While I was out walking yesterday,  something occurred to me.  There is something to be said about the difficulties of making eye contact,  even for the neurotypical person. For whatever reason,  I never made the connection until yesterday,  but it's really not that easy to make eye contact,  especially with strangers. I know that as a parent to three boys on the spectrum,  I always encourage my boys to look me in the eyes when talking to me.  I only encourage but never require.  I also know that there seems to be a push to make people with Autism make eye contact.  Making eye contact is an important part of the diagnostic process as well.  However,  I have to say again, from a neurotypical perspective,  eye contact isn't as easy…

The next three days are going to be crazy.  Beginning in a few hours,  both Emmett and Elliott will be at Speech and OT.  Well actually,  Emmett will be at speech and Elliott will finally have his OT evaluation. This has been a long time coming and all I can say is,  thank God it's here,  because he friggin' needs it. Elliott has a difficult time writing or coloring for any extended amount of time because his hands will hurt. Hopefully,  if OT and PT can both kick in,  he will be able to get the help he needs to strengthen his body to help compensate for his extremely low muscle tone and loose joints. Tomorrow afternoon will bring with it the beginning of Elliott's 24 hour EEG at Akron…

It's been a little while since I updated everyone on how Elliott has been doing on Risperdal.  For those of you just tuning in,  Elliott is my 6 year old with Asperger's and extreme anxiety.  His anxiety had become crippling for him and we need to do something.  We initially tried Zoloft and that was a complete disaster.  After a few weeks of letting the Zoloft clear his system,  we began low dose Risperdal.  The Risperdal has been working pretty well.  We did have to bump him up from the initial dose of .5mg BID to 1mg BID.  He's handled the medication very well and his anxiety has been significantly reduced.  Unfortunately,  he seems to be experiencing more anxiety lately. However,  at this point,  his quality of life has improved…

Today's Victory is brought to you by none other than me.  It's been a crazy day but some really cool things have taken place. I thought I would share some of it with you. 1.) I just finished an article for a major news network.  I'll have more information on that when I get the ok to share more. 2.) This afternoon I was offered another writing opportunity that I'll tell you all about when I know more for sure. 3.)  I was asked to speak to a class of preschool teachers and education majors about Autism at Stark State College.  They want me to talk about Autism from a parents perspective.  I'm totally honored and have already accepted the offer.  I'm not a huge fan of public speaking but…

Elliott came home from school today after another fantastic day. He was more excited than usual to get into the door.  He wanted to show me what he made in school today.  He made a caterpillar out of a clothes pin and some little puffy balls....oh..and a set of googly eyes.  We had to fix an eye that fell off but Mommy came to the rescue with some glue and all was right in his world again. He wanted to share his masterpiece with all of his friend in his Daddy's blog. Sooooo here you go.  Enjoy :-) **Thanks for reading**        -Lost and Tired Please join our Community Autism Support Forum Posted from WordPress for Android so please forgive any typos as auto-correct and I don't see…

I wanted to share another moment from the lighter side of #Autism.  Last night I was laying on the couch watching Primeval with Lizze.  Bella,  Emmett’s pseudo service dog,  decided to climb over and lay down next to me.  It was nice to just have a quiet night with Lizze and bond with Bella, the newest member of the Lost and Tired family as well. **Thanks for reading**        -Lost and Tired Please join our Community Autism Support Forum Posted from WordPress for Android so please forgive any typos as auto-correct and I don't see eye to eye. :-)

I wanted to share with you all another victory Emmett has experienced since getting his puppy, Bella. Bella is a Boxer puppy and Emmett's new best friend. Our hope was that she would help to bring Emmett out of himself a little bit and we could continue to make some forward progress. I wanted to empower Emmett with a sense of independence, as well as responsibility. So far, Bella has not only made a great addition to the Lost and Tired family, but she has helped Emmett to do things that he has never been willing to do before. He will now walk in the mud to go bring Bella back into the house after she goes potty. He as some significant sensory issues that have always interfered with him getting…

On Thursday afternoon,  Elliott and I will be checking into Akron Children's Hospital for a period of 24 hours.  In that time,  Elliott will undergo a 24 hour long EEG. We know from his previous EEG,  that he is having some seizure activity,  especially while asleep.  The 24 hour EEG,  affords us a chance to better understand what is happening and how bad it actually is. Elliott's actually very excited about this test. He'll get to be the center of attention for a whole day. This is a complete turnaround from the anxiety filled disaster he was the last time. I don't know if it has to do with the Risperdal,  or if he simply knows what to expect. I know he's excited to play video games the whole time…