Comments on: billiards, part two – the ride home

By: Megan

Megan — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 13:55:51 +0000

Speechless. Beautiful. Need tissues!

By: Tracy

Tracy — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 04:00:58 +0000

This is the second night in a row that I am up late, eating from the “crunchy shelf”, reading your blog, laughing, crying, and trying to pry myself away to bed. Blogged about you guys tonight. Thanks for being amazing!

By: Linda

Linda — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 02:27:53 +0000

And this is why I love your blog. You have a gift. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again.

P.S. There is an award for you on my blog.

By: Marci

Marci — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 20:24:23 +0000

As always you are so eloquent, so real, and so amazing. I know exactly how you felt on that ride home. Thank you for sharing with all of us.

By: Autismville

Autismville — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 20:04:32 +0000

Aunt Karen,

http://firstsigns.org is also a fantastic resource.

(sorry jess … i’m such a busybody…)

Beautiful, beautiful post.

By: drama mama

drama mama — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 14:41:43 +0000

Even the ugly guy in the bar has a purpose.

He makes everyone else look better.

And after enough drinks, he looks pretty good.

Trust me on this one.

By: jesswilson

jesswilson — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 13:55:58 +0000

Aunt Karen ~

The diagnostic process is not always (or usually) a quick one, but it sounds like your niece is taking the right steps to follow up on her concerns.

In our case, we began, as she did, by expressing our concerns to our pediatrician, who refered us to a speech therapist. It was the speech therapist who immediately recognized the signs that we had all been missing (and never knew to look for!). She sent us over to an autism clinic that is an offshoot of a local hospital. We were able to get in for an evaluation there while we waited for a full neuro-psych eval at our city’s Children’s Hospital. The waiting list for the eval at Children’s was ten months long, so it was a good thing that we had something else in the meantime.

From there, we found out what kind of services to seek and we were ultimately able to enroll our daughter in a supported preschool program that provided what she needed.

The initial diagnosis was confirmed by the team at Children’s nearly a year after we began the whole process. Ultimately, we found an independent neuropsych who we now work with who helps us to coordinate all of her services and to ensure that she’s getting what she needs from the school, etc.

http://www.autismspeaks.org/whatisit/learnsigns.php is a link to Autism Speaks ‘learn the signs’ that has a video along with a great deal of information that may be helpful.

Your daughter’s pediatrician should have some resources for her, but not all of them are on top of this. If not, I would suggest asking the OT for suggestions, as s/he is likely plugged into the community and would know who to contact.

If she still runs into a dead end, http://www.autism-society.org/site/PageServer?pagename=research_info and http://www.autismspeaks.org/community/resources/index.php?WT.svl=Top_Nav both offer listings of resources in your area.

I hope that’s helpful.

All the best to you, your neice and her little one!

By: rhemashope

rhemashope — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 02:15:12 +0000

What a precious gift.

By: Aunt Karen

Aunt Karen — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 01:29:03 +0000

I was wandering around in the Autism Site and found your blogg.
My niece’s little boy just turned 3 and I am worried that he may be Autistic. Can you tell me how you got a diagnosis for your daughter? My niece has asked her Pediatrician what he thinks that he does not talk much at all and has a lot of unusual reactions to foods, situations and people. He sent her to an OT who seems to be of some help. But doesn’t she need an official”dagnosis” to get the proper help? What should she do?

Thanks for any help you can give.
Concerned Auntie

By: Lydia

Lydia — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 20:40:54 +0000

I’m trying, really trying, to see your side of it… but reading this, I know exactly where Kendall is coming from.

There’s something about people needing to DO something to make it better. But really, what I need, is for certain people to just BE. That’s what’s important. Just be. Be you, be there, be ready. “But I’m not doing anything!”… yes, you’re doing everything.

I’m not saying that you did anything wrong. Not at all. I’m sure those feelings of not being able to do, when that’s exactly what you want is to do, are… frustrating, maybe? I hope you can feel less of that by knowing that the being, and you’re so good at that, is the most important.