May 2013 - Navigating Autism

Does Your End Game Match Your Actions?

December 1, 2014May 16, 2013 by Andy Areffi

Does your end game match your actions? Perhaps a better question to ask would be, “are your children prepared to live without you?” The thought of what our children will do when they grow up has been keeping us up at night. Everything started after Kennedy’s IEP when we suddenly realized she’s going to middle … Read more

reviews by Kennedy

May 14, 2013 by Andy Areffi

Check out Kennedy’s latest review. http://pinterest.com/pin/76842737364731720 Angry Birds Toons is my favorite show. I like Red, Chuck, Bomb, Matilda, The Blues, Terrence, The Eggs, and those Bad Pigs. They are lots of fun but Red is my favorite. The Pigs try to steal the eggs and the birds attack them. Every adventure ends well. You … Read more

About the Areffis

The Areffis are the parents of three children with autism – Kennedy, age 10, Alex, age 9, and Bella, age 7. They wrote “Navigating Autism” because they were not able to find a book to guide them when Kennedy was diagnosed with autism in 2005. They were still struggling to get the assistance she needed when Alex was diagnosed on the spectrum in 2006 and Bella in 2008. They work tirelessly to support parents of autistic children, “We want to help as many people as possible,” says Melissa. “With early intervention, these kids can go on to become anything, and not dependent on disability services their entire lives. As parents, we want our kids to have a shot at happiness, and a ‘normal’ life. We figured we didn’t have any right to complain about how things are unless we did something about it to help.”