Autism Blogger

Check out this article that I have recently written about Jasper Steed, an autistic man that has created is own success! It is quite an inspirational story!

http://autism-education.suite101.com/article.cfm/autistic-man-jasper-ste...

High Functioning Autism- Disabled, impairment, or bigotry?

 That is the question raised in this rather interesting post: http://midnightinchicago.wordpress.com/2010/07/26/disabled-impaired-or-mainstream/ .  Here's my opinion:

 I do think to a certain extent, HFA/Asperger's diagnosis IS bigotry on the part of neurotypical society.  We're not so impaired as to be obviously different- but we are impaired enough to be treated differently by others.  

Having said that- you can't get accommodation in education or in the workplaces without  a "disabled" label- and that means we NEED the label.  In addition to that, just look at the homosexual community, a 1:10 minority, and their struggles that they're dealing with.  How can we EVER expect acceptance for a 1:180 minority (assuming that functioning in autism does indeed follow a bell curve, like anything else in biology) that has behaviors related to another 1:180 minority who are *obviously* impaired and disabled? 

I just finished dropping off Noah (my son with autism) at his camp at school. When we entered into the building, Noah raced to the classroom filled with kids playing on the computer. His brother (who happens to be non-autistic) walked him to his room (of course, Noah racing ahead of him) to make sure he was alright. I looked at my older son who quietly stood behind Noah, waited until he entered then quietly walked back towards the front door. Believe it or not, this was a peaceful moment - although not profound - however one of the few times that the two brothers were copacetic and actually getting along. You may ask, "Why am I writing about this?" Well, all too often, the forgotten ones, the ones that we do not focus on or give as much attention to, happens to be the siblings. Besides the parents, their lives are also impacted by the disorder.  read more »

 Can you all take a survey I think I asked before but was unable to post the link, The survey is fast to do and it does not ask for personal information just your thoughts on what other services would be good for our children. Also, if you go on the page an click on the links pages there is a link that takes you to a site that have grants for parents with children with autism. I was happy to find that out.  Nevertheless, please take the survery it would be nice to get more services offered in this area.  The address is www.thehelpingflower.com  

Derek got his first agumented communication device before he was 10 it was very rudimentary dot matrix touch screen that had no more than 10 choices. The we graduated to a ChatPC about 7 years ago which is a PDA with a speaker attached and would accept programing from a piece of software (Picture Board Maker) on a PC then uploaded to the ChatPC nad had the comuterized "Steven Hawking" voice. We still use that but when Derek is not longer supported by the school district we will have to return it. If any of you have similar devices you are aware of the cost of these machines....we had to add it to our home owners insurance just to bring it home at night......new the ChatPC was well over $3000.00 and there are others that are more than that we have been looking for the next machine that we can buy for him when ChatPC goes away and today we may have found it.......And we have Apple to thank for it.  read more »

My son's repetive behaviors seem to be getting worse especially the light switch thing. He started out just flipping it on and off maybe twice but now it has gone beyond just twice.   At church tonight when he came out of the bathroom he did it quite a  few times. He aslo seems to have a thing with using the bathroom alot more than usual especially when in places that make him nervous. Is there anything thing I can try to help him stop besides just telling him to stop becasue that is not working?

guess i just needed to blog again. my son is 21 months now and still not talking. i went with my gut and had him evulated by early intervention. they tested different areas like play, communication, etc. and they scored him to see if he fell below 25 percent on them if he does he qualifies for help. well like i said he's almost 2 and scored a 9 month old level on communication. so basically he's at the level of a 9 month old. i felt like someone ripped out my heart at that moment. i felt lost and wondering what i could have done different, yes i know i had my woe is me moment. but i think we all have had that at one moment or another. so now im wondering where to go from here. They didn't diagnosis him as autistic, because they don't have the qualifications to do that, but they did say he had a lot of chararistics. So there going to give him speech lessons and work with him on other things as well. And i found a daycare to put him in to maybe help with social interaction. He loves other kids he just dosen't know how to interact with them. I've thought about taking him to get an offical evulation but in my heart i already know what it would be and also my insurance doesn't cover and i would have to pay out of pocket. so i've thought about bypassing and going on to the other things like speech therapy and  ABA and maybe go see a DAN doctor. I don't know, what do yall think?

It was the first camping trip for the kiddos, first time for us in 6 years. Thankfully we had everything in labeled tubs. Also we used our tax return to put a little "glamping" in ghetto camping. We rented a tent trailer and had them deliver it and set it up. Most people rent a Class C at least, or work hard to borrow a friends ford and camping trailer. Anyway, it was still nice to come to the camp site after 5 hours of driving (2 different rush hours) and see the tent trailer all done. The kiddos loved the trailer, little bro set out to find everything in the trailer to unzip. The boys went to bed around 9:45, then next morning we discovered that the trailer people had left the roof vent wide open. Of course, we did not discover this until Zare climbed into our sleeping bag at 5:30 am. But it was a good trip, checking out Mt. St. Helens, walking trails, hot dogs and smores. And Ayden used the trailer potty! Last day Zare cried, and decided the way to bring closure was to say goodbye to our neighboring campers who we never spoke to. DH and I hid in the trailer. It was cute, they spoke pleasantries to each other, I think zare would have kept going but I hollered at him from the trailer. I guess two introverted parents can create an extrovert. Capping off the trip was a stopover near Mcchord AFB with jets screaming overhead every 10 minutes, and the kids eating their dipped cones way. too. slowly.

I am a mother with a successful autistic child and began writing a blog due to the recommendations from others.  Here is an example of one of my entries:

 Beginning Stages of Socialization  read more »