S4: Episode 137 - Helping her son turn his passion for drawing into a fun family business, this NJ mom advocates and educates on the vast autism spectrum

Living the Sky Life - Our Autism Journey

Feb 2 2023 • 1 hr 8 mins

Jodi is a New Yorker currently residing in Northern New Jersey with her Gaffer husband Frank and two incredibly kind and creative children, Emily (21) and Liam (15). At the age of 14 months, Liam was diagnosed with ASD and began early intervention (OT, PT and Speech) in the spring of 2009. While Liam could only say a few words and had to learn the simplest of tasks, he miraculously learned quickly and retained the information allowing him to progress year after year. Liam's cognitive skills have always been quite high yet he's consistently caught between two worlds, taking all inclusion (mainstream) classes, but needing a self-contained setting during the day to decompress and calm his anxious mind.

Early on Liam’s family knew he would draw to disconnect from a stressful situation or school day. In an effort to find a creative outlet for Liam (and teach him about entrepreneurship), in 2020 Jodi launched The Sticker Spectrum, an online sticker business, with Liam as their artist and creative mind and Emily as their social media guru and web designer. The Sticker Spectrum has helped Liam with self-confidence as he is so proud to share his whimsical art with the world!

Jodi, Liam and Emily look forward to celebrating their shop's three-year anniversary during Autism Acceptance Month in April. When they aren’t eating, breathing and dreaming about stickers, you can find them at a Broadway musical, seeing a movie, rocking out at a concert or constantly obsessing over their adorable Boston Terrier, Harley Quinn!

You can connect with The Sticker Spectrum on Facebook and IG: @thestickerspectrum and visit their website at www.thestickerspectrum.com.

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To purchase my book “Welcome to My Life – A Personal Parenting Journey Through Autism” click HERE or visit Amazon.com!

You can easily stay connected to the Living the Sky Life podcast and me in various ways.  Please visit my website www.lauriehellmann.com for all the links.

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