I saw you today. In fact I saw several of you. I was the mom picking up some groceries with my son. My autistic son, that’s all he is. No need to walk on eggshells around us, we were just fine. But I’m not sure you were. When he made unusual noises as I stood at the deli counter you were allowed to smile at me and say hello. It would’ve gone a long way to put me at ease. It wasn’t necessary to look past us as if we…
Like me, many of you have been following this story since the beginning. As a mom to a little boy with nonverbal autism, it summarized my worst nightmares and greatest fears into one. Emotional and physical abuse of the most vulnerable population. Thankfully, arrests have been made. Suspecting her 6-year-old daughter with severe nonverbal autism was being abused at school, Amber Pack, a West Virginia mother hid a recording device in her daughter’s hair, court documents say. On Friday, the girl’s former teacher and two former aides were arrested, the…
I’ve been sitting on this for a long time. I never wrote it into words because I didn’t feel I had the adequate vocabulary to do. I still don’t but I think that’s the point. Seven years ago I met my now boyfriend. He was weird. Everyone was weird to me, including myself. We never really spoke until 2 years ago. It started when I reached out because I was worried about him. He talked to me in a way I knew he didn’t talk to anyone else. I didn’t…
On the way home from a special needs event I was actually able to talk my daughter into attending, we stopped at Starbucks drive through. As I waited in line, I watched people getting out of their cars and going inside. Families laughing and enjoying the Florida sunshine. Most were probably tourists, since I was about 15 min from the gates of Disney World. We got our drinks and then I hopped on the interstate to head home. We had a really good day today. Casadee attended the special rodeo…
Tomorrow my son will start in your classroom. It will be our first real time spent apart since he was born. I worry you won’t like him. I’m afraid he’ll be too much for you to handle. Everyone tells me this will be good for him…good for me. I hope you love him like your own. Chances are, my little guy will have no idea I’ve even dropped him off because he lives in his own world. He will probably grab your hand and happily go with you because he…
I’m sitting here, basically in shock. Shock of the ignorance of people, wondering if it ever has an end. I’ll start by saying that I love my job (well, loved). I thrive in that chaos. I love new and challenging things. I feel like my life has been one giant challenge since August 17th, 2010 – the day my daughter was born. It definitely started off pretty quickly. They had us stay in the hospital for two days after I gave birth to her. The evening I brought her home,…
I thought I would be a boy mom. A baseball mom. A hockey mom. A social mom. A mom with a lot of friends. A cool mom. A successful mom. Autism challenged every one of those titles for me. I am brave enough to say that. The role of special needs mom overpowered it all. It turned my whole world completely upside down. And inside out. And backwards. It demanded I slow down. And move faster at the same time. It demanded I speak out and yet learn to hold…
Four years ago, when my autistic son was four years old, I took him to Target. He had just been diagnosed with autism. Life was just starting to get more challenging. The list of places we could go and things we could do was getting smaller. Anything outside of our home was nearly impossible. He struggled to walk, to ride in a cart or stroller, to be calm, to wait, you name it…we felt it. But I needed something from Target. I needed to pick up a prescription. I needed…
The company where I work does a job for a regular customer a couple times a year. She has a child who’s somewhere on the autism spectrum. From the few times that I have actually seen her, she seems to be fairly verbal, and smart. But, she has also been in the same school as Amelia for most of her life. Although, I think, its been off and on for the last few years. The mother is an older lady. In her eighties, I believe. The daughter is somewhere in…
Severe autism, level 3 was my son’s first diagnosis. But I’m not supposed to talk about it. Severe learning/intellectual disability was my son’s second diagnosis, I’m allowed to talk about this one. Most children with this level of autism have very complex issues and learning disabilities. You can talk freely about most disabilities and special needs without being shamed. Autism is not one of them. Some severely autistic children will live at home forever, or in a residential home. Some severely autistic children will still need help with all of…
