Discussing Autism

Nine tenths of education is encouragement. – Anatole France

I never knew how to make a paper airplane until last week. Sure, I made them back in 7th grade but I always followed detailed instructions from origami books. I was never able to make them from memory.

Now that AJ is infatuated with all things that fly, including kites, plastic bags, and paper airplanes. I am certainly not found of him playing with plastic bags but the good thing is that he requests us to tie strings on them so that he can fly them into the air; he does not (and has never) put one near his head. Read the rest of this entry »

This weekend I received a bi-monthly update from my b5media managers that included information on how to effectively search out your blog status, name, and how people link back to your blog. You would think that after over a year of blogging that I would know how to do this but unfortunately, I didn’t.

Thank goodness it was easy (simply typing in a few keywords like my name or blog title into search sites like googleblogsearch.com, ask.com, and icerocket.com). What I found on one of my searches was a writer/father who was pretty disgruntled about my post about AJ’s institutional autism that I had posted at Chicago Moms Blog and the Chicago Tribune. Read the rest of this entry »

Parents of special needs children, whether it be autism, down syndrome, fetal alcohol syndrome, ADHD, or seizure disorders need respite. We need some time away from our children to regain our own selves because we can’t be expected to be super parents all of the time. Read the rest of this entry »

We learn…
10% of what we read
20% of what we hear
30% of what we see
50% of what we both hear and see
70% of what is discussed
80% of what we experience personally
95% of what we teach to someone else
– William Glasser

Okay, so I have been a tad lazy lately about the Friday Freebie. Please forgive me! I have had a huge project at home that is not so free. But, here is a great Friday Freebie for this week.

Right now we are are working on letter recognition at home but because AJ has both auditory and visual processing disorders this is very difficult for him. He loves music and learns great this way but there are few alphabet songs that help him visually recognize a letter. Read the rest of this entry »

Autism Awareness Month has flown by…and I mean flown. For us, our month was spent dodging debris, inhaling dust, and listening to my parents argue about where they put the remote. We remodeled our entire first floor and spent over two weeks listening to sawzaws, pounding hammers, construction workers cuss, and air compressors.

I barely got any of my normal writing and work done much less anything extra. I literally ran errands looking for new lights (okay, that was fun), searched for the perfect granite countertops (not so fun), and spent thousands of dollars at Lowes (because we all know Lowes does not support Big Brother).

I have been, however, trying to keep up with my Google favorites and I feel like I have been missing out on something. I don’t feel like it’s been Autism Awareness Month but rather that it was an Autism Awareness Day. People all over the country celebrated the day with activities, productions, wise and introspective blogs but where did the rest of the month go? Read the rest of this entry »

Gosh! How has this week gotten away with me? It is Tuesday already and I was supposed to announce the winners of the Bloggy Giveaways last Saturday. I had three giveaways at all three of the sites that I write for; Discussing Autism, A Child Chosen, and my personal site, My Two Boys.

But, since we are still in the middle of this construction process on our home my brain is a tad dusty (along with everything in my house!). I had 44 comments on Discussing Autism, 45 comments on My Two Boys, and 124 on A Child Chosen (WOW). So, I am randomly (okay, not so randomly) picking number 44 from all three blogs.

My Two Boys- Reeva

Discussing Autism - Audrey

A Child Chosen - Kathy

The Federation for Children with Special Needs has released their annual Summer Program Brochure! Packed full of every state’s summer programs you can purchase this brochure in a PDF file or in soft cover at the Federation for Children with Special Needs site.

Parents say this booklet is THE go to guide for summer!

The Vaccine Court has been in session for more than a decade debating whether or not Vaccines actually cause autism. A total of 4,900 families have signed on to participate in the Vaccine Court. Read the rest of this entry »

And as Albert Einstein said long before, We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.

Imagination is more important than knowledge. – Albert Einstein

Life has certainly turned upside down these past few weeks. With a brand new kitchen, living with the ‘rents, and new medication for AJ we have had our fair share of transitions. Eric has also taken on new responsibility at work with a new job so we are very excited about that.

What is most exciting is that AJ has learned how to simply (pardon the cliche) roll with the punches. Oh, he has his moments wherein he throws a little tantrum or tries to yell at me using his made up expletives. Those, in my mind are all natural little boy things that he is working through and I am happy to allow him to experience those things.

After only three weeks on this miracle (oh, yes!) medication I have seen a frustrated, tired, angry, and out of control maniac of a child transform into one of the sweetest, most lovable, compliant, knowledge hungry, talkative, responsive, calm, and independent 4-year-olds I have ever met. He belly laughs, holds conversations with me about the birds in the trees, answers questions; all things he could not do before. Read the rest of this entry »

Once again, Toys R’ Us has teamed up with Autism Speaks to help Autism Awareness, by creating a list of products that are well suited for children on the autism spectrum. Back in September, Maria Shriver helped promote Toys R Us’s line of Differently Abled toys for kids of all abilities. Read the rest of this entry »

Since AJ has been on the Risperdal life around our house, (actually, my parent’s house) has been rather harmonious. He has been very pleasant, agreeable, fun-loving, and extremely easy going.

However, he still has his moments. Even though he is getting, on average, 11 hours of sleep per night, he is still somewhat sleepy during the day. He is not tired because the medication is making him tired; he is tired because he is on the go all day now. He is playing outside, running hard, playing hard and constantly on the go.

In fact, on Saturday after camp he came home, ate lunch, read a book with Grandma and then walked to the guest bedroom and decided to take a nap. This morning, after visiting the construction site, he started crying and complaining he was tired. He went back to Grandma’s and slept for over an hour. Read the rest of this entry »

Once again, Discussing Autism is in for the next round of Bloggy Giveaways. And, because this month is Autism Awareness Month and because Mother’s Day is coming up in a few short weeks I think that all you mothers out there, especially those of you have have special needs kids, need something sparkly.

To make things easy, this giveaway is the same as the last one (with the winner’s choice of crystal color and pearl color or any shell bead). The crystals are genuine Swarovski Crystal and the pearls are imported directly from either the Philippines (directly from my Sister-in-Law) or from China Pearl Farms (direct from a wonderful wholesaler I found several years ago). The silver is Bali Silver from Plasi Bali, one of the best Wholesale silver resources online.

The Rules are also the same;
1. Please make sure to leave a comment here with at least one way to contact you (via email). If there is no way to contact your entry will not qualify. 2. I will use a random number generator to chose the winner on April 26th and I will try my hardest to have the earrings in the mail to you for Mother’s Day.
3. US residents only

If you want TWO more chances to win the same giveaway head to My Two Boys and A Child Chosen, as I have three giveaways this time! And, make sure to check out ALL of the b5Media’s Lifestyle Blogs for their giveaways. Catch the link at A Child Chosen when you comment on that giveaway!

Also, make sure to check out Trusera for a fabulous new Autism Community and to talk with moms of children on the autism spectrum who have “been there, done that”.