Gregge Sandusky I would like to introduce myself to you. My name is Gregge and I’m 13 years old (1999) with Autism. When I was around 2 years old I became weird acting. Something began to change in me according to my parents. I became a stranger to my family and had a lot of…
as told to Iliana Clift Years ago I hung a quote by the Roman orator Cicero on Marcus’s bulletin board that said, “The greater the difficulty…the greater the glory.” This quote describes our journey with Marcus quite well. When we first started the NACD program, he hardly had any speech at all. He was extremely…
by Janine Little, as told to Iliana Clift It breaks my heart to say it, but before we started the NACD program Luke was like a wild animal. He dashed here and there, climbed on tables and cabinets, jumped off and started all over again. He rocked precariously on the seat and back of a…
by Joanna May, as told to Iliana Clift Existing in survival mode—day… after… day… after… day—is downright exhausting. This was my reality. My son screamed incessantly, hid under the kitchen table, refusing to come out for an inordinate amount of time; played for hours with spinning wheels, or stared dreamily as “Dora the Explorer” and…
by Carol Estrada Bruce Haslam, PhD, Director of Research for The NACD Foundation, along with Tamara Knapp-Grosz, PhD, Director of Counseling and Support Services at Savannah College of Art & Design, presented “Brain Change: Simple Interventions to Dramatically Improve Student Functioning” at the 45th Southeast Conference of College Counseling Center Personnel held on November 5-7th…
by Lyn Waldeck While there are many children on my caseload that I am very proud of, with this particular issue I want to do something a little out of the box. Rather than brag about a child, I want to share with you how incredibly proud I am of one of the mothers that…
by Tamara Grosz, Ph.D., Mama Time – Southeast As a mother of a child with special needs I have sat on the sidelines for years excitedly cheering for children of close friends who danced in recitals, played baseball, basketball, football and of course–soccer! It is a bittersweet feeling, participating in these events, you are so…
Bob Doman The following story about Ross exemplifies the potential strengths of children who have been labeled as being within the spectrum and also the potential danger of labeling and classifying individuals. I proudly identify many of my good friends as “nerds,” a classification that I have often wished to be able to share, regardless of the fact…
by Cori Longfellow NACD mom and coach At 2 ½ our son Evan rarely gave us any eye-contact, and did not communicate outside of dragging one of us to the kitchen when he was hungry, repeating phrases he heard on TV, or echoing what we said to him. He could play by himself beautifully for…
by Fatima Shaikh I am the mother of a lovely 12-year old boy, Usaid. He was diagnosed with Autism when he was 3 1/2 years old. We went through all the regular denials, nightmares, helplessness, and frustrations that all parents of newly diagnosed ASD children go through. As his language started developing with speech therapy,…