95 on Amazon.

Any takers?

http://susansenator.com/survivalguide.html

Family Resources and Education Exchange (F.R.E.E.) is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization (ID # 20-4915626) based in Santa Fe Springs, California.

We service over 400 children and adults with developmental disabilities and their families by providing organized social, art,  educational activities. Our goals are to empower these individuals with the confidence and social skills needed to enable them to lead fulfilled, happy lives and make a positive impact on their communities, as well as to build much needed friendship/support networks for people with developmental disabilities and their families.  

On Saturday April 3rd, 2010, we (F.R.E.E.) are inviting the community to join us at Bluebird Art House (6747 Bright Ave. Whittier, Ca) for an event titled Communication Unbound. The primary goal of the event is to raise funds to provide summer camp for individuals with special needs, since State funds for such programs have been terminated from individuals with Autism and other developmental disabilities.  

The event will also include a art auction, performances by local musicians, (who have donated their time), refreshments and much more.

We hope that you will be able to aide in our efforts by donating merchandise by Friday March 26th.  

All donations will be used as raffle prizes for an estimated 500 attendees.

With your charitable contribution, F.R.E.E will be able to further our mission of enriching the lives of children and adults who are at a societal disadvantage.

Please feel free to call or send any inquires to familyresource@earthlink.net

Sincerely,
Devun M Hunter

Devun M Hunter
Chari Person
Communication Unbound
562-631-3847
devunhunter@netzero.com
Dev

Unfortunatly it takes an event to start thinking about the possiblility of en event....Today I was informed of the untimely death of the wife of a person I went to high school with, I had never met her and I have not seen this person for over 25 years but thru reconnecting on Facebook we learned that we both had son's with Autism, and since his son was a few years younger than mine we would discuss them growing up. Then his life was changed in an instant, and it begs the question....are you prepared for a catastrophic event such as the death of a spouse and what can we do to prepare?

 You have to ask yourself even if your children are young who is a person that I can trust with the continuing education and welfare of you child and what do I need to insure that happens, things like Living Wills and/or your normal Will does that include provisions for your child. My wife and I have co-gaurdianship ofour son and when we did that the lawyer asked why we are doing it people don't usually do it that way...and we told him that if something happened to oneof us the other could just take over without having to deal with all of the red tape it would involve, and we have a back up plan included in the paperwork as well if something would happen to both of us that his Brother and Aunt would be in charge of his care and finacial well being.  These are jsut a few of the things that we can do as parents that can help later down the road so that everyone is clear on the plan.  read more »