Autism and Elevators - Texas State Aquarium

Autism and Elevators - Texas State Aquarium

Father & Son Outing

A father and son outing at the Texas State Aquarium. My son has autism and is much more interested in riding the elevator at the aquarium than observing the animals. He has a season pass so I can enjoy the specimens and he can enjoy the lifts.



He is a fan of the sensory stimulation of the motion, sights and sounds of elevators. He likes to narrate his rides as he has seen done on Youtube elevator videos that he has found. 

Mark Ferdinand lives on the South Texas
coast with his wife, daughter and son. Fishing the surf, hunting,
gardening, carving, auto and home repair occupy his spare time. He has
written on the topic of autism spectrum disorder from a father's
perspective in parenting articles and in other non-fiction venues.

Having limited typical communication skills, his son introduced Mark to new
ways of interpreting his needs and aspirations. As his son grew older
Mark became fascinated by the story potential within these amazing
children. This prompted the creation of a dynamic adventure story
focusing on a character with autism.

After completing his first
novel "Fortune on the Spectrum", he decided to compile a group of
lifetime stories that brought him to the unusual occupation of snake
venom extraction called "You're Gonna' Get Bit!: Harrowing Tales of Herpetology".

Corpus Christi author and Texas author Mark
Ferdinand. Mark writes novels with autistic characters, Texas fiction,
and true tales of reptiles and amphibians. In 2017 Mark published his
autism parenting book- "The Autistic Prankster: Enjoying the Fun Side of Autism" available in paperback and Kindle.

Check out Mark Ferdinand's latest book- "Every Tiki Has a Spirit"

Autism and Bubbles - Sensory Exercise

I remember my son always liking bubbles. This year for Christmas he asked for a bubble machine that he saw on Youtube. Then he asked for another one. Now he has double the bubbles, and hey - what's a party without Bubbles?

Bubble jokes are fun, but I was mostly interested in the sensory therapy of bubbles. I took some footage of him enjoying his bubble machines in order to observe how he interacted with them. I watched the way he looked at them, reached out to them, and even tried to taste them.

Footage below of his bubble therapy for those interested:




Mark Ferdinand lives on the South Texas coast with his wife, daughter and son. Fishing the surf, hunting, gardening, carving, auto and home repair occupy his spare time. He has written on the topic of autism spectrum disorder from a father's perspective in parenting articles and in other non-fiction venues. Having limited typical communication skills, his son introduced Mark to new ways of interpreting his special needs and aspirations. As his son grew older Mark became fascinated by the story potential within these amazing children. This prompted the creation of a dynamic adventure story focusing on a character with autism. Corpus Christi author and Texas author Mark Ferdinand. Mark writes novels with autistic characters, and Texas fiction.

Autism and Christmas

Autism and Christmas

The closer we get to Christmas, and the older he gets, the more involved he becomes. He starts asking about when our tree will be up, what colored lights will be on the tree, and how much time off will he get. If we try to skip anything (like outdoor lights for example) he now knows to call us on our slacking.  Autism and Christmas promises to be interesting this year!

More than any other holiday or occasion, my son loves Christmas. He is just like me this way. It is more than just the presents that he loves, there are so many surrounding factors as many of us know.
These days it begins after Halloween when we visit the big box stores. The Christmas decorations are on full display in the blink of an eye and he knows that the time has begun.

This is the beginning of all the sights and sounds that he loves. The beginning of lights, fake snowmen, bells and commercials on TV. After Thanksgiving, things really start to kick in!

This holiday season has run rife with inconsistency and deviations from tradition. We have already changed the routine with Thanksgiving this year. We told the grandparents we would visit them for Christmas so they skipped Thanksgiving at our house for the first time in twelve years.

Now we will be traveling and not spending Christmas in the home. We shall see what happens!

Mark Ferdinand is the writer of the adventure novel "Fortune on the Spectrum".  He lives on the South Texas coast with his wife, daughter and son. Fishing the surf, hunting, gardening, tiki-carving, and repairs occupy his spare time. He has written on the topic of autism spectrum disorder from a father's perspective in parenting articles and in other non-fiction venues. Having limited typical communication skills, his son introduced Mark to new ways of interpreting his needs and aspirations. As his son grew older Mark became fascinated by the story potential within these amazing children. This prompted the creation of a dynamic adventure story focusing on a character with autism.
After completing his first novel, Fortune on the Spectrum, he decided to compile a group of lifetime stories that brought him to the unusual occupation of snake venom extraction called You're Gonna' Get Bit!: Harrowing Tales of Herpetology.

Books by Mark Ferdinand are available here:

Amazon Page

iTunes

Google Play

 

 

Autism and Thanksgiving

Autism and Thanksgiving

As I write this we are preparing for this year’s thanksgiving festivities. This year, however, promises to be a bit of a blow to his routine. For the last ten years or so, we have enjoyed visits from his grandparents for the entire week. I would take most of the week off, and we would enjoy visiting, eating, drinking, and going to restaurants. This year is a new experience with autism and Thanksgiving.

What leads me to believe that he will be at least slightly thrown off, are the questions coming up this year now that he can identify the fact that this year is different.
By this time his grandparents (called Oma and Opa) would have been here. By this time I would have already taken off work. He is happy to be off school and at home, but he knows that something is amiss.

Autism and Thanksgiving

Update: Maturity does have a positive effect on his dealings with changes. Thanksgiving came and went, and we informed him repeatedly that we would be seeing Oma and Opa on Christmas and that “This year is different”.

He now understands that when we say “Today is different” or “This year is different” he is in for a change to what he is used to, and better be ready to deal with it. I promised to take him to the restaurant on the following weekend, and we ended up making a father/son day out of it.

Autism Author Mark Ferdinand

Mark Ferdinand is a Texas author living on Padre Island with his wife, daughter and son. Fishing the surf, hunting, gardening, carving, auto and home repair occupy his spare time. He has written on the topic of autism spectrum disorder from a father's perspective in parenting articles and in other non-fiction venues.

Having limited typical communication skills, his son introduced Mark to new ways of interpreting his needs and aspirations. As his son grew older Mark became fascinated by the story potential within these amazing children. This prompted the creation of a dynamic adventure story focusing on a character with autism.

Books by Mark Ferdinand are available here:

 

Amazon Page

iTunes

Google Play