So I’ve been very vocal through various social media – here, my Tweet feed, Facebook, and Google+ – about the fact that I think we need to hear more about what the candidates would do for parents of children with autism. And, as I’ve been more-than vocal about, this has to include more than just those in the lower income brackets.
On that note, I heard my first radio spot yesterday for the campaign that invoked Autism. Continue reading
It’s easy to concentrate on the concrete items in the IEP, when we’re dealing with the Monster and school. Concrete goals have easily measured results – is he learning to use the potty? Is he handing basic pre-literacy skills?
Soft skills are harder to concentrate on and evaluate, which only makes it harder that we’re honestly more worried about those soft skills. Continue reading
It’s actually been two weeks since the last time I discussed how this is going.
We’ve been having a mixed bag with the progress on teaching the Monster to use the potty – there’s days where we’ll hit a few times in a row, and then we’ll have a whole string of misses, with him wetting/soiling himself without getting him to the potty in time. Continue reading
The wife and I belong to a number of local support groups – sometimes, it does feel overwhelming with their sheer number.
I belong to a “Guys Talk” group – unfortunately, I’ll be missing meetings for a while due to my other obligations. (My schedule changed abruptly and it conflicts with the support group schedule. As much as I like going… I need my extra-curricular activities too.) Continue reading
Tomorrow is picture day at the Monster’s school.
This isn’t anything new for him, since he’s had picture day at camp and nursery school before now. So this is perhaps the fourth or fifth time when he’s gone before the cameras to get snapped. Continue reading
We’re coming up fast on Halloween.
I’m not a horribly huge fan of the holiday – I just think it’s silly and meaningless, really – but it’s one of those things that a lot of children grow up with. In our neighborhood, there’s no celebration of it whatsoever.. but we don’t just live in our neighborhood. Continue reading
I’ve been, I think, very good sometimes about weighing in with what I think about various issues facing the autism community. When I have decided to give my opinion on potential treatments/causes/etc, I’d like to think I’ve been fair about how I come at the matter.
I had another coworker today ask me if the baby’s not getting vaccinations since the Monster has autism. Continue reading
My wife and I belong to more than a few support groups, at this point.
Besides the “Guys Talk” group that I go to monthly, she attends the Autism Society of America local chapter meetings as well. This group does a social event every so often, giving our children with autism an opportunity to be out and about and work on social skills, and we’ve had the ability to attend a few over the last couple of months. Continue reading
We’re closing in on the end of the first week with the iPad.
Yesterday, the wife and I went to the local tryouts for Wheel of Fortune, held in an empty big-box store. Now, I think that I’d worry ordinarily about a public meltdown in a place like this – hundreds of people, loud noise (let’s be honest – the shell of a big-box store is hardly going to suppress echoes and the like), and most of all, two of his Favorite Things in the Whole Wide World in One Place (letters and a spinning wheel). Continue reading
I’m not quite sure, now that I’m at the point where I am, that I remember what it used to be like when I was the Monster’s age.
Certainly, when I was his age, I was going to nursery school and the like. I’m sure that at that age, my mother was dropping me off daily and picking me up, not that I remember how much of the day I was there, if I liked it or not, etc. It never made much of an impression on me, apparently. Continue reading