Hello, I’m Karla and my partner is John. We’re the parents of Johnson Harris-Herbert, aka ‘bouba’, aged 12, Kale Harris-Herbert, aka ‘woo’, aged 10, and our little girl Indiana Harris-Herbert, aka ‘boo-lash’, aged six. During the COVID-19 lockdown, Kale who has asperger’s got together a pop band with his younger sister and older brother, turning

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in Personal Narrative by Karla Herbert

Punch cornflour, and you’ll bruise yourself. If you jump on it, it’ll take your weight. Stand still, and you sink. Run your fingers through it gently, it wraps around you like liquid. Like my cornflour boy, the more force you apply, the more resistance you meet. To find its softness and fluidity, move slowly, go

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in Personal Narrative by Daniel Morrison

When a child is diagnosed with autism, parents often feel a wide range of emotions from relief to despair and everything in between. These are all normal. Learning your child will struggle his/her entire life to do things most people take for granted is not only frightening, but heartbreaking. As parents, we want to see

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in Personal Narrative by Eileen Lamb

I am not just a mom; I am an autism mom. Of my three children, two of them have autism spectrum disorder (ASD). One of them also has a mild intellectual disability. All my children are adults now, but my two with ASD continue to live with me. My life experiences have thus led me

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in Personal Narrative by Michelle Mann, MPsych

How many locks can one household hold? The answer for my household would take too many fingers and toes! I can say now after spending years working with locks of all sorts that I used to underestimate a lock’s ability. I would look at the basic use of a lock and my mind would stop

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in Personal Narrative by Kristina Walsh, BHR

Suppose there are two women, one named Sally and one named Anne. Sally puts a rock in a basket of hers and goes off somewhere else, leaving the basket. While she’s gone, Anne opens her basket, takes the rock out and puts it in her own box. In this presentation, it’s very clear Sally did

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in Personal Narrative by Ryan Larson, BChE

Raising a child on the spectrum is not easy. It comes with higher demands of care and time than other children. Believe me, I know! I have four children ranging in ages from eight to 17. My youngest daughter has PDD, Pervasive Developmental Disorder, a moderate form of Autism. She is higher functioning and very

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in Personal Narrative by Carol Tatom, RBT

Bravery is one of the most powerful qualities you can instill in your child with autism. The moment you hear that your child has autism, you want to be brave, and you want your child to be brave enough to power through obstacles, too. Developing bravery in your child with autism is easier said than

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in Personal Narrative by Louis Scarantino

A parent’s love is a special love. It is not about approval or accomplishment. It is about unconditional support and concern. It’s a love born in joy, nurtured during adversity and reconfirmed on a daily and hourly basis. It’s a love bound up in anxiety and expectation. Often worry and concern can creep in as

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in Personal Narrative by Steven Josias, JD

It seems that we as parents of complex children are judged at every turn. But there is no judgment more supreme or detrimental as a letter from Children and Youth Services—a letter detailing you are under investigation by the government because someone in the world, as an outsider looking in, has viewed your parenting in

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in Personal Narrative by Janele Hoerner

Netflix released Season Two of Atypical in September 2018, and soon there will be Season Three. I really hope this TV series will continue for many more seasons. I have been following it since the first season and I believe that there are social dimensions that should not be absorbed by the comical element of

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in Personal Narrative by Maria Karvouni

All parents schedule their kid’s departure from their home to be around the age of 18 years. I often joke that my twins have an 18-year contract in my house and then they get the boot. So it is hard to put into words how that deadline got moved up by 12 years for my

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in Personal Narrative by Tiara Mays, MBA

Girls With Autism Flying Under the Radar proclaims one headline. For many years, it’s been accepted the wisdom that there’s an approximately 4:1 ratio of autistic men to autistic women. Recently, self-advocates, scientists, and clinicians have challenged this long-accepted ratio. They claim autism presents differently in girls. As a male on the autism spectrum, I

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in Personal Narrative by Jonathan Mitchell

Friday night was pizza night. This tradition began when Dylan was in middle school and the increased social pressures and new academic pressures conspired to totally “unglue” him. By Friday, he was an exhausted wreck, and frankly, so was I. Middle school is difficult for most children. It was close to unbearable for Dylan.  It

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in Personal Narrative by Polly Godwin Emmons

There is a steady slowdown of cars in front of us on our way to a swim meet. My son, who was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) at an early age, starts to show his agitation. Anxiety violently announces itself in the form of rapid-fire questions. “Why are we stopping?” “How long is this

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in Personal Narrative by Gail Morton, MLIS

Growing up, I always knew he was different, different from other people around us. But I still could never understand why, why him? When we went out in public, people would just stare at us for such long periods of time it was almost uncomfortable—it was as though they were judging us and him just

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in Personal Narrative by Holly Reynolds

In my experience, people with autism always have things that are priorities to them. Priorities can mean many different things. It could be a highly specific topic of conversation they wish to discuss, a tangible item that is particularly important to them, or maybe it’s an activity they wish to engage in without interruption. People

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in Personal Narrative by Emily Beth Scheinert

Blessings? Most people would not use that word when they think of autism. I probably wouldn’t have either until I had a child on the spectrum, but it is true. When my daughter was a toddler, I was always so impressed by how smart she was. She could line things up by colors and shapes

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in Personal Narrative by Taryn Plendl

As a parent of a child diagnosed on the autism spectrum, I can certainly relate to those instant pangs of fear one immediately begins to digest when the word “autistic” is thrown at you. Will he ever be able to hold down a job? Will he ever be able to find his soul mate and

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in Personal Narrative by Mara Fineshriber, BSBA

Aaron was not happy. Wednesday night was youth activity night, and since Leia was away at an all-girls camping trip, it was just him. The boys were meeting at Nate’s house for a pool party which meant being shirtless. Worse, his parents had decided they were going to walk there. Aaron didn’t mind walking, and

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in Personal Narrative by Jay Gowen

It was the fall of 2016. Our dew covered lawn provided safe harbor for a few of the bubbles that had landed rather gently. Beginning to realize my son’s condition, I watched as he stopped popping the bubbles, and gently squatted alongside to gaze within the sparkling spheres. At about 16 months, he lost his

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in Personal Narrative by Jana Tams

This letter is addressed to anyone who loves a person on the autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or wants a better understanding. Eight doctors, blood work, and a brain scan later, no one could clearly explain autism or tell us why it happened to our son. Our hope is that this letter helps to lift fears,

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in Personal Narrative by Johanna Taylor

No two children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are the same, nor do they have the same experiences. Just because one child with autism breaks a pen or tears up a workbook when he/she is anxious at school, doesn’t mean that every child on the spectrum reacts in the same way in an environment that

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in Personal Narrative by Sarah Hawkins

When Ewa Omahen met a woman at work who was in a state of despair over her son’s disabilities, she chose to reach out. As a mother of a 15-year-old son with autism, Ewa well understood the challenges that go hand-in-hand with raising children with special needs. Take a look at the touching letter Ewa wrote encouraging

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in Personal Narrative by Ewa Omahen, PhD

Growing up in a fairly strict and conservative first-generation Korean home in the United States, we were taught we shouldn’t discuss any of our issues outside the home. We are a culture that feels we must suffer in silence, for it is disgraceful to be so open about our challenges in public. Unfortunately, this is the mindset of the

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in Personal Narrative by Sunny Jang

My son, Colin, blows me away every day.  He is 28 years old and was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome at a young age—back when the relatively unknown syndrome was still stuck in a cul-de-sac of uncertainty.  Now, Asperger’s syndrome is everywhere—in mainstream TV, movies, comic books, and scores of blogs and websites. We spent Colin’s

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in Personal Narrative by Donald Cohen

“We are all stories in the end. Just make it a good one.” – Doctor Who, BBC Network One evening, all snuggled up and ready for bed, my daughter Daphne and I were channel-surfing and landed on the BBC network. The “Blink” episode of Doctor Who, starring David Tennant as the Doctor, was showing. We were

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in Personal Narrative by Jackie Nelson

Alan Turing: The man who cracked the ‘unbreakable’ German Enigma Code in World War II.  A gay man convicted of homosexuality in the dark days when it was a crime, but posthumously pardoned by Her Majesty the Queen in 2013. Until recently, that was about the sum of my knowledge of this brilliant man, but

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in Personal Narrative by Jane Carver

When I think about why I like to help others, I really cannot think of a single defining moment when it all started. It just happened. I really love to volunteer my time to help others, or just teach people new things. It makes me feel good about myself and is meant to make someone

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in Personal Narrative by Nick Turziano

There are a lot of articles floating around the Internet written by mothers raising an autistic child or two.  Some pieces are beautiful and full of joy, others, unfortunately, are heart wrenching and very sad.  I wanted to share a father’s view — how I felt when I realized my only child, a son, was

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in Personal Narrative by Mark Peterson

My new granddaughter is now six months old.  She does not do much except eat and sleep. She is just starting to sit up and may soon begin to crawl.  We can play a little peek-a-boo and a few other early infant games.  What can we do for fun to get to know each other?

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in Personal Narrative by Steven Josias, JD

Recently I was searching the house for something. We have no storage space so “storage” is pretty much anywhere I can stuff something and finding “said something” later often proves to be an all day event. I never did find what I was looking for but I did come across DC’s Journal from way back in

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in Personal Narrative by Vickie C.

My daughter is beautiful. I look at my baby girl and she takes my breath away. It has nothing to do with her blonde hair or her sparkling blue eyes, though they’re a nice touch. What makes my daughter beautiful is her smile. For the longest time, I couldn’t define exactly why this was the

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in Personal Narrative by Emily Davidson

Amber is a beautiful young girl whose life is in constant turmoil and yet, to the outside world, she maintains a healthy outlook on what she has been given.  Even at the age of eight she realizes that she will never have most of the advantages bestowed on other children and this sense of loss

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in Personal Narrative by Donald P. Sweeney

As a parent, one of the hardest things you’ll have to do is watch your child struggle.  At the age of five, our son was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome.  When he turned nine, at an attempt to have a “typical “birthday party, we invited 10 kids to come scuba diving.  It was something most kids

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in Personal Narrative by Alice Kay

Wholeness and Completion Issues by Leslie Burby If your child or a student that you teach, seems defiant or like they “just won’t listen,” then you need to read this article. When my daughter, (who has Asperger’s Syndrome), was a toddler I had concerns that she was deaf at times because of the way she

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in Personal Narrative by Leslie Burby

Stress runs high in the lives of parents with special-needs children, which is why we thought that we wanted to include a page that brings a smile to our face. Our children sometimes say and do funny things so we are asking that if you have any funny stories to share about your parenting experiences.

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in Personal Narrative by Leslie Burby