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...]
15
Jul 2018
Autism and High School Schedules After one year in high school, I’ve learned something about my son’s schedule. What have I learned? My son was a freshman this year. In 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 with a couple of them and straighten things out that way, but the IEP team had to meet with one of them. IMHO, this teacher was so particular and strict about how things had to be done in her classroom, that being … [Read more...]
08
Jul 2018
Talking about Autism Sometimes a really wonderful opportunity comes up, and I can’t pass on it. What was the opportunity? There is a terrific, energetic autism mom that I know, Shannon Penrod. We had heard about each other for a few years before actually meeting. A mutual person knew both of us and he kept saying to Shannon, and then to me, that our families should meet—we had something in common. What did we have in common? We were both moms of sons on the autism spectrum. Our sons are close in age and diagnosis. We knew about our son’s … [Read more...]
06
May 2018
Autism and Spreading Awareness Alternative title…You Never Know When Something Will Come Up. What does that mean? It means you never when something you did in the past will come back and add some good to the world, have an impact, be noticed, and be appreciated for trying to spread awareness. What happened? I was contacted in March by a person affiliated with a film festival in Miami, Florida. The film festival is officially called the 2018 NAMI Reel Minds Miami Mental Health Awareness Film Festival. NAMI stands for National Alliance on … [Read more...]
23
Apr 2018
Autism and Puberty My son is fifteen-years-old. Which means…he’s in the throes of puberty. What have been some of his issues? Many of these are common issues of any child (in this case a male child) going through puberty: *Dealing with growing facial hair. Learn how to shave. We bought him an electric razor and my husband gave him a lesson. He does it himself now. *Dealing with other hair. This became a bit of an issue when my son decided to try to shave his legs (the ankle part). I asked him why he did that and he said he just wanted to … [Read more...]
15
Apr 2018
To Disclose Autism or Not? What do strangers deserve to know? When was the first time we disclosed our son’s autism? Honestly, only one or two people knew about my son’s autism for the first, well, two years. Yep, that’s right. We kept it to ourselves. And, then we disclosed only to family. Then, years later, we disclosed…well, we disclosed when and if we felt like it, I guess. Why did we wait so long to tell (most) everyone? First, we were scared and didn’t know what was happening. Second, we decided to focus only our … [Read more...]
09
Apr 2018
A Light Bulb Moment for Parent of Child with Autism I read this article the other day by a female adolescent with autism. I’ll post it below, because it was very revealing. What did it say? Well, this person with autism explained why she hates her parents. What? Hate is very strong word. Yet, when I read the article, I understood her point of view. Which was? She dearly loves her parents, but she struggles with their idea of her capabilities verses her very real need to download from the outside world in a safe place. She knows that … [Read more...]
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