Joy’s Autism Blog

I had Adrian’s IEP meeting this afternoon and it went really well. They kept a lot of his goals from last year because honestly, he still needs to work on those things. They did add a couple new things that I’m really happy with.

I got to know his teacher a bit better, I’ve met with her a few times but I think IEP meetings really help you figure out what the teacher is all about. I can’t believe it but we have lucked out once again and have another great teacher for Adrian. He’s had so many amazing teachers in his life all these years and it’s just a really special and amazing thing. Praise God for good teachers, nothing beats a great teacher when you have a child who is struggling in so many areas like Adrian.

So the deal is, I was worried because Adrian’s teacher was really having trouble getting him to work and I was worried that she was just letting him kind of do what he wanted (play on the computer and draw) but as it turns out Adrian was really having trouble adjusting to the new environment and teachers and now that he has adjusted he is making more strides with everything.

As always Adrian is a ladies man. He sits with a little girl at lunch everyday and tries to share his lunch with her and apparently he kissed a little girl at lunch today. Adrian has always loved the ladies ever since he was a little tike.

I will share more about his goals in case you need ideas for your IEP goals when I get the completed copy. I have a draft that needs to be edited a bit.

One thing I was surprised about is Adrian is reading at a late 1st grade level. Adrian is only in the 2nd grade. How amazing is that?

His teacher explained that they were really working on their months and days of the week and I had noticed that because Nevaeh asked one night if we could get out the Halloween costumes and play dress up and when Adrian heard this to my surprise he said, “It’s not Halloween! It’s January!” It’s already come in handy because Adrian happens to know that there is a new Spiderman movie and he was asking about it every.single.day (note misery) and now we can say “Spiderman comes out in July. It’s not July! It’s January!”

Most people would answer this question unequivocally, yes, people with special needs deserve the same quality health care as people who are neurotypical.

I guess for some people that is not always the case. Read this story about a little girl who is being denied a life saving kidney transplant because she has the diagnosis of “mentally retarded” Wow. Who knew in this day and age that children with special needs can still be viewed as expendable…less then human apparently.

I’m asking you to sign this petition and share this with every person you know.

We have to get behind people with special needs and say you matter and you are important. You are worthy of receiving every advantage that other people receive.

I’m doing great on my weight loss journey. I’m feeling motivated, I’m seeing changes, and I feel just positive and happy about the whole thing. I am absolutely determined and dedicated to get healthy for myself, my husband, and my children. I’m down 22 pounds so far with the “old fashioned way” of losing weight, calorie counting, water drinking, doing cardio, doing strength training, and journaling consistently so I can hopefully reach some of the deeper issues I have related to food.

All the kids are doing well. They just went back to school on Wednesday but the short week was a pretty good one so no complaints around here. I just had to pop in and update. I hope everyone had a good Christmas and New Year.

Make your 2012 a happy year!

Happiness is an attitude. We either make ourselves miserable, or happy and strong. The amount of work is the same. ~Francesca Reigler

Check out this article if you haven’t read it yet, I really enjoyed it: Being Retarded -The title will sure catch your attention with all the fury of a special needs parent right? LOL

Did you make any scarves for the Special Olympics Scarf Project 2012? If so you might consider getting those shipped off if you haven’t already. My home state (Iowa) already reached their goal and my current state is not participating so I’m sending my 3 scarves to Minnesota. I really wanted to make more but with the move and homeschooling I only got 3 done. I plan on participating every year that they do this because I think it really helps the athletes feel special and more unified.

If you don’t know how to crochet or knit no worries, you can still support the Special Olympics with a donation. The latest state accepting donations on March 1st is Alaska so you may still have time to whip up a scarf or two.

Please consider helping these athletes feel special and supported if you’re able!

Adrian’s school was only having a half day today and then all the kids are off for Christmas break. Adrian’s old school had early dismissal every Wednesday and a few other times through the year and it was never an issue so I never thought to have a talk with him about it. I was pretty surprised when the teacher called me this afternoon saying she couldn’t put him on the bus because he was kicking, screaming, and crying because he did not want to get on the bus.

I went to pick him up and he was totally fine. Apparently after all the kids left he understood and started saying “I missed my bus!”. When I picked him up he asked me “Are we done with school today?” and I said “Yes we’re all done with school today” and he said “Ok, I want to go to the store” So we did!

I let Adrian get a candy bar from the checkout and he saved a bit of it and teased his siblings and dad when he got home. Pretending to offer them a bite and then telling them no! He said to Glen “You want some?” and Glen said “yeah” and reached his hand out and Adrian said “No! Don’t touch it!” The girls took the teasing in stride but Lincoln was really mad. I brought Adrian over and said “Look at your baby brother. He’s sad. Maybe you should share your candy bar with him.” And he broke it in half and gave it to Lincoln. Proud mommy moment not only for the sweetness but the teasing is also a pretty cool thing for him to understand so I’m just proud of him even if I could have considered this a “rough” day for him I actually see a lot of silver lining.

I’m taking some time to focus on myself with my online time. I am in the process of losing some weight and I am participating in a weight loss group and writing a weight loss blog. I’m not comfortable sharing much of this stuff yet but maybe someday. I have to take care of myself to give Adrian all I can. I’m not sure how much time I’m going to have to write here. I’m sure I’ll be in and out but it may not be quite as frequent.

Care for yourselves autism mommies and daddies, your kids need you.

With Christmas coming up I wanted to write a little bit about autism and gift giving. I think the number one thing I wanted to say is don’t feel like your gift needs to “help” the child overcome their autism. Gifts can just be gifts, it doesn’t have to be “hmmm what will help them expand their vocabulary or what will help them socialize better” because after all kids with autism are still kids and like the stuff that all other kids like too.

Find out what their “thing” is, a lot of kids with autism have their favorites and their favorites can be VERY favorite compared to other kids. One of Adrian’s favorites has always been Spiderman and all our family always knew that and at this point I think we’ve had most Spiderman things that are out there.

If the parent requests things that can be helpful in expanding vocabulary I recommend books. Lincoln is really into the Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See books, there is a few different ones and he’s getting all of them for Christmas. Rhyming or sing-song books are great. I’ve talked about Signing Time videos on my blog many a time but this would be a great gift too. All of my kids love Signing Time.

Don’t be afraid to ask the parents about age level for the toys. Some kids with autism put things in their mouths past the standard 3 years of age that’s usually on boxes and that could be a choking hazard for kids with autism. Adrian still puts things in his mouth occasionally and Lincoln is 3 1/2 and is really bad about putting things in his mouth still.

Don’t be offended if the child with autism isn’t into opening gifts. Many years Adrian either didn’t open without help or he opened the first one and was so interested in it that he didn’t want to concentrate on opening the other gifts.

If you are looking to give a gift to parents who are raising a child with autism, consider offering to babysit!

We had a great trip to the art museum today. So many awesome exhibits, it was a lot of fun. Adrian really liked the sculptures and attracted a few looks with his hand-flapping and squealing when he got excited. The kids all did really well though and we’ll definitely be going back to the museum again soon.

All 4 of the kids, this was one of the impressionists rooms and the paintings behind them I believe are Monet and Pissaro:

And the girls asked for their picture to be taken in front of this colorful painting:

(excuse the largeness of my pictures, I’m not sure how to resize them)

This morning I had to take a quick shower and I asked Sanura to keep an eye on Adrian (he was the only other kid awake) I was brushing my hair and stuff and I heard Sanura yelling (loudly), then the pounding of a thousand elephants (oh I guess that was just my two kids running through the house), and Adrian laughing (hard).

I came to find Adrian was running away from Sanura and he was getting a kick out of her reaction of wildly chasing him and yelling at him.

Sometimes I just have to laugh. I explained to Sanura that he was acting the way he was because of her reaction to it and if she changes her reaction to what he’s doing he would probably stop.

Firstly because my niece was born today! I cannot wait to meet her, if anything is going to make me homesick it’s going to be seeing sweet pictures of this baby girl but not be able to hold her! I’m so thrilled for my brother and sister in law, this is their first daughter.

Secondly today is good because Lincoln had his follow up hearing testing today. He was cooperative and the audiologist was amazing. She wants to recheck him in 4 to 6 weeks because he still has a bit of fluid in his right ear but overall she was not concerned about his hearing.

I truly think something has cleared up in his ears within the last 2 weeks because his language has blown up like crazy. Starting to talk in 2 and 3 word sentences are you kidding me? Amazing.