A Look into Nick's World...and Ours...

There is really no other way to describe exactly how Nick's autism is. You just have to see it for yourself. This is what happens daily in our house. Thanks to Risperidone, you won't see the OTHER side of Nick that was known to happen a few months ago. This is the more 'controllable' Nick...although I can use that term a little LOOSELY, because his behaviors are not really screaming 'controllable'. We have therapists at our house five-six days a week working with him. For three hours after school. Bascially, he goes to six hours of school-gets home at 3pm. At 3:30 he starts working with either Tracy, Scott, or Stephanie...depending on the day. He also gets Hippotherapy, Speech therapy, and Occupational therapy. This is the reality of his disability. People think he is a normal six year old because of his outward appearance. Then he starts to do some of his vocal stims in public. Or he runs away to slam doors, opens gas tanks on cars, hits things..etc. Then they assume it is just a "discipline problem" and that they know how to "fix" it. They stare. This is autism. Please, if you see a kid like this in a store or another place, be nice. Be understanding. Do NOT presume that the kid you see is "normal". This is a side of autism that is not shown on any talk show, and does not come with those success stories about 'recovery'.

Our Newest Project...

This is what we have been working on for the last couple of weeks. It took a while to figure out the program and exactly what we could do with it. My computer kept freezing up everytime we would come close to finishing it, which was very frustrating. However, now that we have the trial version complete, we wanted to see what others would think. Nick watched it tonight after it was complete, and he loved it. He was repeating quite a few of the words. He knows most of the items already, but now we have added the words to what he likes as well as my voice saying the letters and words. Things like Sesame Street or even some of the other videos we have for autie kids were just too confusing for him. Nick does not get much out of characters, and even simple story lines are lost on him. So, we made our own. And will continue to do so because he really did enjoy it. Let me know if you all like it...