Connection and Autism: It May Not Be What You Think
You can read my June 2020 Psychology Today column here. (Source: Susan's Blog)
Source: Susan's Blog - June 16, 2020 Category: Child Development Authors: Susan Senator Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
Susie ’ s Little Day Program
I was caught off guard by the Coronavirus just like everyone else. I look back now in horror at all the times I sat right next to people — even a sneezing guy on an airplane — and wandered around blithely without a mask. At the beginning of March, though, it all changed. I was picking Nat up from his day program on a Thursday for a doctor’s appointment, but while waiting for him to collect his things, I noticed how few people were in the room, and how few vans there were outside. I asked Paul, his dear friend and case manager, and Paul said that people were not coming in because of the virus.
Suddenly...
Source: Susan's Blog - May 18, 2020 Category: Child Development Authors: Susan Senator Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
Quarantined: Spending Time With My Adult Autistic Son
I hope you enjoy this new post I wrote for Psychology Today. It’s been quite a time staying home with Nat these three weeks! (Source: Susan's Blog)
Source: Susan's Blog - March 30, 2020 Category: Child Development Authors: Susan Senator Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
Special Needs Voting Social Story
VOTING IS REALLY IMPORTANT.
HERE’S HOW TO DO IT
Copyright 10/25/18 by Susan Senator
All rights reserved
ALL ABOUT VOTING
Voting is making choices. Voting is a wonderful thing to do if you are grown up. Voting is VERY IMPORTANT FOR ANYONE LIVING IN THE UNITED STATES.
The choices are for different people who want to be in charge of the rules we follow. These are called Elected Officials.
The choices on the voting form are also for some rules that all people must follow. These are called Questions.
WHAT WILL HAPPEN AT THE VOTING PLACE?
We go into the building. At the first table, ____________ says his name SLOWLY and clea...
Source: Susan's Blog - February 17, 2020 Category: Child Development Authors: Susan Senator Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
Nat Solves the Autism Puzzle Piece
I give you my latest column for Psychology Today. Enjoy!
(Source: Susan's Blog)
Source: Susan's Blog - January 31, 2020 Category: Child Development Authors: Susan Senator Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
More About GHOST
While on my bike ride the other day, I had a revelation about how to begin implementing GHOST, which I first described in Psychology Today. First I came up with what the acronym means: G.H.O.S.T: Group Home Oversight & Support Team. The way it would work is, the parents and guardians of group home residents swear an alliance of the soul with each other and vow to check in on the others’ child in the parent’s absence/death. Weekly visits. And if you can’t, you must get someone else who gives a shit to do it in your place. I don’t know what the incentive would be since we don’t all have trus...
Source: Susan's Blog - December 23, 2019 Category: Child Development Authors: Susan Senator Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
Change Vs. Accept? Read My Latest For Psychology Today
How much should we autism parents struggle to “change” our children’s behavior, to channel it to more “normal” pursuits? Are we stifling the real person by doing so? You can read the piece here. (Source: Susan's Blog)
Source: Susan's Blog - December 13, 2019 Category: Child Development Authors: Susan Senator Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
I ’ m Offering A Writing Workshop Online
The process for producing a publishable piece: Nailing the essay-length work
This two-part class will give you the basic tools for crafting opeds, personal narrative, book proposals, pitch letters, beginning memoirs. You will also have plus opportunity for peer review and one free session of my editing. 2 Saturday mornings in January, TBD
DAY ONE
Overview: The essay, what it is used for:
Pitch letters
Opeds
Summary of book for an agent
Persuasion
The three most important goals for an essay
To catch the reader’s eye
To get the reader to keep reading
To “win,” i.e., to fully convey your point and persuad...
Source: Susan's Blog - December 4, 2019 Category: Child Development Authors: Susan Senator Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
Psychology Today: The Near Impossibility of Family Balance
Here is my latest post for Psychology Today. Enjoy! (Source: Susan's Blog)
Source: Susan's Blog - November 30, 2019 Category: Child Development Authors: Susan Senator Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
Nat is 30
Even back in 2005 when Making Peace With Autism came out, I knew that I’d made a terrible mistake with the opening sentence: “The hardest day of the year for me is Nat’s birthday, November 15.”
How could I have thought such a thing, much less published it for everyone to see?
What if Nat saw?
Realistically, he wouldn’t because he doesn’t read books like that. But still. Imagine a child seeing that.
Further on I wrote:
Of course, Ned and I are happy to celebrate Nat’s birthday, going to great lengths to come up with presents that catch his quicksilver attention and baking a cake slather...
Source: Susan's Blog - November 13, 2019 Category: Child Development Authors: Susan Senator Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
What Does Independence Look Like For My Adult Autistic Son?
Here is the latest column for Psychology Today. Enjoy! (Source: Susan's Blog)
Source: Susan's Blog - October 10, 2019 Category: Child Development Authors: Susan Senator Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
The Universe According To Me
When is enough, enough? When do we let go and then grab onto something new?
As I get older I need to be able to answer that question and not look back. I had a particularly good day at work today — I teach writing at Northeastern University — which means I got really really tired. My hour of teaching three days a week is a time period when all of my usual creative energy is compacted into those moments. If you know me at all, you know then that this is a lot of creative energy concentrated and distilled in the best, purest thinking version of me. And like the Laws of Conservation of Matter and Energy, once th...
Source: Susan's Blog - October 3, 2019 Category: Child Development Authors: Susan Senator Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
A New Year, A New Family Member — or Two
Recently I hosted a family party — my mom’s 80th — which was just immediate family and close relatives. It was great reconnecting with cousins and with my Aunt Georgia and Mom’s brother Gerard, and Aunt Rhoda, Dad’s older sister.
I think Mom felt the same way. She seemed on a high the whole day. I was particularly excited about this because it was one of the few times we had really celebrated just Mom, and not as part of a really magnificent couple with my dad (82).
We celebrate the two of them a lot, because they have a pretty extraordinary relationship, having started dating when she was 1...
Source: Susan's Blog - September 20, 2019 Category: Child Development Authors: Susan Senator Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
Already Missing New Orleans
“…Ole Mississippi, she’s callin’ my name.”
Just got back from a trip to New Orleans for our anniversary.
We stayed in a glorious old hotel, the Monteleone. Our room was smallish but very sumptuous, with a wall of windows looking over the rooftops out to the Mississippi. Ben had given us a book about haunted New Orleans and we found out that there were twelve spirits in our hotel, one of whom hung out on our floor! Never saw him or felt his presence though. They had a nice pool on the roof, and just off the lobby was the Carousel Bar, that actually rotates.
First day there we ate beignets at...
Source: Susan's Blog - July 7, 2019 Category: Child Development Authors: Susan Senator Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
Someone Called the Police on Nat
The day they called the police on Nat: my latest post in Psychology Today. (Source: Susan's Blog)
Source: Susan's Blog - June 30, 2019 Category: Child Development Authors: Susan Senator Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
