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Saturday, 18 February 2012

  • Let's Write a Book

    I’m delighted to announce that I am developing a collection of writings for special needs families on the topic of forgiveness, and I am opening it up to your creative contributions.
     
    If you are family to a special needs child, this invitation is for you. If you know a special needs family, please pass this on to them!

    The idea of this collection is a kind of parenting book, except with no system. It's for people who experience special needs parenting as intuitive, passionate, and autonomous, people who give it all and falter anyway and understand that as parents, we have no choice but to get up tomorrow and get back to it. To do that, we often have to forgive ourselves, for our frustrations and failings.
    More Here...
  • Autism Light: Brian Herritt



    Brian Herritt and his son BrianBrian Herritt is a police officer with the Palomar College Police Department in San Diego County, California.  His son Brian has autism. Besides being a police officer, Brian works for Autism Risk and Safety Management and keeps a busy schedule as a consultant/presenter for autism conferences and local groups related to either law enforcement and the autism community. His expertise as a presenter is how to improve relationships and build understanding between law enforcement and the autism community.
    More Here...

Friday, 17 February 2012

  • Camp Good Times



    The 2011 session of Camp Good Times of Charleston, a recipient of an Autism Speaks Baker Summer Camp Scholarship Fund, was activity oriented, fun, child centered, and safe for the 130 children who attended this past June. Our camp includes not only children on the autism spectrum, but neurotypical peers who come to camp, have fun, be campers and friends with everyone.

    More Here...
  • Autism Light: Matthew Echan




    Matthew Echan is from Orange, California. His son Josiah has autism. Matthew Echan is a folk singer and song writer, as well as the Lead Social Skills Instructor at Autism Spectrum Therapies. Matthew Echan is an Autism Light because of the way his work raises awareness of autism and helps teach skills to people with autism. Matthew also brings to light in his writings and song lyrics the feelings of a father of a child with autism. More Here...
  • The 3 D's and your Special Needs Child



    A note to my readers: The following is a political post.

    If you believe that it is permitted: to walk into a pizza parlor in Tel Aviv and blow yourself up,  to blow up a school bus full of children in Jerusalem, attack a Jewish center in Argentina, Seattle or the Holocaust museum in Washington D.C. If you think its OK to: deface a Jewish cemetery, synagogue, or attack people because they wear the Star of David. If you think that the Holocaust did not happen and call it a war crime to teach the Holocaust to children. If you think that it is ok to send over 10,000 rockets into civilian areas, while calling for genocide against another 6 million Jews. If you think there is a vast jewish conspiracy to control the world and that the Jews and/or the United States caused 9/11. If you think that the only nation on the planet that can't defend itself is Israel. If you repeat anti-semitic blood-libels and and if you think it is ok to behead people in the name of God. You are NOT welcome here.

    This week marked an interesting international event. January 27th was the commencement of an annual Holocaust Remembrance Day. Now the Jewish people have annually marked this day on Yom HaShoah every spring for decades. In many respects it was nothing new for me to see the services and speeches dedicated to the remembrance of genocide. But what was interesting was that you had an Israeli President speak before the German parliament in Hebrew. The grandson of holocaust victims speaking in the revived ancient language of the Jewish people to the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of those who sought to obliterate the Jewish people from the face of the earth, a truly poignant and redemptive moment in history.

    I have written before about the Holocaust. Its meaning for our children and why it is so important to remember such evil. Never forget, that before the Nazis began their campaign of mass murder against the Jews of Europe, they practiced on the disabled. Yet, while a large part of the western world stood in silent contemplation on that day, the overwhelming majority of college campus worldwide ignored this day’s significance. Even collegeman’s school which houses one of the largest holocaust libraries in the country had no ceremony of remembrance. I think it bodes an ill wind that the future leaders of our world are taught to protest, speak out, and march in solidarity against every global rights violation but cannot bring themselves to commemorate one of the greatest evils ever perpetrated by man. I leave it to my readers to wonder why, on college campuses, the world’s inhumanity to its Jewish citizens goes unnoticed. 

    A quick note: it is also important to remember that most colleges also do not offer appropriate accommodations to meet the needs of autistic students. It seems that the liberal world of academia is the last beachhead in the war against ignorance towards those with unseen disabilties.

    More Here...

Thursday, 16 February 2012

  • Tales of an Autism Dad: ‘Mother Warriors’ Scare the Heck Outta Me



    The first time I ever heard the expression “Mother Warriors,” I half expected to see a pink tank rolling down the street or perhaps a platoon of women in designer fatigues with daisies sticking out of their gun barrels. But then, after I let my out-of-control imagination subside, I was able to see the true strength and power of these ferociously focused females.

    Over the past few years since my son Mikey’s autism diagnosis, I’ve experienced the phenomenon of the mother warrior autism mom and the oftentimes ignored autism dad. Being an autism dad is one of the most challenging things a man can experience and requires a life-altering transformation.  More Here...

  • I've Learned Not To Deny




    denial. one of my life lessons.
     
    Sometimes when you love something or someone so much it is almost normal to be in denial when something is wrong.
    When your heart is heavy and that moment comes when you realize something is off within your internal guts...you have that feeling of fear...of having your feet swept out from under you.

    Fear of the unknown.

    Fear that whatever the problem is you won't know how to "fix" it.
    That is when denial digs in.  
    More Here...
  • Thankful for Sleep



    I love that my girls are falling asleep more easily with the help of Melatonin. I’m so grateful for less drama filled bedtimes.

    However I would be very thankful if my body would recognise that the girl sleep patterns are improving. I still pop awake at around midnight, expecting Heidi to come wandering by. I wake at around 3am excepting to see Annie standing beside my bed. Again at 5am I’m awake looking for Heidi once more. More Here...

  • Eggless, GF, Soy free, Corn free Casin free Cake & Cupcakes

    I absolutely love this recipe. The title doesn't exactly sound too appetizing, but  it really is.  It's egg free, casein free, soy free and gluten free. It's loaded with fiber, protein, and omega-3. You can change the flavor with just one step. Your kids wont know that they are actually eating something healthy and you wont feel so guilty letting them eat a piece of cake or two. (sorry for the poor picture, my camera has been decommissioned Oh, and sorry for the icing.. my boys decided to play with my pastry bag, which has never made it back to it's home. So I had to make do with a sandwich baggie.)  

    More Here...

Wednesday, 15 February 2012

  • Dear, Nick.




    Since I last posted to this blog over a year ago our son Nicholas has been admitted to the Neurobehavioral Unit of the Kennedy-Krieger Institute in Baltimore, Maryland which is part of Johns Hopkins. Kennedy has the only behavior modification program of its kind in the country, maybe the world. He has been there since July 1, 2009. It has been a bumpy and hopeful journey. We miss him so very much. It is unclear when he will be able to come home as he has a ways to go but what we want most for him is for this experience to be the one that changes his life forever. Below is a letter I wrote to him to let him know how very much we love him.


    Dear Nick,
    I have wanted to write you a letter for a long time. Even before all our lives changed so dramatically and the hospital stays came and the trip to Kennedy-Krieger and us losing you.
    More Here...

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