When Autism Looks Like OCD This blog post only pertains to my son. I am in no way saying that autism is OCD, or OCD is autism, or even that OCD is a typical characteristic found on the autism spectrum. This post is simply about my own observations. Why am I talking about OCD? Because…

I waited a bit before reporting on my child’s new school year. What happened last year? Last year was my son’s freshman year. It was the first time he had gone to school without an aide. He was fourteen when he began school (he turned fifteen in February). Within two months, he changed his “look.”…

We all have friendships. And, somewhere along the way many of us have had to walk away from a friendship or two—for whatever reason. Friendships happen in many ways, with or without our kids. With kids, I’d like to address two situations… One is when parents are friends, and they get their children together. The…

The Impacts of Not Curbing Behaviors Related to Autism With autism, comes behaviors. In general, when our kids are little, there are more behaviors. We, as parents, (along with the various facilitators who work with our children), have to deal with these behaviors. In an ideal world, we are all trained to handle most behaviors…

I like to keep active on the fund raising front. I try to volunteer two or three times a year. One event I volunteer for every year is The Ed Asner Poker Tournament. Ed Asner is a huge supporter of the autism community. Additionally, he just began a non-profit called The Ed Asner Family Center.…

My son has always had impulsive behaviors. Many times they came from a place of impatience, he had trouble waiting for a conversation to end or for his turn to come while standing on a line. The impulse would be to interrupt or complain that he’d have to wait on a line. The line waiting…

My son recently said to me, “The Internet thinks of autism as stupid people. Stupid and autism go hand in hand, on the Internet.” What? I asked him to clarify that statement. And, he did. He said, “When I read things on the Internet about autism, it seems like autism is called things like stupid.…

One year of high school done, and my son is about to begin year number two. During this time, I learned something about my son’s high school schedule. What have I learned? My son was a freshman this past school year. Last September, one month into high school, things weren’t going so well for him.…

I touched on this briefly not too long ago, but my son is learning about money. What is he learning? He’s learning that our money is not his money. He’s learning that—in reality—he doesn’t have any money. We have money to buy his food and clothes and school things and lots of other things, but…

After one year in high school, I’ve learned something about my son’s schedule. What have I learned? My son was a freshman this year. In September, one month into high school, things weren’t going so well for him. His grades were low and he had a few issues with some of the teachers. I emailed…