“I’m ready,” said Matthew. He stood before me in a long sleeve plaid shirt, khaki pants and dress shoes. It was 103%. To top off the look, Matthew had cut his bangs too short and tried to hide the botch job with a semi-comb over. He had patches of toilet paper soaked in blood all…
Category Archives: Autism Spectrum
Summer…Grrrrr
Don’t you just want to scream when you hear parents say how much they LOVE summer? “It is so wonderful to have NO schedule for a change!” they say. Those of us with children with special needs know that life without a schedule is hellish. I’ve worked hard over the years to set up a…
Fathers
Today’s post is an excerpt from my book that highlights the fact that I have the best father in the whole world. THE INTERVIEW Matthew fussed in his infant seat while I struggled to put myself together. In the eight weeks since his birth, I polled my friends who had gone back to work after…
Teachers
This is the time of year that many of us stress out about teachers gifts. Guess what? What your child’s teacher would like the most (they might not even realize it until you give it to them) is a heart-felt thank you note, written the old fashioned way (on note paper-not in email form) along…
Setbacks
“Hey, Laura,” said Eric, Matthew’s primary care-giver at Camphill, California,”if it’s convenient for you, I might need a little vacation.” Since Eric is the second most patient person in the world (I’m number one) his request could only mean one thing. Matthew was having a setback that made him very hard to live with. Setbacks…
That trip to Idaho that got me on this whole “help Matthew find a girlfriend” campaign
A while back I told you that Matthew wanted to go to Spokane, Washington and Idaho. I never told you how the trip went. Here goes: As soon as our plane landed at the Spokane Airport, we picked up our rental car and started our journey, listening to Roy Orbison, the Beatles and Jimmy Buffett…
Facilitating friendships with the opposite sex-Step Two
When we left off last week, I was telling you how tired I was of telling Matthew that he will meet a nice girl “someday.” I developed a three step plan to help him. I’m aware that I will need to add many more steps along the way, but I thought it was best to…
Facilitating friendships with the opposite sex-Step One
I’ve grown tired of telling Matthew that he’ll meet a nice girl someday. I’ve decided to help him, and started by asking myself three questions: 1) What is the biggest obstacle that prevents Matthew from meeting girls? 2)What is the best way to help him with his socially awkward behavior so that he doesn’t scare…
Mother of Quadruplets, one with autism, tells her story.
I have made some of the greatest friends because of Matthew, and I have learned a lot from them. Robin Hausman Morris is one of those friends and she has a most unusual perspective, so unusual that I’ve been trying to convince her to write a book. Robin started her career as an actress in…
10 ways to celebrate autism awareness month
If you are the parent of a child with autism, you have no doubt been getting a lot of well meaning phone calls from family and friends today. “Hi, turn on CNN quick! They’re doing story on autism.” “Did you watch the Today Show today? There was a girl on with her mother. She was…