About
I’m Lauren, and my husband Alan and I live in Delaware.
We have two wonderful children. Robert is twenty years old, and lives in Pittsburgh, PA. Lucas is about to turn eighteen and lives with Alan and I, along with his dog Dixie and Boxer the Cat.
Lucas, Alan and Robert, the three men in my life.
Lucas was diagnosed with autism when he was almost three years old. The “experts” told us that Lucas would probably never speak or be able to understand any communication, because the combination of autism and extreme hyperactivity would probably not allow him to be taught.
We were told to be prepared to consider institutionalizing Lucas, possibly as young as ten years old.
Now, about 16 years later, Lucas communicates, mostly with language (he still needs visual cues to keep himself straight, but does pretty well with words as the visual cues, now that he’s begun to read.)
He’s still hyperactive, but medication has allowed his hyperactivity to be brought under control, so that he could learn (and sleep!)
As Lucas approaches adulthood, Alan and I have discussed what type of business we could start, in order to be sure Lucas has some sort of employment. We started our company, LucasWorks, almost three years ago, focusing on products for people with autism and other disabilities.
Lucas and his classmates make every Autism Awareness Bracelet we sell, along with all our other Autism Awareness jewelry. They also prepare each order for shipping, learning job skills here at LucasWorks.
Our goal is to hire some of these people when they finish school, beginning with Lucas!
In the meantime, I thought I’d share what we’ve learned about autism and about raising kids. Some of it will be “current” stuff and some will be from Lucas’ youth.
But it’s been such a crazy adventure, it seemed a shame not to share it with others who may be facing the same situation!