Keep in mind that I never speak for everyone. Everyone is different and would say things differently. What would you say to someone about autism? Feel free to share. Here are five things that someone with autism would want you to know about autism.

• “I can help you. Can you help me?”

A lot of people with autism, myself included, welcome any kind of help. Sometimes they say they don’t need help but in reality, they truly do. Why refuse help? Most likely because of the fear of being embarrassed and asking for assistance can be a sign of weakness; Not true by the way. Everyone asks for help every so often; Even the smartest people on Earth ask for help. It’s okay to ask the person with autism if he or she needs any help. It is the job of that person with autism to say yes and receive the offer for help. Once there is that connection, breakthroughs are bound to happen. People can help others who have autism and it can be the other way around. Those...

As the late great Al Jolson would say:

"I love-a to- I love-a to sing!"

After he would tell his audience that he loves to sing-a about the moon, the month of June, and the season of spring.

I love to sing! Used to sing with my mom and my dad when we were in the car. Whenever Dad sings, it's always so cool how he turns with a smile and goes: "Do ya like ma singin'?" In recent news, I learned that he used to slay it in karaoke bars back in the day. Trying to follow his footsteps. One more personal note real quick is that I discovered this thing called Twitch Sings, and I can sing all kinds of songs with lots of people online! It's a lot of fun! All kinds of singing styles are a joy to sing the tunes with. Spent the last several hours singing and dancing when no one was watching.

Wish I can talk a whole lot about personal singing experiences, folks; But onto the same topic relating to autism. Here is why the topic of singing to me is incredibly important and something to be positively...

Making Peace

No one was ever the villain.

I want to make this blog post brief and to the point.

Not too long ago this month, I decided to go say hello to a schoolmate I used to go to high school with. Knew him since elementary.

I took a good gander at what I did say to him much MUCH much earlier; eight years ago to be specific, and I was not proud of myself for what I have said to him. I can't tell you the details but I will say that the main reason why I said those wrong things was because of the absence of inclusion. Abandoned, alone, and left out. Still was not right to say rude things. I still had to say something to him to say hi, and I couldn't just ignore my mistake, so I went on and said that I was a big jerk back then and that I was sorry for so many things.

The guy said no hard feelings and said that HE was a bit of a jerk too. I didn't believe him, and wanted to take all of the blame saying he and the friends were innocent and I was the villain.

Then he responded by...

Little bit of a disclaimer here; I speak for myself. I am not advertising for any products, I am sharing insight for an interest I personally find extremely fascinating and may be beneficial. The Sims is the property of Electronic Arts and the image is free to share. All rights are rightfully reserved.

The hit computer game series, The Sims.

What is The Sims?

Why did the games become huge hits?

What are a few things can we learn from The Sims?

The Sims is a franchise developed by MAXIS and produced by Electronic Arts (commonly known as EA) in which the player can take full control on the characters in the game. You can make them go to places, you can make them eat, you can make them dance, cook, sing, swim, sleep, play games, show off, play a musical instrument, become a gardener, become a detective, and just about anything else you can think of that the game provides. Not only does the games encourage the player to make these characters and make them do whatever they...

Computer Programs Can Help Reduce or Eliminate Autism Meltdowns

Persons with autism tend to be drawn to video and computer screens.

Computers and video can be used as a very effective tool to teach someone with autism how to self regulate. Videos can be used to teach social skills, speech, facial movements, expressions, and many other skills. Animated video and computer programs are more effective than real video.

Look for software that uses primary colors, and is very clear in its presentation of concepts. Computer programs that teach children with autism social situations and formation of words have the greatest long term impact.


Tyler's Notes:

I've been interested in computers since I was four. Even built myself one with the help of Dad when I was twelve. One thing about those machines that I enjoy very much is the sounds it would make. I would go up to a machine, put my ear on the side of the computer, and listen to whatever goes on as the computer runs after I turn it on. Could...

It is strange to me.

Used to want to be like everyone else. The looks, the way people talk, even the popular trends that would be discussed. Now a days, I look, and see if it is okay to touch. In other words, if there's something that's popular, I tend to ponder over it and decide if I want to be a part of it. A running gag, a fashion style, a popular television series, even the way people think about stuff.

Trends sort of became a curiosity to me. If I don't be a part of it, I would be left out and unnoticed by the community. Is that a bad thing? Depends on how ya see it.

Got nothing against trends. I like'em! Trends feel like discoveries that someone has shared with me when I take the time to make my own discoveries. Take for example, music. Most of the time I like to fire up a music streaming service and go find bands that aren't really heard in the radio. Many times even today I would listen to the same song over and over again, and would take a while to go listen to something...

The girls had open arms,  but I thought they just wanted two high fives, but they came up to me and gave me a big hug. This happened a lot, and almost every time I was very surprised and  would just freeze. I knew they they were just being friendly and kind, but it was very uncomfortable for me.

I was used to receiving hugs from family members and that was pretty much it, but hugs from other people? “WHAT IS GOING ON?!” I said in my head. Being touched was a huge thing growing up. There were rules that I needed to follow. It was strictly forbidden because it’s not appropriate, and I needed to keep my hands to myself unless I’m introducing myself and shaking their hand. That was it. Those were the rules. So when someone I didn’t know gave me a hug, I wanted to be kind and not reject the offer, matter of fact I welcomed it.

But in my head it just felt very weird and odd and I didn’t  want to break the rule because it’s not...

I was the absolute worst in social media, so bad it hurts to think about it. Everything I am offline, I am online, I do not enjoy hiding and pretending I'm something I'm not, but I still had work to do in being social.

Now, I'm enjoying social media all for much different reasons.

Social media to me, is a lot like real life in terms of being social. For me, I have the tendency of speaking from the mind; hard to keep my thoughts to myself, and that ended up hurting me and getting me in trouble. It was bad; the first parts of using social media, way before I started writing a book that is. So I just gave up on it and played video games.

Social media now, I am able to speak from the mind and heart but taken to a much different approach as to finding and discovering things that spark interest and saying something about that in the lines of compliments. In Twitter, I use it for the news. Dairy Queen announcing the return of S'mores Blizzard is news to me! Or when there are new music...

It’s everywhere and it’s powerful! Knowledge starts when we’re all born. We all know what’s up in the world and how there are lessons all over the place. When a lot of kids think of knowledge, they think of school

School itself can be scary; let’s be honest, first time, during, and ending it all. Recently, I have learned a whole lot of very fascinating stories about school starring kids with or without autism. Some say schools destroy creativity, some say schools don’t help out with bullying, some say the knowledge is not required for living life and that it is to hard to understand.

It is understandable why people would be scared of school when putting these to mind; another thing I have to mention is that someone with autism would have an even harder time for them and for those around them during school time. I remember standing on desks, move around the desks, bumping heads, screaming, and rolling on the floor! Yeah, I was indeed very bizarre...