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Having had our autism awareness site up and running for better than 9 months now, and the continued success of our IMAGINE wristband, I felt it was time to open up some sort of forum. Perhaps to just give myself and others a place to vent, and maybe on the off chance that something of importance might be said.My wife and I started JAX Management, Inc. With the idea that we could use our company to further the awareness of the autism disorder.
We are fortunate enough to have business associates who are well connected throughout the world, and particularly in the molded rubber business. Attempting to capitalize on the current craze, we created the IMAGINE wristband, Lots of people have asked "Why Imagine?". And the answer is pretty simple: we wanted to use a single phrase, one word if possible, to convey our message. Imagine struck me almost immediately, because when my daughter was younger (and still to this day) had an extremely active imagination. She would absolutely drive us crazy, constantly wanting to play pretend, my wife and I literally spent hours a day in "school" or playing with her "friends" or playing "house". And when we just could not spend another minute doing it, she would continue on without us! The part of this that always stayed with me was that it seemed like a social solitaire. My hope was that as she began to get older and it became more apparent (in social situations) how different she was from the other kids, that somehow she could use that vivid imagination to fit herself in.
So here we are, more than five years since her official diagnosis of autism. Five years of speech and occupational therapy has paid off tremendously. About two years ago, she really seemed to turn a corner in her communication skills. Before that, she absolutely could not convey her feelings with words. And as many of you know, this is probably the most frustrating part of the disorder. The inablility to find out exactly what makes her hands go over her ears for example. We feel like we have been very lucky. We have been blessed with many caring individuals over the years, professionals, family & friends. The progress that we see in Jacqui is a tribute to them all, and to my wife's tireless pursuit to see her potential realized.Hopefully one of us can either find newsworthy articles to post here on a daily basis, and if not at least have something worth saying.
Please check back, and feel free to post your comments. If you don't already have a blogger.com account, you'll have to sign up to post. It's free, and it keeps the riff-raff out.
We are fortunate enough to have business associates who are well connected throughout the world, and particularly in the molded rubber business. Attempting to capitalize on the current craze, we created the IMAGINE wristband, Lots of people have asked "Why Imagine?". And the answer is pretty simple: we wanted to use a single phrase, one word if possible, to convey our message. Imagine struck me almost immediately, because when my daughter was younger (and still to this day) had an extremely active imagination. She would absolutely drive us crazy, constantly wanting to play pretend, my wife and I literally spent hours a day in "school" or playing with her "friends" or playing "house". And when we just could not spend another minute doing it, she would continue on without us! The part of this that always stayed with me was that it seemed like a social solitaire. My hope was that as she began to get older and it became more apparent (in social situations) how different she was from the other kids, that somehow she could use that vivid imagination to fit herself in.
So here we are, more than five years since her official diagnosis of autism. Five years of speech and occupational therapy has paid off tremendously. About two years ago, she really seemed to turn a corner in her communication skills. Before that, she absolutely could not convey her feelings with words. And as many of you know, this is probably the most frustrating part of the disorder. The inablility to find out exactly what makes her hands go over her ears for example. We feel like we have been very lucky. We have been blessed with many caring individuals over the years, professionals, family & friends. The progress that we see in Jacqui is a tribute to them all, and to my wife's tireless pursuit to see her potential realized.Hopefully one of us can either find newsworthy articles to post here on a daily basis, and if not at least have something worth saying.
Please check back, and feel free to post your comments. If you don't already have a blogger.com account, you'll have to sign up to post. It's free, and it keeps the riff-raff out.
posted by Dwight @ 9:19 PM
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