specialneedsparenting Archives

Many people will take for granted that their kids wear clothes, but not this #Autism Dad

It's been a roller-coaster day here in The Autism Dad household. We started the say off with a bang or rather an enormous meltdown (see Autism Parenting Confessions: Does anyone else ever feel like giving up but won't?). It's wasn't fun. Poor Emmett couldn't tolerate his clothes and there was nothing we could do. The school pants he would wear are in tatters and we've been unsuccessfully trying to find replacements that he'll tolerate forever. After things settled down a bit, I told Emmett that we would try looking for pants again today. We ended up at Sears, which incidentally is shell of its former self. I'll be honest with you, I didn't have much hope that would find something because even Lizze's Mom has taken him out looking for…

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January 22, 2018

Contributed / My thoughts / Sponsored Post

Top Tips To Help Kids With Autism Be More Active

This is a collaborative post and doesn’t necessarily reflect the views of this blog or its author. Many families that have children with autism will agree that exercise and activity is a great outlet for them. There have been plenty of studies surrounding the benefits of exercise with autistic behaviors, and that exercise is a great outlet for those behaviors to reduce or even for children to learn discipline and gain self-control. However, it can also be a challenge to not only get your children to take exercise, but also for them to be excited about it. So I thought I would share with you some of the top tips that can help children with autism be a little more active.Image source Making sure you have the right gear to…

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January 22, 2018

My thoughts

Should Special Needs parents be worried?

There are a few things I have going on over the next week but in light of the government shutdown, I'm not sure if they're still going to happen. On Friday, Gavin has a meeting with SSI. He's due for an update and we have to figure out the whole guardianship thing. I don't know if the Federal Building will even be open this week. I know they said SSI checks would still go out as scheduled but they didn't say anything about the local offices. On the following Monday, I have an appointment with HEAP/PIPP. We have to update our income and recertify for continued access to the program. I don't know if this will be impacted by the shutdown either. With any luck, our ridiculous government leaders will…

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January 21, 2018

Gavin / My thoughts

The weird things my son with #Autism says

The things I talk about in this post are not meant to be disrespectful for Gavin. If you're an Autism parent, you'll probably have at least some experience with your kid saying something weird in front of someone in public. They don't mean anything by it. It's just those pesky, awkward social and conversational skills. We've all been there and it's okay to talk about these moments because if we don't have a sense of humor, we'll go crazy at a much faster pace. It's a sign of a good day when I've made it this far without collapsing from exhaustion. 😁 The boys got off to school without too much headache and we really do appreciate the effort they put in to make that happen. Not having to deal…

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February 24, 2017

Gavin / My thoughts

My son is missing his critical medications for the month

A large part of my stress load today is the result of Gavin's IVIG supplies never showing up. I was contacted on Friday by the supplier who said that Gavin's shipment is delayed because they have been unable to get refills from the doctor. They were going to fix this yesterday but that never happened. I spoke with Gavin's doctor today and they have never been contacted for a refill or it would have been done immediately. I believe them because we've never had a single issue with them in five or six years. The doctor's office also stated that Gavin current script covers him through May of this year and he doesn't even need a refill yet. They are currently working to resolve this and have checked in with…

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February 21, 2017

Emmett John / My thoughts / Sensory / Shoes and Socks

I’m heartbroken over forcing my son with #Autism to go to school today

I woke up exhausted, but in a good mood. That mood carried me through until it came time to get Emmett in his shoes and socks. Lizze worked for quite some time with him on being able to tolerate his shoes and socks. Unfortunately, despite her best efforts and massive amounts of patience, we never resolved anything for more that a few minutes. Emmett was okay with things until he got in the car and I began making the drive to school. At this point he's freaking out, screaming and ripping his shoes off again. This lasted the entire trip to the school and I wasn't in the best place to deal with this. When we got to school, I had to park the car because he wouldn't get…

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February 21, 2017

My thoughts

We have a problem that needs to be resolved today

If I had to describe how I slept last night, I would probably say shitty. I had a really hard time getting comfortable and would wake up because my back was killing me. Then at some point, both Elliott and Emmett took turns waking up. Despite a rough night, I'm actually in a pretty good mood. Lizze has an appointment this morning and Gavin and I will be walking while she's there. We have a full day of appointments ahead of us today, as well as some problems to overcome. The biggest one being the fact that we haven't received Gavin's IVIG infusion supplies yet and were unable to perform his infusion yesterday. Resolving this will be the priority today. I hope everyone is having a decent Tuesday thus far.…

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February 21, 2017

My thoughts

When to hold a special needs child accountable

I love having the boys home but I hate these four-day weekends because they totally throw me off the following week. All day today I thought it was Sunday because the boys were home from school. I'll end up being a day off for most of the week. 😁 Putting that aside, I think we had a pretty good extended weekend. We didn't have the money to really go anywhere but we took the kids walking, three out of the last four days. In total, we did about five or six miles and that's pretty good. Emmett was in flipflops because he wouldn't tolerate his shoes but he only had a couple of issues within that five or six miles, where his feet were bothering him. I'm hoping to make…

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February 20, 2017