Leprechauns! Shamrocks! Rainbows! Pots of gold! Green drinks! Green parades! St. Patrick’s Day is just around the corner. St. Patrick’s Day is a different holiday from what most of our kids are used to. It’s harder to understand but is still a lot of fun! You don’t typically get or give presents. You don’t have an egg hunt. You probably don’t have a big family dinner. As we get older it becomes a more important social holiday. So how do we work on St. Patrick’s Day now so that our kids are ready for all the social implications of St. Patrick’s Day when they are older?

In her first guest blog for us, Stacy Baugh shares about her daughter's very first sleepover. So many parts of Stacy's post ring very true for me; I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I have and find many things with which you can relate, too. Please help me in welcoming Stacy as our newest Guest Blogger! ~Leigh
TO PREPARE, OR NOT TO PREPARE
By Stacy Baugh
Recently our 7 1/2 year old daughter, Emily, had an opportunity to have a sleepover with a friend. It would be her first one ever. I have to say that I’m not a huge fan of the idea of sleepovers that are held away from our own house, but this was with some very dear friends who we knew well and who we completely trusted with our precious child. I wasn’t nervous about her safety, but I was incredibly nervous about how she would handle such a new and different situation. Emily has Asperger’s & Sensory Processing Disorder and is a true creature of habit. She likes to do things a certain way and do them the same way every time. She’s not a fan of unexpected changes, and when she’s out of sync her SPD is more pronounced. It’s one thing to go to someone’s house to play for a few hours, but to spend the night?

Over the last several weeks, I’ve been making some very basic observations about human nature in regard to patience and kindness. I guess that sometimes I get too busy or too bogged down with life to really spend time noticing or thinking about other people’s behaviors, because we have enough “behavior” on our plates to deal with any given day, but lately I’ve been noticing that some people are patient and kind and some are NOT – at least they are not with Ethan.

Today I was welcomed into my son’s 3rd grade class (in public school) to read a picture book called “Understanding Sam and Asperger Syndrome” (by van Niekerk and Venter) and share some important information with the students. My husband and I requested this opportunity about a month ago because Ethan has been having some pretty huge challenges with classmates regarding friendship and social issues and we want to do everything possible to give Ethan (and his classmates) the tools they need to be successful in working through these complications. We are very open with Ethan about his diagnosis and the reason for many of his struggles and as a result he is also very open with others in his life so we felt this was a natural next step. During the pre-planning meeting with school staff held to discuss today’s visit, I was also told that we could send a letter home with the kids to help inform parents! I’ve been really excited as I have prepared for this opportunity and I absolutely loved spending 20 minutes with the children today.
For reasons not conveyed to me, the school staff chose not to send my full letter home with the students and decided instead to send an abbreviated version. While the abbreviated version listed some important information (and is of course a good start – for which I am appreciative), it didn’t convey a large portion of what we felt was significantly important...
With that stated, I hope that my letter in its entirety might help some of our readers here. It is printed below.

‘Tis the season for parent/teacher conferences…at least in our school district. We spent the morning meeting with the teachers most involved in Ethan’s education this year. More than once today we discussed issues (regarding things we’re working on socially or organizationally) that I didn’t have a good feel for how Ethan’s neurotypical peers respond in the school setting. Two times I was surprised to hear he’s not the only boy in the class struggling with certain issues. While it was a nice and welcome surprise, it made me realize that I’m a little disconnected.

Over the last several days, Kent Potter (Founder/Owner of AutismSpot), Craig Gibson (Assistant Editor of SensorySpot and Featured Blogger for AutismSpot) and I have been meeting to strategically plan some exciting new things for the future of AutismSpot and SensorySpot. Craig flew in from Philly to participate in face-to-face meetings and has been staying with us. (Ethan loves to have company and has officially welcomed Craig to the family; Ethan will be sad to see “Uncle Craig” leave tomorrow.) But, during Craig’s stay, I wanted to make sure he got to meet Kent’s wife, Angie, and their amazing kids (Sam, Luke and Olivia) so we had a cookout on Saturday with both families. We had a great time grillin’ and chillin’ with everyone, and to be quite honest, the evening was rather lively!
When the Potters were running behind due to Luke’s afternoon football game, Ethan was anxious. He couldn’t settle down until I texted Angie to find out where they were, if they were okay and be able to offer him an anticipated arrival time.

Last week marked a milestone for our family. Sam is ten years old and in the fourth grade in public school. The last time Sam went to public school was when he participated in the PPCD Program (Preschool Program for Children with Disabilities). That was many years ago. Since that time we have been fortunate to find loving, nurturing private schools that could meet Sam's unique learning needs. We made the decision that it would be in Sam's best social interest to stay back in the fourth grade as he enters public school rather than move forward into fifth grade.

One of my dear friends lost her mother to a long, painful battle with cancer this week. My friend has a nephew with Autism. When I asked if there was anything I could do to help the family, my friend asked for assistance helping to find someone to keep an eye on her nephew during the service. He and his family will be traveling from out of town. My sweet and thoughtful friend wants her brother and sister-in-law to be able to focus on the service even if their son feels the need to get up and explore, pace or simply move around.

Where in the world did the summer go? Here in Texas, many schools start in only two weeks……insanity! With summer coming to an end, we are all busy getting our kiddos prepared for a new school year. We wanted to share links to our previous school-inspired blogs to help your family prepare your child for their new school, new classroom, new teacher or new friends. We wish everyone the best of luck and loads of fun for the 2011-2012 school year!
What Do I Tell the Other Parents?: www.autismspot.com/blog/What-Do-I-Tell-Other-Parents

I don’t even know where the phrase: “Kicking butt and taking names” came from, but occasionally it pops into my mind…even though the word “butt” is not commonly used in our household. However, I’ve watched Ethan do some pretty great things [socially] lately, and I have decided to alter the saying above to fit Ethan’s progress…he’s “Making friends and taking names…”