Why My Child With Autism Is Fully Vaccinated

Shannon Des Roches Rosa www.squidalicious.com www.canisitwithyou.org www.blogher.com/blog/shannon-des-roches-rosa Do you still wonder if there’s a link between vaccines and autism? Then ask yourself: have you or would you ever let your child travel by airplane? If your answer is “yes,” then you should re-examine any concerns about vaccinating your children. Flying and vaccination both carry risks, but those risks are statistically unlikely to affect your family. You should also know that Andrew Wakefield, the researcher who launched the autism-vaccine panic via a 1998 press conference, had his related research formally retracted and his medical license taken away. You should know that the mainstream media, after years of “considering both sides,” now yawns when yet another study fails to find a link between vaccines and autism — and that gossip sites like HollywoodLife.com want to know why anti-vaccination activist Jenny McCarthy won’t publicly end her campaign against children’s health. You should consider…

The First Rule of Autism Club

Amy Greatbanks www.ishouldhavecalledhimcalvin.wordpress.com  If you have seen the film Fight Club, then you most likely know that the first rule of Fight Club is “we don’t talk about Fight Club.” When we got hit between the eyes with the diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder for our son in December 2007, we had no idea we were joining such a large club. The sensation of knowing for certain that my heart-achingly precious, adorable, vulnerable child had autism was soul-crushing. And all I wanted to do was say it out loud. If we don’t give voice to this condition, we do the ones we love the most a great disservice. So many people with autism don’t have a voice of their own. That is why I vowed that my first rule of autism club was that we do talk about autism club. Almost every day I speak to someone about my child…

Looking Back, Looking Forward: What’s Next for The Thinking Person’s Guide to Autism

The Thinking Person’s Guide to Autism (TPGA) started with a brainstorm in a California parking lot May 27, 2010. We published our first post 9 days later, on June 6: The Thinking Person’s Guide to Autism (TPGA) is the book and website we wish had been available when our children with autism were first diagnosed. We want to help people with autism and their families make sense of the bewildering array of available autism treatments and options, and determine which are worth their time, money, and energy. Think of us as a little bit of Snopes for the autism community — trusted, accurate, and friendly. Our essays will cover informed approaches to autism and autism treatments, as well as the personal experiences of people with autism and their families. Our attitude is cautionary yet loving — we’re honest, but we’re not interested in negativity. We — the TPGA editors —…

Why I Can’t Breathe Tonight

Anonymous Special Needs Professional Recently I read a post on The Thinking Person’s Guide to Autism blog by a parent named Pia Prenevost. It was called An Open Letter to Special Needs Professionals. The title made me feel a bit guarded at first (as a special needs professional), because my experience with Ye Olde Internets is that “an open letter” usually warns that a negative letter, a warning to the recipient of the “Oh, no, you di’n’t” variety, is coming. But that was incorrect, because in reality the author had written a lovely, heartfelt post about the vulnerability a parent of a child with special needs feels. I encourage you to read it, it’s beautiful. Here’s an excerpt: “I am broken-hearted. And it doesn’t matter if it is the first day or a century later. It doesn’t matter where in the “grief cycle” I might be. It doesn’t matter if…

Welcome to the Club

An Open Letter to a Friend Jess at Diary of a Mom www.adiaryofamom.wordpress.com My Dear Friend, I am so sorry for your pain. Don’t worry; no one else sees it, I promise. To the rest of the world, you’re fine. But when you’ve been there, you can’t miss it. I see it in your eyes. That awful, combustible mixture of heart-wrenching pain and abject fear. God, I remember the fear. I see it in the weight of that invisible cloak that you wear. I remember the coarseness of its fabric on my skin. Like raw wool in the middle of the desert. You see, it was mine for a time. I never would have wanted to pass it on to you, my love. I remember so well suffocating under the weight of it, struggling for breath, fighting to throw it off while wrapping myself in its awful warmth, clutching its…

Moving Day

Transitioning to a group home Laura Shumaker www.laurashumaker.com My son 22 year old son Matthew and I were cruising our neighborhood for garage sales early one November morning, and we weren’t having a lot of luck. We needed to find furniture for the apartment that he would be moving into the following weekend. Matthew has autism, and would be part of a Supported Living arrangement that we had designed with the help of our regional department of developmental services and Camphill Communities in Soquel, California. “Supported Living Services (SLS) consist of a broad range of services to adults with developmental disabilities,” said Mary, who had been Matthew’s social worker since middle school. “With a supported living program,” Mary said, “Matthew will be able to exercise meaningful choice and control in his life, but with enough support to help him achieve his long term goals.” “How long term is “long term?”…

Lean on Me

Alysia K. Butler trydefyinggravity.wordpress.com One night two months ago I spent some time in the company of some amazing women. All mothers, all with school age kids under the age of ten, all of whom “get it.” Earlier this year, a friend and I had the idea to start a small support group, to gather mothers or fathers of kids on the spectrum. With the help of our school district, we reached out to parents to see if anyone wanted to meet, just to talk. Our first meeting was so nice that we decided to meet again. And that night two monhts ago, our group expanded. Friends brought friends who had kids on IEPs. Friends brought friends who had kids with diagnoses but couldn’t get IEPs. And as the sangria and wine and spinach dip flowed, we sat and just talked. Some of us were meeting for the first time.…

DIR®/ Floortime™: An Introduction

Sara Chapman, MA www.playconnectlearn.com Navigating the world of autism is no easy task for parents, particularly with so much information — and misinformation — currently available. Parents spend hours searching for what is best for their child, understandably so, often confused or uncertain about what will truly help their child learn, develop, and grow into a warm, independent, and emotionally connected individual. The DIR®/ Floortime™ model provides a framework for helping parents better understand their child and to re-establish those early connections that once seemed lost or unattainable. It is about finding the “gleam in the eye” and falling in love with your child all over again, no matter what your child’s challenges might be. In turn, this will lead to healthy foundations for social, emotional, and intellectual development. What is the DIR® Model? The DIR® Model, or Developmental, Individual-Differences, Relationship-based Model, is an interdisciplinary framework for assessment and intervention…

Autism, An Equal Opportunity Disorder

Frances Vega-Costas www.viviendoenotradimension.com dimensionautismo.blogspot.com Autism is a very complicated disorder and not only affects each individual differently, it strikes anywhere in the world. Never in my life would I imagine that I would be a special education advocate nor that would I use the “A” word almost on a daily basis. Almost ten years ago the “A” word moved into my house and it has been a very interesting relationship with its ups and downs but as any regular couple we learned to live with each other in peace, accepting each other as we are. My son was diagnosed almost at four with PDD-NOS, which by that time I did have an understanding of, and to be honest for me is a fancy label for “we don’t know in what part of the ASD Spectrum your son is”. Since he was 18 months we began to see that something was…

An Open Letter to Special Needs Professionals

Pia Prenevost www.thecrackandthelight.com Hello? New teacher, or therapist, or doctor? Is that you? Oh hello… I just wanted to chat with you a second. To caution you. Or warn you. Please, tread carefully. You see, what you might not realize as you look at me, talk to me, tell me your opinions, our options, our lack of options, and your predictions of our outcomes is that; well … you see that heart? The slightly broken, definitely bruised one? Yeah, that’s my heart. My slightly-broken, definitely-bruised heart. Now, I realize that as you look at me you might see … a confident parent … or an angry parent … or a happy-go-lucky parent… You might think that I understand everything … or nothing … or that I have all the experience in the world because I have done this before … or that I know the rules … or that I…