Hello,
My name is Jack E. George. I am a member of the group as of today.
I have joined because I am a teacher of severely autistic children and I enjoy reading and learning from other peoples' experiences. My highest respect and admiration goes to the families and care-providers of those families working with an autistic child.
I hope to gain a lot of knowledge from this group as well as make some new friends.

Take care...

Jack

This looks like a good place to introduce myself. We live in Fort Worth, TX and have a 15 year old "high functioning" autistic. We did not get a diagnosis until age 10, though. We are currently treating through supplements and diets. We are seeing a doctor in Grapevine who is a founding member of D.A.N. I am about to start reading the book, Breaking the Vicious Cycle: Intestinal Health Through Diet, by Elaine Gottschall. Our daughter is in a high school program that is now 2 years old, designed for students like her. She has only been in the program for a couple of months, as it took us 5 years to get the ISD to agree with the autism diagnosis. Things are looking up.

During March 2009 and April 2009 buy -A Pebble to Polish
Available in print or e-book format from online retailers like Amazon.com or directly from the publisher BookSurge.com

Win for you: read an award-winning, entertaining novel. A Pebble to Polish is a Mom’s Choice Awards® Gold Recipient and USA Book News National Best Books Awards finalist.

Win for charity: In honor of Developmental Disabilities Month (March 2009) and Autism Awareness Month (April 2009), the author will donate a minimum of 20% of her royalties from books purchased in those months to charities supporting individuals with autism. Charities to receive donations are: The Arc Northern Chesapeake Region, Autism Speaks and Autism Society of America.

Synopsis: A financial windfall opens unexpected doors, but tragedy soon follows for idealistic college student, Cassandra Delaine. Compounding matters, she becomes a single parent, of an autistic child. Happiness and emotional wellbeing are seemingly out of reach until Cassandra reaches out to other parents making the same difficult journey. Kirkus Discoveries declares: “The detailed prose informative and heartwrenching by turns, offers readers a glimpse into the lives—the good, the bad and even the ugly—of all kinds of families with autistic children with warmth and compassion.”

Yes, I have read it. I met her very briefly at a Self-Advocacy conference.
Welcome!

I was hoping there would be an autism-related group here! Hi, I'm Mariah, 26 years old (soon to be 27) and have Asperger's/borderline ADD and I love to read! Esp. fantasy, sci-fi & historical fiction, as well as mythology, history, politics, religion, and of course about autism and other disabilities.

BTW, have any of you read Born on the Wrong Planet by Erika Hammerschmidt? The author is a friend of mine!