We Go With Him

There must have been an accident on the Pulaski Skyway because I sat for a good fifteen minutes on one of its two steel humps,... Read more →

One of my Latin students mentioned to me that, through her mom, she had found out about a position to be an aide for an... Read more →

At our biweekly team meeting with Charlie's home ABA therapists and our behavior consultant, Charlie came to the table with a big smile and swiftly... Read more →

Charlie's ABA therapist was sick so, soon as he got off the bus (with the driver's grandchild asleep in the middle seat), we hurried off... Read more →

"Differently able" is a phrase I prefer to use in talking about Charlie in part to call into question the notion of mild in regard... Read more →

Cassandra Affective Disorder (CAD), which I mentioned yesterday, is simply the same thing as "aspie-bashing," as Ballastexistenz commented. Which means that CAD is also the... Read more →

When a small cry from Charlie turns into a mini-crisis, we try and try to understand why (as happened early this afternoon) he went from... Read more →

The words for this post's title refer to the kind of salsa that the burrito store puts on the burritos. I always order "mild" for... Read more →

"We think my relative's son may be autistic," a student said to me this morning. "Because he didn't seem to be connecting with other kids."... Read more →

Being five feet tall---"vertically challenged/impaired/less than blessed in the height department"--has its disadvantages: Having to cling desperately to the top shelf at the grocery store,... Read more →

For homework, I asked my Cultural Anthropology class to read more of Anne Fadiman's The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down while thinking about... Read more →

I got my first taste of Old and of Middle English---of Beowulf and of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales--when I was in the ninth grade: "Whan that... Read more →

After nearly nine years (plus those nine months in utero) of raising Charlie and living in Autismland, I would say "no" or "not really, but"... Read more →

Aside from films about autism like Autism is a World and Come Back Jack, I rarely see any movies, in the theater or on DVD... Read more →

Charlie's pediatric neurologist called as we were walking to get Charlie's favorite "brown noodles" for Friday dinner. I reported on the multiple instances of head-banging... Read more →

Charlie is a big boy but he tends to speak in a soft, light, sotto voce voice. This morning, I would not have heard him,... Read more →

I came home to a busy social scene in my living room. Charlie was hopping from floor to the couch, where his afterschool babysitter's middle-school-age... Read more →

These are the specifics of Charlie's day off from school: He was thoroughly smiley and social, as in he even got upset when left by... Read more →

Driving over an hour and a half to see Charlie's pediatric neurologist; striving to relate in a few minutes eleven months of neurological, behavioral, and... Read more →

I heard the rain when I went to sleep last night and--along with Charlie chattering--when I woke up this morning. When I was Charlie's age,... Read more →