Looking for information on Autism? Our story began before our diagnosis in February, 2011. Graham is PDD-NOS, has delays in expressive and receptive language and decreased eye contact. He is currently receiving about 25 hours per week of Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) therapy through Early Intervention.

Before Graham was diagnosed I just felt like a really terrible parent. Parents are supposed to enjoy their kids and want to spend time with them but I felt so much pressure and anxiety because my child was always so difficult. Finding out what it all means has been a relief and a big help since Graham now has services helping him more than we ever could alone.

One major reason this blog is important to me is that I hope people looking for information and support will read our story and feel a little bit better.

Here are some of my posts from our journey:

• Early Intervention
• Evaluation
• Diagnosis
• Dealing with it all
• Pre-Therapy
• 1 Month Into Therapy
• How ABA Works
• What IS Normal Anyway With an Autistic Toddler?
• Dealing with Depression as a Special Needs Parent

You can also read more from me and others at Parents Magazine’s Voices of Autism and over at About.com’s Autism and Mother’s Day Essays.

I really recommend the CDC’s site on signs of autism if you’re concerned about a child you know.

My favorite resource is other blogs and following the experiences of other parents. Because autism is such a wide spectrum it’s helpful to get a variety of information and anecdotes. Many of them are also on Twitter where we share our good and our bad days.

In particular I recommend Hopeful Parents a site for all kinds of special-needs parents.

Autism and Special Needs Blogs

• A Life Less Ordinary?
• Adventures in Extreme Parenting
• Anybody Want a Peanut?
• Autism Army Mom
• Bad Words
• Big Daddy Autism
• Bird on the Street
• boys x 3
• I’m Just That Way and That’s Just Me
• Kitaiska Sandwich
• Life In the House that Asperger Built
• Life-Less-Ordinary
• Living Life, With a Side of Autism
• Planet Josh
• The Ryan Files
• Stimeyland
• Try Defying Gravity
• Yeah. Good Times.