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This week he made a friend
As a child, I often felt lonely. Strange since I grew up in a household of people. Not lonely in the way that I wished others where around, in a way where I wished there wasn’t so much underlying explanation needed about my life. I kept the door to those questions closed as much as possible. Still, when I break down my connections to the people closest to me often, people require a chart of some kind. I learned to use terms where people won’t ask too many questions and only open up my history when I become close to someone. I have had many meaningful and life long friendships.…
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Five Things I Wish I Knew Before an Autism Diagnosis
If you are new to this autism journey and are wondering how to process all the information out there. Here are some things I wish I had known while going through the process. All autism characteristics do not all fit into a checklist. Many of the early signs of autism we recognized later in our son as he got older did not fit into the standard website search. Our son, at an early age, loved anything round. He carried around balls, round fruit, played with practically anything in the form of a circle. We did not recognize this as fixed interest. When you think of an interest in something like…
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An Old Friend, the Water
Since Nixon was a tiny baby, he has been drawn to the water. We would put him in the tub, and he would kick his legs as fast as he could. We were surprised by his ability to move so quickly at such a young age. When his language began to develop, we got the most words out of him when he was in the bath, pool, or water activity. If he is having a tough week, a swim in our favorite creek has a magical ability to reset him. You can see the physical change in his body, his stress fades and words start to form again. His love…
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Arizona Long Term Care (ALTCS)
Need help understanding Arizona Long Term Care. Find information on the process here.
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Communication Success
Autism can be spectacular. When we climb a mountain of prompts, hand over hand instruction, small tiny moments of connection, then in an instant, a light switch, and we have success. When I think of Nixon’s success, I like to think of it as an astronaut who had trained for months and months to walk into a rocket ship. The rocket ship might not launch, but we are all watching waiting to see as we hear a quiet countdown. When our son was starting to talk, we couldn’t understand a lot of what he was trying to communicate. He didn’t speak much until he was about 3 1/2, which caused…
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The words flew out of my mouth for the first time, “My son has autism.”
As a child, I could always count on a special day for my birthday. Growing up in a house full of children, days when the focus was only on you, were limited. On our birthday, we got a special cake, got to pick what dinner we wanted, and had ice cream made out of an old hand-churned ice cream maker. This was something I wanted to make sure to pass on to my children. Every year I take the kids birthday off work, and we plan a special outing. In December 2019 it was our daughter Nora’s first birthday. Winter in Arizona is filled with 70-degree weather, so a trip…
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Autism Evaluation Day
I received a call from a nice scheduler at our local hospital, my heart stopped for a minute. Was this finally the call? The scheduler said “we have a new doctor that will be starting soon. It will be at a location that is a little far from you, but if you are open to driving, we can get you scheduled.” Before she could finish, I immediately said “yes.” I would have driven two states for my son to secure that appointment. After months and months of waiting, we finally had a date for our son’s appointment with the developmental pediatrician for his autism evaluation. The week before our son’s…
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Nitty Gritty of Diagnosis and Services for Autism in Arizona
Nitty Gritty of Diagnosis and Services for Autism in Arizona