Posts tagged as:

My Experience

Join in Autism Community Conversations with Eileen Parker–that’s me.

November 12, 2011

I had an idea. Parents ask me questions, which I don’t mind at all. Some call out of the blue and others during conversations while they have questions about choosing a weighted blanket. Some of them spark new blog posts, and the rest live with me. So, I decided to start regular conference calls named [...]

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Autism and scraping our knees and getting back up again

April 18, 2011

“Absolutely be yourself. We are all extraordinary, wonderful people.” It’s 1:00 a.m. as I am watching this video and my eyes area tearing up. I have worked so hard to get myself to where I am. I have a strong relationship, a business, three cats, two children, two step children, and believe me all of [...]

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Looking in as an Outsider with Autism

September 20, 2010

At Granny’s I spent a lot of time just wandering off being myself and being confused as to why people were doing as they did–like talking so much about the obvious or for no reason I could gather.  I would go in the living room and play the organ or watch “Hockey Night in Canada” [...]

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Fixations, Embarrassment and my Autism

June 3, 2009

I love fixations, and I revel in them.  The world may say, “Do something useful,” “Talk,” or “We’re doing this now,” but it is deliriously heavenly to fixate. I fixated on a draping palm tree when I was in San Francisco with my mum last year.  Staring up into that tree was wondrous.  The randomness [...]

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Change is Difficult for me–a Person with Autism

June 1, 2009

My 19-year-old daughter is leaving the nest.  My son went to live with Dad for his high school years.  I’m moving in with my long-time boyfriend.  And, I started my weighted blanket business. I imagine change like this would be difficult for anyone.  Since I have High-Functioning Autism, it is doubly, triply, quadruply difficult for [...]

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Magic in my childhood mind with autism

April 15, 2009

I was asked what was the magical part of my childhood as a person with autism.  With such a question, it took me days to choose one memory over the others. One Island Lake.  It was a magical place, a sandy beach hemmed in by trees with a shoreline that curved inward toward the beach.  [...]

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Watching lips by people with autism

April 6, 2009

A Yale study is about me too! Especially when I’m in social situations or I’m trying to figure out what is going on in a conversation, I’ll “read lips” instead of looking people in the eye. That doesn’t mean I’m not listening; it means I’m trying really really hard to listen and understand. I tend [...]

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Greener than my beer from the 360 degree noises

March 18, 2009

That’s how I felt last night at the neighborhood bar celebrating St. Patrick’s Day. A cat will turn its ears toward a sound.  If there are too many sounds, the cat looks scared and will run away.  I’m like the cat when it comes to sound because it’s like my ears are turning toward each [...]

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What is Sensory Processing Disorder/Sensory Integration Dysfunction?

March 5, 2009

Sensory Processing Disorder or Dysfunction, also known as, Sensory Integration Disorder is a neurological disorder involving smell, hearing, pain, body position, taste, visual, temperature, and the body’s position and movement.  In short, the brain receives all this stimuli but can’t make sense of it so it reacts normally. Linda C. Stephens, MS, OTR, in an [...]

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