Autism.Alltop

My friend recently wrote a post about the new site Alltop has - Autism.Alltop. Being the obsessed with autism person that I am I checked it out. Wow! What great sites! Some I was already familiar with, and bunches of new ones. Mommy bloggers blogging about day to day stuff and also news and research autism blogs.

So, let me think for a minute. I'm a parent of an Aspie, I'm an ABA therapist working on my BCBA, I'm a former Sped Teacher - this is my one stop for all autism related info, constantly getting updated for me!

And then it got better. They included ME!! Little ole me, who about a year ago had no idea what this mommy blogging thing was all about. Am I cool or what now?!

And I must say. The timing is perfect. I have finally joined the ranks of the highly technologically competent bloggers (well, at least highly technologically competent in my books as I still consider myself a newbie) and joined Twitter and Google Reader. Which, has definitely made catching up with friends and posts much more organized and faster. So, what to do with all my new free time? Clean. Um no. Study for my class. Should, but...... Oh, wait. I know. Head over to Autism.Alltop and find me some more blogs to read!!

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Christmas with Autism

Christmas day is over. Don't get me wrong. I love Christmas. I love seeing family and friends. I love eating. But I don't love the extra changes in schedules, the extra transitions, the extra excitement. Or rather I don't like the effect it has on Son.

He's a kid. He gets excited. He gets wound up. He has his highs and lows. But they are EXHAUSTING.


I made a calendar for him using Boardmaker. I LOVE this program. Enough that when I stopped teaching we purchased it so I could still use it for the Son. We've got a lot going on. Having a visual for him of where we are going each day really helps.
And visuals are always easier to process than reading. For anyone (think of when you go to McDonalds - do you read the menu or look at the pictures of the combo's?). And when you're escalated, pictures are easier to process to help deescalate.

When there is change, one of Son's side effects is to not eat. He get extremely picky about smells and textues, despite being on the GFCF diet which has eliminated so many of these issues. And when he doesn't eat, he gets moody and irrational. And crashes. And then it gets taken out on us. I've been trying to feed him his absolute favorites, but sometimes even that fails.

Christmas excitement is a test of patience for both children and adults. I'm ready for that test to be over. But first we are taking a 4 day trip to New England to see my half of the family.

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