While the boys were only there for 3 days this week because of the holiday and being sick, they still did amazingly awesome. Below is their class dojo report for the week and I'm pretty darn proud.. 😀❤️👍
I've been an absentee writer as of late and that's because I haven't been feeling well. I'm not sleeping well at night, usually because one or both of the boys isn't sleeping. Whatever it is that my body is fighting off isn't going to leave easily. Anyway, this would be a great opportunity for you to browse the archives or visit and read The Autism Daily. I haven't had a break in awhile and I'm burning out. I will catch you all up later on tonight, assuming I'm feeling better.
I think it's pretty safe to say that most parents learn to read their children. Most parents are able to recognize that their child is upset, stressed, worried or scared. In many cases, they can talk to their child and learn more about whatever is going on. What happens when your child has something like Autism and they either can't speak or struggle with expressive language? I don't have a tremendous amount of experience with the non-verbal side of the Autism spectrum but my youngest was believed to be non-verbal for the first 4 years of his life and was also thought to be deaf, until an ABR proved otherwise. I remember how difficult it was to try and figure out what he was experiencing. It was heartbreaking because…
I wanted to share Emmett's first official piece of artwork from the 2015/2016 school year. 😀❤️👍
After walking this morning, I had Emmett's SSI interview. It took about 45 minutes and was relatively easy. Now comes the part where they are collecting medical records, of which there are many. I was told to expect a 3 to 6 month wait to find out whether or not he's been approved. When we went through this process with Gavin, it ended up only being a couple of months but he was approved without a problem. I'm not sure how I feel about our chances this time but from what all Emmett's doctors and specialists have said, he should absolutely qualify. I look at Emmett and Elliott and I always see how well they are doing. The problem with that is I'm not looking at it objectively. I…
This morning, Gavin read the first two chapters of the new book he's working on, live via Periscope. You can watch the archived video from the live feed on my Videos page. You can also follow me on Periscope by looking up @the_autism_dad. https://youtu.be/p0pf_1zX5l8 This has been a really positive experience for Gavin and he did really awesome.
The good news is I managed to get about 4 hours of sleep last night. The bad news is I only managed to get about 4 hours of sleep last night. I have such a hard time sleeping when I'm congested and I'm very limited on what I can take because its just me and the kids. I have to be able to wake up if need be. I'm feeling pretty under the weather right now and I was really hoping to walk this morning.. Once I'm up and moving, perhaps I'll feel better....
I haven't shared this yet and frankly, I'm not really sure why. Something that Dr. Pattie is concerned about with Elliott and Emmett is that they are showing a lot of borderline symptoms. That's not a diagnosis by any means but it is very concerning. We aren't sure what is genetic vs what's learned behavior. What we know for sure is that they are very much walking a path that needs intervention. Again, this isn't a diagnosis at all. It's a concern based on long term observation and interaction by someone who knows way more about this than I. Kids are tough. Traumatized kids with special needs are even tougher because the symptoms of many things often overlap, especially when trauma is involved and there's no clear cut way…