I'm very passionate about advocating for special needs children and families, in particular those touched by Autism. For a very long time now I have wanted to be able to help other families going through challenging times. I know what it's like to be overwhelmed and well.....Lost and Tired. You may also be aware of my work with Android powered smartphones. I have turned my interest in Android and my passion for helping others into a campaign I call, Android4Autism. Basically, I take donated Android based devices (smartphones mostly) and design a custom ROM or operating system for the device itself. These ROM's are built from the ground up completely customized for kids. ALL extraneous apps have been removed and only educational apps are present. There is nothing to make navigating…

Awhile back I mentioned something about a major announcement. Well, alot has transpired since that post. Some of my plans have been put on hold but others are about to finally see the light of day. While I'm only going to tease this a bit right now, I'll make a more official announcement in the very near future. I have a few things to work out and a few ducks let to get in a row but my goal is to be able to reach out to families within the Autism community and offer a form of assistance. That's all I'm going to say right now. I'll have more to come VERY soon.

We got the results back late this afternoon for the rather extensive testing that took place about 2 weeks ago. The immunologist was concerned that Emmett may be suffering from the same immunological disorder that Gavin suffers from. The reason for the concern is that Emmett has these random week long fevers of 103oF+ for no apparent reason. After what felt like the longest wait in the world we received a phone call late this afternoon. I'm very pleased to announce that while we still don't know the cause of the fevers, they are not a result of an Immunol deficiency. Needless to say, this is quite the relief. Lizze and I were both very worried that Emmett was heading down the same path Gavin has taken. We still have to try…

Gavin put together this Lego ship.  He calls it his Mario Ship.  We did a video of this but the audio didn't work for some reason. - Lost and Tired Post by Wordpress for Android via Nexus S 4G without the use of proper editing tools and disadvantages of a bastardized version of auto-correct. Please Vote for Lost and Tired (just click the link) and help me spread Autism Awareness. Everyone can Vote once a day :)

Gavin's had OT yesterday.  While he was there,  the therapist noticed a new symptom that had escaped our detection. We are very aware of Gavin's movement disorder but had not noticed the tremors.  These appear to be new.  They are possibly a result of the antibody infusion or they could be a new symptom of the,  as of this moment,  unidentified neurological disorder. We spoke with the immunologist this morning and she said that it will be difficult to know whether the infusion caused this or if it's related to the underlying degenerative neurological disorder. Regardless of what the cause is,  this is not a good thing.  Gavin was unable to actually write while at therapy yesterday because of these tremors.  I think that we missed this in part because…

UPDATE: Nathan Carman HAS BEEN FOUND SAFE AND SOUND :-)   Thank you everyone for all your help in spreading the word.  Nathan Carman is missing PLEASE help   Please help find 17-year-old Nathan Carman and bring him home. He has been missing since 7 a.m. Thursday, Aug. 11, 2011, from his Middletown, CT home. Nathan has Asperger's Syndrome, a high-functioning form of autism. He may appear stoic and may or may not respond when his name is called. He was last seen on Thursday afternoon on surveillance cameras as he exited a city bus on the New Haven, CT Green. There have been no sitings of him since then. Please call the Middletown Police at 860-347-2541. Please, let's bring Nathan home to his family.    Here is the link…

What is Occupational Therapy? I wanted to share another video from one of Emmett's Occupational Therapy sessions. This is the Hammock Swing and this is actually the first time Emmett has tolerated this exercise. Basically, this swig provides firm pressure to Emmett's body. The idea is to eventually get him to lay back in the swing and allow more of his body to feel that firm pressure.  However, we have to go at Emmett's pace. If we rush him he will simply shut down and resist any further attempts to work with him on these or any other exercises. Again, please keep in mind that these are geared for Emmett's personal sensory needs and your experience may be different. I hope this helps to give you a better idea of what Occupational Therapy…