My Family's Experience with Autism: Two Posts

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Two Posts

Since I haven't been able to get writing here, I wanted to share a couple of posts of mine that were published elsewhere this week (one on Monday, one on Tuesday).

The first one is "Laundry is a Metaphor". This was published on Monday on the SPD Blogger Network written when I realized that, no matter how hard I tried, I can't seem to get things done. I have a tendency to take on more and more roles and, at the end of the day, there is still more to be done.

The second one is "Why We Must Remain HOPEful Parents" on Hopeful Parents. I write posts for this page every month on the 19th of the month. This is the story of what happened to me a few years ago. I've told this story before, but I can't seem to let it go. And every once in a while, I need to remind myself how important it is to trust myself.

So, I have been writing. But for some reason, I haven't really been able to get things up here. Hopefully that will go away soon.

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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)