Autism and Oughtisms Autism and Oughtisms What happens to a community of people facing the same challenges, forced to compete for limited resources (particularly government resources)? The effects I’ve seen at a local level – here in New Zealand – appear to be replicated overseas, according to what I’ve seen in debates and conflicts in the online communities. There are various government provided supports (in terms of finances and services) that require you to prove your child’s autism is more severe than other children’s autism. Sometimes this is done in direct competition; a specifically limited number of packages of assistance are made available within the country, to the point that if your child qualifies for the support, there is one less assistance package available for another family. Other types of support are available to every child on the spectrum, but the level of support you receive, or how long you…
Tag: community
Autism Science Foundation is featured on Philanthroper.com today giving us a simple way to donate. The Autism Science Foundation provides funding to scientists and organizations conducting, facilitating and promoting autism research, and has our shared desire to seek evidence-based therapies. ASF was the initial support behind the grant that allowed TPGA editor Shannon Rosa to go to IMFAR, and helps fill in the gaps that federal cuts have left in research budgets; sometimes it only takes a seed grant to get a driven researcher on their way. Today you have the opportunity to make a quick, small donation to a great organization, and Philanthroper makes it easy to do. Philanthroper has been described as the “Groupon” of the nonprofit world raising funds $1 at a time for a selected nonprofit and today that’s Autism Science Foundation: https://philanthroper.com/deals/autism-science-foundation#/ Philanthroper is about group giving. If everyone gives a little bit it…
During IMFAR, HealthCentral’s Jeremy Shane inteviewed TPGA editor Shannon Des Roches Rosa about the Thinking Person’s Guide to Autism. Shannon talks about why we created TPGA, how our site and forthcoming book provide the “crash course” parents of kids with new autism diagnoses need (and which doesn’t currently exist), as well as the importance of finding positive role models, community, and information as soon as possible after an autism diagnosis. Jeremy also interviewed Shannon about Accepting Your Child’s Diagnosis, and on iPads & Learning Devices for Teaching Kids With Autism.
These two essays were originally published in the Autism Society’s magazine, the Autism Advocate. While the references here are for the Christian and Jewish faiths, many of the tips could be applied to other religions. We’ve had several posts in the last year about autism and religion, but we are always seeking to add diversity to our knowledge base. If you have an experience you’d like to share about faith, community or religion, we’d love to hear from you please contact us. -The Editors The Christian Perspective By Terri Connolly The church experience is often one of generational tradition for many families. Other families recognize their need for a place of spiritual refuge and nurturing for the first time in their lives when they have children or at other trying times. Christ’s example of “agape,” or unconditional love, is paramount to our understanding of the role of acceptance in…
Joan T. Hocky Expectation: The act or state of looking forward or anticipating Surprise: To strike or occur to with a sudden feeling of wonder or astonishment Two stories: 1. A girl grows up in Port Arthur, Texas. On the surface, she has a nice, middle class life: dad is an engineer, mom is a registrar at the local college and she has two protective older sisters. But life is anything but easy. She’s overweight with acne and long stringy hair and the kids in school all tease her for being ugly and weird. She spends hours every night holed up in her room, listening to Bessie Smith sing the blues and imagining life as an artist or musician, somewhere far away from where she lives. She finishes high school, goes off to college (UT Austin, the flagship school), but things are no better—even in a big university town. Lonely…
Kris Robin Today we went by the dress store to pick up my daughter Emily’s pageant dress. I had chosen a dress shop close to where we lived, though to call it a shop would have been a bit of a stretch. It was a storage building attached to the side of a trailer. Off to the side stood the Woodrow Wedding Chapel – yet another storage building where happy couples could walk down the aisle after renting a wedding dress. An orange tabby was asleep on a bale of hay by the front door. A little girl’s white dress was draped over the bushes in the sunshine. It really didn’t look like the place to rent a pageant dress, but I had been lucky enough to find one for Emily there last week. With shoes, however, I had no luck anywhere. I had to wonder at my rotten luck…
Judy McCrary Koeppen www.septar.org www.sagetherapy.com www.sagetherapy.blogspot.com Dear Parents of the Blue Bombers, Last week my husband attended the team parent meeting. He was confronted in front of the group by a couple of parents about our son. My husband was not at the game he was asked about. I was there and was organizing the team snack when my son evidently hit or pushed a child on the other team after being taunted. I was never aware nor told that this had occurred. Our message to him was, and continues to be, that this type of behavior is never acceptable. At the beginning of the season I told the coach (as I do every coach, camp counselor etc.) that our son has learning and attention deficits and sometimes has difficulty controlling his emotions when in competitive situations. I asked the coach to let us know if he needed assistance, had…
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…
Sam Keller www.scrappysam.com It was the night of the Volunteer Appreciation Dinner at our church. As the pastor’s wife, I am generally required to attend these sorts of things with the unspoken expectation to always smile, be nice, and glow with the joy of the Lord, even if I have to, dare I say … fake it. I was running late that evening, overwrought with juggling three kids, sports practice, and a cranky baby. My plastered-on smile thinly hid tears of frustration leaking out my nose. As I stood and perused the room full of familiar faces, the tension in my spirit only clogged my throat more. I felt like an intruder interrupting a play in the second act. The crowd was engaged in conversation and gaiety and I felt like I was barging in with a bag full of awkward. I stood on the outside, trying to find the…
Liz Ditz http://lizditz.typepad.com/i_speak_of_dreams/ http://lizditz.typepad.com/academic_remediation/ I know we said a break, but… Today, Gary Brannigan PhD and Howard Margolis PhD (the authors of a great book, Reading Disabilities: Beating the Odds) published a blog post Stonewalling the IEP. While Brannigan and Margolis are writing about specifically reading issues, their advice can be generalized to all kinds of issues. The blog post is particularly about “Present Levels of Performance” and how many IEP teams skimp this section. Brannigan and Margolis suggest there are four reasons: The school members of the IEP Team don’t know how to develop a Present Levels section that’s complete, meaningful, and functional. The district’s evaluations failed to supplement norm-referenced data from standardized tests with instructionally-relevant functional information. School members of your child’s IEP Team have overwhelming caseloads. (Rarely): To wear parents out and send a message to other parents: “Be satisfied with what we give you.” Brannigan and…