(Editor’s Note: This article was provided by Amy Vipond and is part of Cooper’s, ‘I’m Thankful For You’ Campaign.) This November, I am so thankful for my daughter Olivia, who is 4 1/2 who is literally my son, Jace’s, best friend. She doesn’t see him as different, she only sees him as her brother, or ”baby” as she still calls him! When Olivia was younger, she had a speech delay. She could only say a handful of words, but everything else was right on track for her development. So we…
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Hi all! I haven’t done a video in a few days! Cooper has a lot to tell you! And it’s just as adorable as you can imagine. Because I know you are going to ask, Cooper’s speech device is an iPad loaded with proloquo2go. He’s had it for three years but only really started using it fluently in the last six months. You can also hear that Cooper is still very vocal. He loves communicating in his own way. We are always working on sounds and modeling in our house.…
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(Editor’s Note: This article was provided by Sydney and is part of Cooper’s, ‘I’m Thankful For You’ Campaign.) My name is Sydney Sorkin, and I live in Leawood, Kansas. My 14 year old son, Noah, was diagnosed with autism at age two and with ADHD at age seven. Noah’s autism-related issues were more severe when he was younger, but over time, thanks to a combination of therapies, medication, behavior modeling, and a very supportive village, Noah has progressed a great deal, and I’d like to offer up one of the…
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My son is six year’s old and on the severe end of the autism spectrum. When he was diagnosed, I had heard about stimming. I think we’ve all heard that word. To be perfectly honest though, I didn’t even know what stimming was. The definition is interesting: ‘Stim, stims or stimming is short for “self-stimulation”. Almost everyone does it (tapping feet, cracking knuckles, twiddling thumbs), but in autistic people these behaviors are more pronounced and may seem downright strange. Autistic people often engage in stimming when they are stressed, to…
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This is difficult to write for many reasons. Most of all because there are simply too many people that I have have encountered over the past 12 years in my work as an early childhood special education teacher, ABA therapist, and early intervention specialist. Too many amazing children, moms, dads, grandparents, foster parents, siblings, daycare teachers, caregivers, fellow educators and therapists, to thank. Throughout my career, I have focused on working with kids on the autism spectrum, from birth – five years of age. Because of privacy concerns, I cannot…
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When my son was diagnosed with autism I spent hours, days, maybe even months, scouring the internet for information about autism. I wanted to know everything. I wanted to know the best diets, therapies, tactics and resources. This was the business side of me. I knew we needed help and I was going to find it. That part was relatively easy. The help is out there…you just have to find it. But as a mom, I also wanted to find stories of hope. I wanted to find out what autism…
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(Editor’s Note: This article was provided by Penny Mack and is part of Cooper’s, ‘I’m Thankful For You’ Campaign.) The November I want to thank my husband Joe, my village in the isolating world of autism. This spring we found out our son Henry has severe nonverbal autism. Before the diagnosis we had signs of autism. For one we could not go anywhere without a severe meltdown. Our son loves trains and we learned the hard way that he does not like train rides. We sat on the Christmas train…
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I just changed my six year old’s diaper. It was messy. There was poop dripping down his leg. It was on his jeans. His socks. The poop got on my hand, couch and carpet. This is the side of autism that no one talks about. The kind that challenges your hope and sanity. This was the tenth diaper I have changed this morning. It is 6:37 am. I am exhausted. I am almost crying. I thought, why me, why us, and why my kid. Why. What did I do wrong? And…
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(Editor’s Note: This article was provided by Amanda Lo Re and is part of Cooper’s, ‘I’m Thankful For You’ Campaign.) This November I want to thank and honor my mom. There are some people who are truly angels on earth and my mom, Cindy is one of them. She is one of the most giving and selfless individuals I have ever met. She is our constant. Our rock. My sanity. And my son’s best friend. I guess our journey really began eight years ago. My mom became a caregiver to my…
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A very nice woman approached me over the weekend and thanked me for talking about autism. She thanked me for being honest and not sugarcoating it. She thanked me for keeping it real. That conversation reminded me why I do what I do. I refuse to lie about my son’s disability or downplay it to make people feel better. When my son was first diagnosed I dove head first into helping him. I turned to other bloggers, Pinterest and Facebook groups because I couldn’t find anyone in real life that…
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