Life with Aspergers

In the lead up to Christmas this year, there were a lot of blog posts about coping with Christmas and helping your children cope with Christmas. It was interesting to see how those blog posts covered all manner of topics dealing with; Crowds and over-stimulation Relatives who couldn't (or didn't want to) understand your child's issues "Surprise" Management Junk food issues Travel difficulties Gift-Reaction Management General change management (because Christmas throws every routine out) There were all kinds of discussions about preparing your child and family for Christmas. Some of them, if read by the wrong people would have made the children seem like "spoiled brats" and some were against the very nature of Christmas (in my opinion only). An Example from our household I'm quite big on "surprises", so I don't generally like surprise management tactics where you let your child know what to expect as a gift. This year, our kids got a n...

Sensory Parenting: From Newborns to Toddlers Parenting is easier when your child's senses are happy! by Britt Collins, MS, OTR/L and Jackie Linder Olson ISBN: 978-193556722-6 Published by Future Horizons You could be forgiven for thinking that this was just another ordinary baby book. Indeed it's not until about the third chapter that the differences really begin to hit you. Of course, those differences have been there all along, just more subtly in those early chapters. Sensory parenting has been written by the Parent-Paediatric Team of Jackie Linder Olsen and Britt Collins and they're the ideal team for a baby book. Jackie provides a wealth of special needs parenting experience while Britt's experience comes across in the amazing array of therapies. Normally such tag-team books can leave you a little disorientated but they've gone to great lengths to speak in "one-voice" throughout and aside from a few obvious chapters, and some scattered comments, it...

Danette Schott from the SOS Research Blog is hosting a blog carnival which I'm very proud to be a part of. The topic is on Autism and Treatment Options and it contains 22 great posts from some of the most experienced people in the field and on a wide variety of subjects. The topics include; weighted blankets, social stories, speech therapy, sign-language, toys, pets, deep pressure, cognitive therapy and Chinese Medicine therapy. I was surprised to find that there was even an article on therapeutic horseback riding. Thanks Danette for organising the carnival. If you're interested in treatment options for autism, there is now a great group of articles which can all be referenced in one place. To go to the carnival, click here or go to; http://sos-research-blog.com/12/carnival-of-s-o-s-edition-1-autism-and-treatment-options/

Just letting you know that Craig Lancaster , author of 600 Hours of Edward has released a short story for Christmas. The story is available in several formats including Kindle and several other formats including EPub and PDF . Unlike 600 Hours of Edward, this story isn't about Aspergers but it is a touching tale of loss and human nature and it makes a surprisingly good Christmas tale. The story is about 30 pages long and it's a great read. To say any more would spoil things. The ebook is currently selling for $1 and all proceeds go to the Charity; Feeding America ( http://www.feedingamerica.org/ )

The Help! S-O-S for Parents site is having a blog carnival on traditional and non-traditional treatment options for autism. It should be very interesting to see a wide range of views and opinions on this. I'll link to the carnival pages once they become active. In the meantime however, my article, as usual is on acceptance. Autism Acceptance By Gavin Bollard The world of autism has changed a lot over the last fifty years. Back in the 1960s, it was common for autistic children to be institutionalised for life. It was common for children with autism to be subjected to painful, humiliating and often life-threatening "correctional" therapies, like shock treatment, LSD therapy and behavioural punishment. One of the most prevalent theories of the time was the "refrigerator mother", a theory which put the blame squarely on the parents. In fact, it was Leo Kanner, the "father of autism", who suggested that these children resulted from a " genuine lack...

The final First-Things-First post for the year is up and it's a good one too. In fact, given the time of year, it's very appropriate. Unfortunately the blogs that it was posted to are no longer functional, so you can't read the original post.  My Thoughts... Given that it's the end of the year, I've been thinking a lot about Christmas. My kids go to a Catholic school, so there's no problems with the concept of Christmas but I often wonder about children from other religions. I can understand that Christmas is a Christian concept but I feel that it's sad that some children miss out because of choices made by others. Would I feel the same if the shoe was on the other foot? I don't know. I sometimes feel that if there was a Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist or Hindi festival which was centred around the distribution of chocolate or presents then I'd want to be part of it. For me, with my general dislike of organised religion (I believe that what you feel i...

About four months ago, I reviewed "The Uncharted Path" by Rachel Cohen-Rottenberg. At the time, I said that I'd publish my review first but that I wanted to get into deeper territory with it because it's a truly fascinating book. As always, time got away from me and I forgot. (Sorry again Rachel). Anyway, if you haven't read it; my original review is here . Who is Rachel? In case there are any readers here who don't know Rachel (it's unlikely), I'd better start by pointing out that Rachel blogs at Journeys with Autism . It used to be called Journeys with Aspergers - and there's a whole fascinating story behind that change. In fact, at least some of that change is core material in the book. Rachel's take on aspergers and autism is radically different from the theories you've read before. Rachel publishes a lot of really provocative posts over at JWA and I always look forward to them. She's also a frequent commenter here. Polar Op...