by Lonnie Pacelli
The Israeli Defense Force (IDF) Special intelligence Unit 9900 is dedicated to everything related to geography, including mapping, interpretation of aerial and satellite photographs, and space research. Within this unit there is another, smaller unit of highly qualified soldiers who can detect even the smallest details—the ones usually undetectable to most people. These soldiers all have one thing in common; they are on the autism spectrum. Their job is to take visual materials from satellite images and sensors in the air. With the help of officers and decoding tools, they analyze the images and find specific objects within the images that are necessary to provide the best data to those planning missions. The IDF has also found that soldiers with autism can focus for longer periods of time than their neurotypical counterparts.
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by Lonnie Pacelli
This is part two of How an Autistic Child has Changed a Career…For the Better In 2006 I wrote of Patty’s and my decision to homeschool our son Trevor to help provide a learning environment more conducive with his autism. It’s now twelve years later and time to write about how things worked out.  by Lonnie Pacelli
My fiction book, The Lawless One and the End of Time, has four main characters who meet at age 14 in Naples, Italy and all grow into globally-recognized figures. One of the characters, Bert Winn, was fascinated with history. He loved the concreteness of historical facts; they either happened or they didn’t. He met and fell in love with Laura, a math major he met in college. He graduated college with a Ph.D. in history and became an acclaimed professor. Bert and Laura married and had a son they named JT. The Winn family became internet celebrities and millions of people subscribed to their online video blog. Subscribers loved to hear their messages of fact, inspiration, and challenge. Their message? An unvarnished, inspirational view of life with Autism Spectrum Disorder. 
by Lonnie Pacelli
Recently our son Trevor published a blog post entitled Every Oscar Winner for Best Picture, Ranked Worst to Best. In this post, he ranks, from 90 to one, each and every Oscar winner since Wings won the very first Oscar in 1928. Each winner is listed by the movie name, year it won, a picture from the movie, and a review summary. It took him three years to watch, review and rank the movies, which he did in addition to living a full work and social life. The ranking list, whether you agree with where they fall or not, is not only a fun read but is a major achievement for Trevor. 
by Lonnie Pacelli
In the TV show Parenthood, one of the characters, Max Braverman, is a child with Asperger Syndrome. Max displayed many of the classic autism traits, including obsessing over specific topics. One of his strong areas of interest was pirates. Max loved to dress up like a pirate and act out his made-up stories. His TV father, Adam, was struggling to find those connection points with Max that he so desperately longed for, so he decided to dress up like a pirate and enter Max's imaginary pirate world. The episode ends with Adam and Max running around in their pirate garb having a great time together. It was truly touching to see them both having fun as father and son. 
By Lonnie Pacelli
The Israeli Defense Force (IDF) Special intelligence Unit 9900 is dedicated to everything related to geography, including mapping, interpretation of aerial and satellite photographs and space research. Within this unit there is a small unit of highly qualified soldiers, who have remarkable visual and analytic capabilities. They can detect even the smallest details, undetectable to most people. These soldiers all have one thing in common; they are on the autism spectrum. Their job is to take visual materials from satellite images and sensors in the air. With the help of officers and decoding tools, they analyze the images and find specific things necessary to provide the best data to those planning missions. The IDF has found that soldiers with autism can focus for longer periods of time than their neurotypical (non-autistic) counterparts (source: IDF Blog).
Project Management, Leadership, and Autism advocate Lonnie Pacelli talks about how Dads need to check their parenting style with an autistic child.
Project Management, Leadership, and Autism advocate Lonnie Pacelli talks about how people with autism need their alone time.
by Lonnie Pacelli
In December 2015 our son Trevor, who was diagnosed with autism at age 5, graduated from Arizona State University with a degree in Film and Media Studies. Despite the challenges and all of the change Trevor endured in his college experience, he graduated with a 3.5 GPA with very little assistance. He also experienced living by himself, living with nice and not-so-nice roommates, internships, and a summer job as a photographer at a boys camp in North Carolina. He gained a tremendous amount of life experience and learned a ton about himself as a person. His graduation in December put an exclamation point on a very rich college experience. But college is only one race in the marathon called life; his next race - employment - was yet to start.
Project Management, Leadership, and Autism advocate Lonnie Pacelli is starting a new video series targeted to families (particularly Dads) with Autistic kids. Each video is about one minute long and gives you some practical takeaways to help you cope and give you hope with Autism. This is the first in the series and is entitled They May Have Very Obsessive Interests. We would love your feedback on how to make these more effective. Use the contact form to let us know what you think!
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Inspiration for Life with AutismThis blog has a variety of articles about people living life with autism, and topics and ideas that can help in the journey. Guest bloggers are welcome. Inspired by Trevor, a young adult film critic, photographer and college graduate on the autism spectrum. Categories
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