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.

Such a cliché – “When it rains, it pours!” But, sometimes there is no better way to describe life.
We’ve had a lot going on lately and have had a lot of stress in our lives as a result. For the most part I’m good with stress; I can typically roll with the punches, maintain a positive attitude and keep marching forward - usually with a smile. The bottom line is that I know everything is cyclical and that this, too, shall pass. In the past month, though, amidst the rain, it began to pour in the Wilcox household and instead of singing and dancing in the rain – I’m admittedly sloshing a bit, mindfully trying to hum my way through it.
Most impactful, my mother-in-law passed away two days after Christmas. While it wasn’t a total surprise as we watched her health slowly decline over the past few years, it wasn’t necessarily “expected” either and it has been devastating on many levels.

Team Autism
By Julie Hornok
Being extremely independent has always been one of my best traits, and yet at the same time, one of my worst traits. In my childhood, I tried every type of activity imaginable, but I never found a team that was worth staying on.
I tried soccer, but the thought of getting kicked in the shin wasn’t worth the lack of thrill I felt when someone else kicked a ball through a goal. I tried softball, but somehow standing in the outfield and ending up covered in fire ants took away any joy away from the fact that one of my teammates could slide into home plate. Acting was worth a try, but it turned out to be quite annoying when I said my one line, “I like porridge too,” and then had to sit around watching others talk for another hour and a half. Of course, drill team was sometimes fun, but even being with my friends at something they were good at wasn’t worth listening to the screechy voice of the drill team instructor.
Even with all my childhood lack of interest, I somehow grew up with a strong “can do” attitude. I was a firm believer that with enough will power and hard work, I could overcome anything. The power of positive thinking could and would beat the odds of whatever was put in front of me. And then I met Autism.

Happy New Year! Over the past 12 months, Craig Gibson and I have had several discussions about education – especially as it pertains to individuals with special needs – and how educators are prepared and trained to be successful in a diverse classroom setting. With Craig’s background (personal: growing up with a learning disability and now raising a child with a disability and professional: working as seasoned educator and evaluator) and mine (professional: working as a teacher/reading specialist and personal: raising a child with an Autism Spectrum Disorder), we’ve found we’re both passionate about how important it is to set the stage appropriately, as early as possible, for children with learning differences. As we’ve discussed these beliefs and ideas, the idea for this “Feature Article” – a story about a new preschool teacher and a student with autism – was born…a piece we would work on together, to share some ideas, thoughts and beliefs about how even a teacher lacking the proper tools could learn, grow and make a positive difference in a child’s life. Craig and I decided it would be fun to kick off 2012 with our first feature article! Let us know what you think…

Last year I wrote about what I refer to as our diagnosis anniversary and all of the emotions it brings with it each year for me…right around Christmastime. This year, marks 5 years since our lives changed drastically - when we entered the community caring for and serving children and individuals with ASD; our 5-year diagnosis anniversary.
Ethan doesn’t really know I have these bitter-sweet moments every December and I plan to keep it that way, at least for now…He LOVES the joys Christmas brings and I adore watching the joy unfold around him. Spending time with our extended family makes him happy from the tips of his toes to the ends of the hairs on his head. He now shops for our family members – spending his own money – and helps wrap each gift. Ethan helped prepare gifts for the teachers and administrators he adores at his school. He understands why our family celebrates with gift giving and loves to hear the story of the Three Wise Men bringing gifts from afar to the Baby Jesus. Someday maybe I’ll share with him about my conflicting emotions at this time of year, but only when he’s an adult, and only if he is able to comprehend and filter such information to benefit his life and outlook; otherwise – I’ll keep it to myself.

Our Heroes & Temper Tantrums
By Julie Hornok
I was watching a Dallas Cowboys game with my husband while scrapbooking, and I happened to glance up at the TV just in time to witness the most bizarre event.
Something had happened in the football game that had caused the football player to have a temper tantrum right there on the field over a call the ref made. Not only was I shocked that his behavior was unprofessional, but I was shocked that the crowd seemed to think his actions were justified! I could not believe this man was considered an American hero.
Just imagine you are sitting with friends around the kitchen table playing a deeply competitive game of Monopoly. Your friend, Tom, rolls the dice. It is an 8, but he needed a 10 to get onto Boardwalk. He goes ballistic! He jumps up from the table, throws the dice across the room and slams his Monopoly money to the floor. “It’s not fair!” he screams. “It was a bad roll! Those dice have been making bad rolls against me the whole game!!!”

This is the final part of my interview series with Dr. Julie Buckley, author of Healing Our Autistic Children. (Click to read Part 1 and Part 2 of the series.) I want to express my sincere gratitude to Dr. Buckley for writing about and presenting on this topic in a way that has profoundly changed my perspective and approach to life. I hope that you will enjoy and take something powerful away from this interview series.
LAW: Part 2 of your book is dedicated to guiding parents through biomedical treatments with their child’s doctor; please share a little bit about the standard steps to biomedical recovery.
JB: The hard part about autism is that there is little that is “standard” about the approach we use. It is a highly individualized process – each child is unique in their genes, in their environmental exposures over the course of their short lives, and in the manifestations of the disease process. It takes a careful eye observing, and careful ears listening to a parent to find a starting point for working toward recovery.

As I mentioned in Part 1 of my interview with Dr. Julie Buckley last week, I met Dr. Julie Buckley at the National Autism Association annual conference in the fall of 2010, but I was already familiar with her work. Her book, Healing Our Autistic Children, is one of my favorite books for parents raising children with ASD. In the book, Dr. Buckley shares very personal experiences (as a mother and Pediatrician) about how and why autism is a treatable medical disease. Also, the two times I’ve heard Dr. Buckley speak at NAA, I was greatly impacted. See my post about Caring for the Caregiver HERE inspired by Dr. Buckley’s presentations at NAA the past two years.
LAW: Please share a little about “The Big 3”: Inflammation, Oxidative Stress and Toxicity.
JB: When I teach families about the big three – toxicity, oxidative stress, and the chronic inflammatory response, I use the Venn Diagram approach that Sid Baker, MD and Liz Mumper, MD taught me. We know that autism, classically defined, is at the center of the intersecting circles, where behavior abnormalities, communication problems and social skills challenges intersect. But we also know that physically, autism lies at the intersection of three big problems – gut disease, immune dysregulation and methylation chemistry disturbances. It is these physical problems that give rise to the behavior/communication/social skills problems Leo Kanner observed. And even more fundamentally, it is the “Big 3” – toxicity, oxidative stress, and the chronic inflammatory response – that allow the physical things (the gut disease, the immune dysregulation, the methylation chemistry disruption) to get started, and then those physical things give rise to the behavior/social skills communication problems…it starts to feel a little bit like that old childhood song “I know an old lady who swallowed a fly…”

I think you’ll enjoy this post from one of our newest guest bloggers, Julie Hornok. If you missed her first guest blog for us, you can read it HERE. Today’s post, infused with a fun dose of humor and balanced with common sense, explores why some of our kiddos are so strongly inclined to strip down and be naked. Enjoy!
Good Naked/Bad Naked
By Julie Hornok
Two decades ago, the Seinfeld show provided a visual of what we all knew existed when it comes to what is good naked and what is bad naked. Naked during sex or sunning on a private beach – good naked. Naked while eating a hoagie and doing strenuous household chores – bad naked. Seems simple enough. Rules to live by. Thank you for spelling it out for us, Mr. Seinfeld.
But what about when our children with autism constantly want to strip down and be naked? Is this good naked or bad naked or is this is a whole different realm of naked?