I have six children.
I love being a mother.
most days
Some days, I feel so out of my depth. Some days, I skate into the home stretch of children in bed and quiet in the house. It's nights like tonight where I can only think " My God , I have to do this again tomorrow" Continue reading
About to turn 19, this girl/woman graduated Metro Nashville Public School system yesterday. And she did so to the beat of a different drummer. The same drum beat into which she entered this world. A very different, odd, quirky, funky beat.
I was under the assumption that a support group was to support? I mean, am I wrong in that thinking? I won't name names, because even though I want too, I am an adult, and throwing people under a bus isn't so cool to me. (damn being a grown up anyway!) However, I will say it was a local autism support group. It has been together for a little over a year.... Continue reading
Have you ever gone somewhere and just found patterns repeating over and over? I suspect it is intentional design choice at the Broadwater Parklands on the Gold Coast. Continue reading
The Honorable Reggie B. Walton has served as the United States District Judge for the District of Columbia since October 29, 2001, having been nominated to the position by then President George W. Bush. Judge Walton is an Autism Light for his groundbreaking ruling on July 26, 2012, that will ease the path for military families to receive Applied Behavioral Analyis treatment for their children through their military health insurance known as TRICARE. Continue reading
This post is not about politics per se. So no arguing about republican versus democrat. The beginning story is illustrative of a larger point:
The use and power of words is not just a bete noir for our children. It seems that most people fail to understand or comprehend the danger of what they are writing or saying. I am not talking about bullying. Those that bully know exactly what they are doing. They just don't care. I am talking about how words, when written or spoken, can lead to assumptions and innuendos that do great damage to an individual or group. Continue reading
They say when you have kids you learn to pick your battles. You decide if something you once thought of as a big deal, is really that big of a deal. You realize that some things just aren't going to happen, and that’s ok. You learn to adapt. You change. You prioritize. Things that were once big deals, no longer are. And things that once didn’t even register on your radar – are now major parts of your life. Its just how it is, they say. When you become a parent you learn to make certain things count – and other things you brush off. You don’t cry over spilled milk anymore. You cant. Because if you did – you would be crying all day long.
But sometimes – hypothetically speaking – you have to cry over spilled milk. Continue reading
I'm always encouraged when I come across individuals, organizations and businesses that see our vision.
The fact that there are people willing to look past the differences of opinions regarding Vaccinations, DSM, or other controversial issues - and to focus on providing whatever information we can to the general public is phenomenal. Continue reading
Lisa Domican has two children, Liam & Grace. Both have autism and as a result did not develop speech. To allow autistic children with this limitation to communicate with their parents, Picture Exchange Communication Systems (PECS) are used. The term that might as well also describe an IT protocol is used to describe a rather hardware-driven solution: It is a selection of printed laminated pictures.
"The system teaches them to hand you a picture of a drink, which you quickly reward by giving them this drink," explains Lisa. "Little by little you teach them a vocabulary of different pictures for different things, all of which have huge value to the child. At the same time you are pointing to the picture and saying the name of each item in order to encourage the development of speech." 
