Re: How does an autistic sibling affect the other children in the family

[Guest guest]

Marcia:

I have a child on the spectrum and live near the studios. I was wondering what

kind of work your daughter does on the weekends with the kids on the spectrum?

Leanne

How does an autistic sibling affect the other children in the

family

Kristy,

is great!!! And I attribute a lot of that to . She is a better

person because of the difficulties she had to deal with as a result of 's

autism. is now twenty-two, finished USC in three years, completely

supporting herself and working for Disney Studios. She is a wonderful person who

works with kids on the spectrum on the weekends. When she was little, her

brother used to bite and pinch her and it hurt. She would ask me if she could

hit him. My reply was that when he gets better, you can hit him. It continues to

be a big joke between them, because he is better and she does hit him.

We are all better people because of the things we learned by helping . At

the time I was so worried that was getting the short end of the stick

because so much of our time went to . But it just made her a more giving and

compassionate person who always stands up for those who can't protect

themselves. When she was only 5 she was part of his educational team.

would log in as one of the therapists and teach pretend play. I think I

paid her something like a dollar an hour. She did it better than any of us

adults who forgot how to play.

Also every Saturday night, and I had our special time. No matter what

happened during the week, she knew that on Saturday, it would be just Mommy and

her and she didn't have to share. We would plan for it all week, buying all the

foods like candy and goodies that wasn't allowed to have. On Saturday night

after the boys left for their own adventure, and I would cuddle on the

coach and watch Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman. She is still mad at me because

recently I told her that I thought the premise of the show was dumb. That was

when she bought the videos and made me watch it with her at age 22, just to

prove I was wrong. Those times together were wonderful memories for both of us.

Hope this helps.

Marcia

Posted by: " Kristy Nardini " krnardini@... tkenter2

Sun Jun 17, 2007 7:40 pm (PST)

Hi Marcia,

How is doing now? I worry about my son's twin sister. Some days I have

no patience or energy for her needs, and I feel so badly because of it. We

used to have 3 mornings a week together that I made sure was our special

time, but now my son is out of school for the summer.

Kristy