Whoo-hoo! I was out of town on a girls’ weekend where I could FINALLY relax and not think about autism.
The second night, I called my husband, Greg, to see how things were going. He sounded a little down, but that was to be expected since he was in charge of chasing our three young kids for a few days. “Ha!” I selfishly thought, “He is getting a taste of what my life is like every day, all day long.”
Greg showed great self-control that night on the phone not telling me what had happened earlier that day with Lizzie. He knew it would have ruined my ability to enjoy myself on a rare weekend away. I found out later that he had had the scare of his life.
He had taken the kids to the nature preserve to play at the park. Seems simple enough, right? Run around the park, swing a little, and maybe go down a few slides. That would surely kill an hour or two.
Only it wasn’t simple. The park was super busy that Saturday. Our youngest, Noah, had to be carried or in a stroller, our oldest, Andrew was an extremely active 6-year old, and then there was 4-year old Lizzie, a wanderer with autism, who had no understanding of danger or the consequences her actions could bring.

This is a common thing among children of all ages and many parents are told this is normal. We cannot expect children to appreciate a 5-course meal, but we can expect them to eat more than those 5-10 foods. I like to call it the “Mc Nugget Diet”, it sounds funny but it’s true. We wonder why our kids will only eat nuggets, fries, chips, pasta, and bread. Many times I see children that are “picky eaters” and they come in with other symptoms too that may include poor sleep, excessive gas, bloating, constipation, food allergies, eczema and behavior problems. How is this linked?

In the years that I've worked in the education/special education field, I can estimate that approximately 30% of fathers made themselves available for their children’s IEP initial/annual IEP meetings. Granted, some fathers were simply not involved in their child's life at all, which, in some ways, would account for their absence. Others may have been working or traveling for the jobs, while some simply entrusted their wives/significant others to take care of their child's educational needs. But what about the 30% of fathers who were actually present?

Since I have been “doing autism” for almost 10 years, sometimes I feel like I have heard it all. I go through periods of time when I really want to dig deep, research and tackle the issues that Lizzie is facing. Other times, I am overloaded with information, and I am really just trying to keep my head above water as I run the daily activities of my family.
Recently, I was asked by a friend to go to a seminar on autism. I wasn’t excited because lately I have been in that “overloaded with life” frame of mind. But, I went anyway, and I was glad I did!
I heard Dr. Sandy Gluckman speak on the how we can impact our child’s body chemistry just by controlling our words and stress level. Wow! Did this hit home!
I run my kids from therapy to activity to more therapy. We are so hurried and stressed for time that it never even occurred to me that I could be undoing all that therapy with our stressful schedule! It never occurred to me that I could actually positively affect the chemistry in Lizzie’s brain just by choosing to slow down and say the right words to her!
Rather than try and recap what I learned, I thought I would have Dr. Gluckman share with you some important information that was news to me…even after 10 years of autism.

Okay, so here's the question:
After finishing that bottle of Merlot, what do you do with the bottle? Chances are, you throw it out., right? And what do you do with the wine cork? Do you throw that out, too? If so (to the latter), you may want to think twice!
Now, I'm not saying that there are a lot of great uses for an old wooden wine cork, but there's at least one! Try saving that wine cork and using it as a fidget!
That's right -- wine corks make for AWESOME fidgets!

Many children with autism have low cholesterol and this has been brought to the forefront for some time now. A researcher at Johns Hopkins found that some of the behaviors that children with autism exhibit are in fact due to a genetic disorder called Smith-Lemli-Opitz syndrome (SLOS) and can be fixed with supplementation of cholesterol.

With all the new fangled gadgets and gizmos, iPhones and iPads and Legos galore, we thought we’d go back to the basics and share with you some of our favorite toys for little ones. The list is endless but we narrowed ours down to a few things that not only we love, but that kiddos love as well. You can facilitate some great communication interactions and also work on some other important skills and your child won’t even realize that they are “working” on their development. Here are a few of our favs and why we love them:
1. Bubbles

As the Lower School Student Support Specialist (k-6) for the Renaissance Academy Charter School in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, it is my responsibility to ensure the safety and wellbeing of the students on the school bus each and every day! This includes making sure that student voices are heard – throughout the week, on a daily basis.

Is your child or student having difficulty making good choices on the school bus? Are you getting reports that he/she is acting inappropriately toward the bus driver and/or with his peers? Unlike the school or home setting, the bus is, by in large, an unstructured setting – with very little supervision (especially if it doesn’t have a bus aide in place place). With a little help from the bus driver, you can help to change your child’s or student’s behavior – for the better!
Try this strategy:

Check this out, friends! AutismSpot Guest Blogger, Kerrie Benson, a dance teacher and mom to a seven-year-old son with autism choreographed this dance of two parents' struggle with an autism diagnosis - and their little girl trying to break free. It's featured on Youtube! You won't want to miss this!
Thanks for sharing this with us, Kerrie! You truly have some amazing talents!
-The AutismSpot Team
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdm2ya4ssGQ