Welcome To Autismnotes!! Please introduce yourself!

[marybeth]

Hi!  I have visited the site before but am finally registering so let me introduce myself! My name is MaryBeth.  I am an Occupational Therapist and I work with lots of kiddos in the school system with ASD.  It is my passion to learn as possible, and sometimes I get to thinking I am doing pretty well.  Then life happens.  The other part of me is as a mother of 4.  I have 2 adult daughters (one married and in grad school to be an SLP) and one in her senior year of college to be a layout editor with a bach. in fine arts - graphic design.  Then my son, Jordan, 18 next month, is next and was diagnosed with Asperger's.  He is a great kid and participates in ROTC and swimming.  He can tell you anything you EVER want to know about the Yankees and swims in Special Olympics.  He plays golf and got his first part-time job this summer on a golf course (a dream come true) FREE GOLF!!!!!  We also have a 13 year old daughter, Rosie, who was diagnosed with ADHD in kindergarten and then given the primary diagnosis for school of Emotionally Disabled in third grade.  Despite wonderful therapists, hospitalizations, medications, and doing all we were told, things continued to get worse.  Just this past Monday, she completed testing at Riley Hospital Neuropsychology Dept. and was given the diagnosis of Asperger's!!  Boy, does she look different from our son!  Now we have to figure out how to get the school system to switch and accept the outside eval results and change her program.  EH techniques definitely do not work with AS kids!! Well, let's see.  That's pretty much my intro. I do want to mention that my husband, Bill, is my sidekick through all of this.  There ya have it!!!

[Tesseract]

My name also happens to be Eric, and I'm currently searching for a physician that might be able to diagnose whether I do, in fact have Asperger's or not.  This seems to be a bit of a challenge here in Milwaukee with the insurance I have. 

I had actually run across Aspergers' as a possible.... explanation... for how my mind works two years ago, but I wrote it off as just looking for an excuse.

Recently however, I heard an interview on the NPR show 'The Story'.  In it, the subject was talking about how some of his thought processes worked... It was eerily close to my own. He was 40 years old when he was diagnosed... So I figured that it might be something to help explain all the frustrations I was having from how my mind seemed to work.

I'm having trouble finding good info on how to cope with stuff like this as an Adult.  I'm worried that meds would cover up my 'real' personality or that I'd have to take sedatives to 'slow down' my brain just so I could learn stuff.  It's pretty scary.... 

[rexalldexall]

Jen and Eric,

     I attended the autism conference last week and wanted to thank you for coming out and giving a very informative talk.  I live in Phoenix and know that July may not be the most pleasant month to arrive.  The whole conference was very exciting to my wife and I as parents with two children on the spectrum.  We learned much information  that gave us hope to better our children's lives.  I attended several conferences over 3 days and really enjoyed your presentation.  After five minutes of your presentation I felt like we had been friends for 20 years. I have not had a chance to search the various websites yet but I will be shortly.  Again thanks for coming out to Phoenix.

[Jen]

Thanks so much for your post! We very much enjoyed our 'vacation' - we don't get to take too many of them. The kids loved the pool time and they enjoyed the exhibit hall alot too.
I'm glad you felt like family at our presentation- that's what we are, and that's the feeling we were hoping for, so your comments really mean alot. If there is anything we can do to support your family- let us know!! Keep posting- the people here are the BEST!!

Jen

[tprp4ever]

Hi!
My name is Tracy and I am a mom of four and currently a college student majoring in Family Studies. I have been given permission by Jen to post a request for help with an undergraduate research project I am working on. I need about 200 participants and am hopeful I will find some here.

Thank you so much!

Tracy

[wal537]

Hello my name is Julie and I am a mother of two girls, the oldest is on the spectrum.  She is 4 years old and we got her diagnosis a year and a half ago.  My youngest is 2 and is unaffected at this time.  I have so many concerns, fears, hopes, and questions.  I live in the Cincinnati area and would love to meet up with other moms who are on this journey.  I am a pediatric RN and still have some questions regarding her diagnosis.  In doing research it seems the "symptoms" of ASD also look like the symptoms for ADD, gifted children, and OCD in the preschool age.  While this question of diagnosis does not affect her treatment, she is making gains daily, it does affect future family planning given the genetic link assosiated with ASD.  Is anyone else out there with my same questions?

[Jen]

hi, Julia!
Welcome to AutismNotes! We live near Louisville, so not very far away. Our almost 16 year old son was dx'd w/ AS in 2nd grade and our 9 year old son was dx'd w/ autism at age two. Our 11 year old daughter is in the process of evals- there's a defintie learning difference that some of my Ph D friends think is also on the spectrum, so we're knee deep figuring that one out at the moment.
I agree that the 'symptoms' can be very confusing- and as I'm learning, even more so w/ girls. From what I'm learning right now, girls can look so 'normal' that the AS diagnosis can be very difficult to get- its being missed and misdiagnosed all over the place. Our family perspective is basically, the label matters less than having some idea HOW to help. My daughter is very aware of AS/HFA because of her brothers and she has asked questions about her evaluation. I have explained that i know she struggles w/ certain things and we are trying to find out how we can help her not struggle so much. That seems to satisfy her, for now.
As for your genetics and family planning question- all our kiddos were 'here' before we knew diagnosis wise anything, so it was never an issue for us. We felt strongly there were 4 kids 'out there' for our family, and that's what we have. Maybe someone else out there has more to say in that regard.
Anyway, welcome and please post away!
Jen

[mschlieder]

Hello,
My name is Mary Schlieder, mother of 3, and special educator who has worked with middle and high school students with Asperger Syndrome for the past 10 years.  One of my passions is sharing with schools strategies to create supportive communities so that these teenagers with social challenges have plenty of opportunities throughout the school day to interact with peers and teachers who accept them for who they are and positively engage them.  At my school we've implemented Circle of Friends, involvement in extracurricular activities, and staff learning teams to make this happen with amazing results.

 I've recently written a book published by AAPC, With Open Arms: Creating School Communities of Support for Socially Challenged Kids Using Circle of Friends, Extracurricular Activities, and Staff Learning Teams, and have a resource website: www.schoolswithopenarms.com.

If anyone has adolescents who struggle to fit in at school, are isolated, or even bullied, I'd be happy to share what has worked at my school.  I'd also love to hear your stories of how your schools provide support for your teenagers with social challenges.

Take care and best wishes for a great school year!
Mary Schlieder
www.schoolswithopenarms.com

[jbking]

Hi,
I've been lurking around this community for awhile, but just officially registered.  My name is Jason, and I have a four year old son on the spectrum.  We got the official diagnosis in March (When he was 3 1/2).  Life is good, and my son is making strides everyday.

I learned about Autism Notes by attending the site administrator's session at the ASA conference.  It was a very enjoyable and informative session.  I'm also interested in getting some references to other national online autism communities.  Does anyone have any recommendations?  Is there one main listserv or a few big online communities that I should check out?  I found a few geographically specific listservs but no online communities that have a (inter)national following.  Any feedback on this issue would be much appreciated.

Anyway, thanks to everyone who contributes their valuable perspectives to this site, and thanks to the administrators of the site for being willing to run such a valuable service!

[Jen]

Welcome, Jason!
We're glad you've joined us- and thank you for your kind words about our ASA session, Eric and I enjoyed doing that and meeting great people.
As for 'one main listserv'- no, there isn't one. You can look at someplace like Yahoogroups for specific as you want groups. They range from general autism to much more specific- I think I mentioned in our session that I joined a yahoogroups listserv that is for members of my religion, because I wanted to hear from people w/ my same basic belief system.
You'll find a pretty good mixture here- from professionals to parents, everyone's pretty helpful and willing to answer questions. We can use your experiences as well, so I hope you'll come back often!

Jen

[kunukia]

Hello.  I am a 56 year old female, self-diagnosed with Asperger's, as is my 31 year old son.  I am searching for some help getting a diagnosis.  I was tested in Milwaukee (Freoderdt) in June, full day test, with the result that I was too normal to be an aspie.  On the plus side I was happy to be also deemed NOT depressed, since whenever I have looked for help, I was told I must be depressed, often offered drugs.  So, having learned how to present well socially (before I run back to my solitude and get over the stress that all day interaction causes) I can get no help.
I am not depressed, however, I have always be under-employed, currently un-employed.  Since I can no longer work the kind of physical jobs that I could do and be alone, such as milking cows and can barely get up the courage to go to ask for help in any way, I am just screwed.  At this point my 85 year old mother is supporting me.  She also supported my extreme introversion and other oddities all my life.  No, I don't live with her.
I would like to work, even something like filing, which I have done before.  I have never worked to my 'potential', my day at the shrinks also found me to be highly intelligent.  I knew that.  No help there.  Honestly, if there were a way for a person such as myself to somehow reach out to other adult aspies, and offer understanding and help, I would love to do so.  Until someone sent me an article a few years ago, I had no clue why I was so different, and it gave me a great sense of relief.
Does anyone have any suggestion?  Maybe a job, hah!  Otherwise, it is back to playing WoW (with the internet connection that my nerdy son provides), and not thinking about the future.

[Jen]

Please forgive me for taking so long to welcome you. I have emailed some friends who deal more with adult issues and also an employment specialist to see if we can get you some assistance in your search. Please continue to hang with us and we'll see what we can come up with together.
We're glad you are here!
Jen

[kbrady]

hello! my name is Kelly and my husband Troy and I live in Ohio.  we have 2 children, 1 son who is on the spectrum and 1 daughter who is completely developing normally (or in comparison with a 12 year old).  anyway, our son finally got a diagnosis of high functioning autism just this February, after about 8 years of knowing something was wrong but not being able to get any help. he also has a co-existing anxiety d/o and possibly an obsessive-compulsive d/o, which I have for a long time thought was ADD.  He has come a long way but I have never reached out to look for support until recently.  I think after so long of us being told there wasn't too much wrong with him we just accepted it. so now that we finally are diagnosed, it's time to move forward.  i am really excited about being in an online parent chat and look forward to helping others and hopefully find help. thanks for what you're doing!     

[Admin]

Hey Kelly!

Great to have you here! You will notice that I am making some MAJOR renovations to the site, so please excuse the dust! We are glad you guys are here. Our kids are just a couple of years ahead of you! (They go by quickly!)

Please feel free to jump in the discussion, ask questions, or even contact Jen and I offline! We are glad to have you here!

Best regards;

Eric

[James]

Hello. My name is James Williams.

You might remember me from various conferences--the MAAP conference, the ASA conference, the ASW conference, or the recent NATTAP conference.

I am a young man with autism who lectures around the country on autism.

My website is www.jamesmw.com, where I have archived all of my presentations.