Being the eldest of six children had its advantages when growing up. Until ALL of my younger siblings eventually surpassed me in height, I could often see things before they could: the first snow falling outside our window, the next float coming down the parade route, the favorite animal exhibit at the zoo. Invariably, one […]
As a parent of two children with autism spectrum disorder, and as a professional who's spent the last six years working toward autism acceptance in schools, I found Suzanne Wright's blog posting, "Autism Speaks Point of View" for last week, incredibly offensive. Apparently, so did hundreds of others, whose comments at first were allowed on […]
So much as happened near and far in the past few days that remind me how much work we have to do as an organization and as parents, and how much has already been done by so many autism advocates. In the category of earth-shaking accomplishments, take Larry Bissonnette and Tracy Thresher of Wretches & […]
Whether your neighborhood hosted trick-or-treaters already, or is gearing up for the swarm of costumed kiddos later this week, this is a time when many of us celebrate our children pretending to be other than who (or what) they are. Sometimes the costumes are so elaborate or concealing, we cannot recognize our pals. And some […]
I could spend the next month's worth of blogs breaking down the lyrics of The Figureheads' original song, "We ALL Fit", written and produced for Good Friend's upcoming elementary school peer sensitivity film of the same title. And each week I could focus on a phrase that has come to mean so much more to […]
It's a busy month for Good Friend, Inc. - and with good reason. October is National Bullying Prevention Month. While Good Friend's autism awareness-acceptance-empathy services for staff and students aren't specifically about bullying, they are intended to prevent disability harassment. So for as long as there isn't a Disability Harassment Prevention Month, we'll piggyback on […]
When we started developing our student curriculum nearly seven years ago, Denise and I knew what we, as parents, wanted typically-developing peers to know about their classmates with autism, including our own sons. Not long after we had done some field tests, we assembled a committee to review our newly-hatched programs and services. One of […]
I'm not an athlete. My strength never did come from my muscles. But I certainly do admire the way athletes challenge themselves. It seems to me that the good ones don't so much compare themselves to other athletes, but to their own accomplishments. Personal bests, training regimens, and individualized goals mix and mingle with creative […]
If you've "Liked" Good Friend's Facebook page, then you probably saw the photo we posted on Sunday. We were at Dylan's Run and snapped a picture of Potawatomi's vendor booth. Here's the exciting explanation! Good Friend, Inc., is in the running to be one of this year’s benefiting charities of Potawatomi Bingo Casino’s signature community […]