My Family's Experience with Autism: April 2013

Friday, April 5, 2013

A Quick Post.....

I just want to share with you some of the things that I've been doing this month. Hopefully, I'll write a longer post in the next few days going into more detail of how I'm spending my Autism Awareness Month, but here's a short view.

First of all, this is the video I made. It was supposed to be done AGES ago, but I just haven't had the time or the oomph to get it done. But I got it done in time for World Autism Awareness Day. Please feel free to share this with others! I want everyone to see that Autism isn't such a horrible thing....it just is. But it something that needs to be understood and accepted. Ignorance helps no one.

Secondly, I contacted Parents Magazine's goody blog shortly before the start of the month. I wanted to know if they were doing their Voices Of Autism again this year like they have for the last couple of years. They told me that they weren't but they would be happy to accept a story from me. And here's what I sent them. My story was published today.

So, that's it, in a nutshell. I hope everyone is having a good start to Autism Awareness Month!

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)