This deserves a sticky

Beautiful girl

ty choc and peb.... the crazy part is she is so tall and just 11 yrs old... she is almost past me and i am 5'7" ... so its hard for people to understand that she is young and does not talk like others her size lol...

peb keep pushing to get him tested... autism speaks has some great info and packets u can order ... it will help him with getting the info of being able to socialize for the rest of his life... i been through battles with my ex and still have issues with what is best for my daughter... she is a social butterfly which is not typical of autistic children... that is the good side... bad part is she has no sense of stranger danger.. its a big thing we have been working on.. sometimes we take advantage of the small things that sometimes takes weeks or months to teach a child...there days that she says things or will do something that totally floors me on a good note lol

see..
and therein lays my problem..
he's with his father.. in another state and his father doesnt keep a phone number for any kind of regular contact..a friend of mine told me..isnt he grown?? he's 18 right?? if he wanted to contact you he would..
i told him you dont understand...it would not occur to him to call me..
he doesnt track things like that..i mean he knows where i am..knows i live in tampa florida, and it's enough for him..but he's my 'baby'
i will be looking for them later next month or early june..its crazy that i have to call his dad's older brother to track him down..
but still..i will have a look..

My boy.. Tim..

A few months ago..




He has glasses now...and a new haircut.. he's growing up fast now

HowComeYouDontCallme said:

OMG!!!
That handsome boy is becoming a man.



You are the greatest mom I have ever met. Whenever I see anything about Autistic children, I instantly think of you and Tim.
You have the patience of a saint and the wisdom to concur anything.

I feel very blessed to call you my friend.

Love to you and Tim

MrsMdiver said:

Wow.. Thank you Val!
I don't have much patience lately though.. I'm quickly irritated lately.. explosive even.. Tim is testing my boundaries all the time... he's in puberty But I'm trying the best I can.. That's the most I can do
I'm honored to call you my friend too.. Just wish we could spend some more time together..

Much love to you and your loved ones too

HowComeYouDontCallme said:

Well, you are still my mommy hero!


If you ever need to vent, just give me a shout.

We are supporting a guy with Autism at work who is doing some fantastic studies for us but we simply do not have the time/resourses to spend with him properly. Do any of you know of funding streams (UK) to help with support for autistic individuals in the workplace. I really don't want to loose him for so many reasons.

It's hard for my son to "connect the dots" when it comes to everyday common sense issues, as well as social interaction problems. It's almost like all life lessons I learned as I matured are useless when I try to explain them to my fourteen year old son. I harbor a lot of guilt because I failed to notice obvious red flags when he was one to four years of age. Johnathan's 4 yr. pre-k teacher was the first to mention Autism to me, and I got angry with her. I didn't want to read about "it" and went into numb denial. Not a good thing.

I can tell you my son speaks extremely well; sometimes he sounds like a professor of whatever he happens to be hyperfocused on at any given time. He loves trains, music and cars from the 1920's to 1960's, and he has an imagination that amazes me often, but occasionally frightens me. He can take a cardboard box and make incredibly detailed houses that he uses for his stuffed animals as their homes. Cardboard boxes can become tin lizzies, and when I told him he would have to start making his own train and track purchases, he used cardboard, shipping tape, and some old electrical cord to make his own.
With his creativity and imagination I'll never stop believing he can do wonderful things with his life, but I have to be realistic as well. Johnathan lives in his own world, so any future job opportunities would have to be in a closely supervised work environment with patient and tolerant employers.

My son is my life. If I could give him one just one gift that money can't buy, I'd give him the ability to understand true friendship. I'll draw my last breath trying. Thanks for giving me the forum to talk about Johnathan, and the opportunity to help educate others about Autism.
Sandra
**Your daughter is precious purplekisses!
[Edited 4/7/10 22:45pm]

Elle85n09 said:

ty Elle.... its amazing on what they can do when they find their nitch... when i was talking to my daughter's teacher she told me that my daughter has a great imagination and you can give her bits of info and she will create a story and even draw some pictures.. her drawing has been getting better the last few years and she used to have trouble just coloring between the lines... her teacher sees karissa being a writer.. even maybe comic books... she is my tomboy and likes ben 10 and comic books like spiderman and superman.. i can totally see her going in this direction with her career... i got a book from Temple Grandin ( btw if u did not see the movie about her on HBO its great) about finding and encouraging children... i also seen her speak and she really opened my eyes to many things and how children with autism process information... the more we know how they work the more we can help them and keep them blooming into great adults

My boy.. Tim..

A few months ago..




He has glasses now...and a new haircut.. he's growing up fast now

my sweetheart five year old. He has made great strides this year,thanks to his teacher in PreK Spec.Ed.

Now I am gettin all teary--thanks PK, for keeping up with this!

bluesbaby said:

I feel the same way. I can hardly think of a response without welling up...all of our special children. I can keep my sense of humor in other forums, but this thread touches my .

Elle85n09 said:

i was watching a special that was on HBO sunday and its a lady's journey for her son to help get him treatment that he needs here in the US i think she is from the UK i had missed the first 30 min of it... i kept tearing up through it and seeing all the children and different levels there are in the spectrum .... there are some great programs out there but its just getting all the children that need the treatment in the programs to help them ... its a great story i will have to try and find the name of it...

the movie is based on a book

Thinking In Pictures
Temple Grandin, author.

bluesbaby said:

i was talking bout this one n my first post... its great as well... the 2nd one is called "A Mother's courage: talking back to autism"... they actually interview Temple n this as well....


http://www.hbo.com/#/docu...-to-autism
[Edited 4/16/10 13:05pm]

purplekisses said:

Thank you both for the information! I don't have HBO. Do they ever make these documentaries available for sale on DVD format? Does the "TV on Demand" mean you can pay a small fee and watch one show without signing up for HBO? I really appreciate the time you've taken to get back with me about this program. Sandra