Autism In the Family: A Journey

By Diane MacNaughton

Autism in the Family -- A Journey: Is the journey of Peter & Diane take in being diagnosed Autistic. Peter is the son, Diane the mother. It is a journey that lots of families make but the difference is that in the end, they become self-advocates in their community. Autism in the Family is now a small business that offers presentations at least once a month and three of these presentations are offered in this book as well. Strategies to help you and your family or loved one. They are 1) Communicating With the Autistic In Your Life 2) Sensitivities and Emotions and 3) School Strategies

• Language: English
• Publisher: Diane MacNaughton
• Release date: Apr 6, 2015
• ISBN: 9780994754608

Diane MacNaughton

I live in small town Alberta, Canada. I am in my sixties and I am a self-advocate. I am bipolar/autistic who does tons of community work. My son Peter is also autistic. I think people like me need to chair more community meetings to get the world out of the mess that it is in.

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Autism In The Family

A Journey

By

Diane MacNaughton

Smashwords Editon

Copyright 2015

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Autism In the Family is the name of the business that my son Peter and I share. It is a microbusiness which at the moment just barely pays for itself but we find it rewarding. We are self-advocates and we do presentations at the local Chamber of Commerce. I write the presentations and Peter helps me present them. This short story is how we came to do these presentations and I will include some of the presentations we do in the appendices.

PETER GETS DIAGNOSED

I suppose the Autism In the Family story starts similar to all stories of Autism with the diagnosis in our family of someone with Autism. We started diagnosing Peter when he was 3 ½ years old in 1993 with taking him to a number of specialists in our area of Alberta. We saw an audiologist to determine what his hearing was because we of course could come up behind him and he would not be aware of us. He tested in above normal range. I was finally persuaded to take him to the speech pathologist and he tested at 6 months, 3 years below his age level. I remember saying to the speech therapist that I was reluctant to have another child talking. I had identical twin daughters at home and when one took a breath the other one talked.

Peter at his assessment was very out of control so at the next sessions we had the head of department. It took a long time to get him to talk. She was about to give up