Wednesday, October 30, 2013

What is normal?

Tonight the c-man came up to me and he had decided he was done with people treating him like he was special. He just wanted to be treated like a normal kid. Pretty much words I never wanted to hear come out of his mouth. I try my best to treat him exactly like his brothers. With the exception of having to chauffeur him around to more appointments than the others. I try to make sure everyone is happy and healthy in whatever they do. 
Well, he's tired of it. What exactly is he tired of? He's tired of having to be separated from his class to take tests. (a 504 accomodation). But he doesn't test alone, he actually is separated into a small group and one of his good buddies happens to be in that group. He went on a field trip yesterday and according to him they would not stop repeating to him everything they were gonna do. (another 504 accommodation made by me)
Wanna know what he's most ticked off about that needs to stop now?
His mom (me) needs to stop being so dang nice to him all the time. I brought his dinner plate to him tonight so he didn't spill and got the good ole "HOW DARE YOU!!" Sheesh when will I ever learn right? lol

What he doesn't know is all these people who are nice to him and treat him special? They do that to make his life just a touch easier than it could be. He may not realize it now, but I'm willing to bet he's gonna be pretty thankful for that someday. 

**Attached pictures are the lovely little note C-man wrote me tonight**
Sigh...it could be worse. That's all I'm sayin' 




FYI....these do make me sad. But they're also very real into what the world of autism is like and thats why I like to share things of this nature...:)

Out with the OLD in with the NEW...

   I decided to do away with the Ipad challenge fundraiser on the puzzling piece page. If you bought an item from there, thank you. I know that you did not only to help me but because autism probably affects you and your family too...
  So I am going to stick with the gofundme page only. I have re-written the description and will share it here for you as well... So If you can please DONATE, if not please SHARE...EVERY LITTLE BIT HELPS!

 YOU CAN FIND HIS GOFUNDME PAGE HERE: WWW.GOFUNDME.COM/CARTERSIPADCHALLENGE

This is Carter. He's all kinds of awesome. He's been through more in his 9 years than more people go through in their entire lives. Why? When he was 5 we found out he had a brain tumor, he had brain surgery 24 hours later to have it removed. Then 6 months later it grew back and he had a 2nd brain surgery. He bounced back better than ever. Until shortly after his 2nd surgery he was diagnosed with Autism. Autism can be great, don't get me wrong. But, it is also one tough thing to deal with after another. 
My goal is so raise enough money to buy an iPad. He's very obsessed with electronics. They are what get him through the day. When he doesn't have something like that to occupy his mind and his hands lots of things can happen. Anxiety, aggression, OCD...just every fidgety thing you can think of. And while I hate to admit it he can get violent when he's bored and doesn't have anything to occupy him like this. 
There are many articles out there about how great iPads can be for kids with Autism. Kate Goodin from parenting.com says "Most of us think of the iPad as Apple's latest, coolest gadget to add to our tech arsenals. For the parents of some autistic children, however, the iPad is a near-miracle."
Fox news has even called it a "Miracle device for kids with Autism"
myasdf.org explains how and why ipads are so useful for autistic kids just like mine...
Why iPads?iPads offer portability and flexibly that a traditional PC or laptop cannot provide to a young child. Since it utilizes a touchscreen, the iPad is more accessible for children who have learning or coordination difficulties. Most children who use the iPad find that tapping and sliding motions are much easier than typing. iPads can also go wherever the child goes, which means they have ways to calm, focus, and learn while on-the-go.


Benefits of Using the iPad for Learning
The iPad itself has a lot of benefits, but for the autistic child the iPad offers many distinct advantages:
Portability
A direct touchscreen so no mouse or stylus is required
A digital parallel to books or papers
Not having to move their eyes from a keyboard to a screen
Apps are easily organized, predictable, and accessible
Apps help break learning down into discrete chunks and topics
A child can enjoy independent learning and leisure time


Now that you have all the info, this is where you come in. You can donate (which would be great and I will be forever grateful). Or if you can't donate you can simply share this page. That would be just as helpful to help me get the word out there. 


I thank you, and Carter thanks you. Well he would if he knew about all this...if you know a kid with autism you know why I can't tell him about this until I pretty much have the iPad in my hand to give him. But I can promise that if you help me reach this goal I will post a video of him saying thank you! No matter how hard that usually is for me to get out of him ;)

**I also want to add that if we exceed our goal I will be donating all of the extra money to an Autism awareness charity!

Monday, October 28, 2013

What would you do? Autism and ipads part 2....

A lot of different things have been brought to my attention since I started this "ipad Challenge" a couple of weeks ago. Honestly things I didn't even consider when i started. All I knew is I had heard wonderful things about how magical an ipad could be in the hands of a child with autism, and I had to figure out how to get one since all of my c-man's electronics had bit the dust lately. When the boy doesn't have his electronics honestly, he's kind of a mess. Lost, bored, angry, aggressive...He NEEDS these kinds of things to keep his mind and his hands busy. So as his mom I knew it was my job to figure it out. 
So I sat down to do some research. I looked up places that provided grants for children with autism to buy an ipad. I looked up foundations that would just give you one if your child applied. I looked up contests, and games that you could win one. I applied for them all. ALL OF THEM. There were different reasons for each one that it didn't work out. The biggest reason was that there was too much need out there and not enough people to help fulfill the need. 
So that's why I settled on the iPad Challenge on the puzzling piece. It was something I could control. There were no rules, or deadlines. It all sounded so simple....Until 2 weeks passed and I'd only sold 4 items and had 56 more to sell. 60 items to sell is a lot! Especially when they're autism themed items. I can totally understand that if you aren't affected by autism why would you want to buy an autism themed piece of jewelry or t-shirt. I wouldn't. 
That's why I decided to start the gofundme page. I figured whatever money I could make there I would put back into buying things from the challenge so it would up my sales numbers. So if you didn't want to buy jewelry you could just donate a little cash and that would help out just the same. I have gotten many generous donations there. But also not enough. Because it was brought to my attention that 60 items sold well exceeds the actual cost of an iPad. When I set the amount to be raised on that site I set it high because 1. I didn't actually know how much an ipad cost, and 2. my goal was to turn the money into sales for the challenge. Then I thought well what if i made it to that goal before I made it to the ipad challenge goal? Why wouldn't I just buy an Ipad with that money?
Well, because the puzzling piece donates part of the proceeds to an autism awareness charity. But why can't I? If I exceed the price of an ipad on the go fund me page I could just turn around and give whats left to an autism awareness charity right?
There are also the naysayers who are probably just thinking..why should we giver her money for something like that? I don't blame you. I would too. BUT, the cost of something like that is way way way out of the realm of possibility for us right now. Why not just buy him an inexpensive tablet...Check that one off the list too. We bought him one for his birthday. Because of how rough he can be on things and the inexpensiveness of it, it broke within months. We sent it back to the company and got a new one, which also broke recently. That's why my mind when to an ipad. With the right case and the customer service and warranty's they provide, they can be indestructible. 
I lowered the goal on the gofundme page in case that was scaring people off. But I'm stuck. Things aren't moving fast enough for me. This is something I need to happen quickly. I know I know, all great things take time. But with a kid like mine waiting is not his forte. 
So, What would you do if you were in my shoes to help raise money for something like this?
Please comment, and share. I am willing to listen to any and all advice. I would do anything to make my boy happy. He's been through too much to not have a little joy in his life. So, what would you do?

If you wanna check out our gofundme page to see what that's all about and what you could do to help or change things..._------> www.gofundme.com/cartersipadchallenge 

Thank you in advance for any and all help and advice you can throw my way! <3<3<3

Friday, October 18, 2013

4 down, 56 to go!

Just got my weekly email from the puzzling piece! We have sold 4 items so far in the iPad challenge! That great! But we need a lot more, 56 to be exact. If you don't wanna buy any items but still wanna help you can donate as much or as little as you want on our gofundme page. All the info you need is here on my blog http://sweetpeasandskittles.blogspot.com/2013/10/autism-and-ipads.html?m=1...

Keep in mine this sweet face when you're thinking of helping or sharing his story...

Lol ok weird face. This was c-man last Christmas when Santa brought him the exact green sweater he'd always wanted. His Christmas list was very clear, a plain green sweater with nothing on it, no pictures, no buttons, no stripes, no nothing lol. 

Monday, October 14, 2013

Autism and iPads...

     As I've shared before C-man has autism. We actually got his official diagnosis last week. "Your son has autism." Was I upset? No, its something I've known for a long time. She just put a caption on the picture. I waited til he got home to see if he looked different to me. He didn't. Still same ole C-man, who told me about a gas price he saw in town on his way home on the bus. Gas prices are his latest obsession. It actually comes in handy, as soon as he hears my low fuel alarm go off in the car he'll say  "The times gas station near the dollar store is the cheapest at $3.21 a gallon." And that's where I go.
   Saturday night we had "the talk" with him. No not that talk, get your minds out of the gutter ;) lol...We shared with him that he had autism. He took it...well? He laughed the whole time, which is pretty normal for him. He doesn't usually display the right emotions for situations like that. He knows he can come ask questions about it whenever he needs to.
     He has always had an obsession with electronics, which is a pretty common one with kids who have autism. They keep his racing mind busy. Gives his hands something to do, and can help him with skill he has difficulty with. So in the past couple of months, our computer broke and the tablet he got for his birthday broke. An autistic kids WORST nightmare. Let me tell ya. He is bored bored bored. His meltdowns have been more frequent when he doesn't keep busy. So as his mom and his protector I decided I needed to figure out how to help him.
   Through my research I came across a site called The Puzzling Piece. They offer an opportunity called the iPad challenge strictly for kids with autism. When you sign up for the challenge you have to sell 60 of their autism themed items, when you sell your 60th piece, that's it! You get an iPad. For every 12 items you sell after that you get an iTunes gift card to help buy apps for your new iPad. How easy could that be right? Not really...60 is a big number. So that's where you come in. You can buy items from the iPad challenge section of this site and every purchase will go towards his goal of winning an iPad. You can't buy anything? You can still help! Share his story and this challenge cause you never know who you might reach that CAN help!
   What you're gonna do is go to this site www.thepuzzlingpiece.com. Click on the tab at the top that says "products", then click on the section that says iPad challenge. There you will see a bunch of items that look like this...
   
When you make your purchase you put in the challengers name which would be Angel Kincaid. That way they credit the purchase towards our goal. And that's it.It will be shipped right to you. You can feel good knowing you've made a difference in an awesome kids life! Because not only are you helping to put an amazing piece of technology in my kids hand, but with every sale the puzzling piece donates to an autism awareness charity! 
IF YOU STILL WANNA HELP BUT DONT WANNA PURCHASE ANYTHING PLEASE CHECKOUT OUR GOFUNDME PAGE! WHERE ALL MONEY RAISED WILL GO RIGHT BACK INTO THIS CHALLENGE! http://www.gofundme.com/4twwes

iPads helps kids with Autism in so many different ways. I've already shared the ways I think it would help the C-man. But, I've also found some more info from the site www.myasdf.org. I will share a couple bits from there...
Why iPads?
iPads offer portability and flexibly that a traditional PC or laptop cannot provide to a young child. Since it utilizes a touchscreen, the iPad is more accessible for children who have learning or coordination difficulties. Most children who use the iPad find that tapping and sliding motions are much easier than typing. iPads can also go wherever the child goes, which means they have ways to calm, focus, and learn while on-the-go.

Benefits of Using the iPad for Learning
The iPad itself has a lot of benefits, but for the autistic child the iPad offers many distinct advantages:
  • Portability
  • A direct touchscreen so no mouse or stylus is required
  • A digital parallel to books or papers
  • Not having to move their eyes from a keyboard to a screen
  • Apps are easily organized, predictable, and accessible
  • Apps help break learning down into discrete chunks and topics
  • A child can enjoy independent learning and leisure time
I am so thankful if you've made it this far. This is a very important opportunity for my c-man. I know this could help him in so many different ways and he would be forever grateful. So from this Autism mom I thank you in advance if you bought something, shared his story and info, or simply just read and liked my blog :)