Thanks to my friends at ASAN, AS Parenting is getting some exposure. I wanted to welcome those who happen to click links across “blogdom.” ASAN has been wonderfully inviting.

ASAN, Autistic Self Advocacy Network, is what it sounds like. Autistic people advocating for change. I first heard of the group during the 2008 political campaign. Many parents of autistic kids fired arrows at the president of ASAN, Ari Ne’eman, saying he didn’t know what it’s “really like.”

At the time, I was pretty new to the neurodiversity movement. While I agreed with the sentiment, I had a hard time defending his statements. I refound ASAN when I finally settled back down here in Texas. After having reconfirmed my Asperger’s diagnosis, I can say without a doubt, I know what it is to live in an alien world.

I do believe, no matter how naive it sounds, that we can live in harmony. Whether or not they can live in harmony with us, we need to try to understand them as much as we want them to understand us. More on these thoughts later.

If you would like to be included in writing for ASP, please e-mail me! I would love to include others thoughts and suggestions!

I have been meaning to do this for quite some time and it seems like there is just never enough time in the day. Luckily, because of my decision to join the ASAN (Autistic Self Advocacy Network) mailing lists, I was approached by a lovely lady. As such, I decided I do need to update everyone.

My family has made a large transition over the course of the last 3 months. In the middle of March, we drove from Connecticut to Texas for relocation. So from the time of my last update until then, we were packing and preparing for all that moving entailed. I have since then been implementing all that we needed to do.

So far, the boys are back in school in a wonderful school district who is taking care of their needs wonderfully. As well, they are extremely open to my suggestions unlike most professionals I have dealt with in the past. My oldest will be transitioning to K in the Fall so we are also going through those transition meetings.

We are also getting the boys taken care of therapy wise. ST and PT evaluations are done, but OT will be delayed because of maternity leaves (congratulations to those ladies). We are also attempting to find a group that does ABA and floortime/DIR as each of child benefits from alternate methods.

As soon as I find out the schedule for ST and PT, I will be contacting a counseling center for myself. They hold support groups for adults with Asperger’s but also do private therapy. I’m opting to do the private therapy as I feel with my unique needs as a woman, a wife and a mother, I will be better served on a one-to-one basis. I make these statements knowing that the majority of the support group are male and unmarried.

I will be kicking back up as soon as I have finished all of that. Hopefully, I will be able to get back going within the next month.

Are link backs acceptable forms of getting the word out about this website? I’ve been pondering this since I got this site integrated. I have such problems with knowing what’s socially acceptable, as many of us do. So I question if this is seen more as spam, or would it be seen as an invite.

As well, I’m wondering if I should go ahead and upgrade to WPMU (multi-user) or BuddyPress. I had hoped this would be a place for all AS parents would come to blog.

I have decided to do both of these. The WPMU will not disrupt the normal flow of the website. I will not go live with WPMU until I have all seams ironed out.* I am also going to go ahead with the linkbacks.

This post is more to make you all aware of the changes. As well, I want to apologize to any of you that come to this site from a link back and feel it was spam. I assure you, I had the best intentions in mind.

*After carefully looking at WPMU, I don’t think it’s a viable option for this website right now. I am looking at other options to allow multiple users to have blogs on this website. Both with the option to post news to the main page, or for your own personal blog.

As you can all well see I have updated again. I’ve been trying to get a flawless integration that is easy on everyone’s eyes. The board is not quite 100% up to function as you will note when you visit it. I should have that done by tonight. But there should not be any problems registering and logging in from this point. If you do happen to find a bug, let me know as soon as possible.

Let me know of anything you’d like to see added. While it may take a little bit to accomplish, I do want to try to have as much functionality as is possible. Thank you!

As I’m sure you’re all quite aware of, ASParenting website has been updated. Along with the new theme, now whenever you register for the bulletin board, you are also creating your own blog account.

Once you’re registered, you can change the way the interface looks for you.

Done:
Create more accessible link for bulletin board

To do:
Edit board to work with blog
Integrate changing board theme and blog theme in 1-click
Add Links to status bar
Make blog log-out link work

There is obviously a lot of work needed on this site. I do however hope to have everything up and running within a month. I do have to admit though, I need help to get this started. I’m hoping to find some person or people who would be willing to help me.

Namely, right now, I’m hoping to find resources and links to include on this page. I know just how hard it is to find resource for ASD parents. For now, I would like to see options for people seeking education resources, especially homeschooling and how to deal with your child’s teacher.

The purpose of this site is for parents to join together whether or not you have ASD children. This does not mean, ASD or NT children, NT parents of ASD kids or ASD adults with no kids are not welcome. The primpary goal is support and resources for those of parents with ASDs.