When a family member is diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome, life changes. Life for the child who is diagnosed, for the parents, for the family friends and acquaintances, and life changes greatly for the siblings.
When our son, Sam, was finally diagnosed at age 9, his younger brother (by 2 years), Charlie, suddenly became the “older” brother. Whether circumstance made this 7 year old become the defender or whether his character was already programmed that way, Charlie took on Sam’s challenges with brute strength! Parenting both boys became a balancing act of sorts, as Sam needed much attention to both discover his issues and then look to get help for them, and Charlie needed the nurturing that any young guy should have at that age.
After an extensive career broadcast marketing, Jennifer and her husband searched for answers when their oldest son hit the kinder years with great difficultly. After finally learning that their oldest son had Aspergers Syndrome, she left her career in television and became a full time mother to both of her sons. Jennifer elicited the participation of her sons and together they produced several independent programs including a children’s animated series titled Ameriquest Kids (now distributed by Landmark Media) as well as her documentary and book titled, Coping to Excelling: Solutions for school-age children diagnosed with High-Functioning Autism or Aspergers Syndrome.
The need for more information encouraged Jennifer to elicit a team of autism experts to provide weekly, original content to a website free to anyone seeking to live their best under the diagnosis of High-Functioning Autism/Aspergers Syndrome… appropriately titled: Aspergers101.com.