March 2012~snagglebox

Should You Let Your Kid Be a Guinea Pig?

There are three givens when you have autistic kids - someone will ask if you've seen Rainman, an old man in a supermarket will lecture you about discipline and at some point you'll be asked to participate in a research study.

Deciding whether to sign your child up can be tricky - on the one hand you want to do your part to help understand autism, but you're also protective of your family and your privacy and would never want to expose your child to anything uncomfortable, harmful or invasive.

So let's weigh things up.

Holidays with kids are fricken exhausting. You're on your feet all day jamming sights and experiences into what's left of your mind, the kids are with you all the time and you might be sleeping in the same room. If they're autistic you also need to stay one step ahead and constantly think about when, where and how to go.

So unless you want to return home a total basket case, taking some time out for yourself on holiday is as important as travel insurance.

Back when my kids were toddlers I was obsessed with getting a dog, so I spent hours on websites plugging in the size of our backyard and weekly food budget to see if we qualified as ideal pet owners. But since there were no questions like 'does your kid freak out at jumpy things', they could never give me the one answer I was really searching for... Do pets and autism mix?

So I started my own list of pros and cons.

How To Make Clothes Shopping Less Sucky For Autistic Kids

Last time we looked at some reasons why shopping for clothes might be unpleasant for your kids - it's hard, scary, painful and pointless. So here's how to make it better.

Clothes Shopping Can Be Uncomfortable For Some Autistic Kids

The weather's changing and that means one thing - time for new clothes. Moving between the seasons can be a difficult transition for some autistic kids, and shopping for new stuff makes it all the more sucky. Here's why:

It's common to hear some kids with autism - the really verbal kids, the ones more likely to be diagnosed with Aspergers - described as 'little professors'.

It's not just that the words they use are bigger or more complicated than other kids their age, but they can talk for ages about a topic that's unusual - either because it's not something kids are usually interested in or because they know everything there is to know about the subject.

So why do they do it?