I’m having trouble finding an ideal family to speak with about their experiences with adult autism. It’s been a bit of a set-back for my fourth and final text module (the extra module for grad credit). I may have to go in another direction if something doesn’t pan out soon.

As for my slideshow that’s due next week, I am not thrilled with the pictures I took at a bowling event for the Baltimore-Chesapeake Chapter of the Autism Society of America. The pictures do not quite tell the story I was hoping to capture. There is a great event that’s upcoming that would be much better in mind. Here’s the posting I found online: “Even with all those elves, the fat man himself couldn’t have designed a better fantasy world than Kennedy Krieger Institute’s Festival of Trees. It’s a three-day extravaganza of fairyland forests, gingerbread towns and toy train gardens, complimented by over 100 craft boutiques, holiday goodies and activities for kids of all ages.” The event raises funds for patient programs and research projects at  Kennedy Krieger.

As research this week I took a look at other instances of children who were seemingly cured of autism over time – the same way the young boy Mason was cured in the last text module I posted. The story Raising an Autistic Child is really a dialogue between readers and a doctor about particular autism cases. Some cases are quite similar to Mason’s. I find it interesting how different other cases can be. This excerpt was incredibly moving: “I wonder how many of the kids who COULD improve ultimately don’t because their families simply don’t have the ability to make the necessary sacrifices and can’t afford the therapies that help. I hope that stories like yours make people realize that there is a societal benefit to providing services early to improve long-term outcomes. We -just- got off the five-year-long waiting list for services in Maryland through the state autism waiver — I wonder sometimes if we had had those services six years ago, would my son be ‘cured’ now, or at least significantly better off.”