Category Archives: Recommended Blogs

I have a lot of homework to do right now. No, I’m not taking any college courses at night, but have taken on the daunting task of surfing through the hundreds of websites that appear to be legitimate sources, organizations and blogs related to our autistic cause. What I have decided to do is weed through this enormous list and over time determine in our subjectively driven professional opinion (you like that play on words?) which are the top sites we have found the most useful in our cause of support, encouragement, information and advocacy for the autistic family. One certainly cannot catch-all everything there is to know about autism, but there is always a “best-of” list of resources for any subject. I am hoping to find those and help promote and link in with the good people who drive those efforts as well. Our community certainly could use some more unity of effort toward our common cause and hopefully we can help in those efforts!

This site that I am adding today is a MUST READ for members of the military. In the weeks ahead I am going to add purely reference posts for different topics that any serious parent advocate will need to read to do the most good for their kids. Although this website specifically targets autistic support for military dependents with it’s references and resources to other military special needs support websites like militaryhomefront, STOMP and militaryonesource and reference sources to EFMP, TRICARE, ECHO and the Autism Demonstration, there is much for the non-military family living with autism. There is even a blog you can follow from the parent organization that launched the website – OAR. I am learning more about this organization and plan to reach out to them in the weeks ahead as well to get to know them better.

Here is an excerpt from their “About” Page:

Operation Autism is a web-based resource specifically designed and created to support military families that have children with autism. It is the shared product of the vision and energy of the Organization for Autism Research (OAR) and the funding support of the American Legion Child Welfare Foundation. OAR’s intent in developing this resource is to:

• Provide military families touched by autism with access to quality, evidence-based information about the disorder,
• Identify sources of treatment and support on and off base,
• Offer tips for dealing with some of the unique challenges military life poses for military dependent children with autism and their families,
• Inform parents about their child’s educational rights and offer some practical strategies for success in the classroom,
• Provide a forum where military parents of children with autism can ask questions, share information and ideas, and lend mutual support.

I encourage you to visit OPERATION AUTISM, or click the link on the blog roll to the right.

In advocacy,

Mike