Inspirational Stories

Who is your BFF?  Let’s define it first.  As I see it, a BFF is someone who knows you – very well.  This person loves you un-conditionally. They will be there by your side in good times and bad.  They are very special people because they can listen to you without forming judgments.  A BFF stands by you as your equal.  If you look around you will notice that most individuals have a friend or two – and if you look on Facebook, well, friends are listed in the hundreds (sometimes thousands!)  My autistic son, Matt, desires friends.  He wants to have someone he can hang out with, laugh with, shop with, and this desire is a natural one.  The majority of people need other people in their lives to feel whole.  Matt simply wants to feel whole.

Matt really wants his independence.  Working toward this goal is a huge undertaking.  So far, Matt does his own laundry, cooks his own meals, does pretty good in the area of personal hygiene (but needs work), and keeps his rooms fairly clean.  He is able to grocery shop, keep track of his expenses, and is currently attempting email communication.  That last one is difficult as Matt is just not much of a communicator – he’s autistic.

My name is Samuel Jobe single father of 3....my 9 year old son Jordan has sever autism... i just got custody of him on April 18th... after 18 months of him being placed in child protective custody... it was a tough decision to bring him home with his brother and sister... Ive had custody of my oldest son and daughter for 11 months already.... bringing Jordan home was the hardest decision i ever had to make..... i had so many doubts in myself, questioning whether or not id be able to handle the needs of all my children by myself... i had a lot of fear of thinking i was setting myself up for failure... also thinking that my social life would come to an end.... but i had to put all that thinking aside and just bring my son home and do the best i can do for him and my other two kids....i figured if i waited until i was ready to bring Jordan home then he would never come home.... in life we are never ready for anything we just have to live it and do the best we can.....if anyone has ever experienced something similar or has questions id be happy to go into deeper details...thank you.

Hello,

I am the mother of an autistic son, one undiagnosed Aspie, and have Asperger's myself.

My son is 4 yrs. old and although his diagnosis is a little over one year old, I've known there was something going on with him almost from day one.  Although he is high functioning and displays limited "sterotypical behaviors" on a consistent basis, spending enough time with him will surely reveal the deficits autism brings about.  However, I've learned to not be so put off by his odd behaviors and public disruptions.  I've learned that people are my problem not necessarily my son.  I appreciate the difference he brings to my family, although at times it can be strenuous and draining to manage.  I LOVE him so much and want only the best for him, like most parents.  So what I've learned to do is simply accept him as he is and as Jesus does.  God knows him intimately and understands his quirky ways, even though I do not at times.

There is so much we can learn from those diagnosed on the spectrum, I would rather spend my time absorbing and learning from them than trying to "fix" them so that others are more accepting. 

 Proud mother of a child diagnosed with autism

Those of us who parent children with autism know we have no guarantees. Things completely out of our control, like being stuck behind a bus at a traffic light, can send our darling children into panic.

However, this will be my 9th year of celebrating Easter with my son, and I have stashed a few tricks into my Easter basket. I share them with you in hopes you have a wonderfully blessed Easter!

1. If you plan to color Easter eggs with other children around, it might be a good idea for your child to have his own set of dipping colors. Some kids don't mind if red dye gets in the yellow - or if the blue and red mix together to turn a cool shade of purple. BUT... for those of us who don't even like our mashed potatoes to touch our corn, mixing egg dye colors can be traumatic. Make it simple - get your kid his own little cups of dye.

I am a parent of a child who was deeply affected by autism. After going through intensive treatment starting at 18 months, he is now 7 and functioning fine.
Together, we are starting a business with a very innovative line of plush toys. The Silly Creatures are not regular stuffed toys: they eat and poop and can be opened to see what's inside. From our experience with the extensive number of therapies we have done, we believe these toys could be useful for therapists working with children with autism. I wish we had something like that when my child was younger. They can be used in a lot of different ways, such as feeding therapy, potty training, to show how the digestive system works (for children with constipation, retaining stools, or any other GI ailment). Also, helping the food go through the guts is a great exercise to develop fine motor skills. They can be used interactively as puppets, or just for fun.
We just won the Toy Man Seal of Approval and the eChoice Award.

Autism awareness day begins on the evening of April 1 with the kick-off of the “Light it up blue” campaign and continues through April 2.  The entire month of April is Autism Awareness month, but April 1-2 is a really big deal.  Buildings and homes all over the world will change their light bulbs to blue to bring awareness to the autism spectrum disorders.  This is a world day – a moment when the countries of the world unite on getting the conversation going on an epidemic that has yet to have a known cause or cure.  What is autism?  Who is affected?  What is research finding out?  Does my child have autism?  What can I do? These are some of the questions that the campaign wishes to address.  So let’s get the conversation going.

There are many forms of communication among people; verbal, facial expressions, written words, and gesture (body language). Each is generally used in conjunction with the others and we read all this information using our senses. Autistic children have a problem in communication and this affects their ability to socialize.  Many autistic children do not speak, some do not write, and many do not read facial expressions very well.  To compound the problem, some seem to have a heightened sensory input.  This was Matt.  When Matt was very young – between the ages of 2-5 years old – noise hurt, bright lights were avoided, certain smells and tastes were met with disgust.  Matt didn’t speak, he didn’t write, and he avoided eye-contact.  So how did we communicate?