Reflections

If anyone is still out there, you have probably guessed by now that this blog got to be too much for me to keep up. Being a working mother of two means I don't have much time for pursuits like this. And I will admit it - Facebook has reared its ugly head in my life, and I waste too much precious time there. But it helps me connect with people efficiently, so off I go!

I will hang on to this blog a while longer. I am toying with writing more personal posts, rather than just posting links to information. I don't know if I am brave enough to do that yet.

I thought about this blog after watching several episodes of "Parenthood". If you have not seen it yet, it is on Tuesday nights at 10:00 pm on NBC. One of the characters on the program is a child with Asperger's. A producer on the show has a child on the spectrum and he is responsible for this plot direction. And if you ask me, except for a few bits of melodrama, they get a lot of it right. I can so relate to the mother, to the overexplaining of behavior, to the general dreadful anticipation of what is going to happen next. But they also show how normal life can still be, how they are still a typical family, how they still love their child fiercely.

I confess that there is something very legitimizing about seeing your own struggle reflected back at you in popular culture. Suddenly my experience seems validated. Somebody else is going through the same thing! It makes me feel less alone. Finally! Someone is trying to get across to the rest of the world what it feels like to parent a child on the spectrum.

I wonder how Aspies feel about this portrayal, and if the character of Max will be developed more, so we can get more of his perspective worked into the show. It will be interesting to see where this all goes.

A Parent of a Child with ASD Goes to see "Ponyo"

This account of "Ponyo" really caught my eye:

"In Ponyo, I found a character who probably was never intended to display signs of PDD-NOS. But there she was on the big screen, reflecting so much of what I see every day in Kayleigh. And Ponyo inspired hundreds of children and parents in the audience, myself included, by wholeheartedly embracing her potential, no matter how others chose to define her."

Both of my kids have been intrigued by the commercials and they really want to see it. I am definitely going to make time to go with them!

My Brother Has Autism

This NPR story is generating buzz.

New Discovery Health Program

Sorry I have not been posting. Vacation and school preparation got in the way.

Discovery Health will be airing a program on October 1st called "Autism X6" which profiles a family in which all 6 children have been diagnosed somewhere on the spectrum. Here is a press release.

Resources for Learning to Tie Shoelaces

Shoe tying is still a challenge in our household. When I saw this post in ParentHacks, I thought it might be a good one to share. Check out the links in the comments, too.

Advice for Employers

Here is a document created by something called the Job Accomodation Network (ultimately part of the US Department of Labor) entitled "Employees with Asperger Syndrome". It looks like it could be very useful for employers who might not know much about AS. It's full of simple, specific suggestions for supervisors. This could be a great help for parents of young adults trying to ensure a positive first experience for someone with AS.



I found this via the PDF Search Engine. Just type in a term like "Asperger" and you will find all sorts of interesting things. You will need a PDF reader like Adobe Acrobat in order to view these documents.

Reading Fiction Improves Social Skills

A group of Toronto researchers discover that "readers of narrative fiction scored higher on tests of empathy and social acumen than those who read non-fiction texts. And follow-up research showed that reading fiction may help fine-tune these skills: People assigned to read a New Yorker short story did better on social reasoning tests than those who read an essay from the same magazine.

Full article here.