In general Autistic kids can be VERY easily influenced even by each other.  This can present a problem if one child is more aggressive then the other. In my case Gavin self-injures. He used to be VERY aggressive towards people but not for the past 6 months or so. As I said, he does self-injure and that is presenting a BIG problem that came to a head this morning. Elliott WORSHIPS Gavin and has a tendency to "model" his behavior as well. That is where we have a problem. Elliott is witness to Gavin's self-injurious behavior on a regular basis despite our attempts to shield him from it. Gavin gets very aggressive with himself whenever he gets frustrated.  He has scratched open his forehead and left bruises all over his body. This…

One of the things I struggle with in working with Gavin is generalization. It's pretty common in Autistic kids and definitely an issue with Gavin. Here's an example of what I mean. If you were to take a "typical" child to a store like Walmart or Target and bought them a toy they would likely be excited. If you took Gavin to the store and bought him a toy he would also be excited. The difference is that Gavin would then expect a toy every time he went to the Walmart or Target. He generalizes going to the store and getting a toy. It only takes one time for this to happen and we have spent a considerable amount of time and energy working with this. Generalization carries over into…

As many of you know (and maybe some of you don't) Autism is a profoundly dynamic disorder. There are many sides to Autism. Some kids and families do just fine. Some families, mine included, struggle each and every day. Today is the worst day I can remember in recent history. I am so overwhelmed and stressed out that I just can't function properly right now. I'm at the point where I just want to beat my head into the wall just to make it all stop. Let me start by saying that I am FAR from perfect. In fact sometimes I'm as FAR from perfect as one can be. I loose my temper and raise my voice far to often. The reality is that I'm human. I'm a human that…

Here is some of Elliott's artwork he wanted to share with you all. Posted to WordPress via Autism Aware and midNIGHT ROM powered Epic 4G

We heard from Dr. R yesterday. He has made the arrangements with the pharmacy and they will receive their supply of Clozapine for Gavin on Monday morning. That means we will have to have blood work done on Monday morning in order to get the results in time to begin the new medication on Monday. We have yet to discuss this with Gavin as the anticipation of the blood drawl will cause him a great deal of anxiety especially when we don't know for sure when it will happen. We also received instructions for stopping his current medication, Zyprexa. Hopefully this will be a very smooth transition without any hiccups.

Written by me, Rob Gorski (Lost and Tired) and dedicated to my amazingly beautiful children.  I’m sorry I have fits but I’m not a spoiled brat. I’m just so much younger on the inside than I am on the outside. I’m easily overwhelmed because I see and hear everything. I hear the lights hum and clock tick. Everything is so loud it makes my head hurt all the time and my eyes hurt from all the bright lights. I’m not stupid, I’m actually very smart. I just don’t learn the way you want me to. Please learn about Autism so you know how to help me better understand what you are trying to teach. Please don’t be mad at mommy and daddy because we don’t come over for holidays or birthdays. They…

I'm posting this video for the same reasons I have in the past. I want people to know what families like mine are facing on a daily basis. We aren't dealing with the "cute and cuddly" side of Autism very often. However, this time I do have another reason for wanting to post this. Gavin struggles every day in almost ALL areas of his life. There are times that he really does try to make the right decision and this is one of those times. Our typical meltdowns can last an hour or more at times but this one was VERY short and I was able to defuse the situation and prevent it from escalating in huge part to Gavin's receptiveness today. While the meltdown is never an "appropriate" way to deal…