Joy's Autism Blog

I haven’t been responding to much blog wise and I have a lot of stuff to take care of (including shipping off the winners of my last book giveaway!) but it has been a crazy couple of weeks.

My husband had a car accident, everyone is ok. Nevaeh was the only one with him. Our only transportation was totaled. I was just thankful that nobody was hurt but there were some major things to plan and figure out since we have to have a car to get around. Well we got a vehicle last week and now all that’s left is to register and title and all that fun stuff. Hooray for waiting at the DMV right?

My Crunchmaster Gluten Free Crackers Giveaway ends today and I had 3 entries. I used RaffleCopter for the first time for that giveaway and I thought that was pretty cool. RaffleCopter lets you click “choose a winner” and it just randomly picks a winner. And the winner was the first comment which was Jordan!

Family and Autism-The Rollercoaster Journey of Raising Children with Autism gave me an autism blog shout out today. I’m humbled that she chose my blog to share on her first of many Autism Blog Shout Outs. All links relating to my blog or my featured posts on other blogs can also be found on my Contact Me page.

I am thrilled to be giving away two copies of A Full Life with Autism. This is really a fantastic book. I had four entries and I’m giving away two books so if you entered those are very good odds. I’m using random.org to choose two winners. The first winner is #1 who is Laura and #2 Deborah. I will be in contact with you!

I thought my other giveaway ended today but I realized that it continues until May 10th. There is only one entry for that giveaway so far so get in there if your family is gluten free.

If you didn’t win A Full Life with Autism it can be purchased here on Amazon where it’s rated 5 stars!

I have couple giveaways that are ending. You can enter until midnight tonight.

The first one is for an amazing book called A Full Life with Autism. It helps you with strategies and resources for helping your child with autism transition to adulthood. Click here for details on entering that giveaway. As of right now there are only 4 entries on that giveaway and I’m giving away 2 books. Those are very good odds.

The second giveaway is for Crunchmaster Gluten Free Crackers. If you are doing a gluten free diet for your children this would be a great opportunity to sample a gluten free product. I am giving away 1 package of crackers and there is only one entry so far. Click here for details on that giveaway.

I couldn’t fit in all my giveaways in April. I know I’m expecting at least one more book giveaway soon. Get your name in the hat for these other drawings though, you have a very good chance of winning.

I know that a lot of families who are raising a child or children with autism have not only special diet considerations but they also have children who may be picky or have sensory issues related to eating.

I can attest to how difficult it can be to get a child with autism to eat anything but their few specific things they enjoy. Adrian has only a certain number of a foods that he’s willing to eat and trying new things is not easy for him. Adrian does enjoy crunchy snacks though so we had to try out these Crunchmaster Gluten Free Crackers.

We tried the original and sea salt varieties and they are delicious. They’re crispy and thin, kind of a cross between a chip and a cracker. They have a nutty sort of taste to them which I really loved. I served them to the whole family as a snack with cheese cubes and they all loved it.

So aside from the fact that most likely if your child likes crunchy snacks they will actually eat this, they’re also healthy. I am extremely picky where my calories go. It has to taste good and it has to be healthy because I’ve lost 60 pounds so far and I’m not done yet. I would spend my calorie allowance on this because it’s worth it. These crackers are a nutritious choice – 100% whole grain, cholesterol free, low in sodium, low in saturated fat and with 0 grams of trans fat.

I am giving away a bag of Crunchmaster crackers for you to try. I will run this giveaway until May 10th. Winners need to live in the continental United States.

I’m using Rafflecopter for this giveaway for the first time so hopefully it goes smoothly. Let me know if you have any issue entering this giveaway because I’ve never used this format before.

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I assigned everyone’s name a number and used random.org and the winner was number four and that number was Missy! Congratulations Missy, I’ll be in touch with you.

If you didn’t win and you want to order check out TJ’s site and order yourself some. My nail shields have been on for a little over a week and there is no peeling or chipping. I really do love them and they have been a wonderful conversation starter because people ask me about my nails all the time. If you buy the Autism Awareness Nail Shields then $2 is donated to The Autism Society of America.

I have another giveaway going on right now so check out this post to enter my other giveaway and I have more coming in the days to come.

I have a cute story about Adrian but first I just wanted to remind everyone that I have two giveaways going on right now. One of them is ending today. The Autism Awareness Nail Shields giveaway, so if you want to get in the drawing go to that post for details. I will randomly draw a winner tomorrow for a set of those. The second giveaway I have going on is a fabulous book called A Full Life with Autism. It will help you come up with strategies and put you in touch with various resources on helping your child with autism live up to their full potential as an adult. I truly highly recommend this book and I am thrilled to be giving two copies of this book away. So click here to go to that giveaway and get entered. The book giveaway will be open for the rest of April. I have at least two more giveaways coming up in the next couple of weeks too so if you like giveaways keep an eye out for more from me.

Onto my cute story. Last night the girls had a neighbor girl over for a sleepover. They live right next door so it’s really convenient and they have kids around the ages of my kids. They have a little boy who is the same age as Adrian and he comes over now and then. It’s been really fun to see him interact with Adrian. He hasn’t ever said anything about how Adrian talked or acted until this morning. He came up to me and said “I think Adrian speaks Spanish because I can’t understand what he’s saying.” I said, “You can’t understand him sometimes because he has autism.” Then he asked the next logical question “What is autism?” That’s not always an easy question to answer but of course I’ve thought about it a lot and this is what I said, “Autism makes Adrian’s brain think differently then some of your other friends’ brains. It makes it where sometimes he has trouble talking, making friends, or learning some things. Sometimes it might seem like he’s ignoring you but he can hear you.” and he said, “Ok, I understand.”

Adrian might be making his first friend. How neat would that be?

This book, A Full Life with Autism is written by Chantal Sicile-Kira and her son Jeremy Sicile-Kira. The very first book I read about autism is written by Chantal Sicile-Kira. Back when I knew pretty much nothing about autism I headed into Barnes and Noble in search of a book about autism. I thumbed through every book they had about autism and I ended up with her book simply titled Autism Spectrum Disorders. It really helped me in the beginning to figure out exactly what I was dealing with so when I was contacted to read Chantal’s new book called A Full Life with Autism I jumped at the chance.

How many times have we all heard that there is too little focus on adults with autism and the transition from a child with autism to an adult with autism and what we as parents are supposed to do to help our adult children make a smooth (well as smooth as possible) transition into adulthood? You hear it so much because it’s true. I didn’t know where to start as far as preparing Adrian for adulthood. This book is amazing in outlining resources and strategies for preparing your child with autism to become a happy and fulfilled adult.

This book has not only advice from Chantal who’s son Jeremy has autism and mostly communicates through his ipad but it also has invaluable advice from Jeremy himself. I love that Jeremy has the ability to communicate his advice and ideas about autism and how to help people with autism become everything they dream to become.

I’m thankful that I read this now when he’s at 8 years old so I can guide him in the right direction young because I know I personally baby Adrian at times and I cannot do that if I expect him to become a functioning independent adult someday. Reading and re-reading this book are going to help me help him now and in the future.

As you can tell I highly recommend this book and I’m thrilled to be able to give away two copies of this book to two readers. I’m keeping it very simple, leave me a comment on this post and you are in the drawing to win. Continental United States only please. I would like to keep this giveaway open through the rest of April so hopefully anyone who wants in the drawing will get a chance to comment and get their name in there. In exchange for this review I was given a copy of the book for myself but all the opinions above are my own.

You also have a couple more days to enter my other giveaway so click here for details.

I get to pick two winners for my giveaway of The Golden Hat: Talking Back to Autism book. I’m really excited to give this one away, it really is a wonderful book. I ended up with 16 entries and there will be two winners. I gave everyone a number and I’m using random.org to choose two winners.

So the first winner is #7 Laurie and #2 Jessie! I hope you ladies enjoy the book and I’m be contacting you for your shipping address via email or facebook.

If you didn’t win the giveaway please go purchase the book here for $29.95.

Also don’t forget about my giveaway I have going on right now. A cashier at a store I went to today asked about my Autism Awareness Nail Shields. These are a great conversation starter so throw your name in the hat to win some nail shields for yourself.

If you haven’t heard of the book The Golden Hat yet this video is a good place to start:

When I was first contacted to review this book I wasn’t sure if I wanted to and I’ll tell you why. I’m not big on celebrity. Celebrities do not impress me and I wasn’t interested in having a book of celebrity pictures. I went ahead with it because I watched the video above and it made me realize that I shouldn’t write someone off just because they are a celebrity. While I wouldn’t care if it’s Kate Winslet or Joe Shmoe doing this book, it’s really a great book.

This book starts by telling you about the special relationship that Kate developed with Margret Ericsdottir and her son who has nonverbal autism Keli Thorsteinsson. Margret and Keli are from the documentary A Mother’s Courage: Talking Back to Autism. You get to peak inside all the email commentary shared between Margret and Kate and it’s really touching as you see Margret celebrate her son’s accomplishments with Kate and you get to see the whole idea behind The Golden Hat Foundation and this book come to fruition.

Next is my very favorite part of the book and it’s a portion entitled “First Words” and it shares portraits of individuals with nonverbal autism in the famous hat of course and some of the first words they communicated. These were the first words they were able to communicate after years of silence through various communication methods. I can’t even describe how touching these pages were to me. I tear up just thinking about them.

After that you see portraits of the celebrities sporting the hat and sharing a quote for their page of the book.

And in the last pages of the book you’ll find poetry written by Keli. He uses a letter board to communicate and is a true poet.

You’ll want to read this book. It’s a good one.

I am giving away two copies to two lucky winners in the continental United States. To enter into my drawing please leave a comment on this post and make sure you leave behind a way to contact you either via email or facebook. This giveaway will run until April 14 and on April 15 I will randomly draw 2 winners. In exchange for writing this review I have received a free copy of the book but the above opinions are all my own.

I had 9 entries to my giveaway of a one year membership to LessonPix.com and I used Random.org to draw a winner this afternoon. The number that Random.org pulled up for the winner was the fourth comment which was Laurie!

Laurie, I hope you can use this for your children and it proves to be a valuable resource for you.

If you didn’t win, LessonPix.com is very inexpensive at $2 per month it is well worth the money.

Also I have at least 3 more wonderful giveways coming up in this April and one guest post so far so stick around and enter my other giveways.