Sunflower by Jacob. Nice.

This post was originally about some data and my desire to see changes in how parents who choose to keep their children with ASDs home instead of placing them in group homes.. are treated compared to group home services rendered.. after reflection, I wanted to change the post and keep it more geared towards the loveliness of my severely autistic child, Jacob.. 

I want to keep this blog about the sweet nature of my son despite a the rare/not so rare meltdown here and there.. and to focus on the things that bring him joy and us joy through him.  As I poured through the countless sites on autism.. I noticed there were lots of parents that feel overwhelmed, exhausted, isolated and "imprisoned" by their children.  I want parents to know, this is NOTa sentence of busting rocks for the rest of their life.. but you will bust rocks.. that I can promise ( and he/she will too ), in reaching milestones and surpassing hurdles in their life. 

 When I am ill, he runs and gets pillows and blankets.. and in his strange garbled tone say's "lie down, lie down" pronounced (lie dowel lie dowel).. what a sweet sweet boy.. There are days, I scratch my head at the end of the night and wonder, "how did I get through that?" (meltdown days).. I'm still standing thats all that counts.

  I will leave the trained people to discuss the heartbreaks and debilitating pain watching day in and day out.. someone like my son suffer-trying to communicate, trying to connect with the world and people around him OR suffering consequences from not connecting.. there are countless services parents are not receiving.. countless changes in the system that needs to be made including insurance availability for autism needs.. but I have to challenge myself to show you how wonderful my son can be...  I like to refer to it as, the constant terrible two's.. its exhausting, but you wouldn't trade that cute guy for nothing.

 There is  a lot of science data on ASD's (autism spectrum disorders).. I could pour through pages on this stuff.  One page I cannot find.. How disheartening.. is the page that led me to Jacobs therapy.  I saw a study 3 years ago being done at a Georgia hospital.  They were forcing ASD's to "create"  I discussed this in my previous post.  Today I was going to share that with you on this page and could not find it.  I did find many sites discussing art and autism and therapy but this was a particular site that gave me much hope.

Because of how the autism mind works, and how it is lit up under MRI it was discovered that forcing autistic people to create "new" things.. forced them to deal with parts of the brain that were not very well lit under mri. This means taking away the coloring books(it is structured artwork) and forcing him to 'create' as this opens up normally 'dim' areas of his mind under Mri.. therefore, I like to bring subjects up to Jacob and ask him to "draw his "own", Canyonlands.. or Mcdonaldstm arches.  I sometimes just sit back and let him start painting something and then ask him, "whatcha drawing Jake?"..and he surprises me.. a Legotm house?.. but yes, now I can see.. a Legotm house..hm. Thought I'd share this photo of the finished "Legotm House" painting, in the last post he was still painting it. - "Lego House" by Jacob: 

and finished!

 A moment of reflection or introspection.. Jake sitting so quietly on a farm tractor tire while I water the garden and snap pictures of sunflowers (I have a fascination with sunflowers) but who doesn't right?

(Beautiful Sunflower for you to Enjoy!)

and Jacob enjoying the sunflowers!

Boy Howdy, does he bring me joy! Maybe tomarrow I will ask him to paint me a sunflower..hm Sunflower by Jacob. Nice.