I must be an old timer, if the tune in my head today is Joni Mitchell’s Both Sides Now. But it’s the background music as I mull over the conversation I had with a friend at dinner last night. She’s a close friend, and she works as a special needs parapro at a local elementary school, doing an awesome job of handling some very challenging students.

She was telling me the story of a student who has returned to their classroom after moving for several months to another school district. The grapevine says that the other district kicked the child out for... more

“Wait and see,” the ______ said. (You can fill in the blank with teacher, doctor, therapist, adoption worker.) But regardless of who says it, it’s just plain wrong!

This point was driven home for me as I watched LuLu work through a computer-based program that tests her on some academic basics in math and language. LuLu is currently working slightly behind grade level in math, but further behind in language. In the last two years her language abilities, including speech, reading, auditory processing, etc., have been tested and retested. And regardless of who... more

Chediak-Higashi syndrome is a rare inherited genetic disorder that affects the immune system and many parts of the body. The disease damages the cells of the immune system, which leaves them unable effectively to fight off viruses and bacteria. Beginning with infancy or early childhood most people with Chediak-Higashi syndrome have repeated and persistent infections. Few people with this condition live to adulthood because the infections tend to be very serious or life-threatening. People with... more

Job syndrome is a relatively rare condition that affects the immune system and several other body systems. Those with this condition commonly struggle with recurrent infections. Job syndrome is characterized by frequent bouts of pneumonia, recurrent skin infections, and eczema. The skin infections cause rashes, blisters, abscesses, open sores, and scaling. Those affected also suffer from recurrent pus in the sinus, bone defects, and tooth defects which include fractures and late shedding of baby teeth. Job syndrome is also known as Hyperimmunoglobulin E... more

A fellow adoptive mom asked me this question this week. Her son has been diagnosed with ADHD, and has seen some improvements through medications and the removal of food coloring and casein from his diet. But she’s seeing signs that he’s struggling academically, and there are still many more “little” things going on.

Initially the professionals they were consulting dismissed the idea of the autism spectrum because her son has language, and very assertively uses it. She knows LuLu, and knows that we’ve had the diagnosis of PDD-NOS for several years. “He reminds... more

Meet Hannah. The picture in this online article is small, but Hannah’s face is blazoned on the top fold of the front page of the Atlanta Journal Constitution today with the headline “How Hannah Made History”. Hannah’s case is being dubbed the first autism-vaccine link case. What will happen next is anyone’s guess. I first blogged on the Federal court’s decision to pay Hannah’s parents out of the federal vaccine injury fund last week, having no idea that... more

The last time that LuLu went to speech therapy provided by the public school she was in kindergarten. (When I said that to this speech therapist today, she was truly blown away, and just kept asking “why did they stop?”) Now here we are six years later, and today we went for her first speech therapy session through the virtual academy. Even though she’s been enrolled since November, it has taken the school awhile locate and contract with private providers.

Now a gun-shy mom like myself, who has been extremely burned by public schools could have gotten a bit nervous... more

As I was looking for information on the “different” brain movement among some adults with autism, I came across yet another opinion about autism…that it is a disease. This definition implies more of a possibility of “curing” it than if autism is labeled a disorder.

Of course there are those out there who believe that autism is only a difference. But as LuLu grows and is better able to express herself, I’m not buying that she believes that she’s only different. The physical... more

I’ve blogged about Amanda Baggs before. Her YouTube video is legendary, and well worth the viewing, if you know anyone who has autism (and who doesn’t know someone at this point?)

But this article in Wired, The Truth about Autism: Scientists Reconsider What They Think They Know, brings up a whole slew of points and counterpoints. One of the main ones is that there is a movement out there to... more

“The dog is driving me crazy!” LuLu exclaimed during her grammar test last week. I was puzzled what she meant, since the dog was all the way across the room, chewing on her bone. But the sound of the dog’s teeth scraping across the bone was distracting to LuLu.

I’ve noticed, since being so attuned to LuLu’s sensitivity to noise, and the way she’s unable to stop her emotional escalation when noise is a trigger, that I, too, am irritated by noise.

As life goes on here, and Mom lives with many more stressors than I had a decade ago, I realize that noisy... more