Posts Tagged ‘nonverbal autism’
Seeing the Words Severe Intellectual Disability
Intellectual Disability. Severe. With language impairment. Non-verbal. Limited functional language. It was a mouthful. We weren’t to the end of the meeting yet. You know the part where you learn the diagnosis. We had just started on the 25 page document. I skipped ahead though and read the words. I wanted to know the results of his IQ test. I saw the number. Suddenly, I felt a ringing in my ears. The therapist was talking. I could see her lips moving. However, I could not quite hear her. I was…
Read MoreMy Son Always Pointed
Last night Cooper requested that I sit on the front porch with him. Which I gladly agreed too. It’s not often that my little Energizer Bunny asks me to sit with him. As he meticulously lined up his treasures around us he noticed the trucks and bulldozers that were working in the field behind our house. He immediately squealed in delight, pointed, and turned my cheek. He was in awe. And felt that I should be just as excited as he was. He climbed up on my lap and snuggled…
Read MoreShielding My Autistic Son from Cruelty
My name is Amy and I live with my husband and son in Michigan. Our son Travis has severe autism with limited verbal ability. Travis is 11 and is very active! He is the center of the universe, and if you were unaware of this, he will use his super powers to convince you otherwise. Yesterday, we took him bowling. He was having so much fun. When he is excited and happy he squeals joyfully, and kind of side walks, very energetically. This is very typical behavior for him. It…
Read MoreLooking Past Autism
Funny how in 2005, the word hope became the name of our beautiful baby girl. The simple 4-letter word was selected by my husband. He thought “we hope she sleeps,” after our first-born son loved to dance the night fandango and keep us up throughout his 18-month existence prior to his sister being born. Hope back then was based on the fact we were both working parents and how would we survive on very little sleep and get through our days? Four children later and the word dope has many…
Read MoreOur Days Are No Longer Lost
For the first time, since as far as I can think back, I want time to slow down. I actually haven’t ever really felt this way. My whole life I’ve been sprinting to reach the next milestone. A shame I know, trust me. I wish it hadn’t of taken me thirty years to realize this. And it’s kinda an odd feeling to have made this shift. Since having Noah, all I’ve been doing is trying to catch up. Rushing to do everything and anything I could to get him ‘better.’…
Read MoreAs Parents, We Need to Start a Conversation About Autism
I read an article today about autism. It said children with autism most likely won’t show affection. They won’t need affection. They won’t understand emotion. They won’t have empathy or sympathy. Then I went onto read an article about an autistic boy that attacked his teacher. I noticed no one asked why. The child was labeled as a monster. No one questioned the school. Instead, it labeled the seven-year-old boy as autistic. I heard words like aggressive. Angry. And the police were called. I let myself read another article about…
Read MoreYour First Time Seeing Autism
We’ve known each other for years. Friend of a friend I suppose you could say. We are the same age. Both married. Both busy. You don’t have children though. I would say you know me pretty well. You know where I work. Where I live. Who my friends and family are. I see you regularly. You know that my son has autism. You hear me talk about him often. Sometimes I talk about the hard times. The medical struggles. The sleep deprivation. The constant fight. Sometimes I talk about my…
Read MoreI am Thankful for Those Rare Moments
I’m going to be real here. Throughout the frustration, the exhaustion, the tears and screaming, I really start to question how much I can handle sometimes. There are days where I really don’t want to get out of bed and face the day. There are days where I want to hide away, just for five minutes of peace. There are days where I want to scream and cry. There are days when I truly do think, ‘autism really sucks.’ Then, there is the feeling of guilt that for a brief…
Read MoreHowever Hard Autism is for Me; It is Harder for My Son
At 9 months old, I knew there was something different about Zachary. At 17 months old I took it upon myself to get him started in feeding therapy, and then shortly after early intervention. At that early point in Zachary’s life everyone tells you, “he is fine…he is a boy, they take longer to do certain things” and all that extra fluff. As a nurse I knew differently, and as a mom I knew in my heart. Zachary will be 4 years old in April, which also means I have been a mom for that long as…
Read MoreDear Autism Teacher
The bleachers are a sea of orange shirts. I push my one year old back and forth across the crowds of people as I search for your class. We search for about ten minutes before I finally spot the sign for your school. I’ve never experienced the Special Olympics before but it is way more crowded than I expected and I am thankful that I put my squirmy toddler in a stroller otherwise I am pretty sure I’d be chasing her around the crowds. As soon as Isaac spots me,…
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