Preparing for an ASD Halloween….

By Kate Swenson | October 31, 2016 |

Holidays are an interesting time for a parent of a child with Autism. And each holiday comes with it’s own unique challenges. There is also the fine line of….’how much do we actually participate?’ Cooper doesn’t understand Halloween. Or costumes. Or Trick-Or-Treating. For starters he is the least greedy kid ever….he will get one piece of candy and be great for the rest of the night. He doesn’t like to walk so the idea of walking from house to house is ridiculous. He would need to be carried or put…

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This is Beautiful. From a 10-year-old Boy with Autism.

By Kate Swenson | October 7, 2016

I was scrolling through Facebook today and this post jumped out at me. Let me preface by saying that at one point I liked so many autism type blogs and organizations that now my whole dang news feed is autism. I’ll be honest. That’s depressing. I’ve actually started unfollowing some. It just got to be too much. This one jumped out at me by the National Autism Association. A mother writes, “My 10 year old son with Asperger’s was asked to write a poem for school titled ‘I Am‘ he…

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When The Caregiver Gets Depressed

By Kate Swenson | October 5, 2016 |

There is a stigma around depression. A really, really ugly one. And I think there is especially a stigma around mother’s who have depression. If you are depressed you are weak. You are broken. You are medicated. You cry a lot. You sleep a lot. This isn’t true. At least not for me. I am not weak. I am freakishly independent. I am not broken…completely. I am not medicated. And I rarely sleep. In saying that…. I just came out of an extremely low few days. Sadness is not an…

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