A few reasons why your #autistic child may be having #meltdowns after school?

A mom from one of my autism parenting support groups asked why her autistic son has meltdowns after school. This was a really good question and I wanted to share my answer here. If you're following me on IG, you may have already seen this. There could be a million reasons but I wanted to share some insight into why this may be happening. I think we, as parents, can underestimate how challenging it can be for our kids just to make it through the school day. School is not sensory friendly and there's a great deal of expectation during the school day. Simply put, school can be incredibly overwhelming for our kiddos on the spectrum and the fact they hold it together as well as they do is quite…

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I’ve learned to never underestimate my kids ability to overcome

Today began the transition back to school after the holidays. This used to stress me out because more often than not, it was a nightmare scenario. Kids on the spectrum do not like change. Many years were spent trying to navigate transitions like this and it wasn't fun for anyone. Thankfully, it's gotten much better. My kids are so much more resilient than they used to be. While there are some anxiety related hiccups, such as Emmett not sleeping last night, the transitions have become little bumps in the road than a ten car pile-up. I'm so grateful for that. If you're reading this and still dealing with some of these issues, please know that it does get better. I won't promise that it will be a cake walk and…

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An emotionally exhausting level of personal growth this week

It's been a long, emotional couple of days for me and I'm exhausted but feeling better. Sometimes personal growth can be a bit more challenging and it forces me outside of my comfort zone. While it can be unpleasant in the surrounding moments and take some adjustment on my part, it's ultimately a good thing. This is especially true when learning to navigate new things for the first time. I'm a big fan of personal growth and sometimes it can be uncomfortable but it makes me a better person in the end. I know the people in my life deserve the best I have to offer. I woke up today feeling really good and highly motivated to keep pushing forward with what I know I can do. I have people…

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Oh, that’s definitely broken

I'm not gonna lie, it was a great weekend. Sunday was spent hiking, hanging out, playing games, and eating delicious food. It ended with a fire in the fire pit and watching our kids get to be kids. It's been such a long time since my kids could just be kids and getting to experience that was pretty amazing. ☺ Gavin is spending less and less time doing things with the rest of us but he's becoming more and more independent. He's happy and that makes me happy. I truly believe that he will be on his own (in a supervised setting) at some point in 2022. He's so focused on that and I will support him in every way I can. I realized that I forgot to mention that…

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Read more about the article We meet again Akron Children’s
ENHAN

We meet again Akron Children’s

My day is off to a great start. I slept through the night and woke up feeling energized. I bought donuts last night to surprise the kids this morning. I have a relatively busy morning in front of me but I know I totally got this. Elliott got off to school without a problem, although he insisted on wearing shorts again. That's a sensory thing and something I'll talk about another time because it's becoming a problem this time of year. At the moment, Emmett and I are in the waiting room at Akron Children's Hospital. He's got his PT evaluation in a few minutes and he's really excited. He loved PT when he was younger and he once again needs some extra help to navitage the world safely. ENHAN…

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It’s a self-care kinda day and here’s what I have planned

It's been a relatively quiet day so far. It's beautiful outside and the kids have been working on the house while I've been working on........work. I still have 3 seasons to remaster and re-upload. It sucks and it's time consuming but otherwise pretty easy. Anyway, the boys have been a great job with minimal fighting. I really appreciate the minimal fighting side of things because it's exhausting and annoying for me to have to deal with. I'm sure many of you can relate. Something that I haven't really talked much about is that we've been trying to reserve Sundays for hiking. Getting out into the woods is the absolute best way to both end one week and begin another. Depending on the weekend, it might just be a grown-ups only…

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Read more about the article Selfcare is important and I forgot how relaxing this is for me
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Selfcare is important and I forgot how relaxing this is for me

It's been a relatively quiet Saturday night here in The Autism Dad household. We've been binge-watching Stargate SG1 on Netflix and slowly working on the house. I didn't get nearly as much accomplished as I was hoping to because I've been dealing with a bad headache since we went to lunch. We're going to spend a good chunk of tomorrow tackling things around the house. There's a ton of laundry to get caught up on and there's part of me that wants to haul it all to the laundry mat so I can get it all done at once. It's a nice idea but it's never gonna happen. LOL I'm trying to reorganize my bedroom because it's driving me crazy. I managed to get my laundry sorted and some things…

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My kids had an exciting new experience today

As I'm beginning to live my best life, I'm finding myself exposed to lots of new and exciting things. I feel like I've lived a relatively sheltered life because I'm experiencing so many new things for the first time, and I'm in my early forties. One of the things I'm deliberately experiencing is food from different cultures. I'm being introduced to foods from all over the world and it's been an amazing experience. I'm lucky to have a great guide through all this stuff and I can't believe I've lived so much of my life, having not tried some of these things. For the longest time, I was waking up feeling like it was one day closer to my death. That's a shitty way to live. Now I wake up…

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