On March 24, the editors issued this invitation: TPGA would like to share an autism perspective: yours. As members of the autism community, we know that awareness is only a first step. Increased awareness brings opportunities to share our experiences and strive for what people with autism deserve: understanding, and acceptance. …Please send us a short essay on one thing you want readers to know about autism — as it relates to you. Share what you’ve experienced or witnessed. Tell readers about a formative experience; something joyful, or a brief moment of despair. Share your hopes, dreams, past, or future. Anecdotes laced with humor — however dark though not mean-spirited — are especially appreciated. We published 22 stories, vignettes, and interviews. Six personal stories from people with autism Corina Lynn Becker, Why I Am Wearing Black For this young adult with autism, April “is month of reflection, of remembrance. It…
Author: Liz Ditz
Liz Ditz I Speak of Dreams Academic Remediation I don’t have autism. I don’t have a child or a sibling or a parent with autism. What am I doing here? (Personally, I find that line of thought contemptible: that only those directly affected by autism should be thinking, writing, or advocating for people with autism. But that’s the subject of another post.) How did I become an advocate for people with autism? It’s a long and winding story that isn’t unique to me. I started kindergarten in the mid-1950s, almost two decades before federal law required that children with disabilities have the same access to public education as their non-disabled peers. What did that mean, though, for families and for schoolchildren? Back then, children with cognitive disabilities were either kept at home, with very little support for their parents in the community, or were institutionalized. It was common for families…
Leah Jane quixoticautistic.blogspot.com It is April, and that can only mean one thing to this autistic blogger: Autism Awareness Month is here for the whole 30 days of the month, and without a time machine, there’s no escaping it. Autism Awareness Month has been a thorn in my side for as long as I’ve been an adult. I am at heart an attention-seeker, so you would think having an entire month devoted to people like me would be a joy to behold. But that’s the problem behind Autism Awareness Month. It isn’t about me. It’s not about me—the autistic person. The entire conception of Autism Awareness Month doesn’t even revolve around autism, not the kind I have or the kind that anyone I know lives with. The ‘autism’ of Autism Awareness Month is a mysterious, esoteric, silent force, which magically swoops into the homes of unsuspecting families, and replaces regular,…
Dr. Som The Pensive Pediatrician Editors’ Note: Some years ago, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended that childhood primary care physicians –family practice and pediatricians — screen for autism in well-child visits, as well as screening for other developmental delays. One autism screening tool is the M-CHAT, or Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers, which is validated for children between 16 and 30 months of age. The following is Dr. Som’s plea to her fellow primary care physicians to use the M-CHAT regularly. Ode to the M-CHAT Parents with toddlers we know you can read. 23 questions is all that we need. Answer yes, answer no, is all that you do– Just five short minutes when your child is two. It need not be English. Try Hebrew, Chinese, Turkish, Polish, perhaps Japanese. What’s up, doc? You cannot? No, not today? No copier. No pens. Insurance won’t pay? But Adam’s autistic,…
Adam J. Slagell Science-Based Parenting Being involved parents of an autistic child, my wife and I go to many different groups and meet lots of other parents of children with PDD (Persistent Developmental Delay) or ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder). I am used to the barrage of pseudoscience and misinformation from well-meaning parents (e.g, anti-vaccination, chelation, gluten-free diets, etc), but I have always expected that professional Occupational Therapists (OTs) would steer us towards evidence-based treatments. They have certainly been critical of many of the common autism myths, like the vaccines and autism non-connection. Unfortunately, my expectations were overly ambitious, and I let my skeptical guard down. Our older son is very sensitive to loud noises and gets upset quite easily. He seems to have a lot of sensory issues both tactile and auditory, and addressing sensory issues is a large part of what his OT therapies work to alleviate. Our OTs…
Sarah MacLeod quarksandquirks.wordpress.com findingmygrounduu.wordpress.com My younger son had a rocky start, with a changing set of labels. At two months, it was colic. At 12 months, he was a “fussy baby.” By four, hypontonicity, sensory processing disorder, convergence disorder, and possible PPD-NOS entered the scene. At six, a psychologist evaluated his cognitive skills and “profound giftedness” joined the party. At nine, he returned to the psychologist for treatment for anxiety and tantrums. Recently, at the end of three frustrating months, the psychologist added Asperger’s syndrome to the list. We — his father and I — had known for years that he was an unusual child. From the start, I scoured bookstores and libraries, searching for answers to or at least a name for what made my younger son so uncomfortable in the world. The answers had to be somewhere in print, I figured. My bookshelf, computer, library card, and I…
Charles P. Fox specialedlaw.blogs.com Note from the editors for readers from outside of the United States: In the US, educational rights for students with disabilities are covered by the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). IDEA requires that each student covered under IDEA must have an Individual Educational Plan (IEP). Another piece of legislation, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) also has educational implications. The particular section that refers to education is Section 504; accommodations and modifications for students with disabilities covered under ADA is commonly referred to as “a 504 plan”. Further comments from the editors: This post had been planned for some time. As we were preparing this post for publication, Japan experienced a 8.8+ earthquake. In addition to the earthquake destruction, many areas of Japan’s coast were hit with tsunamis, with further destruction and loss of life. At this time (03/11/11, 12:02 am, Pacific Standard Time)…
Daniel Dage specialed.wordpress.com Note from the editors for readers from outside of the United States: In the US, educational rights for students with disabilities are covered by the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Another piece of legislation, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) also has educational implications. A third piece of legislation, the Family Education Rights and Protection Act (FERPA) transfers privacy rights to students when they reach the age of 18, unless the student grants rights to parents. In the US, the preferred term for substantial limitations in cognitive and adaptive functioning is “intellectual disability”, while “learning disability” is reserved for unexpected difficulty in acquiring specific academic skills. Elsewhere in the English-speaking word, “learning disability” is used in referring to people who have substantial limitations in adaptive and cognitive function. There is widely understood to be a continuum of disability (both in physical and cognitive areas): mild,…
Dr_Som www.pensivepediatrician.com/ This is a follow up to a previous post, Who Wins When Parents Spank? at the Pensive Pediatrician I certainly do not mean to trivialize the behavior issues that erupt as typical children develop, but the problems of atypical kids are more difficult and less likely to be fully addressed by general pediatricians, family practice physicians, and society at large. The 10 things pediatricians and family practice physicians can do to help families affected by autism or other developmental delays in their in their practices: 1. Understand the ABCs of behavior A= Antecedent = What happened immediately before the behavior? B= Behavior = A description of the behavior (not “he got angry”) C= Consequences = How did the parent or teacher respond and/or what kind of reinforcement did the child receive? For example, when David, my autistic son, was three, every time I fastened or unfastened his car…
Corin Barsily Goodwin http://giftedhomeschoolers.org Mika Gustavson MFT http://www.mika-mft.com/ Editors’ note: “Gifted” — meaning a person of substantially above-average intellectual or cognitive abilities — has various meanings and implications across the English-speaking world. In the US, education is publicly funded and provided from kindergarten (approximately age 5) through 12th grade (approximately age 18). There have been various federal and state programs and mandates addressing the educational needs of “gifted and talented” children in public school, which have generated various definitions and dividing lines. One of the central concepts in the English-speaking world about “giftedness” in children is “asynchronous development” — the child is in some domains developing in a range of normal for his or her age; and in other domains, is far ahead of same-age peers. A key concept in “giftedness” is exceptionality — the child who is gifted is rare — “one in a hundred thousand” or “one in…