Be an Oyster for Autism!

Experiential Education / Service Dogs- how to train your own dog

thanks!

Biomedical Treatments / Hyperberic

I was told that we should try it for a longer time period... but it was quite a sacrafice to do it for a month very consistantly... maybe next summer if it works out.. Anybody else have good results?

New to Autism? / Introduce yourself

Tell us about yourself and your family.  Like they always say... you meet one kid with autism, you meet one kid with autism... :)  tell us about you and yours

Teaching Tools / bumble bee (language delays)

My son loves watching the bumble bee videos, unfortunately it did not benefit his speech at all. 

GFCF/Special Foods/Diet Information / Wild Health Food

I LOVE THIS WEBSITE!!  learn how to sprout beans (huge nutritional benefit to this) and lots of good, CHEAP, and delicious recipes!)

http://www.wildhealthfood.com/recipes

Why my child is a Blessing / Oh Man, gush

today quinn put on his swimsuit early in the morning and sat at the computer to look at pictures of himself on the beach. "mom beach!!"  yes little man, i know, i love the beach too....

Experiential Education / Service dogs - Amazing gift for my son

quinn has a dog at his dads, but it's not really his... he loves our parakeets (we now have 2).  yea... i think i'll look into getting quinn on the list for a therapy dog too..

Biomedical Treatments / bionic band

Reconnective healing... not sold on it either.  Didn't see any improvements.

New to Autism? / Steven's Law

Well, i've found out it's not really easy to get this thing to work for me. First of all, you'd think that my ex husband's big construction company who has Blue Cross/ Blue Shield insurance would be considered group insurance, right?  No, they said they were just managed by Blue Cross, and that they are private insurance.  Lots of phone calls later, we found out that my ex's  private insurance does not appy.

Guess it's one of those things that looks good on paper.

Hope you have better luck...

Books / The Only Boy in the World

This book is very good but it ruffled my feathers... it reminded me of my son Quinn in many ways, and it made me laugh at some of the perfect descriptions,  but i found many parts that were surly and sour. I'll say that the book is well written and is very ineresting, but wanting.

For instance, after explaining his son's autism to one man, and the man said, "Oh, bad luck", the author's thoughts were, "Is that it? I thought, and my bad luck a that, not Joes (son's)? I make no secret of my desire for meaning.  But there are risks in such wishful vanity.  One is the hideous peril of falling for Hollywood-grade pholosophizing about mental disability and the sloying redemption of films like I Am Sam, or Forrest Gump in which invariably sweet-natured simpletons are put on this earth to do the rest of us good. God wants it this way, it's implied. They're useful these people, like swill army knives for the soul. One has to resist the temptation to think that Joe's value lies in therapy for the rest of us, a gift to help us rise above the trivial gripes of our spoiled lives." 

I have to say that i disagree with this author's take ... "wishful vanity" is a desire for meaning? ouch. This is definitely a glass half empty sort of book.

But Micheal, after most of the book describing the difficult life of his son and his family, argues in the end that the contrast of his son's lack will show us what it is to be fully human.  My son, though very much like Joe,  does much more for me than that. I was disappointed that the author does not celebrate his son more. For me, this is a book that is perfectly well written, but that lacks a soul.