Caitlin Wray www.welcome-to-normal.com “We fear it. We fear passion, and laugh at too much love and those who love too much. And still we long to feel.” – Jeanette Winterson We long to feel. This is the irony of a child like mine who feels too much, in a world that is losing its ability to feel at all. Have you noticed that most children have an inborn passion? Even if they cannot understand or express it outwardly in typical ways. They are grounded not in thoughts or assumptions or judgments, but in feelings. And when they have those feelings, that passion, they let it fill them up completely. Because they haven’t learned Control. Control has come to represent the zenith of success in our post-modern society. Control your weight, control your behaviour, control your finances, control your future, control your children, control your self. And yet … we still…
Tag: autism
Sara Chapman, MA www.playconnectlearn.com Navigating the world of autism is no easy task for parents, particularly with so much information — and misinformation — currently available. Parents spend hours searching for what is best for their child, understandably so, often confused or uncertain about what will truly help their child learn, develop, and grow into a warm, independent, and emotionally connected individual. The DIR®/ Floortime™ model provides a framework for helping parents better understand their child and to re-establish those early connections that once seemed lost or unattainable. It is about finding the “gleam in the eye” and falling in love with your child all over again, no matter what your child’s challenges might be. In turn, this will lead to healthy foundations for social, emotional, and intellectual development. What is the DIR® Model? The DIR® Model, or Developmental, Individual-Differences, Relationship-based Model, is an interdisciplinary framework for assessment and intervention…
Frances Vega-Costas www.viviendoenotradimension.com dimensionautismo.blogspot.com Autism is a very complicated disorder and not only affects each individual differently, it strikes anywhere in the world. Never in my life would I imagine that I would be a special education advocate nor that would I use the “A” word almost on a daily basis. Almost ten years ago the “A” word moved into my house and it has been a very interesting relationship with its ups and downs but as any regular couple we learned to live with each other in peace, accepting each other as we are. My son was diagnosed almost at four with PDD-NOS, which by that time I did have an understanding of, and to be honest for me is a fancy label for “we don’t know in what part of the ASD Spectrum your son is”. Since he was 18 months we began to see that something was…
Kelly V. Russell http://2006housewife.blogspot.com My child has autism … and I, as his mother, have never felt so isolated in my life. My son has severe speech delays. This is why he doesn’t talk to you. Why don’t you speak to him? My son perceives the world in a unique manner. This is why he plays with toys in an abnormal way. Why don’t you play with him? My son has difficulty understanding social cues. This is why he avoids eye contact. Why do you stare at him like he’s an animal in a zoo? …Or even worse, ignore him, as if he’s not a human being. Being his mother does not make me a saint, though sometimes I feel like a martyr. His condition does not mean that God entrusted me with a special blessing. Autism means he was born with a formidable glitch in his hardware … a…
Jennifer Byde Myers www.jennyalice.com www.canisitwithyou.org www.haveautismwilltravel.com It was almost dark when we pulled in to the campground in Ohio. I went to the door of the manager’s office, and the sign said, “Will return 9:00.” I am an eternal optimist (HA!) and hoped that it meant in eleven minutes at 9pm instead of 12 hours later. We had a reservation, called in hours before, but there were no instructions left for us taped to the door. Most RV parks and campgrounds will do this, so you can still find your way in the dark. As I stood there on the porch, looking back at the RV, knowing that my children were probably yelling at my tired husband because they so desperately want to get OUT of the RV when we stop, I thought I might die of exhaustion. I wilted a little in the heat, and began to survey the campground…
Prather Harrell www.africanamericanautismofaz.org No, not my autistic five year old son … I’m the one on the verge of a meltdown! It was one of those days where I could not seem to make anyone happy. Jonah, my five year old, had been having a bad summer all along. I can’t say that I blame him. Here we go changing his schedule around from KinderPrep (ABA/habilitation) in the mornings and public preschool in the afternoons with a few therapies sprinkled in between, to therapies in the morning and KinderPrep in the afternoon and no more Mrs. Marsha period (his preschool teacher – Jonah completed preschool this spring and will be headed to Kindergarten this fall). The teachers changed, the students changed, some of his therapists changed — we flipped his entire schedule around and no one ever consulted him about it. I guess I’d be pretty pissed too if somebody…
Stacey Ashlund sashlund.posterous.com I have experienced what Slate’s Tim Wu calls That Misery Called Meditation. So much in the press these days claims we should all start meditating, and it has such a positive profound effect. It’s inexpensive, anyone can do it anywhere, and it’s the antidote to our busy stressed-out overly-technical lives. But some of us don’t have time, and most of just don’t want to sit and do nothing — it sounds stupid and boring. We have more interesting things to do with our time. I like Wu’s article because it reads like a male chapter out of Eat Pray Love. Any implications I’d heard or imagined about that self-indulgent woman being a fluffy time-waster who thinks too much, talks too much, and writes too much — as in, “Why doesn’t she settle down and get a real life with a house, a job, a car, etc?,” is…
Jennifer Johnson What are some of your short cuts? -Editors My son’s ABA therapy provider started my son on PECS (Picture Exchange Communication System, an icon-based “functional method of communication” for people with verbal or motor communication challenges) when he was about 18 months old. I wanted to make the PECS myself so that we could have them all look them same whether they were for an ABA session, or for choices for snacks. So, I took photos and cropped each one, sized them, printed them out, etc. It took me hours to make just a few of them, and I wondered how on earth I would be able to keep it up at that pace. Then I spoke to another of my son’s therapists, who like me had a son with ASD, and she shared a clever time-saving method that I want to pass along. Suggested Materials: Digital camera…
Jean Winegardner www.stimeyland.com When I write my column Autism Unexpected for Washington Times Communities, I use the words “person with autism” and “autistic person” pretty interchangeably. Every once in a while, I get a comment telling me I should use “person first” language, meaning I shouldn’t use the word “autistic” to describe a person. Because I’ve heard this criticism more than once, I feel it necessary to tell you that I not only use the word “autistic” intentionally, but thoughtfully and with purpose. The theory behind person-first language (“person with autism”) is that it recognizes the person before the disability and stresses that there is more to a person than just autism. I asked my blog readers and my Twitter followers which they preferred, and the majority, mostly parents of children with autism, reported that they prefer the person-first terminology. Person-first language is an easy philosophy to accept. It makes…
Estée Klar www.esteeklar.com I have always found the idea of blaming the autistic child for the deterioration of marriage unfair to autistic people. Yet, when my own marriage ended, I couldn’t help but wonder if any of those ideas behind the eighty per-cent divorce rates and autism might in some way be true. A single mom of an autistic child for several years now, I’ve seen that when relationships fall apart, we begin by looking outside ourselves for the external causes to blame. No matter what the circumstance, illness, disability, death are the certainties of a full life. We make vows for better or for worse, even if most of us want the “better.” Frequent divorce seems to reflect the advent of the re-start button — an impatient, quickly gratified culture with many options at our fingertips, and a waning attention span. It’s perhaps an unforgiving view about what as…