I started this site to help my son, Sam, who has autism, and others like him. We are starting with social stories,
but there are a lot of good links to lots of autism related stuff.
Social stories are stories you write for your child to deal with specific issues. Because you can read them again
and again, they're great for autistic kids who thrive on repetition. If you can talk about it, you can write a social
story on it!
I made these social stories with a combination of Boardmaker (by Mayer-Johnson), Flash-Pro photos, and personal photos.
You can even draw stick figures!
Then our second son, Nathan, was diagnosed as having an autism spectrum disorder. It was not the shock it was with
Sam. More like "ok, now the diagnosis is over with, let's get a consultant."
We homeschooled our oldest for 2 years while Nathan continued in special ed preschool. Sam would have had to travel
about 30-45 minutes each way over mountainous roads that are terrible in snow. But then our school district developed their
own special ed program. When we were ready for Nathan to go into school, they hired an autism support teacher. We enrolled
Sam also and it has been wonderful. I feel we were just lucky that it has turned out so well, but I'd accept a miracle.
This next year our school will be doing a new therapy with Nathan and we are all so excited.
And now we have Isaac, who is now 3. We thought long and hard about whether to have another, ever since Sam was diagnosed.
I've always wanted to have lots of kids, but lots of kids with autism was not in my plans! I had my mercury fillings replaced
with cerac a year before I got pregnant. I'm not sure if that helped, but Isaac seems to be developing normally. It is amazing
to watch language developing normally. He is a great normal 3yo, and if we laugh with joy when he throws a tantrum in WalMart
because we won't buy him THREE construction toys, I think we can be forgiven.
Like the saying goes "I'm....eVOLving", always trying to get better. Keep checking back to see what's new.
-Sam's
mommy
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