What do we do first for kids with autism? Teach them to communicate! Meet their sensory needs! Here’s the video I created to share with those who work with your child with autism. I hope it helps! Let me know what videos you’d like to see by leaving me a note in the comments below. Please tweet: What other …
Public School’s Answer to Autism: Jail
What kind of society yanks a 10-year-old child with autism from school in the middle of the day, tears him away from his mother (who had NO notice until the moment it happened), and throws him in jail for something he did months ago? The United States of America. Land of the free. Home of the brave. Aren’t we something? …
Autism grows up: social media, bullies, and boundaries
When we adopted the twins 22 years ago, I couldn’t have known the challenges we’d face with them when they became adults. Besides having to use key-less entry locks to keep things in the proper places, we’re also learning to navigate this brave (sort of) new world of social media. How does a parent with adult children with disabilities help …
Because of autism in this family
Autism looks different in every family because autism is different in every person. My experience with autism is unique and different from my friend’s experience with her son with autism. There are similarities, yes. The frustration, and the damage to our sons’ brains is the same. But her son exhibits behaviors my sons don’t and vice versa. Raising identical twins …
Countdown to Christmas Day 18
Welcome to Day 18 of our Countdown to Christmas! I love today’s random act of kindness. I love seeing people’s faces when we do this! If you’d like all the random acts of kindness in one list, email me and I’ll send you a copy. Today’s Random Act of Kindness Give a random person a Christmas ornament! That’s right! Take …
Autism: Not Different Enough
When I read Gloria Doty’s book about her daughter with autism, I felt a great kinship with her. As you know, my twin adult sons also have a diagnosis of autism. As we venture into adulthood with them, I found this book an absolute comfort. It helped me realize that I’m not the only one experiencing all these new adventures …
Love and Cowboys: An Interview with Author Gloria Doty
If you’re into cowboys and romance, you’re going to love Gloria Doty and her new romance novels! What’s not to like about a title and cover like this? Bring a cowboy home? Don’t mind if I do… I fell in love with the book as soon as I saw it. And I pretty much fell in love with Gloria that …
The Art of Interruptions
Okay, this is hilarious. I had this post completely written and guess what? It disappeared. Then I wrote it again. And added pictures. And the pictures disappeared. Then when I added the pictures again and checked on it–saved it, published it, the original post showed up without pictures. (I was working in Blogger for a cross-post to Hoosier Ink. I …
Teaching kids to touch type
If there’s one thing I am grateful for from my public school education in the 70s, it’s that I was able to take classes to learn how to touch type. I can still type about 93-102 words per minute (WPM), and believe me, it’s come in handy when writing books, blogging, and writing research papers! (Thanks, Mr. Geesik!) (I can …
Meet me in Iowa!
Hi, Friends! Just a wee update to let you know that I’ll be speaking at the Homeschool Iowa Conference next week! Here are the topics I’ll be covering: Technology and Your Homeschool Is technology really all that important? How should you use it in your homeschool? When should you not use it? Learn some creative ways to integrate technology in …