Welcome to Talk Ally- It's About Time...

I've been yammering away for over 2 years about starting this blog.

There have been so many times I've encountered people who want to know more about Ally and her therapies, but it's hard to explain the last 4 years since she's been diagnosed in a 3 minute conversation.  Especially, if I have all 3 kids with me, usually one or all of them are yanking my arms out of my sockets vying for my attention. God forbid I would actually speak to another adult!  Pay attention to meeeeee!

Or I meet someone in between workshops at a conference and my mind is racing a mile a minute trying to come up with the name of a book that changed Ally's life, or trying to explain a therapy that often times I end up sounding like a poor salesman or some crazed hippie.  And I also have questions for the parents of kids on the Autism Spectrum too, I try and squeeze in what I can but it's always later on that I come up with the most important question I wanted to ask.  And exchanging emails and phone numbers don't usually work, been down that road.

I want this blog to be a place where we can share ideas, thoughts, experiences with one another.  I'm sure there will be people who will tell me I'm off my rocker.  I expect that if I'm talking about Autism.  The parents of children on the Autism Spectrum are passionate folk.  And when we talk about passion, other words spring to my mind...opinionated, bossy, defensive...I admit, myself included.  But we are passionate because we love our kids and would do anything in the world to make life a little bit easier for them, and let's face it, for us too.

The complicated thing about Autism, is that all kids on the spectrum are different.  They share a lot of the same symptoms, but there is such a varying degree of tolerance sensory wise, cognitively and motor function, etc.  One therapy that has worked for Ally so well, may do absolutely nothing for your child.  That's why research is so difficult.  And the cause and treatments for Autism are such a hot button issue, EVERYONE has an opinion.  Only you can decide what's best for your child, I am merely sharing, humbly so, my personal experiences and thoughts.  At the very least, I hope you will find comfort in the fact that you are not alone.

I want to make it clear that I am not an occupational therapist, speech therapist, educator, physician or any kind of specialist at all.  But I am a Mom that knows my daughter the best along side with my husband, Jim.  We've have had countless discussions, some inevitably with tears.  Some of them are sad tears, but there's been a lot of happy ones too.  I've asked many questions to the therapists, doctors and educators.  I have read books, attended workshops and conferences when I can.  I have spent hours and hours on the internet scouring for anything that might help Ally.  You never know when something may lead you to find something that will help your child.  I go off on tangents when I'm looking up stuff, my web browser is always full of tabs yet to be further researched.  There is so much information out there it's dizzying.

I also created this blog for my family and friends.  When someone asks me, "How is Ally doing?"  I'm not sure how to answer.  Do they want to hear how she's doing in school?  Is she catching up with the other kids in her class?  Is she talking more?  Is she sleeping well?  Eating better? What new therapies are we doing? Is she calmer?  So generally, I respond by saying that she's doing well and doing great at school, or that she's got an award, or brag about the latest thing her SPED teacher said.  Sometimes, I may go deeper and share a little about a problem that's been going on.  And then there's so much information that goes around that one problem, that I end up feeling like I'm rambling and I start thinking, "Are they really interested?", or "Is what I'm saying making them uncomfortable?".  I don't know how much they really want to know.  With this blog, you can stop reading whenever you like, nothing's forced upon you.  Or, you can ask me more questions here on the blog, or share some thoughts, or come and speak to me more about it in person.  I don't want to overstay my welcome with a simple, "How's Ally doing?" question.

I also think that there are family and friends of mine that don't know how to ask.  They're probably not sure even what to ask.  There are big questions out there like, "What is Ally going to be like when she's older?", "Will she ever be able to talk like we all do?"  "Will she always need all this therapy to get through the day?".  Not so easy questions to address when we're at a family dinner and we still need to keep an eye on the kids.

I am new to blogging but not so new at reading them.  Hope I don't make any blogger faux pas.  But knowing me, I most certainly will.  Thanks for visiting, don't be afraid to post your comments and subscribe by the "Follow by Email" box below or follow using Google friend connect (you won't get emailed of new posts) so we can keep in touch! Thanks for visiting!