Through the Spectrum: Recent Episodes
Pattie Kake Ditewig
A common dilemma for parents of children on the spectrum...the not if, but when scenario. Hear how I had to do it, and what I found out.
Also some food for thought, and a grand plan for what we as caregivers really need...a one stop shop Autism Center!
Some of you may wonder, with all the things of autism surrounding me, why I chose art...or did it choose me? Hear my art history story, and how it saves me everyday.
The intersections between Federal, State, and Local resources. Social Security Disability, Medicaid, Insurance, Doctors & Therapies, and School Districts. WHY can't they all just get along???
Take a deep breath and Dive into the world of SHARKS on the spectrum to hear the magical joy my special children gave me.
The daily, weekly, monthly red tape scissors. This is STILL an issue today! The amount of paperwork, testing, rejections, doctors appointments, therapists, school meetings, etc. all so my son could get his needs met and an education is so very exhausting. Trigger warning to the community, this will definitely bring up memories and nightmares of working the system. And then the isolation sets in.
I wanted to acknowledge the ASD community, and ask for the grace to speak freely when identifying them through my language. I understand some of my language is now outdated and no longer relevant within our ASD community; however, as a parent who was in the throws of coming to understand our spectrum world, this is how it was presented to me. I feel it would be less effective and unauthentic if I were not honest in how it was expressed and received at the time it was happening.
After the diagnosis, what do you do? Where do find help? It’s all a learning curve, but early intervention therapies WORK! I started with OT and learned so much!
Everyone has a childhood story about something funny and strange that happened when they were little. And kids do some strange things. They might not seem funny in the moment, but boy do they make an impact on our memories!
The little moments of joy are especially precious for special needs parents. They remind us that not every moment is hard, or different or difficult. These precious moments are to be remembered, cherished, and shared. I hope you find the same simple joy and laughter in them that I do.
Meet the complex “Brady-bunch without an Alice” family. I may not have a formal degree, but with six children, four with special needs requiring IEP and other services, I am an honorary member of the hard-knocks school for autism parents.
Using Emily Perl Kingley’s 1987 poem “Welcome to Holland” to explain the inner turmoil of what it feels like to raise a child with differences. Welcome To Hollandby Emily Perl KingsleyCopyright©1987 by Emily Perl Kingsley. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission of the author.I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this……When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The flight attendant comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland.”"Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy.”But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.It’s just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned." And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss.But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.
Introduction and overview of unapologetically parenting on the autism spectrum. Bringing people together to understand the true lives of those who live through the colorful world on the Spectrum.