By Mary Ellen Bogucki Often times you hear the terms high functioning, low functioning, mild, moderate or severe when people talk about the degrees of severity with Autism. We too, have heard these terms used when describing our daughter, Bree. Unfortunately, these terms can cause even more misunderstanding of the disorder, as people tend to form their own opinion of what they think the term means. There was a time, Bree had no meaningful speech […]
by: Colleen Berlingieri My son Geordi has a speech disorder that is annoying, heartbreaking and funny at the same time. My patience wears thin when I listen to him s-l-o-w-l-y work through what he is trying to say. Other times, my heart goes out to him as he struggles to express his feelings. But mostly he simply cracks me up with some of the stuff that comes out of his mouth. Slips of the Tongue […]
by Amanda Buck When someone learns for the first time that my 4-year-old daughter has a rare disease called cystinosis, their face will usually morph from happy and pleasant into one of concern and pity. While I appreciate their compassion and willingness to express their condolences, sometimes I find myself annoyed by their reaction. Particularly when they don’t know just how amazing she is. My little girl is full of spunk, laughter and courage and […]
by Tulika Prasad I stood in the middle of my son’s classroom , watching all his classmates confident and excited, dressed as their favorite people from history. There were scientists, Presidents, Baseball players, Civil rights activists and many more. They waited at their seats until one of the parents “activated” them for them to start their speech. I then looked at my son – sitting in the farthest corner of the room, completely oblivious of what […]
by Jim Turk Remember in the Empire Strikes Back when Luke decides to use his harpoon to tie up the legs of those evil walking robot things to slow them down? He didn’t “defeat” them but he DID save the rebel force. It was a real breakthrough. …And the other day I had one of my own. Now, I’m no Jedi Master (even though I sometimes think of myself as one – is that weird?), but […]
