My daughter, Nina, was diagnosed with PDD-NOS in 2011. While her vocabulary is quite large, her ability to answer questions about her behavior is limited.

It means spending sleepless night worrying whether your child will ever be able to say a three-word sentence independently. It means wondering whether he or she will ever experience things like friendship, love and companionship in their lives.

I know autism is called a spectrum. But most days it feels more like a see-saw and we're constantly trying to find balance to stay right in the middle.

It wasn't about control of me over him, or him over me. It was something that we both had to get used to; Tal's mom is a person who does things that do not always relate to Tal.

When children are very young, they have a hard time seeing a different point of view than their own. Most young children seem like that for the first years of their lives. It takes a long time for them to realize their view of the world is different than others.'

This year, "eight days" has personal resonance. During the ordeal of hurricane Sandy six weeks ago, we lost power for eight days. It was inky black beyond the fire's glow. I finally understood, on a visceral level, why for millennia, people stared down darkness with celebrations of light.

In my present work with middle school-aged students on the spectrum, we prepare students days in advance for even the slightest alterations in their schedules. Everything from a class trip, to a planned teacher absence, to a haircut is discussed, practiced and given a social story.

This is a lesson for any person, any parent, but especially for parents with special children: Take good care of your health, not just the physical one, but the financial one.

What I would really like to tell you about is not my son's progress, but of the lessons I've learned from his experience.

We pack it in before we even get our food or coffee and carry a still-screaming (and hitting/kicking) preschooler back home. Once home, however, there's our little guy again. Bright-eyed, all smiles. And there we are, bedraggled and a little heartbroken... and feeling very judged.

As the parent of a child with autism, I discovered a peculiar thing: Many things that cause stress, or at least some annoyance, to other parents are causes for joy or at least satisfaction for me.

I cannot think of a better gift for the coming Jewish year than knowing that your child is a caring, helpful friend.

Two more runs and it's time to come in. My boy gets a trophy, which sits on his dresser as I write this. "I can't believe I was surfing today,'' my son said. "It was awesome!''

All bullying is troubling -- no matter where, when or to whom it occurs. But a new study published in Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine ...

There's nothing particularly heroic, epic or even (in my head) touching or heartwarming in what I wrote. That was on purpose. I wasn't trying to be emotional, I was just trying to give them credit where credit was due.

Not everything that happens is fixable, but what can be changed by sheer will power is the way you react to them.