New Books

I am creating a list of what I consider some excellent books about Autism and Aspergers.
You can find the list in the sidebar. I've had two books listed there for a while by my favorite author, William Stillman because he "GETS IT" and I'd like to add three more. All Cats have Aspergers is a funny book that you will enjoy. The Out of Sync Child goes into detail about sensory issues that many people on the spectrum have and last a new book by Mr. Stillman called, Empowered Autism Parenting. It's a good book filled with a ton of good information for anybody who knows and loves someone on the Autistic spectrum.
Please consider looking over these books.

Do you see the light? I do, and I don't like it. It's almost everywhere I look. The lights are florescent and I don't like them because they are so bright and they make a humming sound. You may not be able to hear them humming but I sure do, all day long. They are located in schools, stores, libraries, museums, bathrooms almost all public places, sometimes they are even in some homes.

It's tough to concentrate with the noise they make. It's tough to see when they are glaring at you. I have had trouble with these lights for years. I spend allot of time in school and school is full of them.

My teachers and parents have worked hard to make some accommodations for me so that I feel less distracted and more comfortable. Sometimes we have been able to turn off every other light on the ceiling. Other times, we are able to turn them out completely and use available light from outside. Still another way around this constant distraction is to replace them with the incandescent light bulb.

As students return to the classroom it might be a good idea to survey the room and find out how to accommodate the students so they can concentrate on their work.

Another School Year Has Started

With the new school year comes many new things, new schedules, different lunch time and certainly different teachers, different classrooms, different lockers and combinations, many new numbers that I need to remember. It's allot to think about and remember on just the first day of school. All this new information is a bit of OVERLOAD!

People on the Autistic spectrum have different methods to communicate, some scream, some cry, some flap their hands. One of my ways to communicate exactly how I feel is through drawing. In the beggining of the school year everyone is issued an agenda, it has plenty of space to doodle. I drew a cartoon of myself. It had three frames. The first frame was a picture of me with my head smoking. The second frame was the word, "BOOM" with explosion marks around the word. The final frame, there I was again, my head half blown off, it was on fire and smoking heavily. The word OVERLOAD hanging over my exploded head.

I felt like I was about ready to explode but I'm sure I looked perfectly normal to my classmates and teachers. On the inside, I smelled smoke-the fuse was lit-BOOM! I held it together, but I wasn't happy. I had to hold it together even on the long bus ride home, then, when I got home I had to sit on the floor. It takes me a long time to decompress. I know the teachers think that I am perfectly fine but in the inside I may be having an enormous meltdown. I need to feel safe before I can explode but sometimes people on the spectrum cannot hold it together. Sometimes they need to explode immediately, and this sometimes looks like tantrums, hand-flapping, screaming, crying, jumping up and down, and throwing things.

This is the same situation for not only school but for other things as well, like sports and games and grocery shopping and family outings.

It's important to be compassionate, we just need a little time, please be patient.

I'll talk more about this at a later date.

Blog Trouble- We all have it sometimes

I had a password malfunction and I was unable to log in, but now I have fixed the problem, I will be back to blogging.