Posts Tagged ‘autism’
When the Milestone Emails are Wrong
When I was pregnant with my first son, I signed up for all the groups. The Bump. BabyCenter. What to Expect when you are Expecting. I wanted all the information I could get my hands on. I was so excited for his arrival. And I wanted to find moms like me that I could connect with. I also wanted to know when my little dude would reach his milestones. When would he roll over? When would he sit up? Crawl? Say his first word? Be potty trained? These websites were…
Read MoreA Mom to Two Only Children
I’m 7 months pregnant with my second child while sitting anxiously with my husband and 17 month old child in a waiting room of a speech and food therapist office. Every time the door opens to the waiting room I can feel my heart racing faster, and then Zachary’s name is finally called. An hour and a half later our very first evaluation is over. I’m left feeling more empty in my car then when I came into the office there. It’s hard to rationalize and almost defend your child…
Read MoreWhen Jealousy Surprises You
There are many topics in the world of special needs parenting that are taboo to talk about. Self Injurious Behaviors. Aggression. Puberty. Depression. Jealousy. As parents we don’t talk about them out of fear. Fear of being judged by people outside of our world. People that don’t understand. Or we worry that people will think badly of our children. Or our parenting skills. So, we stay quiet. I know this unique isolation all too well. Well, lately I’ve been feeling an emotion that I don’t feel very often. It’s even…
Read MoreYou Answered my Prayers
It was a beautiful warm day in Hawaii. I was sipping my favorite tropical cocktail and watching my boys, ages 13 and 11, splash in the pool. We had just started our three week summer vacation. I should’ve been in the ultimate state of relaxation but, every few minutes, I hear my youngest. He’s been making his way from pool to pool in an exact pattern for the last half hour and, every time he gets close to my lounge chair, I can see he’s having a rough time. He…
Read MoreA Solution for Sound Sensitivity
While individuals diagnosed with autism and other sensory disorders can have a broad spectrum of symptoms, there is one symptom that seems to be more universal than others: sensitivity to noise. For those of us that aren’t as sensitive to noise, it may not be obvious, but parks, playgrounds, restaurants, shopping malls, busy city streets, airports, birthday parties, movie theaters, school cafeterias (the list goes on), can all feel painfully loud for individuals with autism and other sensory disorders. While you can try to limit your child’s exposure to loud…
Read MoreYouTube Safety and Autism
Most kids love YouTube. And many autistic children really, really love YouTube. My son loves the never ending stream of Barney and Thomas videos. He loves the music and the variety. He can easily move from trains to Daddy Shark. And honestly, I’ve never really worried about it. Jamie or I are always near him. We monitor what he watches. We listen. And even giggle when we hear Barney speaking in German or Spanish. But unfortunately, some frightening news is surfacing about the platform. The same things that make YouTube…
Read MoreThe Inner Workings of an Autism Parent’s Mind
There’s probably quite a few things we, as an autism family, do that seem completely typical to us, but totally out of the norm for other families. And we haven’t realized these things aren’t typical until others have pointed them out to us. Here are a few points we’ve learned aren’t typical for most families but are vital for ours: Always on the defense In our house, we are always on the defense. We’re always waiting for the next “thing” to happen. The next meltdown, the next dysregulation, the next…
Read MoreOur Children Deserve Better
I write this soaked in tears. Another story of a teacher abusing an innocent child. I’m so incredibly sick about the stories that are coming out almost everyday now. Those are just the ones we know of. Some of our kiddos can’t communicate. They can’t tell us how their days are. We basically have to be mind readers and go off their body language. This last story I just read was that special needs teachers locked kids in a dark bathroom and blew whistles in their face all while holding…
Read MoreAre you Done?
I had three babies in three years. Shortly after I had my last baby people began to ask, “Are you done?” Sometimes kidding and sometimes serious, but it always felt like a punch in the gut. My dream was four or five children, but after Jackson’s diagnosis and three babies, four or five was just not in the cards for us. I’m finally accepting that we are done, and I’m ok with that. Now when I think about my family I think of our Jackson boy. Our four year old…
Read MoreThank you for Trying Kid
I used to think the measure of success was completing something right. Perfection. I thought that in order to win, or succeed, you had to nail it. Do it by the book. I thought that was the goal. Success. That all changed after I had you kid. You showed me that there are many, many ways to achieve success. I want to thank you for that. A few days ago you tried jello and whipped cream. For the first time ever. Your brother was having some. And you noticed. I…
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