{"id":541,"date":"2009-05-11T18:55:13","date_gmt":"2009-05-11T23:55:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/?p=541"},"modified":"2009-05-11T18:55:13","modified_gmt":"2009-05-11T23:55:13","slug":"learning-to-live-with-autism-lessons-learned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/learning-to-live-with-autism-lessons-learned\/","title":{"rendered":"Learning to Live with Autism: Lessons Learned"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_pop\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/gallery\/share-button-gray.png\" style=\"border:0px\" alt=\"Share\" \/><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"StumbleUpon\",\"Digg\",\"Reddit\",\"Bebo\",\"Delicious\");var hupso_icon_type = \"labels\";var hupso_background=\"#FFFFFF\";var hupso_border=\"#FFFFFF\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_twitter_via=\"wrightslaw\";var hupso_url=\"\";var hupso_title=\"Learning%20to%20Live%20with%20Autism%3A%20Lessons%20Learned\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div><p>On Sunday, millions of mothers spent the day &#8220;making memories&#8221;  with cards and gifts,  works of art homemade by little hands. Do you find it hard to throw these treasures away?<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" style=\"border: 1px solid black; margin: 5px;float:left\" title=\"Three children\" src=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/nltr\/img\/3sibs.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"153\" height=\"100\" \/>Here&#8217;s how to  preserve them without keeping boxes full of paper in the attic. Jackie D.Igafo-Te&#8217;o shares how she cherishes the good times by preserving positive memories of her children.<\/p>\n<p>Jackie is the mother of three children.  She has one son with autism.   In her series &#8220;Learning to Live with Autism,&#8221; Jackie writes of lessons learned, provides advice for newly diagnosed families, and shares research options for education and resources. <!--more--><\/p>\n<p><strong>1. Cherish the good times.  Preserve positive memories. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>How can I preserve some of my children&#8217;s memories here at home?  If you are like me, you find it hard to throw anything away.  When you do find the nerve to throw away their &#8220;works of art&#8221; you hide them in the bottom of the trash can so they won&#8217;t see what you&#8217;ve done.  My kids are growing fast and I can&#8217;t imagine losing those memories.<\/p>\n<p>A simple way that I&#8217;ve found to preserve these memories is to scan them into my computer, reduce them in size and print 4 to a page, like photographs.  Then cut them out and put them in a photo album or scrapbook for safekeeping.<\/p>\n<p>You can now have hard-cover, bound picture books printed for around $20 through places like Wal-Mart and Shutterfly.com.  Not only do these make great gifts, it&#8217;s a great way of saving some of their most treasured art without keeping boxes full of paper in the attic. There will always be those things that you can&#8217;t seem to part with &#8211; like the first letter your child ever writes to you or his drawing of the family.  No digital image could ever replace some of these memories.<\/p>\n<p>We all like to look back from time to time and take a walk down memory lane.  It&#8217;s good for the soul.  Take some time out to reflect on the positive impact that Autism has had on your life.<\/p>\n<p>Remember that it&#8217;s not all negative and gloomy.  Autism has brought unity into our family.  It has brought passion and friendships that we&#8217;ll treasure for a lifetime.  Despite the daily struggles we face with safety issues, sibling issues, education struggles and insurance failing to pay for needed therapies, there is definitely a bright light that is always shining.<\/p>\n<p>There are moments worth treasuring in our everyday lives.  When you start feeling down or that everything seems hopeless, pull out your scrapbook and take a walk through the past.  It can do wonders.<\/p>\n<p><strong>2.  Seek advice and input from other parents who have \u201cbeen there\u201d and as you learn, share your experiences with others.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>3.  Do not isolate yourself.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>4.  Go shopping for doctors and therapists.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>5.  Research options for education.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>6.  Always keep safety in mind.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>7. Planning for the future (and for emergencies).<br \/>\n<\/strong><br \/>\nRead the complete text of Jackie&#8217;s article, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/info\/autism.lessons.lrnd.pdf\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Learning to Live with Autism: Lessons Learned and Advice for Newly Diagnosed Families<\/span><\/a>.  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/info\/autism.lessons.lrnd.pdf\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/info\/autism.lessons.lrnd.pdf<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Find more information and resources about autism on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/info\/autism.index.htm\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Autism Spectrum page<\/span><\/a> at Wrightslaw. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/info\/autism.index.htm\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/info\/autism.index.htm<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"> Jackie knows the struggles parents face. She has experience with these struggles and in 2002 co-founded of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bridges4kids.org\/\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Bridges4Kids <\/span><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bridges4kids.org\/\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">http:\/\/www.bridges4kids.org\/<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Learn more about Jackie and her work for children with disabilities in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/info\/advo.tips.attitude.jigafoteo.htm\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">this article<\/span><\/a>. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/info\/advo.tips.attitude.jigafoteo.htm\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/info\/advo.tips.attitude.jigafoteo.htm<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Sunday, millions of mothers spent the day &#8220;making memories&#8221; with cards and gifts, works of art homemade by little hands. Do you find it hard to throw these treasures <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/learning-to-live-with-autism-lessons-learned\/\">Continue Reading \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4,136],"tags":[1291,42,186],"class_list":["post-541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-advocacy","category-general-info","category-strategies","tag-advocacy","tag-autism","tag-autism-spectrum"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=541"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":551,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541\/revisions\/551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}