My Family's Experience with Autism: Just a Quick Note

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Just a Quick Note

The day is finally here.....Ballerina's kindergarten placement meeting. I've been on edge about this for MONTHS!!!!! I still don't know what the right answer is and I don't think I'll fully know until after school starts in late August. I do believe that we will make a good decision as a team today.

So, I'm spending my early morning home with my husband doing yard work and getting ourselves cleaned up. Then we'll go to run a few errands and maybe grab some lunch before heading to Ballerina's school. There are going to be more people there than normal as I don't think any two people are fully on the same page. I think this is going to be one of those times where we really make the decision in the room rather than formalize what we already knew to be the plan.

I'll probably post later today about how it went. Or maybe not. I plan to "endulge" in a few drinks tonight.

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A Little Bit About Me and My Family

Every once in a while, something happens to a family that seems to change everything, whether that change is positive, negative, or in an uncertain direction. One such thing happened to us in March 2009, when we were informed our 26 month old twins (girl/boy) were BOTH on the autism spectrum. Their older brother (nearly 4 at the time) had always been ahead of the curve for most developmental milestones, so we had never really considered that some of the delays the twins were having had anything to do with autism. Well, we were wrong. Since then we have been learning about learning techniques and doing everything we can to make sure they get any and all help they need so that they can live normal lives. This blog chronicles that journey.

The Autism Pizza

I don't know where this came from originally, but I found it on a post on Circle of Moms. It's a good explanation of how things line up on the spectrum.

1. The Crust: Lack of Social Interaction (poor eye contact, not sharing interests with you, no pointing/gesturing)

2. The Sauce: Impaired Communication (possibly no speech, poor conversation skills, repetitive language, echolalia, no make-believe play)

3. The Cheese: Stereotypical Activities & Interests (extreme routine, strong interest in certain things, stimming [flapping, atypical play, etc.] -- like spinning wheels, lining toys up, stacking, etc.)

If you have all of those things: crust, sauce, cheese, you made an Autism pizza. It might have different toppings, but you can look at it and know it's still a pizza. If your pizza doesn't have sauce, that's Aspergers's. If your pizza is missing more than that but still kind of looks like a pizza, that's PDD-NOS (Pervasive Developmental Disorder, Not Otherwise Specified)