Tweet Patrick was a 19-year-old who didn’t have a friend to call his own. While living with his parents, he enrolled in a local community college, where he met a couple of guys who wanted to hang out. When his parents learned their son was going out for the first time, they were hopeful —
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Tweet Several years ago, I wrote an essay that was published in an anthology of works by mothers of special needs children. “Dancing with Despair” recounted the first 14 years after my son’s autism diagnosis, during which life was overrun by doctor and therapy visits, special diets and behavioral programs. Sleepless nights followed stress-filled days.
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Tweet           A PROVOCATIVE PIECE..  As seen in the Huffington Post, April 2012 By Liane Kupferberg Carter Freelance Writer Huffington Post Blogger     I don’t know how to do this. There’s no book for taking the next step. No Fiske’s Guide to Colleges. No Barron’s. When our son Jonathan was preparing to
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Tweet As seen in the Huffington Post, April 18, 2012. Time can be our ally. It can also be our adversary. For months now I have been marking its passage with ever-growing dread.  By the end of May, our school district will have fulfilled its mandate to educate my son.  As its’ obligation is being
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Tweet As seen in the St. Paul Pioneer Press on  April 20, 2012. If you’ve met one person with autism, you’ve met one person with autism, the saying goes. It’s hardly a one-size-fits-all disorder. That makes it tough to understand the one in 88 people who have the diagnosis today, as compared to one in
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Tweet On September 30, 2011, I wrote a column for the St. Paul Pioneer Press about Jimmy Reagan, a young adult with autism who is an emerging artist (http://bit.ly/ntyE0A).  In this guest blog post, his mother, Peg Schneeman Reagan, provides a fascinating update. Over the last six months, Jimmy’s art has been growing in ways
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Tweet As seen in the St. Paul Pioneer Press on December 9, 2011. We know them. We are them. The people who change parents’ Depends; sit with children through chemotherapy; answer the same question from a spouse over and over. Caregivers are the bone-tired folks who attend to others’ basic needs, often while balancing family
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Tweet As seen in the St. Paul Pioneer Press on October 28, 2011. Two decades ago, autism was a mysterious condition known to relatively few. These days, media reports about Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) appear daily; it’s rare to find someone who doesn’t have a connection to the lifelong condition affecting between 1 million and
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Tweet My guest blog post that appeared on Laura Shumaker’s San Francisco Chronicle blog (SFgate.com)  on October 20, 2011. I sat down at the table for our 2 p.m. meeting and looked up at the clock. We were about to design my son’s last IEP (Individualized Education Plan) – the roadmap for his final services
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Tweet As seen in the St. Paul Pioneer Press on September 30, 2011. Jimmy Reagan’s story unfolds through pictures. It begins with baby photos his parents treasure: Jimmy as an infant, snacking in his high chair, impish grin stretching between rosy cheeks; Jimmy frolicking with his dad in a pile of leaves, bright eyes focused
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