Marley's Magical Mind

My daughter Marley with my nephew Shawn. What are the realities of autism being genetic.  I am not an expert on genetics or anything like that, but I do know that autism has affected my family.  My 2nd cousin is 16 years old and diagnosed at a very early age with autism. Just recently, I discovered a few photos of my grandfather. In each photo he was not looking at the camera.  It wasn't a situation that he was looking away by accident, it was an intentional 'can't look in your eyes' type of situation.  When I asked my mother about him and his tendencies, she admitted that, now in hindsight, my grandfather had stimming tendencies. He would pace back and forth, just like Marley, and rub his fingertips insistently.  He would do this for a long while, and people around him would notice and comment. My uncles would occasionally tease him endearingly.   I also know that my husbands aunt, although never diagnosed, had severe tendencies leaning towa...

First let me start by saying that not all kids that have SPD are autistic but most autistic kids have SPD. I want to make that clear because one of the ways parents sometimes determine whether something is not right is because their kids are hyper sensitive to sound, light or clothing. In some cases even hypo sensitive to pain.  Marley can cut her finger and it seems like it doesn't even phase her. But if you sing 'Happy Birthday' too loudly, she'll cover her ears and scream 'too loud'.  This is Marley being 'over-processed' by the bright sunlight. She tried to tolerate it because she wanted to go on her swing. Swinging is another form of stimming for her. As in my personal case, I am not Autistic. I was diagnosed with ADHD at 6 years old. At that time it wasn't even called ADHD (I am now 42 years old). It was called short attention span with mild hyperactivity and mild depression. I was reevaluated when I was in my twenties and while th...