Shannon Des Roches Rosa www.ThinkingAutismGuide.com Yesterday was my autistic teenage son Leo’s annual IEP meeting, in which various people who help him achieve maximum awesomeness (teacher, speech language pathologist, occupational therapist, school district representative, home program director, etc.) meet at his school, to determine what Leo-appropriate educational goals will be for the following year. These […]
Interview by M. Kelter theinvisiblestrings.com Anlor Davin is the author of the upcoming memoir, Being Seen. In her book, she describes lifelong struggles with “sensory chaos” and social pragmatics, all of which culminated in an adulthood diagnosis of autism. She was raised in France, but later immigrated to the United States. We recently spoke via email about
Anonymous Kids with special needs have, well, special needs. These needs not only present my kid with a lot of challenges; sometimes they mean I need to take unscheduled time off work. (It’s just how it is.) Aside from the time I need for standard IEPs, evaluations, school visits, and the like, my kid has
I bring a bag of things to do—a book, a journal and pen, a music player and headphones—for when I need to chill out. If I get too overwhelmed, I take a walk in the cold air. When I take enough breaks to disengage, I can enjoy spending time together with large groups of relatives!
Come October 1, Americans will be able to start enrolling in Affordable Care Act (ACA, “ObamaCare”) health insurance programs, which will then be implemented January 1st. Since health care policy is so complex, we spoke with The Autistic Self-Advocacy Network‘s Ari Ne’eman about specific advantages, opportunities, and sticking points of the ACA for People with
Kate A year from now, I turn thirty. A year from now, many people my age are married, with a kid or two on the way. At the very least, they are living on their own, and supporting themselves. Living with your parents is okay in your twenties, but your thirties? That’s just too long
Zoe Gross illusionofcompetence.blogspot.com There’s a new girl in the office and her brain is weird. One of the labels my weird brain has acquired is Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not Otherwise Specified — PDD-NOS, for short. This is an outdated term for autism, but I still harbor fondness for it because it includes the word “pervasive.”
Scott Standifer Autism Works National Conference We are in the dregs of winter where I live, and I’ve got the blahs. Everything is cold and grey, the branches are bare, the patches of snow are dirty, and spring seems like it will never get here. Our family’s latest antidote has been listening to a song
Scott Standifer Disability Policy and Studies Office School of Health Professions University of Missouri dps.missouri.edu/Autism.html standifers@missouri.edu All images copyright Luna The Moon Girl, used with permission. The photographs of an emerging French photographer depict her fascination with reflections, a feature of her autism. The photographer, who uses the online name “Luna” to protect her privacy,
Liane Kupferberg Carter www.huffingtonpost.com/liane-kupferberg-carter Editors’ note: While some of the referenced documents discuss parents who seek “cures” for their children with autism, it is our opinion that overall Autism Speaks advises those parents to seek evidence-based supports and therapies. If you ask our son Mickey what he might like to be when he grows up,
