From Huffington Post's Leda Natkin Nelis.
Alex Jones is our family's human safety net.
Alex is the glue that keeps our household in one piece. Even though
she makes her way only intermittently into our lives without any
official title or regular timetable, she has more than managed to make
herself indispensible. Every special needs family needs an Alex Jones.
Showing posts with label Parents News. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Parents News. Show all posts
Friday, October 26, 2012
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Children's Swimwear Designer Launches Campaign
Monday, July 9, 2012
Your Child's Autism Cures You From Trying to Please Everyone
Fron Huffington Post's Dafna Maor.
It was one of those things that anyone who works in the digital age comes across from time to time. Sometimes you send an email to the wrong person and then there is hell to pay. Oh, the shame. Sometimes, it's a Word document that gets deleted the second you finish writing a terrific proposal for a new project, the one which will catapult you to stardom at work. And sometimes, it's just a little misunderstanding of nuance when you use your instant messenger or Facebook chat to discuss work with a colleague.
Working in a media outlet doesn't necessarily guarantee that you are surrounded by people with high communication skills and knowledge of the human psyche. When egos and dispositions are involved, things tend to heat up.
It was a nice morning, and a colleague of mine was consulting with me, via messenger, about an idea for a feature for the supplement she was editing. In a matter of a few short minutes, that 'talk' turned very unpleasant. She wanted something and I suggested her idea was not very appealing. She asked for other ideas and I didn't have any, so I said maybe later. She asked why I was so hostile, and when I said she's reading something into my words that wasn't really there, she blew up. She walked over to my desk -- she was sitting just a few feet away, in a niche behind a wall. She demanded I come to the conference room and clear it up.
When this colleague, who is also a good friend, started ranting about hostility and uncooperativeness, I stopped her short.
It was a few months after my son had been diagnosed with autism.
It was one of those things that anyone who works in the digital age comes across from time to time. Sometimes you send an email to the wrong person and then there is hell to pay. Oh, the shame. Sometimes, it's a Word document that gets deleted the second you finish writing a terrific proposal for a new project, the one which will catapult you to stardom at work. And sometimes, it's just a little misunderstanding of nuance when you use your instant messenger or Facebook chat to discuss work with a colleague.
Working in a media outlet doesn't necessarily guarantee that you are surrounded by people with high communication skills and knowledge of the human psyche. When egos and dispositions are involved, things tend to heat up.
It was a nice morning, and a colleague of mine was consulting with me, via messenger, about an idea for a feature for the supplement she was editing. In a matter of a few short minutes, that 'talk' turned very unpleasant. She wanted something and I suggested her idea was not very appealing. She asked for other ideas and I didn't have any, so I said maybe later. She asked why I was so hostile, and when I said she's reading something into my words that wasn't really there, she blew up. She walked over to my desk -- she was sitting just a few feet away, in a niche behind a wall. She demanded I come to the conference room and clear it up.
When this colleague, who is also a good friend, started ranting about hostility and uncooperativeness, I stopped her short.
It was a few months after my son had been diagnosed with autism.
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Autism and the Hypothetical Child
From Huffingtonn Post's Todd Drezner.
Given how many autistic people there are in the world, it's odd how much of the conversation about autism revolves around children who don't exist. The most common such child is the one who is "indistinguishable from his peers." This is the child who will supposedly emerge after successful therapies or treatments for autism leave the child essentially "normal."
This hypothetical normal child is closely related to another, younger one--the 1- or 2-year-old who was typically developing before the signs of autism became apparent. These two types of hypothetical children are linked by the assumption that their autism obscures their "real" selves. The hope for parents is that if the autism can somehow be removed, the real child will re-emerge.
Given how many autistic people there are in the world, it's odd how much of the conversation about autism revolves around children who don't exist. The most common such child is the one who is "indistinguishable from his peers." This is the child who will supposedly emerge after successful therapies or treatments for autism leave the child essentially "normal."
This hypothetical normal child is closely related to another, younger one--the 1- or 2-year-old who was typically developing before the signs of autism became apparent. These two types of hypothetical children are linked by the assumption that their autism obscures their "real" selves. The hope for parents is that if the autism can somehow be removed, the real child will re-emerge.
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
It Takes a Village to Raise Child with Autism
From Michele Somerville on Huffington Post.
We're three years apart, my brother and me. I'm a city mouse. He's a suburb mouse. He drives a big suburban truck. I ride the subway. He works in finance and subsists on Diet Pepsi and cheeseburgers. I'm a latte-sipping, teacher and poet. There's a major cultural divide. On Sundays, his kids go to mass and play soccer. On Sundays my kids set up for the Hope Dinner at my church and study art at the museum. But one thing he and I have always had in common is robust imagination. People with imagination tend to have an easier time valuing and enjoying diversity. I have come to recognize that it is his imaginative powers, as much as his love for a sister, that have moved my brother to "throw down" with truly knowing and loving his nephew (my son) who has Aspergers (a disorder on the Autism Spectrum)
We're three years apart, my brother and me. I'm a city mouse. He's a suburb mouse. He drives a big suburban truck. I ride the subway. He works in finance and subsists on Diet Pepsi and cheeseburgers. I'm a latte-sipping, teacher and poet. There's a major cultural divide. On Sundays, his kids go to mass and play soccer. On Sundays my kids set up for the Hope Dinner at my church and study art at the museum. But one thing he and I have always had in common is robust imagination. People with imagination tend to have an easier time valuing and enjoying diversity. I have come to recognize that it is his imaginative powers, as much as his love for a sister, that have moved my brother to "throw down" with truly knowing and loving his nephew (my son) who has Aspergers (a disorder on the Autism Spectrum)
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