Wrapping Up

Throughout this exprience of blogging about autism I have learned so many things! I have learend that autism can be something wonderful. After reading through many stories and also reading "The Next Stop", I have seen how difficult it can be to raise a child with autism. With support it can be less difficult to handle autism. There are many organizations out there that are organized to help! I really enjoyed doing this and learned more than I ever imagined I would. The neatest thing was seeing what questions would spark in my head as I researched one thing. Hope you guys have enjoyed reading this !!!

Emotional Issues

After reading through all of my blogs I have done this quarter I have noticed I have done a lot about the impact this has on families and also many facts about autism on general. Thinking about all of this makes me wonder how autism emotionally affects a person. Disabilities can have a huge emotional effect on people and especially with young children because they are seen as being different from the other children. Young children dont always understand that everyone isnt the same and they dont quite know what it means to have a disability such as autism. After browsing a few sites on the web I found some interesting information about how autism emitonally affects someone. 

Depression is a major affect of autism. When a person has autism they have a very unique behavior that they sometimes are the only ones who understand why they do the things they do. Also they may have difficulties interacting with peers because their language development is behind. These issues can be very hard on a person and can cause them to have depression issues. As a young child this has to be especially hard. At a young age children are making friends and starting their life. When they are seen  as being different they may feel like others dont accept them. As an upcoming teacher I want to edcuate my classroom that not everyone is the same. Out differences are what makes us unique people.

Website: http://www.autistica.org.uk/about_autism/impact.php

Autism Support

I have been wondering how many different types of support groups there are out there for autism. After looking at another classmates blog on autism I wanted to explore and see what types of support there are out there. While reading through "The Next Stop" I discovered this type of schooling type support group in Florida that the son in the book went to a school in Florida that taught him basic life skills. He also was provided with a job and a place to live on his own. I thought this was really neat that there are places that work with these people to help them make it through life. Today I began to look online on various blogs and such to see what types of support there are for autism.

(http://www.autism-blog.com/) This is a link to a blog that is all about autism. You have to join the blog and it has so many interesting stories and tips for dealing with autism. There are many parents on here, educators, and even adults with autism themselves. I think this would be neat to have this type of communication when you have autism or you are around autism on a daily basis.

(http://www.helpguide.org/mental/autism_help.htm) This link is AWESOME. This has facts, stories, help, and so much more. After browsing around I found many local places that provide support with autism. On this site were also parents, teachers, and adults as well. Following this link will provide someone with the support they are looking for.



There are so many helpful things online that can lead you to support. Dealing with autism can be very challenging from what I have read and seen for myself. With support autism can be dealt with in a wonderful way. People with or dealing with someone who has autism need to know they aren't alone and that there are ways to help.

Autism and the Public

While reading through the book I have been reading the mother talks about all the strange looks and reactions she gets when she takes her son in public. The oublic is very quick to notice when someone is different and they arent always very kind about it. I wanted to see what some other families have done when things like this happen to them. So I researched a few blogs and came across one I found to be very helpful.

The parent in this blog says the glares are awful that come from others in public. And constant explaining that her child has autism is very tiring for her. She looks at it that it is her job to make the public aware of her child's autism. She has bought him various shirts such as one that says "autism is my super power". I really like this and think it is a positive way to let the public know the child has autism. This might prevent some of the awful glares from the public. Also this may be fun for the child because it is very postive. 

Here's the link:http://aquietsimplelife.com/?p=7885

When is it typical to noctice Autism?

So while reading through this and hearing the parent talk about when they realized their son had autism. I have kind of wondered when the typical age for autism diagnosis is. Is there a specific age that most people find out at? I searched the New York Times and found an article all about autism.

According to the New York Times parents begin to notice at arounf 18 months and usually no later than 2 years old. They begin to notice things such as the child will have trouble with pretend play, social interactions, and verbal/nonverbal communications. The article stated that most children will seem perfectly normal before the age of one then everything will start to change after about the one year mark. I was also very interested to see that autism will affect more boys than girls (just an interesting little fact I didnt know)

Within the story I am reading they did find out before the child was a year old, so they are a little different than most families. Their child was very motionless and didnt respond to verbal cues at all. I guess its different for every child when autism will appear. 


Here's the link to the article in the New York Times:
http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/disease/autism/overview.html

Noticing YOur Child Has Autism

I have always wondered how the parents notice their child has autism at such a young age when the child isnt speaking or anything yet. With the story I am reading they noticed David was different at about four months. When he was an infant he would laugh or respond to pretty much anything. Most babies will respond when the parent makes funny faces or tickels the child. David was different and he wouldnt respond. He was so different from his two brothers who were extremely active. When he was very young they detected cerbreal palsy and began early interevention with him. This is where they began to notice that something else was wrong with David. He was so different from any other child the parents had seen. He would be very interested in one thing and one thing only. The household cat was the one thing he constantly played with. As time went on they identified David as having autism.

As a parent I cant imagine finding this out about my child. The future would scare me every single day. I wonder what his parents initially thought at this moment? Did they ever think they couldnt do it ?

As I keep reading I hope to find some of these asnwers. This book is a very touching story. These two parents are very strong!

First Part of "Next Stop"

I began to read this story and it is so interesting. First of all the story is about how parents raised a child named David who has autism. He is now in his twenties and doing very well. The first part of the story talks about how they were training him to go to some type of school in Florida. He wanted to go to college but they knew he couldnt handle it, so they enrolled him in this program where he will learn absic skills. Once I read this I was thinking wouldnt it be hard for him to learn life skills  to support himself? And how did they go about teaching him this, since his learning capacity is lower?

The family spent months teaching him everything. This included things from how to get dressed all the way to how to use the toaster. It was extremely difficult to do this though. They said most times he would get bored and go do something else with no warning. Once he walked away from boiling water to go outside and play. His attention span isnt very long at all. The parents were extremley frustrated, but before they sent him he knew a lot of what he needed to be successfull. There were days he would call and say how do you do this again?  As a parent this had to be difficult when he was in school because he couldnt follow multi step directions at all. David probably had a very hard time. The next part of the story is titled "Where Did This Come From?". It is all about raising him and him growing up. I want to learn what it was like from their perspective to raise a child with autism and how it was to have him in the mainstream classroom with the other children.