COVID-19 Didn’t Ruin Our Kindergarten Graduation

Sometime around mid-February, I began to worry about my daughter’s kindergarten graduation. Would she run out of the room because our last name starts with a W and waiting in line is too much for her? I imagined her crying, yelling, and storming off the stage. Would she become the center of negative attention and

Up all night

Ally didn’t sleep last night and was wide awake for nearly 24 hours straight. This has never happened. Ever. We started Zoloft four days ago, 10mg at night. She has been kind, alert, and happy since. But is insomnia going to be a thing now? After four tries at putting her in her room, in

Autism Awareness Day, 2020, During COVID-19 Quarantine

As we approach Ally’s 6th birthday this Spring, we also approach 3 years since her official diagnoses. It was a June morning and we spent hours in a room with her Developmental Pediatrician. She was the third specialist on our journey, our third opinion. And while all three doctors along the way didn’t say that

Homeschool, Day 1, (COVID-19 Prison)

Today was a bad day

For the past two years, I have been walking around and patting myself on the back. We successfully changed behaviors in therapy. We overcame adversities. And aggression. And I told people about it. But almost immediately after I share our successes with others or think I have found the light at the end of this

Arresting Kindergarten Girls is Not the Answer

It is 2020 and we are arresting little girls and locking kids in closets at school because we expect them to behave, and to be two academic years ahead of where we were as kids. The United States is educated as a society but still, mental health and social-emotional development are threatened with pressures and

There is no summer vacation for working autism parents

But for our family, there are no vacations and trips as we juggle to pay full-time babysitters and take separate weeks off from work just to get by.

Our life is not fine, but it also isn’t over

I dusted myself off and got back up to fight for my kid. To give her the life she deserves. The life I have to fight for her to have because being sad about it isn’t the answer for me.

All we can do

I do my part in helping my child succeed at school but there comes a point where I get stuck—when there is nothing more I can do. Socialization is it for us.

This is what Inclusion looks like

Dumping students with IEPs into general education classrooms without considering an approach like UDL is like hosting a pizza party and only serving potato chips.