This is Carly http://youtu.be/xMBzJleeOno - pressumed to be retarded (please excuse the word) and on the other end of the spectrum - this is Jacob - (after watching this video a few times I noticed his head nodding, I think he uses that to stim and he seems to echo quietly if you look at his lips, he also does little looking at his mother) http://youtu.be/g91IQsS2spA

As I hope you can see both are amazingly intelligent people. For Carly to get to a laptop and type, it took her a while to work out how to communicate with us but ultimately she did what the therapists around her did not. Since she has written books and is going to mainstream school and is starting to make sounds. I can't believe in this day and age after they have worked out that Stephen Hawking http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Hawking ( The thought was to give Stephen Hawking his voice back to see if there was some cognitive function there because he was such a brilliant mind. They were all pretty astounded when they found his cognitive function still sound.) is still amazingly bright that they can't work out that special needs does not equal slow cognitively, therefore with out very little assumptions there is the entire spectrum of iq in the special needs community. -----Sorry this is my pet hate and the sooner people understand this concept the better it will be for people with special needs, at the moment they almost may as well live in the dark ages being stuck being treated like they are not intelligence when they are is like torture.



The lady who has helped so many autistic people's lives. "Different not less"










That movie gave me so much hope as a mum. If a more severe autistic person could live and be independent so could my son. She has been an absolute inspiration.

I am sick to my stomach of poor parents basically either being told that their child is either too intelligent to be ASD or the other side that because their child is severely ASD that they have a very low cognitive child.

Regarding Autism -

I like looking at how far they have come to helping children with cleft lips and palates. Did you know that they used to think that someone born with a cleft palate was going to be retarded. Since they have started fixing the palate and lip early and they do early intervention no one thinks that a child who has a cleft lip is destined to have a problem learning and talking. How amazing is that? "Cleft may cause problems with feeding, ear disease, speech and socialization."
"Most children who have their clefts repaired early enough are able to have a happy youth and social life.[citation needed] Having a cleft palate/lip does not inevitably lead to a psychosocial problem"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleft_lip_and_palate

There are many autistic people out there who have no problem being and working in the community too  Wouldn't it be great if all parents could see the signs, get early intervention and watch our kids flourish. It might not help all kids on the spectrum, but even if it helped 10% more than now. Wouldn't that be amazing?

he (Mr 2 yrs 8 months) wrote the "Too" after I had wrote the "I love you" ... he put TT up first, walked away for a minute deleted that and added the Too.

Hyperlexia

"Hyperlexic children are often fascinated by letters or numbers. They are extremely good at decoding language and thus often become very early readers. Some hyperlexic children learn to spell long words (such as elephant) before they are two years old and learn to read whole sentences before they turn three." fromhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperlexia

It is great to know that it is actually recognised by mainstream medical profession since even our TV channels can't do any real study on what they report, Cementing people's thoughts that "pushy parents" is actually the real diagnosis.
https://www.wisconsinmedicalsociety.org/professional/savant-syndrome/resources/articles/hyperlexia-reading-precociousness-or-savant-skill/

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/01/040108080212.htm

http://connects.catalyst.harvard.edu/Profiles/display/930329

I have just had a bit of a brain storm on Autism - If anyone wants to read it.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1is7tHB4lcEXUYV1ZzTCV_tY0POdBJ2anW9UTlvWZXLA/edit?usp=sharing

Back seat blogger

My blog has most definitely taken a back seat to being a mother.
I have been logging lots regarding my autistic son (and yes I know others prefer to say the other way round, son with autism, I would not say "my child with malism" and I believe that it is a big part of who he is and who he is I love in his entirety).
My log is just rambling that I can reference later or if we are lucky enough to have another baby who may also have autism I can go back over the log.
I am doing this because the only thing that the medical profession can be certain about is that autistic people use different areas of the brain than us, so that leaves tons and tons of unanswered questions for us parents.

We have also have been foster parents to a darling little chap since late May 2013.