Discussing Autism

Camp started this past Monday and AJ, my overstimulated one, is, of course, overstimulated. So, what is a Mommy to do?

Routine and schedules are such a part of his life that whenever he gets out of that routine he gets overwhelmed, stressed out, and aggressive. He not only must live by routine and structure but he also must have structure in his environment. His home must be organized and in the same patterns, same flow, and he must be able to find everything in the same place everyday.
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A hawk is a bird of prey, meaning that they hunt for their food using their keen senses. Bullies do the same thing; they hunt for the easiest target using their keen senses, the ones they have refined and nurtured, honed for years.

The prey is not always the weakest in the forest though but sometimes it may be the target that is most susceptible, the most unsuspecting, and the most easy to target. (more…)

Summer time is here and for some kids so is chaos. I know that in our house the very day school was out for the summer AJ turned into a monster. With his structure and routine gone he knew it was going to be stressful for him even though there was not going to be any immediate stress put upon him. (more…)

Summer time can be difficult for parents with special needs children, especially when summer school is not provided (because there was no regression) or when both parents work.

What options does a parent have to care for a child with autism or special needs? Children with autism need special services, structure, and they need adults who know how to work with them every day in order to prevent behavior issues from becoming too challenging. (more…)

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. (more…)

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? (more…)

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. (more…)

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. (more…)

Parents of children with have fought with insurance companies for years to get coverage of simple things like sensory integration therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, and so forth. However, insurance companies won’t pay because autism is not curable and is a developmental disorder.

The most controversial coverage is ABA, a therapy used to help teach children with autism social and daily living skills like looking someone in the eye, brushing their teeth, or waving goodbye. ABA is controversial because of its heavy price tag. (more…)

Wait, so Autism is not the end of the world?

Since we adopted our son from Russia in the summer of 2005 we have struggled with him. From his fingertips to his toenails the child is a medical mystery and developmental mess. (more…)

Back in April of 2007 Reuters Health released a study indicating that mothers of autistic children may be prone to depression because they felt responsible for the cause or the outcome of their children’s disorder.

Most of the women I know are well educated women who know that they are certainly NOT the cause for their child’s disabilities, or at least not the direct cause. There certainly could be some sort of “genetic” component that ties in somewhere but it is my understanding that my friends don’t all feel that “mommy guilt” that the media makes us all believe we are supposed to feel. We all know that bad parenting is not the cause of autism and that refrigerator mothers don’t exist. (more…)

Typically developing children learn without the need for intervention and they learn at a natural rate. However, children with autism and special needs don’t acquire skills at the same rate and they don’t always maintain what they learn because of processing disorders or deficiencies in memory.

ABA, Applied Behavior Analysis, is the design, implementation, and evaluation of environmental modifications to produce socially significant improvement in behavior. ABA is based upon the idea that a child’s behavior is determined by past and current events as well as genetic make-up. So, it focuses on explaining events that can be manipulated rather than focusing on the internal make-up that is beyond parental control. (more…)

Having a child will change your life but one day finding out that your child has special needs, or better yet, Autism, can be so life altering that families can either pull together or be ripped apart.

Every family will eventually respond to an autism diagnosis in their own way. Because caring for a child with autism takes time, energy, patience, resources, flexibility, finances, and most importantly, a sense of humor. (more…)

Yes, its been a long time since I posted a freebie. So sorry about that. We have been a little busy around our house. But, I have a fantastic freebie for you today.
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We first started using Picture Cards about two years ago when we purchased PECS to help with scheduling but I have recently found that its not the scheduling that AJ needs the most help in. Instead, we have started using the pictures from BoardMaker to help him with his visual and auditory processing disability.

We have created several sets of ring cards to help him get ready for the day and get ready for bed and he absolutely loves them because it gives him mind order. His morning ring card has the following pictures: Bathroom, bath, brush teeth, underwear, socks, pants, and shirt. He can now get dressed almost entirely by himself without any communication issues or without us having to talk to him at all (which often created frustration).

Grocery PECS, DVD PECS, Toy PECS
Free PECS
School related Pictures

Complete List of Companies that Create Picture Cards