My autistic son can’t tell me what he’s feeling. He can’t tell me if he’s scared or nervous. The words don’t come out. So he shows me instead. And those feelings usually come out in bizarre ways. We call them behaviors. They are typically frustrating. They usually drive a person crazy. That’s the hard part about severe autism. My message today…behaviors are communication. A few nights ago, Cooper patted the chair next to me. He smiled. And climbed his body up onto my lap. He wedged his way in…in the…
My husband and I are parents to an amazing, energetic, mischievous, almost three year old boy, Logan. We started to notice speech regression around 20 months, and I brought it up to his pediatrician at our next routine visit. I remember her saying that speech regression is related to autism, but she didn’t really see any other “red flags” that alarmed her. She referred us to Early Steps to see if he would qualify for speech therapy, and then we would see if he started to make any progress and…
I am thankful for my husband Steve. We’ve had an amazing journey thus far. November 27th will be our families Autism anniversary. The day one of our twin boys, Maverick, was diagnosed. At the time of Maverick’s diagnosis, we were living in central Washington. A peaceful, rural area, filled with apple orchards and wineries. A beautiful place to raise a family, just maybe not our family. Acquiring services in an underserved area is difficult. Maverick was receiving early intervention services through a local organization. It consisted of two speech therapy…
DEAR AUTISM, I have had this letter in my heart addressed to you for some time now. I’m ready to tell you how I really feel. Almost three years ago to the day, you hit this family like a run-away train veering off track. We were simply trying to understand how to be parents, trying to figure out how to balance life, money, work and a relationship as husband/wife. We were slowly getting the hang of what being a family was all about. Then you came knocking at OUR door….…
I am honoring my mother, the ultimate autism Grammie, Hughena Gear. I am thankful for her for so many reasons. If you look at the definition of thinking outside the box, she defines it. There is not one thing she will not do for her grandchildren. Our eldest son Emmett was diagnosed with autism almost three years ago, he is now six. Mum has been there every step of the way. They relate, she sees things how he does sometimes, stuff that we may not able to see right away.…
To the person who judged me, How could you say it’s my fault my child has Autism? How could you go so low. When I am already at my lowest. You have no idea the struggles we have went through. You have no idea all the hurdles we’ve had to jump. All the sleepless nights. All the meltdowns. All the frustration. Being so emotional because your child doesn’t speak, and you have no idea what is wrong. All the doctors and therapy appointments. Feeling so isolated. Wanting to cry 24/7.…
When my son was diagnosed with autism at age three, I was initially devastated. I think that’s normal for a parent. The word was big and scary. It made me feel out of control. It made me feel helpless. I knew nothing about autism. Or where to begin. Or even what the future held. I felt that way for at least a year. But once the dust settled, I dove in. My kid was awesome. He was adorable and smart. He just needed more time. More help. Autism didn’t change…
A few nights ago we attempted to take Cooper trick-or-treating. We prepared. We planned. We encouraged and motivated. We set realistic expectations. We tried. We failed. And Jamie and I found ourselves sitting on our porch thinking about forever. Thinking about the next fifty years of autism. We aren’t new to this. We’ve been doing it for seven years. We live realistic hope better than anyone I know. And yet, we were there again. Looking at forever. Saying the worries out loud that only a parent of a severely disabled…
I am so very thankful for the Mentor Ohio Fire Department, especially firefighter Jerry Craddock, and the Willoughby Ohio Fire Department, especially firefighters Ricky Stuart and Mark Leisure. We are so thankful for them because with their help we have started a special needs safety program that meets one time per month at both the Mentor and Willoughby locations to help teach kids of all ages with special needs about fire and other safety issues! We started with firefighter Jerry at the Mentor location. He has been so great with…
When I was 18 weeks pregnant with my oldest child I started researching daycare centers. I visited a few and while they were all beautiful, in new buildings with state of the art facilities and big corporate names attached, I always felt like I was being sold something, and not like they genuinely cared about being with my child for so many hours each week. Then I visited Little Hands Academy (LHA), which didn’t even come up on my GPS as I was trying to visit it for the first…
