I'm part of a Yahoo group for mothers whose children are autistic -- because a lot of the issues that Jake has are the same that autistic kids have. He's not autistic, yet he has many behavioral symptoms. I can't tell you how much I'm learning from these mothers! And they are so sweet and have welcomed me to the group, even though Jake's diagnosis doesn't technically fit the group.
One of them sent out a link today to the website of an author, Susan Senator, whose book she has been enjoying. The book is called "Making Peace with Autism." Within the website are articles the author has written for various publications. They're about her experiences as a parent of an autistic boy. You can read them all in their entirety on the site. They are well-written, funny, touching, and a few made me cry (but this is me we're talking about.) Even if you don't have a child with "issues," I think that reading these articles will help you to understand children you might come into contact with that DO have issues. It's really hard to understand just WHY some children act the way they do. Reading these articles might give you some insight. Autism Articles.
May 4th, 2002 Our wedding
September 14th, 2002. Going home from the hospital with 2 day old baby Jake!
10 days old and we're ALL worn out!
1st Halloween (6 weeks)
1st Christmas (3.5 months)
January 2003 ~ 4 months old
July 2003 ~ 10 months old
December 2003 ~ 15 months old
June 2004 ~ 21 months old 
Lou's 28th birthday. 10-23-2004. 
Easter 2005 ~ 30 months old 
Can you send me the link to the group? I need to join because of Sean. Might as well since I belong to about 5 other groups because of him. I am getting ready to from online support group for the moms in our chuch who had special needs children.
Posted by: Shelly | June 22, 2006 at 05:25 PM
Hi Jen. Firstly, I wanted to apologize for not commenting in awhile. Please forgive me.
Secondly? My hubby has a first cousin with a son who was diagnosed with Autism at the age of 3. It was a really unique situation. This beautiful boy was talking in FULL sentences, very high IQ, and therefore very articulate. And just 3 months after getting a round of immunizations (I never asked which ones he received) he was diagnosed with Autism. Now? He hardly ever smiles, has frequent meltdowns, etc.! The parents of this boy swear (and have got some research to back it up) that the shots made him develop this terrible disorder.
All that to say what??
My question is...have any of the women in the group you been chatting with talked at all about anything remotely similar to this situation?
Just curious...
Posted by: Sandi P. | June 22, 2006 at 07:15 PM