I have said many times that the best way to spread effective Autism Awareness is to share our personal experiences.  Those experiences can be both good and bad and they can also be different for each family. I thought I would try to get a better understanding of the community by asking you question.  What is the most difficult part of raising an Autistic child? I don't mean this in a degrading way.  We all love our kids but the reality is that life can be challenging.  I'm just wanting to better understand some of the challenges your family faces.

Elliott is having an emotional night.  He misses his friends from school and is anxious to get back.  The timing of this is pretty crappy considering.... Anyway,  we haven't told Elliott that he can't go back to his old school.  When he learns this he will be devastated.  We'll have to deal with that in the next few days. For right now I am simply trying to distract him for tonight.  Gavin is at Lizze's parents for the night and so Elliott and I are camping out in the living room.  So if a night of Netflix makes him feel better it's more then worth it.

Last week we received a welcome packet from the school we were hoping to keep Elliott in this year.  We were very excited to receive this as we were waiting all summer to get word. As you may recall Elliott was not allowed to return this year because he is on the Autism Spectrum.  When we finally were able to meet with person in charge of the school,  I thought we had worked everything out. I thought I had cleared things up. I thought I had explained that Autism is different for every child and that simply because Elliott has Aspergers doesn't mean he will have the same problems as Gavin or Emmett. However,  we received an email this afternoon stating that by trying to service a "gifted child" like…

Autism and the age gap I want to talk to you about something I personally struggle with on a daily basis. I guess that's kinda vague because, let's be honest, I struggle with quite a bit.  I'll be a bit more specific and focus on just one issue in particular. Let me start by asking you a question. Do you think that there can be a difference between a persons chronological age (think number of birthdays) and their emotional age? Anyone? If you said answered "yes" give yourself a shiny gold star because you are 100% correct. I refer to the difference between chronological and emotional age as the age gap. Many kids with Autism will present with this age gap as part of the developmental delay. The Lost and Tired family is no exception. For…

Emmett is absolutely captivated by fish.  He would spend all day watching them swim around the tank.  We don't have fish anymore but I feel like I should provide something for Emmett in this area.   Maybe with tax return this year I will set up a small aquarium for him and he can help me care for it.  I really think something like this would be good for him.  Watching fish has always been relaxing for me.  I have ever had had tropical fish for most of my life. The only reason I don't have one now is that I didn't want the responsibility as I already have my hands full.  I do believe it would be worth it if Emmett's fascination with fish can be fostered.  Kids in the…

Gavin and Emmett are both on the Autism Spectrum. Both are considered Autistic but have profoundly different symptoms. I think it's important that people see kids on the spectrum as individuals. It would would be irresponsible, not to mention inaccurate, to lump them all together. As special needs parents, Lizze and I have to focus in two VERY different directions in order to help Emmett and Gavin to reach their potential. Here's an example of how the same traits have very different symptoms. Language, speech and   communication in general, are typical struggles for kids on the spectrum. Gavin, for example, NEVER stops talking. As bad as it sounds, I wish sometimes he had a "mute" button. The other problem is that he talks so fast and it's already very difficult…

Gavin is still sick from the infusion. He is nauseous and cramped.  They warned us that this might happen as some people have these types of reactions and some don't.  Of course Gavin is one of the ones that will struggle with this.  Poor kid can't catch a break.