Autism Awareness Day 18

Autism Awareness Day 18 - Have you heard of AMA? For this post I want to talk about a great place called Awakening Minds Arts & Athletics. Now I must start off by saying that I've only been there once and we haven't taken any classes there yet but we hope to at some point. What I do know is that they offer some great classes for special needs and several of the parents in the Autism group I'm in love it there. I also know that they sell some sensory toys, weighted lap pads, and pressure vests which is great for any family with a child that has Autism. Some time in the near future they will also be selling some of my hand made soaps too.

The great thing about AMA is that it provides a place for children to be creative do some sensory play. Art is a great thing for all children and I'm happy to know that there is a place that helps children with special needs to find the artist within. I also really love that they sell some of the sensory toys which are something you don't find in just any store. I bought two of the chewy necklaces for my boys and they have been great to have around.

So if you haven't check them out yet then head on over to their page. Your child or a child you know may benefit from their services. For more information please contact them directly as I'm only telling you the very little that I know. I just hope to spread the word about them.

And on a side note if any of you would like to sponsor some art classes there for Gatty then please feel free to do so. LOL

https://www.facebook.com/AwakeningMindsArt

Autism Awareness Day 17

Autism Awareness Day 17 - Teaching your child and/or providing therapy at home need not be drilling, boring, or uninspired. Today I taught Gatlin how to create art on ceramic tiles with alcohol inks. This was fun for both him and I, but it also counts towards speech therapy and occupational therapy as well as just learning colors. The occupational therapy comes into play when he was helping me unscrew the caps from the inks, touching the inks and blending solution with his hands (sensory), holding the small ink bottles to place the drops and/or draw lines with them, and also when he put the caps back on. Through out all of this he was using his hands and working on fine motor skills. 


Speech therapy was really occurring throughout the entire process as I talked to him about what we were doing and he responded when he could. He was listening to me, following directions or simple commands, and responding appropriately. He named the colors as we used them which helped further teach him about colors and he told me when he was done with each color and when he was done with the entire piece itself. So you see it was a fun experience for both of us but were still working on the skills he needs. Keep it simple, keep it fun, engage your child in their interests and they will learn. Best of all it will be a bonding experience as well.
And here they are ..... Gatlin originals .... the first of many more to come. :) Please note that even though I assisted him these are very much his works of art. I did very little to contribute to these masterpieces.

Autism Awareness Day 16

Autism Awareness Day 16 - Love your child for who they are, Autism and all. I had planned to write something different today but then I came across this shared post from Rebecca's page. What Marcus says here really speaks to me so I feel it needs to be shared yet again.

As a child I was diagnosed as having attachment disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, depression, multiple personality disorder, and many other wonderful diagnosis; almost to many to count. The short version? I am autistic. I didn't get the love I deserved, that every single child deserves. I didn't get to keep my family, not a single family that adopted me was able to keep me. I had no stability and I was miserable a lot. That is why I try so hard to help others on the spectrum. I don't want anyone to ever have the life I had as a child.

I don't work essentially for free, and remain on disability because I love free money. I don't give away everything I create, and ask nothing for myself because I am against making a profit. I do it because to me, the biggest profit and reward will be knowing that I have done my part to make sure that no one else has the life I had. I fight because I am scared that if I don't I am consigning some other innocent to the life I was trapped in.

I was nonverbal until around age 6. I hated to be touched. I couldn't eat if anyone touched my food (which meant I was hungry a lot), and I had frequent meltdowns. It took years of the kind of help you only get on an inpatient basis, and a great deal of luck for me to become who I am today.

Please, stop posting how bad life is for your kids. The simple fact that they have someone posting anything because of them tells me that at least they still have love. Please, stop posting all the negatives associated with your child ASD symptoms. From first hand experience I can tell you how crushing it will be for them when they realize how you see them.

I have always been the smartest person in the room. It doesn't usually matter what room I am, in as that never seems to stop being the case. In school I was always the first with their hand up, because I knew the answers. I was out of my chair bouncing because the teacher didn't want to call on me over and over. My parents were given the option of special education classes or gifted classes and to this day I don't understand why they chose the special education classes.

Just because your child doesn't seem to understand you, I would not suggest making the assumption that they don't. There is every chance that your autistic child is as brilliant as I am, and just has trouble speaking up.

Your child needs you. Maybe they don't show you love the way you think they should. Maybe they can't speak and socialize like you wish they could. Maybe, they are a burden on you financially, emotionally, and mentally right now. They didn't ask to be the way they were born, any more than you asked for them to be that way.

Please, be the parents that I didn't have, at least not for very long. Please stop finding things to blame, things to champion, and demonizing what makes your child different.

Love them completely with all your heart. If you hate that they are autistic and you wish you could cure them, change them are you really loving them for who they are?

My friend John Poer posted something on an article I wrote:

"Even though I have never MET Marcus, I have known him for a very long time. He's a very good person, who, given how he was treated growing up, has no reason to BE a good person. I am amazed that he has gotten this far against the odds.

He has already helped a lot of people, and continues to try every day, to give something he never received himself.

Go Marcus."

That made me cry. I am not a good person, a loving person by accident. It was a choice that I made because I had seen enough pain and suffering. I was once told by one of the counselors at a placement called Spectrum Care Academy that as a victim of childhood abuse I was going to hurt others. Victims become abusers unless they choose to be something different. I refuse to ever become the monsters that have been in my life.

Be the example. Show your child how to love, by loving them fully and completely; autism is just a part of who they are and it can be a wonderful part. Stop feeding into the blame, the mistrust, and the hate and maybe your child can learn to love others through your example more than they ever would by treatments, therapies, and interventions.

How do I manage to be as loving, trusting, giving, and yes naïve as I am if it isn't they way I am by default? That is easy. I simply do the opposite of what I have known my entire life.

Why do I keep trying to help, to serve when almost every part of my heart and mind scream that I have done enough, hurt myself enough, sacrificed enough and no one could ask any more of me? I remind myself constantly that when it was me, when I was the child; I screamed in every way I could for someone to be who I am now for me. I remind myself that there are kids, teens, and adults out there right now that need me to be who I am, and I will be damned if I let them down.

There is only one of me though. I can only do so much. Hence my reason for writing this, my reason for existing. Please, I am begging you to learn acceptance, tolerance and love and to never give up hope.

Thank you for your time,
Marcus Shane Morris

At the time I am writing this: I have a beautiful wife, two amazing little autistic boys, my own home, and all the love I ever begged, prayed, and pleaded for. It is possible for your kids as well.

Autism Awareness Day 15

Autism Awareness Day 15 - P.L.A.Y. Project. Twice a month we have P.L.A.Y. Project home visits for both of our boys. They each have a separate appointment where we work with their therapist Heather to learn to engage them and open circles of communication through play. This has been amazing for us! In a lot of ways it's such a simple technique but something that a lot of us parents just miss out on. We have learned better ways to follow our boys lead and play with them to get them to engage with us and try to communicate with us. I highly recommend P.L.A.Y. Project for any parent of a child with Autism. Find out more by clicking on the link below.

http://www.playproject.org/

Autism Awareness Day 14

Autism Awareness Day 14 - More than meets the eye. (Yes I'm behind again, such is life LOL) For this post I would just like you all to watch this video. I've seen it before but it was worth watching again. There is much more to the child with Autism than what most people choose to see.

Autistic Girl Expresses Unimaginable Intelligence LIKE/SHARE!

This amazing girl proves autism is not what most doctors think!
She will amaze you WOW....must share this!!!
www.CommentLikeShare.com

Autism Awareness Day 13

Autism Awareness Day 13 - Dr. Solomon's magic trick. Before Draiman was officially diagnosed with Autism he had begun hitting a lot. When I say a lot I mean it too, it was constant. He couldn't communicate verbally and he would get really frustrated so he would hit people. He would hit his brother, he would hit us, he would hit anyone that he became frustrated with or didn't want to listen to. It was becoming a big problem and we were having one heck of a time to get him to stop.

Then the day we took him to Dr. Solomon for diagnosis we learned an awesome trick. Dr. Solomon told us that the very next time he hit us we needed to take hold of his hands and not let go. He said that we should look Draiman in the face and tell him that we understood his frustration but that he was not allowed to hit. We needed to explain to him in simple terms that it was not ok to hit and that he must find another way to express his anger. Dr. Solomon said to hold his hands still the entire time we said that and then to look away from him and count to 30 while still holding his hands still. He said that once we were done counting to 30 we should look him in the face again and tell him that we loved him but that it was not ok to hit. Then after that we could let go of his hands. Dr. Solomon explained that the 30 plus seconds of holding his hands would be like torture or severe punishment so he would not want to suffer those consequences again and that we needed to also acknowledge his frustration even if we weren't sure he understood it. Then of course it was important for him to know that we loved him too.

Well that same night when we got home Draiman was angry and hit me. I did exactly what Dr. Solomon said to do. Draiman struggled fiercely and you could tell he hated it. He did not like having his hands held still like that for anything. I wasn't sure how well it was going to work but would you believe that was the end of hitting. It took one time and he pretty much completely stopped hitting. Now he will now again hit his brother when they get to fighting but it's rare and nothing like what it was before that day.

Autism Awareness Day 12

Autism Awareness Day 12 - Social skills or lack there of. A lot of children with Autism lack social skills. They do not easily pick up on social cues and they are not good at interpreting emotions and facial expressions. Both Gatlin and Draiman tended to ignore people around them in the past and still even now at times. So we try hard to work on getting them to say "Hi" and Bye" or other things like that.

At school when I pick Gatlin up I tell him to say "bye" and "see you later" to his teachers. I also say it to him when I leave or prompt him to say it when someone leaves our home. He's getting really good at saying the words but he doesn't always know to say them on his own without being prompted. Well yesterday we went to Best Buy and as we started to leave the store after checking out Gatlin suddenly yelled "Bye, see you!" It was the cutest thing and I was so proud of him for using his words and using them appropriately. We had not prompted him to say anything at that moment. He just amazes me every day.