Autistic in the Pandemic: A Call to Action

March 19, 2020January 31, 2022 by Shannon Des Roches Rosa

Photo © Katie | Flickr / Creative Commons [image:Black-and-white photo of a person wearing a hoodie and pants, seen from behind near deciduous trees, reaching up and out to the sky.] Maxfield Sparrow unstrangemind.com In the recent WWI movie, 1917, there’s a scene where the reluctant hero encounters a woman hiding behind enemy lines, trying to shush a starving baby. The baby isn’t hers so her body is not equipped to feed it. Lance Corporal Schofield had stopped to fill his empty canteen with milk—the only fluid he could find that was safe to drink—earlier that day. Although we know almost nothing about his life at that point in the film, his words and actions with the baby suggest that Schofield is a father, himself. He gives the milk to the woman and seems grateful to be able to do so. There is a lesson here. None of us are…

Disability

On the Sad End to the Search for Mikaela Lynch

May 20, 2013January 31, 2022 by Shannon Des Roches Rosa

Kerima Çevik theautismwars.blogspot.com Last week the body of Mikaela Lynch, age 9, Autistic, was found in a nearby lake where she apparently drowned. I am sorry to say that when I saw the red flags of a nonspeaking missing child, a nearby body of water, and unfenced backyard leading to woods, I feared the worst while praying for the best. I’m not going to comment on the article on Mikaela’s death in Cafe Mom’s The Stir because I don’t wish to increase hits on the Examiner article, which vilified the parents without a clear grasp of what happened that day. We weren’t there. We don’t know what happened. We only know what is reported to us. I will wait for the police to finish their autopsy and investigation, and pass on my sincere condolences to Mikaela’s family. We have been engaged in teaching our son water survival rather than swimming since…

Disability

Parenting in the Park

May 15, 2013January 31, 2022 by Jen Myers

arbitrary I took both of my children to the park the other day. It shouldn’t be some sort of big announcement that a mom takes her kids to the park, but I was by myself with my two children, who have very different, needs, wants, and abilities, and I am a chicken. There. I said it. I am a scaredy-cat when it comes to taking my kids out into open, uncontrolled situations by myself, unless Jack is buckled into his wheelchair. He has escaped my grasp so many times, wrenching my shoulder as he goes; there are dangerous situations around every corner, and he is fast. And as mature and amazing Katie is at 5, she really is still a small child who deserves to be looked after on a busy street, or a park… but it is summer, and my children are convincing, so I took them. Katie providing…

Disability

Vaccine Safety: A Conversation With Dr. Paul Offit

March 13, 2013January 31, 2022 by Shannon Des Roches Rosa

We occasionally feature posts about vaccines on this site and our Facebook page, to debunk declining but Internet-fanned beliefs about vaccines being linked to autism. Though our 2011 interview with vaccine and infectious disease expert Dr. Paul Offit addresses most questions people have about autism and vaccines, we sometimes get queries outside that interview’s scope. So I was grateful for the opportunity to have another conversation with Dr. Offit when he spoke at the Children’s Hospital and Research Center of Oakland earlier this month, and ask him some of your questions. Matt Carey from Left Brain/Right Brain joined the conversation as well. -SR TPGA: Autism rates have not declined since 2001 event though thimerosal was eliminated from most vaccines in the US by then. In some cases, those who believe in an autism-vaccine link have just shifted the goalposts to injection of foreign substances into the body and other theories.…

Disability

In Case of Emergency

August 15, 2012January 31, 2022 by Jen Myers

Jennifer Byde Myers jennyalice.com iEmergency+ application Create your own lock-screen with important information. I just got the paperwork from Jack’s school to set all of our records straight for the next school year. I know… already, summer is flying by. I scanned through the printed information I filled out from last year and got stopped at that emergency contact section again. It is a list that really defines the borders of my close-knit community. In an emergency, who can care for your child with special needs? Most of the time life goes along just swimmingly, but things happen; cars break down on the way to pick-up, I broke my leg once, we live in earthquake country. I have a collection of people that I know can take care of my child and keep him safe. It’s a short list, and I wouldn’t ask many on that list to even babysit…