Special Needs Archives - Ice Cream and Autism

Category:

Special Needs

Advocacy is a Skill

March 22, 2019Parenting, School, Special NeedsLeave a comment

I suppose I already knew it. I have a couple of friends who advocate professionally (which is amazing, all by itself!) It just didn’t hit home until I found myself in a position where I needed to advocate for the “other one” and I already knew what I was doing. I was grateful for the …
Read more

parentingspecial ed

I Choose “Not Busy”

October 10, 2018Parenting, Special NeedsLeave a comment

It’s become a cute, almost fashionable thing to say that “being busy is a choice.” It’s my new favorite thing to hate. Maybe for some people busy is a choice. I envy those people. If I actually had a choice in the matter I would choose to not be busy. I promise. Ask anyone who …
Read more

autismDiagnosisHistoryparentingsiblings

About this Blog

From the moment he was born we knew that raising Yoshi* was going to be a challenge. We couldn’t even name him. In the hospital he was known as The Ice Cream Man, courtesy of his big brother, before we settled on something that wasn’t quite so limiting in career choices. Today everyone “knows” that he is autistic but most people are missing the rest of the story. It’s so much more than just ice cream and autism.

As many as 1 in 59 children are being diagnosed on the spectrum today, and yet sometimes it feels like no one understands what you’re going through. It can be a very lonely experience and I would love to be here with you.

*We did not go from The Ice Cream Man to Yoshi. We let him pick his own pseudonym for this blog.