Something Was Different

Repeating the same activities year after year stands as a convenient way to measure Ryan’s progress. Ryan has played in our town’s summer street-hockey league for five seasons, and he has come a remarkably long way in that time. His coördination, his social skills, his understanding of how to be a good teammate — all […]

Recall vs. Understanding

Do you ever catch yourself wondering if your child on the autism spectrum perceives events the same way his peers do? The way you do? They way, ahem, normal people do? I used to find myself doing that a lot, but not so much anymore. When, as a younger child, Ryan didn’t show excitement about […]

How They Help Each Other

My children are 20 months apart. Ryan, the older one, is trying to figure out social norms and learn where he fits in. Riley, the younger sister, is barreling into tween-dom at light speed. They are often headed in opposite directions. They fight like cats and dogs. It’s rarely anything serious, just standard age-appropriate name […]

Hidden Rules and the SI Cover Jinx

This week we received the year-end evaluation from the social kills group that Ryan attends. Other than finding it pretty much spot-on in its assessment of Ryan’s strengths, weaknesses and areas of progress, one passage stood out. One of the group’s main areas of focus this school year was “the hidden rules of middle school,” […]

The Gift of Focus

Ryan loves the ABC show Wipeout. I don’t blame him. I love the show too. It’s impossible to not laugh at the contestants as they take spills throughout the course, and the cornball, over-the-top commentary from John Anderson and John Henson is hilarious. Like everything with Ryan, there are some unique aspects to the way […]