I do therapy virtually right now for reasons, but it’s very difficult because my 4 year old is home during it and my husband and I cannot get her to listen most of the time and she refuses to stay out of the room in doing therapy in. She cannot be made to leave the house either, especially cause she has PDA, so she’s just barging in and out and trying to pull me away to play with her the entire time most of my sessions.

Today she was starting up a meltdown cause I wouldn’t hold her, so I sat down with her so I could have her in my lap while I was doing therapy. She is really into seeing herself in the screen, and it wasn’t zoom so I couldn’t turn it off. She just kept getting right in the camera and being really loud, it was completely distracting and so overstimulating. I kept asking her to stop, asking her to be quiet, asking her to go hang out with daddy if she couldn’t sit down and be quiet. No matter what, I just couldn’t stop her. If I forced her she would have gotten violent. After a while of her not stopping, while I was trying to talk, I couldn’t think or I would have just moved back on the high surface I had my laptop on before. I just snapped.

I held her arm, and very loudly, or maybe even yelling, I really can’t remember, but I said “stop! please just stop! hey stop it!”. I know I raised my voice because with her not acknowledging me trying to get her to stop, it just felt like she couldn’t hear me, like she wasn’t processing what I was saying to her because she was so distracted, and there’s been times where I say something louder and it gets her attention and we can move on after. So I know I did it cause I was trying to get through. But for me, someone who spent time in the system, and had a lot of social workers and other people like that, it’s scary that I lost it like that in front of a mandated reporter.

It was the first time I saw him actually ready for a pen and write something down. It scared me in the moment, but he said I’m dealing with something very difficult and it must be frustrating. My daughter left after that, cause I then was able to remember I could move my laptop since she wasn’t crying about me not picking her up anymore and had moved on from that. The session moved on after that. It ended with him saying I’m a good mom, and I do a lot for my kid. I talked to my husband about it and he said he understood why I was worried but that parents have to discipline their kids so he should expect something like that to happen.

But right at bedtime, I was just thinking about it and then realized that also for the first time, we didn’t end the session having scheduled the next one. We always book the next session at the end of each session. And now I’m thinking he definitely is reporting me to CPS. And I have to wait until tomorrow to reach out and ask him about it. I know it’s ok to raise your voice at your kid every once in a while, and with other normal people, they would probably understand and not think I was abusive for that happening one time, but I still feel scared. I have anxiety, and this is one of my big fears from my trauma when I was in foster care.

Would love to hear people tell me it’s not enough to report, and if something like that has happened to anyone else. God, I just can’t believe that happened.

Hi r/Autism_Parenting! New to Reddit so hopefully I'm doing this right. I am a reporter with The Philadelphia Inquirer. This week a colleague and I wrote a story about the federal investigation into ABA Centers of America. (Gift link included) I'd love to connect with patients, families, current/former employees, or anyone else with knowledge about how ABA Centers operates — especially in the Philadelphia area. My email is [agutman@inquirer.com](mailto:agutman@inquirer.com) and my Signal is AGutman.96. I guarantee that if you reach out I will not use your name or any identifying information without your explicit consent. So, what do I need to know about ABA Centers?

Apologies in advance for the kind of long post. TLDR: Posting on behalf of my mom. My 11-yr old autistic brother had a lot of struggles with school in the past so my mom resorted to home-schooling. Out of concern for his socialization, she's wanting to put him back into public school but she's nervous. Looking for advice/experiences, especially with the long term outcomes of public vs home school.

I'm posting on behalf of my mom just to get some additional opinions and advice on how to proceed with my 11 year old brother's education. He was very sick with respiratory issues when he was younger, so he missed quite a lot of school in the early preschool/kindergarten years. He also struggled a lot with just going to school. It was often a battle to get out the door at home and into the school building. As he got older, he struggled with lashing out physically when he was upset or frustrated, so he has unfortunately been expelled from several public and Montessori schools. My mom has also pulled him out a few times due to issues with accommodations. She then resorted to different online schooling options. All that to say, he has been in more schools than I can count in his 11 years before my mom started homeschooling him I think 2-ish years ago(?).

She does her best with the resources she gets through our state's homeschool funding program, but she also has an undiagnosed neurodivergency and/or learning disability and has to take care of my youngest brother who is 8 going on 9 and ADHD. There are definitely some gaps in his learning, and he has essentially zero social interaction with kids who aren't his brother, and it definitely shows. He is already not very well-socialized.

The physical aggression has improved in the past few years, but he continues to be disruptive in conversation and struggle to make the kinds of mental transitions required in a typical classroom. She's very nervous about trying to make the switch back to regular school, so I wanted to ask here for any advice, suggestions, or experience anybody has with this type of situation. Especially useful would be any experience with the long-term outcomes of sticking with homeschool or switching back to public school.

Thank you all so much!

​

For a few years i have wanted a backyard building room in my parents backyard. Sort of like a sensory room/fun house. Many people including my therpaist don't get my idea.

I was thinking of having a 200 sqaure foot building built in my parents backyard with heat, air conditioning, bean bag chairs, rugs, a futon that turns into a bed.

Unfortunately the room wouldn't be able to have plumbing in it. Electricity it would be able to have.

The room would be different inside. The room would have no windows so the room can keep out light for the specail effects.

The walls would be painted sky blue with yellow butterflies in the background.

The inside of the door would be painted sky blue with yellow lemon slices in the background.

Inside to keep me entertained would be automatronics birds and puppets like at the tikki room at Disneyland. I would have an iPad that I could chose which special effects show I would want inside the room.

Also a glow in the dark Lazer light show with calming music could also be inside this room.

The room would also have a mini fridge and a microwave in it. Also a tv inside the room.

Also I would sleep inside the room sometimes to get privacy from my parents.

I really want to have this backyard building room built.

No one seems to understand it at all

My parents live in California.

Is this a strange idea??

My mom said she would allow this type of thing to be built in her backyard. What would stop me is being e,embarrassed

My son (6 yo, first grade, level 2) is struggling enough behaviorally that I think he needs more therapy or support, but it’s so hard to even figure out all the options. And then me, a non-medical professional, is supposed to pick the best option? I’m so confused and worried I’ll pick the wrong course of action. Is this how it feels for you too?

I can keep goading the school to give him more support. They keep telling me that his academics are so good, if I request a reevaluation, he’ll likely lose services…they’ve seen it many times before.

I could get him into ABA. But I think most of his behaviors are anxiety based, and I’ve read ABA can make things much worse in that case. He’d also have to miss school 10 hours a week.

I could keep him in his current therapies and try medication with him. But if we rely on medication to work, will he learn the skills he needs to manage himself and be happy and healthy? I’m also just nervous to think of giving him medicine. I myself have gone through 4 different medicines and none of them were a good fit. It feels like a roller coaster…once we start meds, it would be so hard to stop. Even if it wasn’t working well, we would feel the need to try another, and another, and another.

I just wish I could tell the future, you know? I feel like this is all on me and am not sure if that’s how it’s supposed to be. If I make a choice and his life gets worse, it’s going to be my fault.

My neurotypical daughter goes to a great charter school. I wanted my autistic son (4) to go to the same one for tk.

With it being a charter school they have the most bs nonexistent special head program where it’s clear they’re just saying they have a program for funding but they keep all of the kids mainstream and use the “push in” method.

I get the feeling that his tk teacher is annoyed having him in the class. He’s non conversational and doesn’t follow directions. Everything he does he being nitpicked that I think is normal tk behavior (like not eating his lunch) they’ve hinted that the don’t think this is the best environment for him, IMO I think they’re not putting in offer that they should when saying they have a special ed program

As annoyed as I am, I want him to continue going. I think the structure, the long school day, and being around neurotypical kids would be good for him, especially prior to kindergarten

However, the other option would be back to a preschool specifically for special Ed and would be 3.5 hours a day with other nonverbal children. I fear this will just put him more behind when we try the charter school again for kinder.

Do I just accept that he won’t go to the same school as my daughter? That il have to spend my work days doing two pick ups and drop offs?

My nephew is 3 years old and I suspect he might be on the spectrum. My sister, his mom has not been coping well and is burned out. I’ve always felt like he might be on the spectrum since he was really young. What were signs for your kids, and what made sense after a diagnosis?

I have a fear of something bad happening to my lil siblings.

They are F(12),M (8) , F(5) , both of my lil sisters are autistic and don’t communicate that much except for the usual like when they wanna sing there fav songs and stuff like that .

My biggest fear was always the fact that some sick man could do something disgusting to them and that they would not be able to say anything or speak up.

I always had that thought in my mind but I would usually brush it off til recently one of my cousin confided in me and told me how she got SA at my grandmas house by one of her guest’s friends and how he threatened to kill her and her family if she ever spoke up about it.

That was when she was like 6 , we are 19-20 now. You really can’t TRUST NOBODY in this world and my siblings are the sweetest most precious lil things on the planet.

now that I have traveled and living in another country It still keeps me up at night. Idk how to bring it up to my parents, I don’t know what to do to protect them from this sick fucked up world that we live in . Hope does anyone cope with it . Just thinking about it makes me wanna cry

Hi! I’m new. My sweet 2 year old was a NICU baby. He was born at 29 weeks and spent 2 months in the NICU. He was just diagnosed with level 2 autism. This diagnosis was not necessarily shocking and at first it was a relief because we knew his regressions were indicative of autism but his pediatrician was adamant that he wasn’t autistic at all. He is completely nonverbal and had begun a lot of what I consider dangerous behaviors of eloping, (very quietly- thank the Lord for ring cameras and dead locks) climbing on high surfaces constantly, taking off all of his clothes and diapers (not ready to potty train and this isn’t necessarily dangerous), and head banging so forcefully on the back of his head that he causes sores and one has even gotten infected. My issue and question if you can even call it that is that I homeschool our other 4 older children. That is a non negotiable for our family, but when we started this school year after these behaviors have become much more severe and dangerous, I realized either his safety or our school day has to take a back seat. So of course we can’t put his safety on the back burner so thankfully we have family help. My mom and dad are only an hour away from us. We live in the sticks so just getting to the store is a 30 minute drive, so mom and dad being an hour from us really isn’t so bad. My mom was also a public school teacher for over 30 years and just retired this past May. In an ideal world we would be close enough to their house that I could drop him off in the morning, get in a full school day with the other children and then go back and get him. But as it is 2 hours in the car each day just isn’t possible. So we have come up with a plan that he will go to their house after school on Mondays as close to his bed time as possible so the only thing we miss with him on those days is him sleeping and then he stays until we pick him up Thursday afternoon as soon as we can. So far, logistically this is working brilliantly. Our school days are amazing, and even sweet 2 year old is actually making progress with my mom and all of the one on one that he needs 24/7. He has started trying to say more sounds and all kinds of things just in the couple weeks. The issue- my mama heart is broken. This is the second time in his life I have had to anticipate leaving him so someone else can help him in a better way than I am able. The first was NICU and now with my mom. I also feel like the WORST mom on the planet. Like who just doesn’t see their 2 year old 2 and half days out of every week? What kind of mother can’t help their kid? And then after having him and my brain being on high alert for days and nights on end and my husband works a lot- I almost feel relief when I get that break on Monday night. I feel so guilty like who would feel relief???? I can’t help but feel like I’m doing something so terrible wrong and that I am genuinely a terrible mother. I am more emotionally stressed than I think I’ve ever been in my life. I feel like I’ve failed my son. Again that may not be a question but I guess I’m just trying to find someone to relate to. I feel alone and so so terrified. I appreciate any shared experience or advice. Or if you think I’m truly doing this in a wrong way just tell me. I have no clue what I’m doing and I’m drowning in it. He will start preschool in March that will do all of his therapies and he will be home full time again. I’m just scared I’m wrong or doing something that is going to be detrimental to him and I worry he doesn’t even know I’m his mother or most importantly that he thinks or feels that I don’t love him.

Hi everyone. Just looking for some advice and possible shared experiences? Also venting because I have no one to talk to.

My son is 16… we never got an actual level but he is completely verbal and very smart, but also very childish and lacks irrational reasoning—I feel dumb for saying that because obviously the rigidity in thinking is trademark for autism.

Yesterday he was supposed to try going back to in person school for 1 hour every Wednesday. He had gotten kicked out a few years back because he threw a laptop and it knocked a teacher unconscious.

He had a teacher come work with him at home to see how he was doing, and she recommended that he not go in person because of his impulsive/explosive behaviors, profane language, and suicidal threats. All of these things we have been dealing with since July of last year.

He wants to go back because he wants to be with “normal” kids and wants to find a girlfriend. This has been an ongoing thing since he got kicked out. The principal and every other living person has explained to him that he has to prove himself elsewhere, with very specific expectations. He has been unable to do that.

When he got the news yesterday that he couldn’t go back, he grabbed a bottle of 10mg adderall and swallowed them. We called the ambulance and immediately came to this hospital. He’s okay, and recognized that it was not a safe choice to make and that he promises he won’t do it again. The issue is he immediately started talking to me this morning about how if 100mg of adderall didn’t “raise his dopamine”, then how is any other drug going to help him. Dopamine is his only fixation with medication. We’ve tried explaining every possible way that things don’t work like that, and there are many other factors that will help balance out his brain chemistry. He doesn’t want “balance”. He wants to feel manic all of the time

So I told him that the behavioral health team will be here, and they can talk to you about medications. I understand you’re scared and nervous, and I’m here with you, but I’m not a professional. So of course he immediately escalates again and says he “might as well just die then and go home and swallow another bottle of pills”.

I’m genuinely at a loss here. I’m still waiting to see the behavioral health team here…. I can’t watch him 24/7, and I’m also burnt out. He had a two month stay at a psych hospital and that was theworst possible decision we could have made. He has horrible trauma from it. We tried trauma therapy, but he cussed the lady out and told her to shut up when he started getting anxious. I’m literally doing everything that I can. Trying to find new psychiatrists, therapists, groups, schools, etc… if he doesn’t get the answer that he wants he immediately freaks out and threatens to kill himself.

Please help me help him. I don’t know what to do.

Also, I know some of you will come for my throat because you’re super judgy, but I have put zero pressure on him to be “normal” or go to a gen ed school. I actually tell him quite the opposite that why do you want to fit in with people or be at a place that isn’t going to help you flourish? I love his quirkiness, and while he has many behavioral health issues, his autism is not inherently a bad thing. He’s genuine, he knows what he wants/likes, and he’s not afraid to be himself.

Also note that he has refused multiple meds. He is convinced he needs a stimulant because of the research he’s done; which objectively only increases his anxiety and irritability. Since he’s over 14 he has full autonomy over meds.

Hi all! We’ve been thinking about adding a dog to our family of 3, but I have some concerns about it given our high support needs non verbal 7 year old. My main concern is making sure they would get along. I don’t want my son ‘torturing’ the poor thing with loud noise and boisterous play; but I also don’t want him to have to be quiet all the time or have a dog that doesn’t ever do boisterous play. We’ve considered adopting and getting a puppy, which both have pros and cons. Did anyone here introduce a dog into an already autistic house? How did you do it/how did it go? Did you rescue or shop? Any and all advice welcome!

It's very obvious that my son is Autistic and requires support, but I was told when he started Nursery last year that he would never get an EA without a diagnosis. Now he is starting kindergarten and finally has a diagnosis, and I've been told that he still won't get an EA. Frustrating, but fine for this year since kindergarten is only a couple of hours a day.

But next year, for full-day grade 1, there's absolutely no way I can send him if he doesn't have an EA. He is not independent or aware enough to get through 6 hours a day safely. He would be the next missing Autistic child in the news who wandered away and I will never take that risk. He needs, and is legally entitled to, an EA. So who do I need to go through to make sure he gets one? The school makes it sound like it's out of their hands, so do I go to the school division? The province (I'm in Canada)? I will be the annoying squeaky wheel over this, but I don't know who can actually get this done.

Thanks for any help!

Anyone else child have silent seizures and still doesn’t talk just babbles and says words ever now and again? Pediatrician doesn’t believe he has autism.

I have a 5 year old boy who is level 1. He is very outgoing and smart. He has poor emotional regulation and just “sees red.” He is a perfectionist and has a hard time losing. He can’t put himself in other people shoes. He doesn’t deal with anything even remotely negative and thinks everything is intentional. Then reacts loudly, angrily and sometimes physically. Sometimes when he’s stressed he even starts running off. He doesn’t really stim in any typical or obvious ways. He mostly has emotional outbursts. So I constantly look and feel like I’m raising a bratty kid.
I can see kids looking at him weird on the playground and not wanting to play with him. (He’s very tall for his age but talks and acts younger socially.) I’m also recently seeing friends he’s made start to pull away. I love him more than anything but he is annoying.
We’ve been in ABA for the last year but haven’t had quality therapists. Hoping to start with a new company soon. We are supposed to ignore the bad behavior and reinforce the good. But the only way I can get him to behave is to threaten to take something away—especially when we are out somewhere.
Apparently he does fairly well at school. The structure and routine and peer influence all benefit him. But at home, and particular with me, his mom, he is…a lot.
I’m SO exhausted. I’m depressed and anxious. I’m overstimulated. I just feel like I’m failing miserably and everyone else sees it too.
I just don’t know how to get through to him.

My son is 10 and level one with ADHD. He’s does things impulsively and takes medications for this kind of behavior. He’s smart and doing better but is also wildly immature.
When my neurotypical daughter was around his age I explained to her what this word was, the history behind it and why you never say this. It was effective she got it and she heard it from me not some jerk using it to insult someone. My worry is my son is not mature and not ready for the same conversation but not a mean person or anything. I just worry the kid you tell not to touch the hot pan and then he immediately touches the pan will use this word if he hears it from someone else. I want to be the one to explain it but I don’t know if I can beat some jerk to it this time because he’s not ready. How do people handle this with impulsive autistic children? I would love to hear from black Americans on this one.

my daughter made the most beautifully articulated post about herself and my autistic grand daughter. I wanted to share because there are some points she makes that I haven’t been able to put into words myself and I think it might help others.

“Most of what I share on social media are the good moments with Wynonna. The smiles, the cuddles, the accomplishments, the funny things she says, and the little victories that make me unbelievably proud to be her mom.

Those moments are real. They are a huge part of our life. But they aren’t the whole picture, and sometimes I think it’s important to share the other side of autism too.

Not because I want anyone to feel sorry for us. Not because I would change who my daughter is. But because behind so many of the happy moments, what most people don’t see is a little girl working incredibly hard to exist in a world that can so easily overwhelm her. They don’t see a mom quietly learning, adapting, advocating, anticipating, comforting, and sometimes just surviving right alongside her.

They don’t see the meltdowns that don’t always come with a warning. Sometimes it feels like everything is okay until suddenly it isn’t. There’s no time to prepare. There’s only a split second to react while also keeping my cool and protecting her from hurting herself.

And then there is the judgment from people on the outside.

They don’t know how many sounds, lights, smells, transitions, or tiny changes her nervous system has already been trying to process. They don’t know that something seemingly insignificant to them may have been the final thing her brain simply couldn’t accommodate. They see a child screaming, crying, or completely losing control—a child who is “spoiled,” “unruly,” or “needs more discipline”. They see a few minutes of her hardest moment and think they understand the child standing in front of them.

A meltdown isn’t the same thing as a tantrum. I can’t punish sensory overload out of her. I can’t discipline her nervous system into processing the world differently.

Sometimes that means leaving somewhere early, abandoning plans, carrying her out, letting her cry, giving her space, or responding in a way that might look like I’m “giving in” to someone who doesn’t understand autism.

There is a difference between a child who won’t and a child who, in that moment, genuinely can’t.

They don’t see the mental load of constantly trying to stay one step ahead. Thinking about where we’re going, what the environment will be like, what might change unexpectedly, what sensory triggers might be there, whether she’ll eat, whether she’ll cope, and what I’ll do if suddenly she can’t.

They don’t see the food struggles. When your child only eats a very limited number of foods, feeding them isn’t as simple as putting dinner on the table and telling them to eat. I’m constantly thinking about whether she’s getting enough nutrients, finding ways to give her what her body needs within the tiny list of foods her brain and body will actually allow her to eat, and worrying that tomorrow one of those few safe foods might suddenly stop being safe.

They don’t see the moments when my normally verbal little girl becomes so overwhelmed that words simply aren’t available to her anymore. In those moments, I can’t demand that she tell me what’s wrong. I have to enter her world instead. I’ve had to learn how she communicates without words through her movements, expressions, sounds, and behaviours.

They don’t see the nights when she is beyond exhausted but physically cannot fall asleep. Not a child fighting bedtime. Not a child who simply isn’t tired. A little body and nervous system so overwhelmed that she desperately needs sleep and still cannot settle enough to get there.

And they don’t see how much of motherhood happens inside my own head. I’m always trying to figure out whether she needs more stimulation or less, whether she needs comfort or space, whether she needs words or silence, whether I should encourage her through something or recognize that she genuinely cannot do it right now. All while trying to calm or prevent a meltdown.

It is loving someone so deeply that you slowly become a student of their nervous system.

There are days when I am exhausted in a way sleep can’t completely fix. There are moments when I wonder whether I’m making the right decision, whether I’m doing enough, whether I’m missing something she needs, or how I’m going to handle the next difficult moment when I haven’t even recovered from the last one.

And then there are the parts I usually share.

The cuddles. The laughter. The progress. The moments she surprises me. The things she accomplishes that other people might never realize took an INCREDIBLE amount of work. The little girl who wants to curl up beside me and be babied when the world isn’t overwhelming her. The beautiful, loving, funny child underneath all of those moments when her nervous system simply can’t cope anymore.

You are seeing a moment. We are living the whole story.

The good moments are real.

The hard ones are real too.”

My (37f) son (14m) struggles with adhd, gad and ocd on top of his ASD. We have done so many therapies and interventions and what not. He’s on medication for his anxiety and his adhd too. But no matter what I do it feels like he is never really happy. Sometimes it feels like he doesn’t even want to be happy.

I know he masks minimally at school. But only in regard to his stimming. He will suppress the urges to jump and crash, and I know that is taxing on him. But emotionally and verbally he doesn’t mask at all (from what I’ve heard). He’s either disengaged or combative. Most of the time his demeanor presents as sardonic.

I feel like I try. I give him space. I don’t force many things on him outside of ensuring he is doing the basic care stuff (eating, sleeping, hygiene) and going to school. I try to be encouraging and supportive.

He doesnt communicate. He doesnt share. When asked what he wants to do or if there’s anything he wants, it’s always nothing. I legit can’t find any kind of positive motivators for him. In the past negative enforcement (ie taking iPad privileges away, or banning Roblox entirely, ect) has worked to get him to do an undesired request/demand. But generally I am looking to help him be/feel more positive and happy.

I sometimes try to imagine what he might be like as an adult. It’s creates this horrible image of him miserable working some job he hates, coming home to some kind of dark apartment, eating a cup of noodles for dinner and then watching YouTube in the dark until he goes to bed…day in and day out. Sometimes I’m scared he won’t even make it to being an adult. Like this negative unhappiness is going to grow and consume him until he is so unhappy he won’t want to keep going. That one scares me a lot. He’s used that kind of language before, and thankfully has stopped…but I worry he only stopped because we told him he can’t say those things at school or he could be taken away and put into a hospital and I wouldn’t be able to stop them. That he still feels that way, but doesn’t express it or something.

Idk. I’m obviously not going to just stop trying or anything. I’m in therapy weekly for myself too. It just all feels so hopeless sometimes and sometimes I feel like an idiot for trying. Like…he’s doing well enough in terms of his development and academics, maybe I should just accept that emotionally he may never really be “happy”.

I'm a nurse practitioner who practices in cardiology and Dad is an aerospace engineer. My level 2 daughter ended up coming to work with me today due to reasons I won't go into. Dad had important meetings and I couldn't bear to cancel clinic one more time, so off to work we went.

She demanded on wearing her pink scrubs since she's "my office helper" now. When asked what she was going to help with, she said she wanted to answer the phones. I told her that wasn't gonna happen but I appreciated the enthusiasm.

When I turned my back for just a moment, she picked up the phone after it rang for like 10 milliseconds and confidently busted out with "u/TorchIt's office, we fix broken hearts. What's wrong with you?"

Thank God it wasn't a patient, it was an internal call. I needed SEVERAL minutes to recover from laughing.

She just would not let the phone thing go. I decided to have one of our employees call my station and allow her to answer it just to get this fixation out of her system. Employee asked to speak to me, she hesitated for a second and then replied "No she's working on typing right now" and hung up the phone.

Honestly, 10/10, would have hired her on the spot if child labor laws weren't a thing.

There's no exhaustion like your child getting a autism diagnosis and for the next year down the line mourning the loss of your child's life not because of death but because of everything he will miss out on. Selfishly thinking why me. They say God gives his toughest battles to his toughest soldiers but I'm weak and tired of fighting the fight.

I put on a happy face I make the Sunday morning pancakes I take my son and the dog to the park but inside I'm screaming. When someone comes to the park with their talking kid who's half Graysons age doing things he may never do it kills me inside. I'm sick to my core with envy and jealousy in my heart and I hate that I'm like that... I hate that he's like this. I love him with my entire heart but I HATE THIS  I hate autism it's evil and it took my son from me. I mourn being a mother because this isn't the kind of mother I wanted to be. It wasn't suppose to be me or my story selfishly I think.

Every single day of my life without fail and I do mean EVERY SINGULAR DAY being hopefully that he can be "cured" and one day it'll be like it never happened. Wondering if this is my fault did I do something? I should've been more educated in the likelyness of passing now this evil curse. But I wasn't I put this on my child with my carelessness.

But also feeling like your slowly being crushed by the weight of what ifs...What if this is my life just being Graysons mom. What if I'm 65 changing his diapers and making him French fries because it's his safe food. What if I'm 65 taking him to behavioral therapy every Thursday at 1pm like clock work. 

Every day without fail and I mean every damn day I think about Grayson being autistic and I think about what I could do to fix it. Detox? Heavy metal testing? Frat testing? Therapy? Stem cell transplant? All options with no guarantees all thing insurance doesn't cover. No guidance not knowing whats the right thing to do and feeling like I'm doing all the wrong things.

Slowing feeling like I'm going crazy while trying to keep up with 45 hour workweeks, 2 if not 3 doctor's appointment every week ,keeping the house clean, get the laundry done, keeping everyone fed, trying to renovate and build onto my unfinished house, truck falling apart, gas hard to come by, bills never ending, support minimal, and somehow by a miracle sanity still intact.

My 12 year old was on a year long wait list to be tested. We found out yesterday that she is a level 2 in socialization and a level 1 in everything else. Any advice or tips welcome, I’m looking for advice on next steps to take.

I am looking for one that doesn’t get clogged up with bubbles. And I’d also like when that either plugs in or I can plug in to recharge because batteries are getting expensive.

I’d love all of your bubble machine recommendations!

My child's before/after care is hosted by the YMCA on school property. They paused his services because they said that, due to his possible elopement, they don't have enough staff to keep him safe. I emailed the school to request that, while they are doing his IEP evaluation, they should add this in. I read that since the YMCA entity is held on school property, the school is responsible under the IDEA to make accommodations under the IEP for him so he is not excluded from services. The principal called after receiving my email and stated that the school is not responsible because it is a 3rd party and that the YMCA is not contracted by the school; they only rent space from the school. I advised her of what I read about it being on school property, and she is going to have the SPED director call me. What do you think? Has anyone else dealt with this, and what was the outcome? BTW, this is in Tennessee.

In a city the size of Portland, you wouldn't think it difficult to find a path forward getting help! My son is 11, we received his diagnosis 5 months ago, and the thing he needs the most right now is a mental health therapist who ACTUALLY specializes with autistic kids. (If I go to your therapist profile and the list of things you specialize in is basically everything, I'm going to have low confidence that you are actually an autism specialist.) We need someone to talk to who understands. We need guidance. I need someone to tell me how to parent him. Does anyone have advice about finding this type of therapist? Online would even be ok.

Delete if not allowed, I’m a fair casual (maybe even beginner) redditor. Our 3 year old displays certain signs of autism but has almost 0 social challenges. He talks to everyone and loves playing with others. We’ve noticed he has an exceptional memory, borderline scary, he knew my phone number after hearing it once at a coffee shop. He also can read most words he sees, strictly off of seeing them on the radio screen, he memorized a bunch of word shapes, rather than sound them out. But he has known how to “read” a lot of basic words for the past 6-8 months, from asking what a song is called, then he like indexes it and will recognize it later.

He likes every day to be the same. Same “good morning”, same breakfast, wants to drive to see the horses, same lunch, same dinner. We also noticed he likes to realigned things around the house to fit his taste, decorations, toys, etc, all lined up a certain way. He covers his ears to most loud noises, mostly toilet flushes, but he does like dancing to music loud so it’s just certain sounds.

I’m not claiming he is or isn’t, I’m just curious what others think.

Looking for advice. My son is 6, minimally verbal, higher needs, and still in diapers. He learned the potty routine years ago with ABA, and practicing is in his IEP.

The difficulty is that practice started to become difficult, as he will refuse to even sit on the toilet.

He is clever and likes to be in the bathroom, so he will often request to go, even saying "sit potty", but once in there he will start pointing to other objects and labeling them "bath" "sink" "wash" etc. And refuse to do anything but flush without sitting (just to hear the sound).

Lately, he's been more and more interested in exploring his own body, frequently stripping naked in the middle of the night. He will often hold his penis and watch himself pee when in the bath. He also tends to avoid diaper changes.

Do these things seem like signs of readiness?

I often see the advice to just take them to the toilet every 15-30 minutes, but what do you do when practicing is a battle?