Parenting Autism

Bryce is a funny, mechanical, HAPPY little guy who was diagnosed with autism at age two and is now six years old. His pure joy makes this world a much better place! 

In this episode, we reflect on Bryce's top 25 accomplishments/highlights of 2019 and talk about goals for this new year. We believe in the power of positivity and want to enter 2020 celebrating all that Bryce has learned and done, not the things that he's just not ready to do yet ... It was an amazing year with our little miracle boy!!   

If you are enjoying the show, please take a quick moment to give us a rating and review to help other families find our podcast, too. We are humbled and honored to follow our calling and be Autism Ambassadors while helping others understand our world a little more than they did before listening to the podcast. We also feel called to bring light to a community that has experienced dark days after the "diagnosis". (Luke 1:79) 

We also just launched another blog post on our website. We plan to continue to blog as we enter into the new year and hope that it will help more families find us.  

You can follow us on our Facebook and Instagram pages, Parenting Autism, to see stories, pictures, and videos of our autism journey. www.ParentingAutismShow.com
You can also contact us through Facebook, Instagram, or our email: [email protected].

We are also linking our podcast to our photography website to help create more awareness. www.artigraphsphotography.com

Support the show

Bryce is a funny, mechanical, HAPPY little guy who was diagnosed with autism at age two and is now six years old. His pure joy makes this world a much better place!

In this episode, we thought it would be fun to see how Bryce would do with an interview about Christmas. His ability to verbalize his feelings and answer questions has been flourishing since his therapies returned in October! This autism journey is full of mountains and valleys. At the moment, we are on a mountain and soaking it up, especially during this Christmas season! 

We want to take a moment to thank each of you who have listened to our stories this past year. It's always exciting when we receive messages letting us know that the podcasts are helpful for other families! We look forward to sharing more as we roll into 2020 and hope you will join us for the ride!

If you are enjoying the show, please take a quick moment to give us a rating and review to help other families find our podcast, too. We are humbled and honored to follow our calling and be Autism Ambassadors while helping others understand our world a little more than they did before listening to the podcast. We also feel called to bring light to a community that has experienced dark days after the "diagnosis". (Luke 1:79)

We also just launched another blog post on our website. We plan to continue to blog as we enter into the new year and hope that it will help more families find us. 

You can follow us on our Facebook and Instagram pages, Parenting Autism, to see stories, pictures, and videos of our autism journey. www.ParentingAutismShow.com
You can also contact us through Facebook, Instagram, or our email: [email protected].

We are also linking our podcast to our photography website to help create more awareness. www.artigraphsphotography.com

Support the show

Bryce is a funny, mechanical, HAPPY little guy who was diagnosed with autism at age two and is now six years old. His pure joy makes this world a much better place!

In this episode, we talk about Bryce's most recent trip to Nicklaus (Miami) Children's Hospital to visit the geneticist as we continue to search for answers and seek confirmation that we are doing all of the right things for him .. at least in this moment of time.

We also talk about therapies, supplements, and diet. It's so hard to tell what specifically contributes to Bryce's progress and/or regression. Bottom line: Our job is to continue to study, listen, share, and try new ways to help our son. We want him to live happily in good health and to become all that God created him to be in this world.

Our goal is to follow our calling and be Autism Ambassadors while helping others understand our world a little more than they did before listening to the podcast. We also feel called to bring light to a community that has experienced dark days after the "diagnosis". (Luke 1:79)

We also just launched our first blog post on our website (listed below). We plan to continue to blog as we enter into the new year and hope that it will help more families find us. 

You can follow us on our Facebook and Instagram pages, Parenting Autism, to see stories, pictures, and videos of our autism journey. www.ParentingAutismShow.com
You can also contact us through Facebook, Instagram, or our email: [email protected].

We are also linking our podcast to our photography website to help create more awareness. www.artigraphsphotography.com

Support the show

Bryce is a funny, mechanical, HAPPY little guy who was diagnosed with autism at age two and is now six years old. His pure joy makes this world a much better place!

In this episode, we give "Thanksgiving" for many things about our autism journey. We share recent emerging behaviors that we are trying to understand in order to help Bryce. We also talk about how his ABA, language, and occupational therapies seem to be really helping him flourish now that we have settled into our new team of support.

A couple of products are also mentioned in this episode that we recommend to our listeners. (1) ALPHASTROKES.COM (2) "Kindness Detective" by Ashley Abeles, MSED

Alpha Strokes offers two fonts, flash cards, and a video series. We downloaded the font that includes numbers, arrows, and dots to help Bryce improve his writing skills. Being very visual AND hyperlexic, it has been helpful for him to see numbered instructions for each stroke. We are thrilled that our listeners are able to purchase and download these products for half-price (50% discount) for a limited time. Simply use the code PARENTINGAUTISM.
Please note: We do not make any money from these purchases. We just want to share resources that are working for Bryce that may also help others.

"Kindness Detective" is a lovely well-written book that is beautifully illustrated. It is about inclusion and kindness to those who appear to be different. Throughout the book, children are encouraged to step into other children's shoes to view things differently. The companion activity guide has certificates that identify the child's kind act, who detected it, and the date. The goal of the "Kindness Detector" activity is to identify and encourage acts of kindness, similar to the ones described in the book. It's perfect for classroom settings to teach children how to recognize and understand that differences are okay.

One of my biggest concerns is how other children (and adults) will treat Bryce. Will they be mean to him? Make fun of him? Avoid him? Think he's weird? In my perfect world, they would be kind to him! Recognize how he likes to have fun! Play with him! Appreciate his unique ways of playing and enjoying life! I plan to give this book to the parents of Bryce's neuro-typical friends, so they can read the book with their kiddos and teach them about inclusion and acceptance. 

Our goal is to follow our calling and be Autism Ambassadors while helping others understand our world a little more than they did before listening to the podcast. We also feel called to bring light to a community that has experienced dark days after the "diagnosis". (Luke 1:79) 

You can follow us on our Facebook and Instagram pages, Parenting Autism, to see stories, pictures, and videos of our autism journey. www.ParentingAutismShow.com
You can also contact us through Facebook, Instagram, or our email: [email protected].

We are also linking our podcast to our photography website to help create more awareness. www.artigraphsphotography.com

Support the show

Bryce is a funny, mechanical, HAPPY little guy who was diagnosed with autism at age two and is now six years old. His pure joy makes this world a much better place!

In this episode, we talk about our marriage and how we continue to find ways to keep it strong. Open communication has been one of the most important areas for us to continuously work on as a couple. This autism journey can be very draining and requires added layers of work for our marriage. Awareness of each others needs and commitment to help each other through them has been essential to our relationship. It's so easy to get lost in helping Bryce that we can forget to take care of "us". And yet the significance of taking care of "us" is one of the MOST IMPORTANT things we can do to help Bryce!   

Our goal is to follow our calling and be Autism Ambassadors and help others understand our world a little more than they did before listening to the podcast. We also feel called to bring light to a community that has experienced dark days after the "diagnosis". (Luke 1:79) 

You can follow us on our Facebook and Instagram pages, Parenting Autism, to see stories, pictures, and videos of our autism journey. www.ParentingAutismShow.com
You can also contact us through Facebook, Instagram, or our email: [email protected].

We are also linking our podcast to our photography website to help create more awareness. www.artigraphsphotography.com

Support the show

Bryce is a funny, mechanical, HAPPY little guy who was diagnosed with autism at age two and is now in Kindergarten. His pure joy makes this world a much better place!

In this episode, we talk about how Bryce's 6th birthday triggered some unexpected emotions and how we have navigated through the stages of grief more than once on this autism journey.

In our last episode (#26), we talked about how we had to make a quick, unexpected  decision to withdraw him from public school and begin homeschooling him. We talk about the transition in this episode. In addition to this change, Bryce also has begun therapies with new people which is a major transition in process. It's been a whirlwind of emotions since our last recording, but God has once again given us peace and covered our hurts with hope. We are in the stage of "acceptance" and will enjoy every moment that we have with our precious boy - spinning negatives into positives and avoiding "comparison", the thief of joy.

Our goal is to follow our calling and be Autism Ambassadors and help others understand our world a little more than they did before listening to the podcast. We also feel called to bring light to a community that has experienced dark days after the "diagnosis". (Luke 1:79) 

You can follow us on our Facebook and Instagram pages, Parenting Autism, to see stories, pictures, and videos of our autism journey. www.ParentingAutismShow.com
You can also contact us through Facebook, Instagram, or our email: [email protected].

We are also linking our podcast to our photography website to help create more awareness. www.artigraphsphotography.com

Support the show

Bryce is a funny, mechanical, HAPPY little guy who was diagnosed with autism at age two and is now in Kindergarten. His pure joy makes this world a much better place!

In this episode, we talk about the curveball we received last week that led to withdrawing him from his public school and registering for homeschooling (formerly known as "Plan Z"). We continue to learn that our ways are not always God's ways, our thoughts are not his thoughts - and yet when we follow along, the end result is better than we could have ever imagined!

In our last episode (#25), we talked about how he was doing well in his neuro-typical kindergarten classroom according to the feedback we received. When we learned that he was struggling to keep up with the work and required 100% support, we were both a little sad ... We shot for the moon but only got to orbit and then return to earth. It kind of felt like we were back to ground zero with his diagnosis as we were trying to figure out what would be best for Bryce to thrive and learn. We also felt significant pressure to make an immediate decision due to his scholarship deadline that required proof that he was not registered in public schools.

Once homeschool was agreed upon by both of us, we were both at peace and have received affirmation upon affirmation this past week of our right decision. Bryce was able to start his private language and occupational therapies the day after school withdrawal, so he didn't miss a beat. He is also scheduled for ABA re-evaluation this week and will receive services immediately versus 3-6 months, thanks to our new flexible schedule! ☺ And most of all, Bryce's happy meter has been off the chart this week!

Our goal is to follow our calling and be Autism Ambassadors and help others understand our world a little more than they did before listening to the podcast.   

You can follow us on our Facebook and Instagram pages, Parenting Autism, to see stories, pictures, and videos of our autism journey. www.ParentingAutismShow.com
You can also contact us through Facebook, Instagram, or our email: [email protected].

We are also linking our podcast to our photography website to help create more awareness. www.artigraphsphotography.com

Support the show

Bryce is a funny, mechanical, HAPPY little guy who was diagnosed with autism at age two and now five years old. His pure joy makes this world a much better place!

In this episode, we talk about "outside of the box" ways we are helping Bryce with his language and school work. We share some updates on his progress with school as well as the process of having him re-evaluated AGAIN for therapies. It's been a challenge to retain his therapies with frequent insurance changes.

Our goal is to follow our calling and be Autism Ambassadors and help others understand our world a little more than they did before listening to the podcast.   

The "word machine" referenced in this episode is Audiotronics Model 810 A. 

You can follow us on our Facebook and Instagram pages, Parenting Autism, to see stories, pictures, and videos of our autism journey. www.ParentingAutismShow.com
You can also contact us through Facebook, Instagram, or our email: [email protected].

We are also linking our podcast to our photography website to help create more awareness. www.artigraphsphotography.com

Support the show

Bryce is a funny, mechanical, HAPPY little guy who was diagnosed with autism at age two and now five years old. His pure joy makes this world a much better place!

In this episode, we talk in depth about Bryce's Gluten-Free/Dairy-Free Diet. We talk about why we did it, foods that he eats, and the results that we have seen to date.

This episode also references a biomedical approach we have taken to supplement Bryce's diet. The article referenced in this episode can be found in RESOURCES on our Parenting Autism website. 

This is a link to Bryce's favorite GFDF chocolate chip cookie that we keep on hand for special occasions and bargaining chips for healthier new food introductions. We are able to purchase these individually at our local Walmart Marketplace. 

Our goal is to follow our calling and be Autism Ambassadors and help others understand our world a little more than they did before listening to the podcast.   

You can follow us on our Facebook and Instagram pages, Parenting Autism, to see stories, pictures, and videos of our autism journey. www.ParentingAutismShow.com
You can also contact us through Facebook, Instagram, or our email: [email protected].

We are also linking our podcast to our photography website to help create more awareness. www.artigraphsphotography.com

Support the show

Bryce is a funny, mechanical, HAPPY little guy who was diagnosed with autism at age two and now five years old. His pure joy makes this world a much better place!

In this episode, we talk in depth about Bryce's increasing struggles with different kinds noises and how his anxiety continues to emerge in unexpected situations. .

Below are links to our research that is helping us understand Bryce's behaviors, since he is unable to verbally explain it at this time. Do sounds physically hurt him? Annoy him? Scare him? We don't know but will continue to hunt until we find answers. 

NOISE CONTROL blog post
RAIN social story

Our goal is to follow our calling and be Autism Ambassadors and help others understand our world a little more than they did before listening to the podcast.   

You can follow us on our Facebook and Instagram pages, Parenting Autism, to see stories, pictures, and videos of our autism journey. www.ParentingAutismShow.com
You can also contact us through Facebook, Instagram, or our email: [email protected].

We are also linking our podcast to our photography website to help create more awareness. www.artigraphsphotography.com

Support the show