August 2010 - The Joy of Autism - The Network of Care

Repost from 2007: A Review of Autreat

Last weekend, I attended my first conference in over two years. It was the Blogher Conference in New York City where I met up with fellow autism-mom bloggers. I remarked on how I noticed the positive attitudes towards autism among parents that wasn’t...

Published Fri, Aug 13 2010 7:21 AM by Estée Klar

Filed under: Acceptance, Advocacy, Organizations/Events

Another Lesson In Single Autism Mom Land

We hate it when we see our children get sick. When we watch them suffer, all we say is that we wish we could suffer for them. Honestly, watching Adam be ill is one of the hardest things. Yet I know what to do. I know how to take care of him. As a single...

Published Wed, Aug 11 2010 4:58 AM by Estée Klar

Filed under: Single Parenthood

It’s 3:00 a.m.

I am writing this at 3:00 a.m. I left Adam’s room at approximately ten o’clock hoping he would go go sleep. I know I did, but I suddenly woke up at two. I was hoping to fall back to sleep but decided to heed some sage advice and not fight...

Published Mon, Aug 16 2010 12:48 AM by Estée Klar

Filed under: autism, Safety, Sleep

The Eight Year Old

Lately I’ve used this term: “the normal path of autistic development.” I use it because I do believe that the path of autistic development seems to take on familiar patterns like later acquisition of language, motor planning skills and...

Published Wed, Aug 18 2010 5:36 PM by Estée Klar

Filed under: Development, Acceptance, autism, Safety, Parenting

I Have A Few Dreams

Watching me these days and I think you will find me deep in thought. I’m dreaming, thinking. Not the kind of dreaming where I’m floating (well, okay, sometimes), but the kind that I think is important for all parents of autistic children....

Published Mon, Aug 23 2010 2:24 PM by Estée Klar

Filed under: Joy

My Endearing Little Cat

Sometimes a simple photo inspires me. This one was taken over a year ago. The gal Adam is holding hands with is the daughter of my most beloved girlfriend in the world. Life got a little hectic for everyone and Adam didn’t get to see T (the girl...

Published Fri, Aug 20 2010 9:01 AM by Estée Klar

Filed under: Adam, autism

You’ll Find Me At BlogHer in NYC

After being a little overwhelmed with goodie bags (and I’ll note that I have no need for the stuff so if someone is here and wants mine….come and get it), and loads of women fretting that Twitter was down for a bit today, I’ve settled...

Published Thu, Aug 05 2010 8:07 PM by Estée Klar

Filed under: Uncategorized

Wretches and Jabberers

I was very excited when Pascal Cheng told me that Larry Bissonnette and he, both of whom I brought to Toronto several years ago, and Tracy Thresher were traveling the world to change views about autism. They travel to Finland, Japan and Sri Lanka to change...

Published Thu, Aug 19 2010 7:01 AM by Estée Klar

Filed under: Activism, Inclusion, Autism and Intelligence, Acceptance, communication, Travel, Advocacy

Isolated No More

I’ve been to a few autism conferences in my time since Adam was diagnosed in 2003. The ones I found most helpful to me in those early days were the ones where many autistic adults “ran the show.” There was nothing more helpful to me...

Published Sun, Aug 08 2010 6:51 AM by Estée Klar

Filed under: Acceptance, autism, Parenting

More on BlogHer

Thanks to Shannon who wrote more on the BlogHer conference Autism Panel here, which I also wrote about in Isolated No More. I particularly liked this quote from Amalah: “There is joy and happiness and laughter in our homes, just like in yours. We...

Published Mon, Aug 16 2010 7:38 AM by Estée Klar

Filed under: Acceptance

The “Continuum,” The “Spectrum,” and Another Assumption That Needs Debunking

I really like what Temple Grandin is doing in many ways. I like that she supports different minds and describes very simply and concretely what autistic people need and might be able to do as work. There is one thing I’d like to point out to Ms...

Published Mon, Aug 30 2010 2:08 PM by Estée Klar

Filed under: Autism and Learning, Autism and Intelligence, communication, Autism and Employment, Sensory Differences

Blog Talk Radio Today

Tune in 10:00 a.m. Central Time as I will be speaking on The Autism Acceptance Project on blogtalkradio. Digg this post Recommend on Facebook share via Reddit Tweet about it Read More...

Published Tue, Aug 17 2010 7:00 AM by Estée Klar