Welcome Parents and Grandparents of Kids with Autism

S0....WHAT MADE YOU HAPPY OR SMILE TODAY?

So, did anything make you laugh out loud today, bring a smile to your face or just maybe gave you a slight tingle of joy? I think that too many of us today have so much stress and are rushing here and there, or perhaps just are so down in the dumps that we aren’t taking the time to “smell the roses”.

Last night, I was thinking about this and thought that it could be fun to start a thread that was so simple and uncomplicated, that we could take a few seconds out of our lives to see what makes others happy and maybe bring a smile to our face at the same time.

I have used this technique many times in my life to snap myself out of mild depression. (It was introduced by my “shrink”). This is how it works: throughout the day you look for good things around you. For example, a baby’s smile, a beautiful woman, a drop dead gorgeous man, a new model of a car you would love to have. Or maybe someone said something nice to you today, or perhaps you made someone happy by listening to their story, your boss acknowledged you for a good job, got a call from your Mom, lost two pounds after starving for a week, Halleluiah! Discovered you won the lottery!

Nothing is too small or too big. Just anything that makes you happy in your soul. I think it is called transference, what ever it is, it does work. It is a simple task, but at times, when we need it most, it is difficult to accomplish. I was taught to find as may examples as I could in a day. But I think that one would be fine for the purpose of this thread.

What do you say; want to give it a shot? I will go first.


[edit on 10-5-2007 by worldwatcher]

My grandson is six years old, and he has autism. He is in the lower center of the spectrum. He has many challenges, and verbal skills are among then. He knows our names, and probably two-three hundred words. Today he made a full sentence, that was more than enough to make me smile and fill my heart with joy, but the content of that sentence made me laugh, cry and jump for joy. Here is that profound sentence from an awesome child who happens to be autistic.

GOD LOVES ME, NAWNIE!

How beautiful!

I put up this thread almost two months ago. And at the time, I didn't realize that there was already one just like it. I don't know how to delete this thread, or better yet, how to rename it. I think that I would like to rename it to welcome people with children,or grand children with Autism to share stories about these facinating kids. I think that it would help with the awareness campaign that is going on, with the number of children being diagnosed today.

If anyone knows how I can accomplish this goal, please let me know.

I have an update on my grandson. He is in a special education class for children with learning disabilities. He is the only Autistic child in the class of 8, and there is one teacher, and an assistant. He is having a tough time of it adjusting to the school setting. In fact, he is the terror of the school. But fortunately, he has a patient teacher and she is learning to deal with Autism. She has not been formally trained on Autistic problems, and she is reading and learning as much as she can in the short time she has. Unfortunately our state is not equiped to handle these children, and unless you have the big bucks, you have no option but to utilize the public school system, and do as much as you can at home.

My son and his ex-wife have three little boys, age six, five and three. The oldest is the child with Autism. Well, today was the first time our little boy was to experience a "field trip", even though it was just a walk across the street to a city park to play, it was a big deal for these children.

I volunteered to go and sit in the car and watch this exploration and make sure our little terror didn't decide to take off for the high timbers, which he is known to do.

He did very very well. He strayed a short distance many times, and had me on the verge of exiting the car and screaming to stop him more than once. But each time, the teacher was aware, and handled him with voice commands, and he obeyed each time. I was surprised, and thrilled. I want to express gratitude to her for her caring enough to put in the extra time she spends on learning to handle this new situation for her, and that she is expiditing it so well. It says alot about a special woman who is a gift from God to care for our special little ones.

After about one hour and twenty minutes, he saw me, and started pulling on the teachers arm screaming VAN....Nawnie...Van...Nawnie. She recognized the Van and brought him over. Of course, he was done for the day after seeing me there. No problem.

She and I spoke for a while on his progress,, and also his lack of it. But to my delight and his parents as well, his teacher said he is an extremely bright child and is "READING AT GRADE LEVEL" (K-1).

It is a miracle that this child can barely put a sentance together of 3-4 words, yet he can sound out words, and read primary books.

This is a testamony to what faith, hope, hard work, love and the blessing of God can do. NEVER GIVE UP!

[edit on 6-10-2007 by PORCUPINEPIE]

I am sorry, I tried to post a picture of my grandson, but it didn't show up. I guess that there is a lot more to adding a picture than I realized. I may try again later. I will have to read more on how to do that.

[edit on 6-10-2007 by PORCUPINEPIE]

OOOOOPS messed up aagain. I request that this post and the last one I posted be deleted. I'm really sorry.

[edit on 6-10-2007 by PORCUPINEPIE]

[edit on 6-10-2007 by PORCUPINEPIE]

It sounds like your grandson ended up with an excellent teacher. It's very nice to know there are those in the profession willing to do what she's doing so she can do her job as well as she can for every child in her class.

I have a niece that is fresh out of college and teaching four year old kindergarten. A special needs child was placed in her class right before school began this fall. She did a considerable amount of extra studying in a short time so she would be prepared, and this in her first semester of teaching. I was very proud of her.

I am happy to hear your grandson is doing well in school. It sounds like he has an excellent teacher, and an excellent grandfather as well. You do well by keeping him close.

I, for one, would be happy to see you to continue to post his progress in this thread. It would be nice to read something hopeful on these forums on at least a semi-regular basis.

You and your family take care. I'm sure with the help of dedicated people, your grandson will continue to do well.

If I had it, I would post that picture for you. Maybe a mod would be willing to do so. I think one of them should.

reply to post by Musky

Thank you for your well wishes, and interest in my grandson. I will continue to post, as long as just one is interested.

We are fortunate indeed to have a teacher who is dedicated to the children, and has taken the time to research for my grandson. I am so inspired to hear about your niece as well. It is so uplifting to hear of a young person who is willing to give her "free" time to learn the methods to teach the little special angels of our society. Please express my thanks to her. My grandsons teacher is probabley 50 years old. I am grateful to her too, but it is heartwarming to hear of a young person with the values and dedication she posseses in todays world. God bless her.

Keep your eye out Musky, I will figure this out and get a picture of our little guy up soon.

A thread that hits close to home.

My Autism Story

BRAVO, my friend. I'm just a U2U away.

lombozo

reply to post by lombozo


I have just finished reading your story. It is very interesting, and I was interested in all the different perspectives people have in there different lives, and association to different levels of the spectrum.

My grandson falls in the lower half of the spectrum. He is intelegent, but does not qualify as Aspergers. It seems that those on your thread lean more to the aspergers end of the spectrum. But there are also common threads that seems to flow throughout the spectrum. The ones that stand out to me the most, are the the social and sensory issues.

By the way, my grandsons name is Gunnar. It is becoming annoying for me not to address him by his name, so from now on, he will be known by his given name. Anyway, one of his major problems to overcome was his anxiety issues. He was impossible to take anywhere without him haveing an anxiety attack,,,Screeming, fighting to withdraw from the situation, excessive drooling, and total panic. He has almost completely overcome that behavior now, but it has taken about 2 1/2 years of continuing to expose hime to the mainstream world.

We had to carry awareness cards to hand out to people who thought we were being abusive. It is not a piece of cake working with these children, But as you and so many have pointed out, it is worth every effort. I couldn't love this child any more than I do, and he returns that love 100 fold. They have the label of being special, and they truely are special, although I am not sure the original label was meant in the same context that I put it.

Thank you for sharing with us on this thread. I didn't realize you had one also, and I hope that you don't feel that I have infringed on your space. I hope to keep this a little lighter, and share the miraculous progress of these masterpieces from God. I will be reading your thread daily to see the input you are recieving as well. I have already gotten so much info from your thread. It is very helpful.

Gunnar loves to be on the computer as your son does. He especially likes all the avatars. His favorite ones are those that have a patriotic theme, or have lots of movement. He can navagate to his favorite site also. He loves "starfall.com." It is a site his speech therapist uses. It is very good for anyone who needs speech help with their children.

Thank you again for your kind words, and for turning me on to your site. I lookforward to long and fruitful friendship with you.

Originally posted by PORCUPINEPIE
Thank you again for your kind words, and for turning me on to your site. I lookforward to long and fruitful friendship with you.

Right back at you.

My son just turned 5, and trust me I understand every word that you've said.
You had asked if I felt as though you were infringing on me.
NO! You're doing great! I'm always glad to see others sharing their stories with us.
Here's to Gunnar!

I still can't get this picture up. I am sorry, but I will have to stop for now until I can get some help. Thanks though for your patience.

[edit on 8-10-2007 by PORCUPINEPIE]

This is my Grandson Gunnar, I just posted a picture to an comment section, and it worked, ao I hope that this will work too.

Just a small update on Gunnar.

The medical burocracsy has hit again. For some reason, Melina has decided that we had to go through the massive process to acquire eligability for Gunnars speech and occupational therapy. As a consequence, he has missed the last three weeks of his therapy. As you may guess, pandamoniam has broke out at my house. (He lives with me) One would never guess how important those two hours a week are to an autistic child. Regression is extraordinarilly fast. :bash:

You would think that the 16 page evaulation and diagnosis, along with the reports of four doctors, among which, two are Autistic specialists, would be plenty to satisfy the medical program. I guess they have some strange idea that it is going to go away, like a cold or something. In the mean time,, the child is out of control, and the family is going out of our minds. Any one that thinks this is a piece of cake, is out of touch.

Anyway, I don't want to complain any more. My intent is to have this be an inspirationl thread, and to proclaim the progress he makes, and to praise all of those that help him and the progress that can be made. We are having a little set back right now, and it will pass. Patience!!!!!!!

Please take a minute during your prayers for Gunnar. I am sure it is not easy for him to be going through this right now. And pray for all our children who have this terrible syndrome. And don't forget the caregivers sanity. Thanks!!!!

[edit on 17-10-2007 by PORCUPINEPIE]

Sorry to hear about your setback. I'm sending some positive mojo your way. Hope to hear Gunnar can get back to learning and making progress in the very near future.

It's nice you got the picture posted. He's a cute little guy.

[edit on 18-10-2007 by Musky]

Hi my friends.

I haven't posted in a while, things are going very slow to reinstate Gunnar with all his therapy. But we are making progress. December 1, he will be back to the original HMO and will be back into all his original therapy with the theropists he knows.

Today his parents and the school personnel met and did a new IEP and it looks good. I hope they will follow through with the plan. All we can do is pray that it will and we will be back on track.

I have started to work with Gunnar and his brothers on a little Christmas program we are going to try to perform on Christmas Eve for friends and family at my house. They are all excited, and especially Gunnar. He loves the music, he trys to sing, and he puts some good moves with the music. It isn't in the Christmas mode yet, but we will be working on it. But regardless of how it ends up, they are in the spirit, and we will love the end result, no matter what.



[edit on 19-11-2007 by PORCUPINEPIE]

PLEASE DELETE

[edit on 19-11-2007 by PORCUPINEPIE]

Gunnar and his brothers Hunter and D'Artanian at autum play

[edit on 19-11-2007 by PORCUPINEPIE]

[edit on 19-11-2007 by PORCUPINEPIE]

[edit on 19-11-2007 by PORCUPINEPIE]

I'm glad to hear things are getting back on track for Gunnar. You and yours have a great Thanksgiving. Keep us updated on the progress of your Christmas program.

reply to post by Musky


Thanks Musky. Happy thanks giving to you ard yours as well. There will be one missing at our table this year. But it will not be permenant, and we will go on. He will be missed though. I am grateful for your support, and the others that have shown interest in my Gunnar Boy. Thank you so much.