Week 3 C25K complete and Autism Live

A beautiful afternoon here in Sydney so I finished up Week 3 of the C25K while my husband minded the kids.  I never used to like running in the afternoon but am really enjoying it lately.  I've decided I hate running down hills.  My poor knees feel like they're going to pop.  There must be a proper technique that I'm not aware of.

I want to share with you my enthusiasm and support for an online autism program I watch called Autism Live.  It is hosted by an autism mum called Shannon Penrod.  Before this program started Shannon used to host a weekly radio show on autism.


When my twins were first diagnosed I was left without any hope that they would speak properly, or function independently at all.  It was by far the darkest time in my life.  I was searching for answers and some hope that the doctors never gave me when they were diagnosed.  Luckily I plugged the words autism and miracle into google and up popped the website for a show called Everyday Autism Miracles.  That's what I was looking for - a miracle.  What I learnt was miraculous but also costly in every way.  I discovered ABA - applied behaviour analysis.  Within weeks of the boys being diagnosed my boys were accepted into an ABA centre and were doing full weekly programs.  I had found what I desperately wanted - hope.  They began to talk, I could manage their behaviour, I was no longer a prisoner in my own home.  I trained to be a junior therapist and my husband did too.  None of it was easy.  Doing therapy with your own child is really hard but completely worth it.  I'm lucky that I found some wonderful Junior therapists and had one of the most experienced BCBAs working in Australia working with us.  And it was and still is financially devastating.  Would I do it again? Yes - in a heartbeat.

Shannon went on to host Austism Live.  Its inspiring, encouraging and real.  As you know it can be very isolating being a parent of a child on the spectrum.  Sometimes I feel that is even more so in a mainstream environment.  Sometime I feel like an alien parent listening to other preschool mums at coffee mornings.  This show really charges the batteries when it gets too much.  Check it out here or here.

Last week I emailed a problem I was having with one of the boys and was really excited that it was addressed by Dr Doreen Granpeesheh, founder of the Center for Autism and Related Disorders (CARD).  She is one of my Autism 'heroes'.