Autism and Adam

As April is quickly approaching I sit here thinking of my son and how amazing he is.... funny, great personality, smart, loves electronics, extremely good at legos and putting anything together, and he has autism.  

April is autism awareness month, I actually live it 24/7.  I continually learn about him and autism every day.   I'm proud of how far he's come since that little boy, who couldn't speak and had meltdowns as a way to communicate and release stress.  We work daily on communication and life skills.  I remember sitting for hours playing what I called the one item said three ways.   I'd hold or point to an item and say it three something about it three ways and then have him repeat the word.

Example:  a yellow ball

I'd say this is a ball, this is a yellow ball, this ball is round, say ball

and most of the time I could get him to say the word

I'd write each word he'd say down each day.  I have pages of hundreds of words and a few tears on them.

Some of my family would come over and play the game with him.  It got so everyone was talking this way in our home.  It helped so much and Adam slowly began talking more and more.  I'd just sit and talk and talk to him for no rhyme or reason just for him to hear me talk.  I'd sit and read for hours or play movies of books on the TV.  He started repeating the entire book word for word.  This is when we learned he had echolalia.  

He talks nonstop now and I LOVE it!!  I love talking with him and hearing him tell me stories and just communicating.   He loves talking about animals, science, history, and telling about all the books he loves reading.  He is a huge book lover.  He has eight book shelves plum full of books and still can find more books he needs.

I honestly believe homeschooling was the best thing I've done for him.  He didn't start talking until we began homeschooling and he's grown so much.  He LOVES homeschooling and tells me how thankful he is we school together.  That we take time to really go over the subject and we're able to pick subjects he wants to learn about each year.

I'm so thankful for my little boy, he's love, and everything he's taught me.

It you get the opportunity to spread awareness and teach others about how amazing kids with autism are, please do!!  AWARENESS is extremely important and so easy to do.

Thank you for taking the time to read my thoughts on my favorite little guy.

Robyn

Simply Delightful in second grade

Adams first day of school!

My pet peeve on "the autistic kid"

I have been reading some blogs about autism today.  All of the blogs were interesting and  informative with good ideas.  But my biggest pet peeve is someone saying "the autistic kid"   - come on, are you seriously going to use that label????   I have a child with autism and he is just that - a child with autism.  Not the autistic child.

For those of you reading this and not understanding what the differences is - here are a couple examples:

1. the diabetes kid                  or a child with diabetes
2. the cancer kid                    or a child with cancer
3. the heart problem kid        or a child with a heart problem

Now do you see what I am trying to say?

The health,  mental, social, physical challenges/problems with children should not be the definition of a child.  When I think of Adam - there are hundreds of characteristics that come to mind before autism.  And I hope all of the people in his life feel the same way about him. 

Well this ends my little soap box rant.  I'm off to put Legos together with ADAM.

Our family rules

I just finished making this poster for our family rules.  I put it in the kitchen, so it will be seen the most.  It was there or the bathroom haha!  Adam has finally started repeating swear words!! Grrrr his teachers are not going to like this, especially since the worst one is his favorite.  We have been hanging with a lot of people who swear, he's heard it on the computer and TV and from family.  I'm hoping we can cut down the rude words before August 28th when school starts!!! fingers crossed.

Adam and me

I love this picture of us - he makes me smile everyday!!!

Homemade tree ornaments

Adam and I made homemade tree ornaments for all his teachers, aides and office staff! Everyone loved them and they were so easy to make!

Adam loving his trampoline!

Adam just loves this trampoline we got him for Christmas!!! What a great sensory tool!

Adam and his aunt Manda

Adam with his cousins

Adam hanging with his cousins tonight!!!!  They had the best time! I am so thankful my sister watched him tonight, so Matt and I could go out together. 

Walk for autism

We are going to do the walk for autism next month and I am so excited about it!!  We are walking for the Autism Society. 
www.nwpa-asa.org/walk-registration.aspx   They are an awesome organization and we are hoping our family is able to learn more about autism and Adam!!

 

busy day of fun!

Today was full of adventure.  My husband made me shelves to put up in my bedroom for my office area.  And I love it!!!  I am so busy organizing and putting things in there new place, I am excited :) 

Then this evening we went to my sister in laws house for a cookout and Adam found another kid to hang with and had fun the whole night.  I love seeing him happy and enjoying life.  He is such a wonderful child and full of surprises.  He is a joy to have and I thank God every day for letting me be Adam's mom!

Having fun with Adam

This week we have been watching Winnie the Pooh and doing crafts about all the characters.  We've made paper bag puppets for all of them, except rabbit and piglet.  But we will be making them tomorrow :)

Adam has been having a blast making them and it is fun watching him getting excited.   He has always hated coloring and crafts, but this week that's all he wants to do!!!

Here is the link to go and see the end resolves:

http://adamschoolyears.blogspot.com/  This is my blog about my son.

I hope he continues to love crafting with his momma!!

Hello to all!!

What a beautiful day today has been! There is lots of snow outside but that's okay we stayed in to play. We have been busy too, I will post pictures later. I have taken Adam out of preschool and would like to do preschool learning at home with him the rest of the year. I am wondering if there is any type of homeschooling for preschoolers????? If anyone knows please help :) I am excited to spend this time with him and have cut my hours at work to be home more.

Thanks :)
Have a wonderful day!!
Robyn

If you homeschool please help me deside????

I have my son in preschool at the moment and my sister is his teacher.  They have always been like oil and water.  But she promised that she would help him and that he would do great in her class.  Well, he has my stubborn streak in him and isn't the best listener.  So how they tell him 2 times what they want him to do and then take him by the arm there and make him do it.  Or grab his hands and make him pick up whatever they are asking him to pick up.  I am not to sure of the force or the tone of their voices, but he is now hitting them.  He has never done this in school before.  He went last year and all through the summer, then started the year out good.  Now this is happening everyday this week and I am getting texts from my sister that they aren't doing anything differently.  It just wierd that he would hit without a reason.  And she let me know that she is recommending he be tested and labeling him a behavioral problem child.  WHAT????  I kept him home today and he and I hung out.  We did arts and crafts, computer work on brainpop (which he loves) and made lunch and brownies together.  I didn't have much of a problem getting him to do whatever asked.

She also asked if I would pick him up at 1:00 from now on because at 1:15 they lay down for naptime and he doesn't nap and wants to play and read.  So he will miss naptime, snack time and free time.  Free time is his favorite time of the whole day.

I do not know what to do.  I have been looking up home schooling and cyber schools and I am at a loss and would love advise from you all.

Check out my new blog!

Please check out and follow my new blog.  It is about my son going through preschool and lots of different learning ideas.  I have just started it, but I have lots of great ideas and think it will be fun to do.  It is called "It's all about ADAM!"  Click here to check it out!! and let me know what you think about it!!

Thanks,
Robyn

What a night ~ momma's not sharing her pillow with the dog!

Last night my son came into my room and said he was scaried, so I let him lay down in the bed. The next thing I hear is "Stewie, come on Stewie" Adam invited the dog to lay down too! Okay, I'm tire so whatever, they can both lay there as long as Adam goes to sleep. Then I feel a tug on my pillow. I asked Adam, "Why are you trying to take my pillow?, lay your head on dad's pillow." He says, "Come on, my pillow" I said again, "No, use dad's pillow." Adam then said, "Stewie needs a pillow." Oh no, I am not going without a pillow so the dog can have one! I hold on tight to my pillow and tell Adam that he needs to share his pillow with Stewie. In about 15 minutes they are both sleeping, laying there heads on the pillow. It was so cute!