When Autism Looks Like OCD This blog post only pertains to my son. I am in no way saying that autism is OCD, or OCD is autism, or even that OCD is a typical characteristic found on the autism spectrum. This post is simply about my own observations. Why am I talking about OCD? Because sometimes my son acts like he has OCD. He doesn’t. He has autism. And, someone with a professional degree may be able to explain why OCD looks like autism, or OCD can be on the spectrum, or whatever. But, here’s what I’ve noticed about my son and what I do … [Read more...]
02
Oct 2018
Autism and the New School Year I waited a bit before reporting on my child’s new school year. What happened last year? Last year was my son’s freshman year. It was the first time he had gone to school without an aide. He was fourteen when he began school (he turned fifteen in February). Within two months, he changed his “look.” (He suddenly went from a shorts-wearing kid to a pants-wearing kid, he grew out his hair, and his attitude, well, teenagers can be surly, can’t they?) The summer before freshman year, he took a health … [Read more...]
24
Sep 2018
Dissolving Friendships with Kids on the Autism Spectrum We all have friendships. And, somewhere along the way many of us have had to walk away from a friendship or two—for whatever reason. Friendships happen in many ways, with or without our kids. With kids, I’d like to address two situations… One is when parents are friends, and they get their children together. The children may or may not like each other, but the parents like each other. It works out well when the kids do get along, of course. A second situation is what if kids like … [Read more...]
17
Sep 2018
The Impacts of Not Curbing Behaviors Related to Autism With autism, comes behaviors. In general, when our kids are little, there are more behaviors. We, as parents, (along with the various facilitators who work with our children), have to deal with these behaviors. In an ideal world, we are all trained to handle most behaviors with our children, whether at home or out in the world. And, we want to work with our kids so they can overcome their challenges and be relatively functional and comfortable in society. As they grow older, we … [Read more...]
09
Sep 2018
Autism and Another Fund Raising Event I like to keep active on the fund raising front. I try to volunteer two or three times a year. One event I volunteer for every year is The Ed Asner Poker Tournament. Ed Asner is a huge supporter of the autism community. Additionally, he just began a non-profit called The Ed Asner Family Center. Their inaugural event was a summer camp for children on the spectrum. What is it like to volunteer for a fund raising event? It’s typically working behind-the-scenes. You arrive early. Sometimes, you … [Read more...]
27
Aug 2018
What the Internet Thinks of Autism My son recently said to me, “The Internet thinks of autism as stupid people. Stupid and autism go hand in hand, on the Internet.” What? I asked him to clarify that statement. And, he did. He said, “When I read things on the Internet about autism, it seems like autism is called things like stupid. On the Internet. I’ve seen it a bunch of times. The Internet thinks autism means stupid.” How did I react to that? Surprised. Yet, on another hand I did get it because there is a lot of “bad” information on … [Read more...]
18
Aug 2018
Autism and High School Schedules This post is really a part two... One year of high school completed, and my son is about to begin year number two. During this time, I learned something about my son’s high school schedule. What have I learned? My son was a freshman this past school year. Last September, one month into high school, things weren’t going so well for him. His grades were low and he had a few issues with some of the teachers. I emailed the teachers to help straighten things out, but the IEP team decided to meet with one of … [Read more...]
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