My son is a wonderful young adult at the age of 21. Growing up has been hard for him. When he was age five, we (his father and I) decided to wait a year before we put him in kindergarten. Educationally he was very prepared to go but not emotionally. So when his first day of school did come around, at the end of the day, I received a note from a wet behind the ears, first time ever parochial school teacher that my son was not ready. I was really angry that this women, who had known my son for six hours was telling me that he had ADHD. I knew she was wrong. Throughout his life he was normal around us, but yet I noticed that on playdates, he'd stay by himself or with me. He wouldn't meet new friends. He was very withdrawn around stangers. There'd be no eye contact. No hellos to family or friends. And there was other signals that I noticed. Certain textures bothered him. He would not color with crayons, fingerpaints or use molding clay or Play-Doh. Everytime he had check-ups I'd mention to the pediatrician that James could not see "cause and effect". He didn't get the "big picture". The doctor wasn't concerned because all the growing milestones were being met. I kept telling the doctor that something was wrong , but he would not believe me. So we went through the evaluations for ADHD and tried a trial of Ritalin, but nothing changed. It was when I forced him to listen to me because I wouldn't let him out of the exam room, that he finally agreed to proceed further. And after a lot of testing at the Genetic Counseling Center at UT did we finally get an answer. Confirmation of ASperger's Syndrome... when I sent the report to Dr. Jim he apologized and told me that when he went to medical school, the more obscure behaviors were not talked about. In fact, he told me he had never heard of AS. So throughout all the years, my husband and I found ways to teach our son manners, how to be courteous to others, etc.. Does he still struggle ?  read more »

Today my friend lost her best friend and husband of 29 years.  When I read her post on Facebook I cried for her.  My son saw me crying and asked me what was wrong, which is pretty rare of him to do, I told him my friend's husband had died and he said "Oh that's terrible" in the most grown up way.  It is almost like he has a heightened sensitivity for things like that.   For all of you who know Cindy...she needs us right now as this was sudden and unexpected.  She and Marcel need our prayers for strength during this time.  

http://autismrevealed@blogspot.com

Zare is fully verbal. Although sometimes in frustration he resorts to grunts, whines or pantomines. It just cracks me up when he is on a long topic of his. Its hard to write it out on paper because his words have a start. stop. pattern to. them. But the words are there, which I am greatful for. So I need to be better about writing down what he has said, because every day he cracks me up. Tonight before we put him to bed we asked what would he like for sunday morning, pancakes or waffles?

"waffle-ish pancakes"

"um, okay, how do we do that?"

"you take food coloring and draw a waffle pattern on the pancake."

I kid you not, our boy has it all planned out, we shall see how this works tomorrow! You better believe he will remember it too!

Today I had to take my 11 year old son to the psych unit for suicidal ideations.  It was the hardest thing I have ever had to do.  They admitted him and I had to drive away without him.  Feels like I failed him.  Has anyone been through this and have any encouraging words?

   read more »

The move to brand “retard” as derogatory and shelve the word for good has gotten a real shot in the arm from recent usage. Rahm Emanuel, chief of staff to President Obama, recently used the word during a White House meeting on health-care legislation, and was forced to apologize. A consultant to Texas Gov. Rick Perry then used the word during a conference call. Then Rush Limbaugh said something “retarded.”

Special-needs people from special-needs activist groups to Sarah Palin fired back; several states have also banned or are about to vote on banning “mentally retarded” (not to mention, in some states, “idiot,” “lunatic” and “mentally deficient”) from the state’s law wording...

at http://thefastertimes.com/specialneeds/2010/02/25/its-time-to-erase-the-r-word/

New research is providing more insight into a gene linked to autism in humans: When the gene is turned off in mice, they have trouble learning and become obsessive.

Researchers at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas report that a drug reduces the obsessiveness in the mice, raising hopes that it might do the same thing in people, although that's not yet proven.

"Clinically, this study highlights the possibility that some autism-related behaviors can be reversed through drugs targeting specific brain function abnormalities," said study senior author Dr. Craig Powell, an assistant professor of neurology, said in a university news release. "Understanding one abnormality that can lead to increased, repetitive motor behavior is not only important for autism, but also potentially for obsessive-compulsive disorder, compulsive hair-pulling and other disorders of excessive activity."

The researchers studied a protein called neuroligin-1, which helps nerve cells better communicate with each other. The mice who had a disabled form of the gene were normal in some ways but obsessively groomed themselves and took longer to learn a maze than other mice.

Click on the newslink to read the full story.

Doctors at 15 autism treatment centers nationwide have collected data that show an association between autism and children conceived through in vitro fertilization, WCVB-TV in Boston reported.

More than 1,400 families of autistic children completed medical questionnaires that asked, among other things, if their child was conceived with assisted reproductive technology, or ART. IVF is the most common type.

Twelve percent of those questioned said yes, a number Dr. Patricia Davis said is 10 times the most recent national average published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Johanna Nelson participated in the survey. Two of her four children have autism. Her oldest son, Daniel, 7, is severely impacted. He is non-verbal, attends a special school and receives a long list of special therapies to help him in his day-to-day life.

"It's a big, lingering question in our minds every day, as to why he was chosen to be autistic," said Nelson.

Nelson said both of her autistic sons were conceived via artificial insemination.

Click on the newslink to read the full story.

In person, surprisingly, Jenny McCarthy comes across as corn-fed cute rather than overwhelmingly beautiful. She has a common touch, and a woman even slightly more beautiful would struggle to connect as she does. When McCarthy meets a mom, when she spits forth a stream of profanity and common sense — the foulmouthed comedian from Chicago never far from the surface — she is there as a mother, not as a celebrity or starlet. That's what got her there, but that's not who she is once she's there. She speaks to so many frustrated, despairing mothers of autistic children because she is plausible, authentic. If you needed a woman to bring hope to these mothers, you couldn't ask for better casting than Jenny McCarthy.

We are sitting around a sushi-laden coffee table in the Sherman Oaks, Calif., headquarters of Generation Rescue, the autism advocacy group she heads. It's a gray, one-story house with white trim and a picket-fence-enclosed yard, across the street from the home she lived in for four years with her son Evan, 7, and John Asher, who is her ex-husband and Evan's father. She has converted the house into a state-of-the-art school for very young autistic kids, an intensive early-intervention program called the Teach2Talk Academy. The school is a model in many ways, not least because of its 1-to-1 teacher-student ratio and sparkling facilities. It's the kind of place she was desperate to get Evan into when he was first diagnosed with autism in 2005.

The lacerating pilgrimage that parents of autistic children know all too well, lugging their child from specialist to specialist, from program to program, seeking help, answers, a cure — catalyzed her mission. First McCarthy was a mother "finding a window" into her son. Then she became a mother who felt she needed to tell other mothers how she found that window.

Click on the newslink to read the full story.

....I am sorry, maybe I didn't identify my self appropriately. I am really uncomfortable with the whole blogging thing and talking with stangers about what is going on...personal problem I know. But my feelings non the less.

I am in my third semester of nursing school and have had several classes on child developement. I am 30 years old and am a mother of two. The oldest is 3, will be 4 in March, and a 4 month old. I am well aware of "normal" child developement.

I first became aware that there might be a problem with Gage, who will be 3 in July, when at this previous Christmas I bent down and said with a big smile "are you just so excited!". He just looked at me with no response. It was then I realized he always looks like that. It doesn't matter if there is a party or toys or anything, he always has the same response to things.

He has NEVER, and I do mean NEVER, spoken a two word sentence. As a matter of fact he has only spoken things that he has been taught like letters and numbers. He has never said "I want", "Give me", and two year olds favorite word, "No". I dont think I have ever heard him say daddy or mamma. When he wants to show you something he gets the object puts it in your lap, grabs your and, and puts it on the object, and never looks at you to do it. He stands like a toddler who is about one or maybe 1 1/2. He doesn't know how to sip from a straw, open a door, roll a ball, build, make believe play, and isn't toilet trained.

You are right I don't know if he has autism, but I do know that he does have s/s of the disorder. I also know that he does not display age appropriate social skills, psychomotor skills, and has no communication skills.  read more »

 My name is Tiffany, and I have never, ever blogged before in my life so I am a little unsure of how all this works.....  I joined as I have a nephew that I think has autism. If it isn't autism then he is seriously delayed socially. I did the check list and I felt it was discribing him, which helped me feel somewhat validated with my assumption.

 I am so upset about it and I am alone in this. My husband, his parents, and my newphew's parents aren't really concerned. I believe it isn't because the don't care, I just don't think they know enough about child developement to notice. Being that I am the "in-law" it makes it even worse. I have no idea of how to handle this. I don't know what to say or do I even tell Gage's, my nephew, parents?

Has anyone experienced this? If you have, can you help?  I just don't know what to do.

Cathy Hasslinger says she tried everything to make sure her son would be included in his class' field trip. Cathy offered to go along with him...but claims she was told no. She says she told the school he didn't even have to stay over night...still she claims she was told no. Cathy even offered to reduce his role to that of spectator...still she claims the answer was no.

Cathy was worried when she signed her 13-year-old son Quinn up for karate. But it's six-months into the class and she's already noticed a change in him--he's more disciplined and focused. Cathy says, " He loves coming. It's really been wonderful for him." Quinn has Asperger's, a form of Autism. Cathy says people with the disability struggle in the classroom, with social relationships and can have a tough time dealing with certain sights and sounds. But, she doesn't believe that gave officials at Quinn's school in Oregon the right to exclude him from a recent overnight field trip to Upham Woods in the Dells. "Something just went wrong. That this should not have happened," Cathy says. Not only does she think it shouldn't have happened--but she thinks the school may have violated a state statue. Jeff Spitzer-Resnick is an attorney with Disability Rights Wisconsin.

He says district should have accommodated Quinn. "Both federal and state law requires an interactive process and for the school district to provide reasonable accommodations so that kids with disabilities can participate in the same activities as their non-disabled peers." We spoke to the district's Superintendent, at this point they won't comment.

Click on the newslink to read the full story.

Here is a link to some photos of real classrooms organized to bring out the best in students with autism.  These classrooms mainly primary level classroom photos at this time.  Please pass the link on to any educators new to autism or those who may just be looking to redesign their room or increase the visual supports that we know our students can benefit from. 

 Autism Classroom Organization Photos at the link below:

http://autismclassroom.ning.com/photo

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention describes the symptoms of 5-year-old Charlie Jackson's disorder as "atypical development in socialization, communication and behavior." For parents Jenifer and Sean, it has meant their child continually retreated into his own world, unable to play or learn like other children.

Charlie could not speak.

Given a diagnosis of autism at 3, Charlie was relegated to an isolated, limiting world that doctors and teachers offered little hope he could escape. They told the Jacksons not to expect too much.

Teachers considered it progress if he could learn 20 words or communicate at all.

"They told us a lot of things he would never do," said Jenifer Jackson, 38. "And you kind of have to throw all that out the window."

Dissatisfied with the system's low expectations, the Jacksons pulled Charlie from school last year and took control of his treatment, turning to the Autism Treatment Center of America, a nonprofit whose CEO, Raun Kaufman, is famous for his own putative recovery from autism, after his family created their own treatment program decades ago.

The center's Son-Rise program is plugging into a growing realization among researchers that families play an essential role in autism treatment, as medical science's understanding of the disorder evolves.

Click on the newslink to read the full story.

 Would some one explain the weighted blankets, I have seen them on e bay and wondered if they were helpful and why ? Sorry about all the questions but we are new to this and would rather make a more informed choice when it comes to products and helps instead of so much trial and error. We may as well draw from your collective experiance and wisdom.   Thank you

 I have a 21 year old son with autism and his doctor recommended getting
Social Security Disability for him.  I am having problems completing the
paperwork and the people at the SS office have been totally unhelpful.  I
am looking for some assistance or advice from someone who has been through
this process.  Thank you

Hello!  I am new to blogging. Here is my story or my daughters story.  She is 7 yrs old and 10 months.  She is my last child.  She was diagnosised when she was 4 yrs old with autism or pddnos.  This was to help her get help through the school system(she is no longer at this school).  She isn't a typical autism with the behavior problems or letting us touch her.  She has been non verbal since she was  2 1/2 yrs.  Her last word was Granny.  I can't remember her first word though.  It is strange what we remember or want to remember.  She has her repetitive behavior problems like biting herself.  I am still trying to figure out how to break that habit.  No success as of yet.  If she isn't biting her self them she will be sucking her thumb. 

Mona has an older brother who isn't effected, he is the greatest big brother though.  he has the patience of an angel at times.  My husband and I are happily married and will celebrate our 18th yr this year. My husband works so I can stay home with my kids.  Monas autism isn't her only problem either.  She also has seizures, her last seizure was on Nov. 9th 2009,

So it is really hard for me to even consider working due to that problem.

We are having another good day and I`m grateful for it, but I also see little indicators that things are not going to stay like this, they never do. It is so hard to understand some times what sets him off, what starts the cycle, so to speak. I told my husband it seems like an abuse cycle even though I realise he does not want to act the way he some times does. We have honeymoon periods a day maybe two when you catch your breath and steal yourself for the next round of ???? It is never the same.   It feels personal many times, even though I know it`s not, most of the time I don`t feel strong enough to cope with all his needs, but I can`t give in to that because he needs me. 

 It never fails, just when I feel like I can`t survive one more day we have a really good day, and today was that day. Mikey woke up with a mommy I love you and wanted attention which is very rare, he did well getting ready for church and during, we came home for his brothers birthday party and he did well (he usually does not like them) and does not do well LOL.  I needed this day !!! Also I got some excellent advice from someone on here about his behaviors being compulsion and I`m sure she is right after thinking about it, because you control one thing and it just shows up in another area, so at least I know he is not doing it because he is upset and I`m not meeting his needs. I still have no idea what to do to change it but I think it`s ok that I don`t have all the answers all the time. We are still trying to figure all this out and redefine normal and that in itself is not easy, so one day at a time. THANK YOU GOD FOR THIS DAY !!!!!

I am a Female I have Autism the Aspergers Kind. I love Church Bells-Carillons, Electronic Carillons. I Live in Charlotte, North Carolina I am wondering is there any Way that can be able to know what the RA-3 Rmote for a Maas-Rowe Carillon system does, How things like the music times, Angelus Bells, Bell Peals and funeral Bells on a Maas-Rowe Carillon is Set, What a Maas-Rowe Carillon system will do if you put in a Regular music CD in the CD player Live In Person IT WOULD REALLY MEAN A LOT TO ME.I have tried to talk to the people at Maas-Rowe about this and they have been no help. If you know the answers please message me

Alex started coming home with the dolls a few months ago. One every Saturday, it seemed, when he got off the bus from his rec program. He’d round the yellow hood cutching one in his hand. One week it was the grandfather doll, another week the grandmother, another the teacher and another the student. One week he scampered to the front door of our building holding what appeared to be the doll of a middle-age teacher wearing leg braces. The grandfather (Alex calls him “grandpa”) is wearing a tourquoise sweater, the grandmother (“grandma”) a maroon pullover and big tan shoes. The teacher is holding a cell phone. The guy with the dark hair and the green shirt and brown striped tie started his life with Alex as “Daddy,” but now he’s “Uncle Rob.” “Aunt Julie” is wearing a dark blue jacket and has intensely grey hair. (We haven’t told the real Aunt Julie about this yet.)...

Reposted from last week:  read more »

Ok, so it`s a new day !!!! maybe a good day, one thing I know for sure it wont be dull !!!  Does anyone have any advice on what has worked with destructive behavior ? We are having problems with destroying other siblings toys ect, and are also now dealing with peeing on things when he is angry. I realise he is trying to express feelings but we are at a loss on how to keep this from happening. if you ask him how he feels or to put a feeling on the chart most times he says I feel loved, so thats good but his brothers and sisters are not feeling the same way tword him, they are really getting frustrated, our three youngest are 7,8,8 and they have a hard time getting that even though the age is the same he doesnt understand things in the same way they do.  I am so glad I found this site just being able to express some of this stuff to people who understand that this kind of thing is a daily struggle and that it is our normal is nice.

Picto selector is a freeware Windows application written for easy selection and printing of Pictos (also known as PECS). The Pictos, 5000 black and white pictures,  come from the website www.Sclera.be and have a Dutch, English and French translation. The application itself also supports those languages.

With Picto Selector the time consuming cut, paste and editing in Word is over.

I have a conundrum.  While I underwent testing to confirm my Asperger's, I never pursued a formal diagnosis.  My reasoning at the time was that I just wanted to know for the sake of my knowing.  I suppose, in truth, I wanted some validation for my particular list of quirks.  Since making my diagnosis known, I feel acceptance from some people, but less so from others.  Unfortunately, these others are people whose opinion *should* matter.  To cloud matters further, Asperger's could be dropped from the DSM5.  If I am reading things right, they will avoid diagnosing people who are "surviving".  While I find this deplorable, we all know that the eggheads who decide this stuff could give a rip.  So my question...should I formalize my diagnosis while I still can do so with confidence?  Will it achieve anything?  Will the further validation mean anything to me?  Should I tell those who are less than receptive to get stuffed?  Too many questions......

Here is a “tempting tidbit” in the form of a movie trailer, from the upcoming documentary being filmed in beautiful Tampa Bay , featuring Autism Spectrum and the local bay area families who are struggling to find answers.  The documentary will highlight Tampa ’s own Dr. Nelson Mane’ and the tremendously successful therapy Hemispheric Integration, as just one message of hope, and moving forward.

Here is your link to the movie preview…Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQIVp9x1xLI

What a day!! I feel inadequate again, why can`t I just allow myself to feel like I don`t have to fix this ?

Yesterday afternoon I finally had a chance to sit down and watch this most amazing movie. I think I went through half a box of Kleenex but it was such an eye opening movie. When they first diagnosed Temple Grandin with Autism in the 50's they also called it Infantile Schizophrenia and the cause of this was simply put as it was the mother's fault. When the Temple needed love and nurturing her mother was absent thus causing Autism. The doctor also said that she would never talk and needed to be institutionalized. I was just blown away but that is the way things were then, talk about not wanting to deal with a situation just stick them in an institution, lock them up and throw away the key. I can't even imagine what that would be like having a doctor tell you it is all your fault, you caused Autism, you weren't loving enough. That broke my heart.
 
There were parts of the movie that I could completely relate with. The frustration of wanting to "fix" the situation. Justing wanting your child to "fit in".

When Temple graduated college she gave this most wonderful speech and then sang, completely off key, but sang her heart out and her mother and aunt were sitting in the audience like Oh My Goodness but when looking around at the other students, how they accepted her for her it was like a sigh of relief. I could go on and on about each part of the movie but that would spoil it all for you. Please watch this movie or go read her story.

Greatness lies in every single one of us, don't ever count out those who have Autism, who's to say that one day Logan won't find the cure for Cancer in the middle of Iceland. A scientist dwells inside of him so I can't wait to see what he wants to do or where he wants to go. The sky is the limit!

School can be a difficult place for children with Autism. And in Yakima, there aren't a lot of options for these kids. But that's about to change. Or at least that's the hope of one father doing everything he can to give his autistic son the best education he can get. Even if that means building him his own school.

" It's finding a way, whatever that is, for each child to break through that barrier," said Wayne Leavitt.

Wayne's son was diagnosed with low functioning autism when he was just 3. Colby's now 8. And his dad worries he's not getting the education he needs.

All public school districts offer special needs classes. Cody is in school in West Valley.
The director wouldn't go on camera to talk about the district's special education program., but did say the schools offer life skills classes and other basic needs from preschool through high school. But does not offer a one-on-one learning environment.

And that's not good enough for Wayne, " you really need to have a completely individual plan and that is the key. And that's difficult for a school district to do when you have so many children with special needs."

So he's spent the last two years working on his dream of building a school for autistic children in the Yakima Valley. It's fully incorporated now, and he's working out all the tax details.

Click on the newslink to read the full story.

Our youngest benefits a lot from visualizing tasks. So I created a application to create such sheets in with drag and drop. More examples can be found at my site.

Combined with a lot of PECS it has become a very easy to use tool.
www.PECSforAll.com

Location(s)

There's a simple reason why Mary Mollway and Helen Robinson, a friend with an autistic child, opened New Vision Children's Services in 2006.

"There are so many children now affected and the services in our area are very limited," Mollway said. "Every parent I met who had a child with autism was struggling to get help for their child."

Three years passed before the New Vision Autism Center opened, but since July 2009 it has helped more than 500 southwest Riverside County families whose children have autism. More families, however, need the services, most of which are offered free by the nonprofit organization.

To fund the program, the center is hosting its 2nd Annual Murder Mystery Dinner on Feb. 28, from 5 to 9 p.m. at Keyways Winery, 37338 De Portola Road in Temecula Valley Wine Country. The theme is "Solve the Mystery of Autism."

The evening will feature a gourmet four-course meal, live entertainment and auction items that include a signed Bruce Springsteen guitar, golfing excursions, amusement park packages and spa services. The center relies on the event to help raise one-third of the money it needs to pay its bills for the year, said Mollway, who is director of the center.

The services provided by the center include autism screenings; academic assessments, such as reading and visual perception; parent support groups; after-school tutoring, and guidance for diagnosis and treatment. A therapy/play center will open soon, and a speech/language pathologist, occupational therapist, and psychologist will be added to the staff within the next year.

For more information visit: http://www.pe.com/localnews/rivcounty/stories/PE_News_Local_S_sautism18....

An impressive collection of singer-songwriters are banding together to support AUTISM AWARENESS MONTH in APRIL through "Songs of the Spectrum," an album of original songs about autism. The project is being released on TUESDAY, APRIL 6th and the proceeds will benefit SingSOS, a new nonprofit organization formed to enlist the power of music to spread the word about autism.

Artists who have contributed to the project include JACKSON BROWNE, DAR WILLIAMS, MARSHALL CRENSHAW, JONATHA BROOKE, ARI HEST, DAN BERN, RICHARD JULIAN, OLLABELLE, VALERIE CARTER, DON DIXON & MARTI JONES and many others.

The songs are all collaborations between JON FRIED and DEENA SHOSHKES, the husband-wife team at the heart of the veteran indie-pop band THE CUCUMBERS, and JOHN O’NEIL, a New York Times editor whose 2004 essay for the paper about his autistic son James was part of a Pulitzer Prize-nominated series.

Click on the newslink to read the full story.

I’m not a box.  I don’t think in one or outside of one because with autism/Asperger’s, the thinking runs through a different maze in the brain than neuro-typical people.  Oh, I haven’t a study to quote to “prove” this, because the proof is all in my head.

Before I was diagnosed (as an adult) I knew, and other people said, that my thinking was unusual.  I spent time analyzing how I think and mentally observing myself thinking.

“Observing” is the right word, not “hear” or “knowing” or “feeling” because I see my thoughts in pictures.  Temple Grandin had it right with the title of her famous book, Thinking in Pictures.  Often I don’t see the thoughts as they are coming together, but the end result is always a visual.  I’ll give examples.

I go to an adult spelling bee once in a while at the 331 Club in Minneapolis.  The emcee always calls me The Speed Speller because I spell the word so quickly.  The reason is that I see the word in my head then just read off the letters.

Doing art is a passion of mine I wish I could indulge in more.  I already see in my mind what the next picture is going to look like, even with the new medium I will be using.  When I do the art, it’s like connecting the dots or paint by numbers on a blank canvas.  It’s very satisfying to see with my eyes what I have enjoyed in my mind.

When the concept of mind mapping became popular in the eighties, it made sense to me because I already thought that way.  People said I was creative with my wild ideas that worked.  I didn’t put two and two together because it didn’t happen that way in my mind.  read more »

I am doing a parent survey to help with a state assesment for the school district and on the returns of most of the surveys i have noticed that most if not all parents do not know what a LEA is.  Worse than that i totally forgot myself.  I will look it up again because i have all that stupid jargon transilated some where around here.  any ways it made me wonder what else do we come into contact with in the schools that parents do not understand?  What about the teachers what do they question?  if any of you out there could tell me i think it would greatly influence how we speak to one another and benifit our kids with all disabilities included.

Part of the process of having your child screened for ASD is talking about your family history.

It’s a medical history, and psychological history, and experiential history, and just the kind of general questions you would expect before embarking on a journey of 90 different tests, visits and assessments with 14 different doctors and agencies.

They will ask if there has ever been any autism, ASD, sensory issues or other problems in your family. Maybe there are obvious cases that you know about, and you’ll give them the information.

Or maybe you’ll say no.

Then maybe you’ll mention the history-taking process to your actual family, and all hell will break loose.

My dad didn’t speak a word until he was almost 4. “It wasn’t any big deal. And by the way, your refrigerator is about 6 degrees off square.”

My mom’s cousins all call her Twinkle Toes because she walked on tiptoe
until she was 6.

My husband didn’t speak until he was 3. No one thought anything of it. They figured he didn’t have anything to say.

I can’t understand what people are saying unless I am looking at their face, and my mom and I have both been known to hang up on people mid-conversation, only to have them call back – “Is there a problem with your phone?’

“No, I just thought you were done talking.”

I go crazy at the sound of static. I remember seeing the movie “As Good As It Gets” and thinking, “OK, so that’s not normal?”

We are a long line of self-employed, anti-social, artistic, math-brained musicians with OCD, dyslexia, ADHD, and a host of other undiagnosed issues that none of us would consider at all off center.  read more »

Someone is over-diagnosing autism.

It’s me.

Every screaming child, every awkward adult, myself, my parents, co-workers, high school classmates, new acquaintances.

In the waiting room, at the grocery store, in a meeting, at the park.

Any anomaly in a kid’s behavior triggers my concern. Does he frequently have tantrums? How is his speech? Is he afraid of Elmo? Hand flapping? Block stacking?

I see adults who are fidgeting and rushing to get out of a casual conversation. Maybe it’s Asperger’s!  Are they making eye contact? Arguing minutiae? Are they trying to escape, yet standing too close?

Here’s the thing – chances are good that very few of my autism predictions are accurate. And even if they were, it’s not any of my business.

But here is what I’ve taken away: If a kid is having a tantrum in a store, and it is apparent that he has ASD issues, we’ll all be more likely to cut him and his parents some slack.

But if a kid is having a tantrum at a store, it may outwardly look like he wants a toy, but maybe it is because his dog just died, or he has moved into a new house, or someone picked on him at school or he’s just hungry. Maybe his parents should have dealt with it before it got to this point, but maybe they are consumed by trying to figure out how to make $20 buy enough food for the week.

I’m trying to take the compassion and understanding that I have developed through my experiences with my own child and extend them not only to children and adults with similar issues or disabilities, but all kids, all issues – no matter how small – all adults, no matter how aggravating they may be.

I have never been that kind of person.

I think seeing autism in everyone has been my way to recognize the vulnerabilities in other people, their thought processes, and how it causes them to react for better or for worse.  read more »

Hi,

I am a newcmer to the blog idea, so I am not too sure of what is expected.

I am a mother of 4, my oldest two have been suspected of autism for quite a while now, and I was told to class them as 'developmentaly delayed' and basically roll with the punches.

Today I took my 7 year old ( the younger of the two) to a lovely paediatrician at the state hospital - which was oranised by the special school they are going to. And now I finally have a true blue diagnosis - but I must say that it was easier when it was just suspected, and not verified.

I am making arrangements now for the older brother to go, but I am sure the result will be the same - as they are so alike in behaviour.

Is there anyone out there that has 2 autistic children??? It does seem a bit much - 

I suppose I just need someone to talk to as the rest of my family do not understand the situation, and seem to regard Autism ( well they really do not understand!!) as something in line with dyslexia - and no matter how much I try to explain they just don't realise how much of an issue this is - and should I be afraid for my 2 youngest, which is a thought that haunts me.

Well, that's the bare bones of it - just in need of someone to talk to ----

Thank you for reading, any comments would be appreciated.

AUTISM SUPPORT:  OVERVIEW OF FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE STRESS IN PARENTS OF CHILDREN WITH AUTISM 

One of the biggest stressors for parents of children with autism is the question “What will happen to my loved-one once I am gone”.  For those looking for support on this and other stressors related to parenting someone with autism, you will find very helpful information at www.myarchway.org and you can also join us on our social networking site at www.myarchway.ning.com to join with thousands of other parents trying to find solutions to lifespan planning issues and the need for quality community housing for adults with autism. 

Here are the primary stressors for parents of children with autism:  read more »

People with Asperger's syndrome would be included in the same diagnostic group as people with autism and pervasive developmental disorders, according to new guidelines under consideration by the American Psychiatric Association.

Psychiatrists are in the process of revising the guidelines, known as the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. The manual has implications for how psychiatric drugs are developed and prescribed, what treatments get covered under insurance plans, which approach doctors take in treating their patients, and how patients view their own identities.

Anyone who has received a diagnosis from a mental health professional has most likely had his or her symptoms defined by the guidebook.

The revisions, which will be considered for the DSM's fifth edition, due in 2013, were made public Wednesday at DSM5.org.

Click on the newslink to read the full story.

I know this has nothing to do with Autism, but I know many of you on here have your own sites and blogs, so I thought I would share this with you.

I am a bit of a social networking geek. I'm always looking for ways to increase traffic to this site and some others that I run. I found a pretty cool thing today, it's called Social Spark. It's a thing created by Izea and what it does is allows people with blogs and social networking sites to interact with advertisers and help drive traffic and earn money from your blog posts. And with the times being as tough as they are, who couldn't use a little extra money. Basically Social Spark is a social network for advertisers and bloggers. You don't join to make friends, like Facebook, Twitter and even Autism Blogger, you join to meet advertisers that fit into your niche. Basically a matchmaking site for advertisers and people that have websites.

There are getting to be quite a few great resources for bloggers these days. It's important to take advantage of the good ones, as there are quite a few out there that aren't that great. The people over at Izea seem to be creating a good buzz lately on the internet with some of the things they are creating.

It looks pretty awesome, I'm going to give it a try and urge you to check it out for your own blog. Izea also has a cool program called Sponsored Tweets which allows you to get paid using Twitter. So if you're an avid Tweeter you may want to give that a look. I need to check that out as well. So much to do, so little time...

Sponsored by: http://socialspark.com

Researchers are recruiting pregnant Wayne County women for part of a $75 million federal study of the causes of autism, cerebral palsy, asthma and other diseases.

Michigan State University is heading an alliance of Michigan universities and health providers. The National Institutes of health is funding the work.

The study looks at how genetics and environment affect children's health. It will track 100,000 children from womb to adulthood.

Michigan State epidemiologist Nigel Paneth heads the project and says the National Children's study is starting in 30 counties nationwide after years of preparation. It will follow 1,000 women per county.

Click on the newslink to read the full story.

Remember that “crucial” study of 20 monkeys that actors Jim Carrey and Jenny McCarthy claimed would have “potentially devastating consequences for vaccine makers and public health officials” by linking vaccines to autism? It has just been withdrawn from Neurotoxicology, the journal the authors were hoping to publish it in. No specific reason was given beyond this standard statement:

Reasons for withdrawal may be due to a decision by the author and/or editor...

The proposed study, by Andrew Wakefield, looked at reflex responses in newborn monkeys, and compared those with hepatitis B vaccines to those without. The withdrawal follows The Lancet’s retraction of Wakefield’s 1998 paper which wrongly concluded that there was a link between vaccines and autism in children. Wakefield’s work has been the bedrock of a generation of mistaken beliefs that vaccines and autism are somehow linked.

Click on the newslink to read the full story.

Hi I am not sure if I blogged about this already, but here it is anyway.  Here is a link for some ideas related to choosing objectives and goals to work on.  I have been out of the loop for a while. A two week old baby will do that to you!!!! However, I know this is the time of year when new goals and objectives are being created for each child's Individual Education Plan/Program.

 http://autismclassroom.com/home/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=89&Itemid=72  

More and more research is coming out showing us that the quality of early childhood interactions significantly impact all areas of a child's development. This month's issue of the journal Child Development was dedicated to this topic. One interesting study looked at the impact of Maternal Autonomy Support on a child's ability with Executive Function. You may have heard the term [ Executive Function in relation to autism before. Over the years it has been proposed to be a causal issue in autism. We now know that the causal issues are brain based but nonetheless see that children with autism are very challenged by Executive Function - essentially the higher order cognitive processes underlying flexible goal-directed behaviors (such as impulse control, working memory, planning and set shifting).

Most significantly for children with autism it is implicated in Theory of Mind or the ability to understand that other people have a different perspective to you. This recent study (from researchers at the Universities of Montreal and Minnesota) found that a strong predictor of a child's Executive Function (EF) ability at 18 -26 months was their mother's degree of Autonomy Support when they were 12 - 15 months.

The researchers defined Maternal Autonomy Support as involving these four strategies by the mother:  read more »

A study of the development of autism in infants, comparing the behavior of the siblings of children diagnosed with autism to that of babies developing normally, has found that the nascent symptoms of the condition -- a lack of shared eye contact, smiling and communicative babbling -- are not present at 6 months, but emerge gradually and only become apparent during the latter part of the first year of life.

Researchers conducted the study over five years by painstakingly counting each instance of smiling, babbling and eye contact during examinations until the children were 3. They found that by 12 months the two groups' development had diverged significantly. Intentional social and communicative behavior among children developing normally increased while among infants later diagnosed with autism it decreased dramatically.

The study is published online early and will appear in the March issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry.

"This study provides an answer to when the first behavioral signs of autism become evident," said Sally Ozonoff, the study's lead author, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and a researcher with the UC Davis MIND Institute. "Contrary to what we used to think, the behavioral signs of autism appear later in the first year of life for most children with autism. Most babies are born looking relatively normal in terms of their social abilities but then, through a process of gradual decline in social responsiveness, the symptoms of autism begin to emerge between 6 and 12 months of age."

Click on the newslink to read the full story.

After seeing the suffering of Haitian children on television, 7-year-old Connor Zero handed his parents two $5 bills. He said he wanted to help because those children didn't have food or water and had lost their favorite toys.

Connor's mother, Diane Zero, said what was most impressive about the gesture is that Connor has autism, and often children with autism don't express empathy.

“Him reaching out was a really big deal,” she said.

Connor's effort has grown. Zero took her son's money to Friends School in St. Matthews, where Connor is a first-grader, and gave it to his teacher, Jennifer Long. Now the entire school is raising money that it will donate to St. Damien Hospital in Port-au-Prince. The hospital is a free pediatric facility that is funded through donations from around the world.

Click on the newslink to read the full story.

 For Mary Calhoun Brown, the term "Asperger's" is crucial to conveying to schools that although her 15-year-old son has had social difficulties, he has a near-genius IQ and great speaking ability.

"If I call it 'autism,' that's going to raise a lot of red flags for people who don't know him," said Brown, author of the novel about autism "There Are No Words."

Both Brown and her son William are opposed to new guidelines being put forth by the American Psychiatric Association that would make Asperger's syndrome part of the autism spectrum disorders rather than a separate diagnosis. In the current edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, which helps mental health professionals identify specific conditions, it is not listed under autism.

The revisions are being considered for the DSM's fifth edition, due in 2013. They were made public Wednesday at DSM5.org, and are available for public comment until April 20.

Read more about the proposed changes to the DSM

The clustering of Asperger's and other developmental conditions with autism has generated a flurry of comments and concerns among people with the conditions, as well as parents.

The Asperger's Association of New England, a nonprofit organization with more than 3,000 members, has written a letter to the APA committee in charge of revising autism diagnoses explaining that Asperger's should remain separate, said Dania Jekel, the association's executive director. The group is currently trying to mobilize other organizations to speak out and do what they can to see that the diagnosis remains in the DSM V.

Click on the newslink to read the full story.

He drove one of the first...if not the first...race cars to feature an Autism paint scheme and message and now he is the 2010 Daytona 500 Champ Jamie McMurray!!

Here’s how I wish it had gone in the line at the grocery store that quiet Sunday morning:

(As Jeff pulls out his old wallet to pay, his credit cards and other plastic spills.)

Jeff: Alex, help me pick these up please.

(Alex bends over and quickly begins helping his father as the man in the line behind Jeff and the cashier both smile.)

Man: Help your father, Alex. That’s a good boy.

 read more »

Tomorrow we are driving two hours down to Santa Barbara to attend a birthday party at the zoo. The party starts right at Caden's nap time but Caden loves the zoo (it has this cool train that takes you around the perimeter), and loves birthday parties, so I said "yes." But as I am preparing our bag of snacks and clothes for tomorrow I reflect back to a previous trip to this zoo, in November of 2008.  It was a disaster of a day. Tantrums galore.  But despite these memories, I keep trying. I continue to expose him to the world.  Hoping that tomorrow will be a good day, but wishing inside that just one time, I could walk out the door, and not worry about whether Caden is going to have a rigid, inflexible day.  So we did lots of prepping tonight about having a "flexible brain" and he told me "I promise to leave my rock brain at home. I am the little engine that could.  I will be flexible!"   A lesson learned.  I need to start thinking more like the little engine that could.  I need to worry less about what "might" happen and relish in the joy of the adventure. 

Some people with Asperger's syndrome are upset about proposed changes in how their form of autism is diagnosed.

U.S. psychiatrists are revising the manual they use to diagnose mental illness. One proposal would eliminate Asperger's as a separate diagnosis and group it in a single autism spectrum disorders category.

Many people with Asperger's call themselves Aspies and view their condition as their identity. They don't think of themselves as autistic.

The revisions are based on recent research showing little difference between mild autism and Asperger's. The American Psychiatric Association is taking public comment before adopting the revisions.

Click on the newslink to read the full story.

"Helping Your Teen Develop Friendships,” a two-hour workshops for parents of high school and middle school teens with Asperger’s, will be held Wednesday, Feb. 10, from 7 to 9 p.m. in the Nauset Regional Middle School cafeteria.

Presented by Erika Drezner, The Asperger’s Association of New England, and Nauset Special Education Advisory Committee, the workshop will guide parents in assisting their teens in making friends. Parents of typical students are encouraged to attend to better understand Asperger’s. This workshop will cover the fundamentals of friendship and the structures that support friendship making skills. The following topics will be included:

• Establishing what a friend is and the friendship skills your teen has;
• Building skills slowly over time providing success;
• Creating age appropriate opportunities for interacting with peers; and
• Problem solving and resolving conflict in friendships.
• A question and answer period will follow.

Drezner is Coordinator of Teen Services for the Asperger’s Association of New England. She has worked with adolescents, adults and families in clinical settings and has taught middle school and high school.

Click on the newslink to read the full story.

My Name is Khan, an Indian drama starring Shahrukh Khan, Kajol and Kathy Baker, opens on Friday. It’s about an Indian Muslim with Asperger’s who marries an American Hindi woman and has many difficulties in the days following 9/11.

The studio, Fox Searchlight, hasn’t given out much in the line of pre-release information — no preview screenings — but I do see an actor cast in the role of Barack Obama in it. Hmmm.

And one has to wonder what Hollywood and Bollywood will do now that the psychiatric profession has done away with Asperger’s as a diagnosis, thus depriving TV writers and folks like the filmmakers who made Adam (and possibly All About Steve) of their favorite mental disorder as plot device.

Click on the newslink to read the full story.

 Sensory Integrative Dysfunction is one of the key presenting symptoms for people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) but rarely will you find it mentioned in the top four descriptions of autism. As a result, a very important issue is often overlooked in many of the treatment approaches to helping people with autism.  Many "behaviors" demonstrated by people with autism are often misunderstood, and reasons for meltdowns or tantrums are often assigned the wrong meaning or explanation.

As a trainer of individual support staff working with people with autism, one of the areas I spend a lot of time on in my training sessions is Sensory Integrative Dysfunction. I encourage all of my staff to undertake a Sensory Integrative Assessment with every client/consumer we work with, right from the start.  In this article, I refer to the "child" but obviously, a teen or adult with ASD may also experience sensory issues, so please notice these issues when working with anyone with ASD, regardless of age.

   read more »

I am back! After four months of healing from falling fourteen feet off a ladder and fracturing two vertebra and shattering my heel, I am beginning to reshape my life and getting back to writing on the Parenting Autism blog. My first professional step forward... many other steps taken (literally), with help of physical therapist, I am learning to re-walk.

While laying on the couch (my bed for eight weeks since I could not climb the stairs) my parenting plan of organic, whole foods and after-school activities like swimming, Lego club, art class, gymnastics, and karate exploded into hours of watching movies and eating cereal and toast for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Our after school plan was simply:

1. Roll my walker with one foot while sitting on the bench, that clearly states "Warning DO NOT attempt to sit on seat while moving", from couch to front door.
2. Get coat on and open door.
3. Roll walker out on the front porch and sit in the frigged, Vermont Fall.
4. SMILE!
5. Wave at kids and moms that are helping Tristan and Dylan off the bus.
6. Kiss Tristan and Dylan.
7. Inquire about their school day; trying to pry-out more than what they ate for lunch.
8. Open door and roll back into our house while reminding the boys to pick-up their backpacks, coats, and shoes off the floor, so I can get back into the house.
9. Sit at the door, yelling, "I can't get through with your stuff all over the floor."
10. Roll through the living room dodging any dropped toys, books, food, and collapse on the couch.

The above mission would take me about forty-five minutes to execute. After an afternoon nap I would lift my head long enough to help Tristan and Dylan with homework-- no executive functioning plans on how we would set-up our afternoon, straight and simply-- survival.  read more »

Asperger's syndrome is really just a form of autism and does not merit a separate diagnosis, according to a panel of researchers assembled by the American Psychiatric Association.

Even though many researchers already refer to Asperger's as high-functioning autism, it hasn't been listed under the autism category in the official diagnostic guide of mental disorders, called the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, or DSM. The DSM serves as a guide for mental health professionals and government agencies.

But a new draft fifth edition released Wednesday moves Asperger's officially into the autism category, provoking a wide range of responses among people with Asperger's — some of whom say they do not want to be labeled as autistic.

Click on the newslink to read the full story.

Temple Grandin didn’t speak until she was three years old. When she was diagnosed with autism in 1950, her mother engaged Grandin in activities such as speech therapy and games to stimulate her mind.

Today, Grandin is a leading animal science expert and an icon for individuals with autism. Last night she visited the University to present the lecture “My Experience with Autism and Animals.”

During the two-and-a-half hour program, Grandin spoke about a variety of subjects, ranging from her experiences with autism to human slaughter methods, and drew a sizeable crowd. Attendees filled Lillis 282, which has more than 300 seats, as well as five overflow in rooms and lecture halls where live footage was shown.

“Next time we bring Dr. Grandin here, we’ll book the ballroom, and then we’ll get Autzen,” joked Barbara Altmann, director of the Oregon Humanities Center.

Grandin is considered a role model because of the challenges she has overcome and how much she has accomplished. Despite her diagnoses, she went on to earn her doctorate in animal sciences and write several books, and is now a professor at Colorado State University.

Grandin’s visit to the University coincided with the release of HBO’s biographical film “Temple Grandin,” which stars Claire Danes as Grandin.

“She’s an incredible actress,” Grandin said. “It’s almost like she became me.”

Grandin said her autism helps her relate better to animals because they are sensory thinkers like she is, and her mind works primarily through images as opposed to words.

Click on the newslink to read the full story.

Location(s)

The Minnesota Autism Center is excited to announce its Sibling Support Group. The Sibling Support Group will provide a relaxing environment where siblings of children with autism can meet and discuss the positives and negatives of having siblings with autism.

The Group will be offered in an environment where kids can join in recreational activities surrounded solely by other kids with similar family dynamics. Coping strategies and positive interactions will be discussed. The Group meets monthly at our corporate headquarters in Minnetonka and is directed by MHP qualified staff.

Dates:
Tuesday, January 12th
Tuesday, February 9th
Tuesday, March 9th
Tuesday, April 13th
Tuesday, May 11th

Who: Siblings between the ages of 7 and 17

Cost: FREE (pizza and beverages will be provided)

Location(s)

The Minnesota Autism Center (MAC) is excited to announce our 5th Annual Autism Fundraiser. Outdoor Picnic/Live Music and Silent Auction

My wive DVR'd Oprah yesterday and we watched it last night. It was very interesting because she was interviewing four child molesters. Sounds horrible, but it was very informative. The thing I thought was the most interesting was that over 90% of victims know their molesters. Whether it be friends, family, neighbors, etc. It isn't the creepy guy hiding in the bushes. The other thing I thought was interesting was they all said that if parents have an "instinct" that something is wrong or weird, look into it. All 4 molesters said that if the parents had paid more attention they would've been caught sooner. I also think that it is important that if a child tells you something, you need to believe them. Children will not usually make something like molestation up. Adults will always lie about it to cover up, but the children will usually have a good reason for saying it.

The thing I took away from it, pay attention to your children. Talk about these things with them. Find out who they are with and how these relationships are going. You don't need to accuse or mistrust everyone in your child's life, but if you get the weird intuition or if your child says something strange, look into it further.

Parents of children with autism now have another treatment option in Wausau. On Monday, staff at the Achieve Center on Stewart Avenue launched a specialized program for children ages 2 to 6 years old.

I think that incapulates how the world should see a person with Autism no matter where they are on the spectrum. The Temple Grandin movie on HBO the other night could have been a 6 part mini series so that we could have seen more of the trial and tribulations that she and her mother went through especially in the 60's and 70's but I give the movie makers an A for what they did it was informational and inspiring....yes I cried....It may have shown better how our kids think and feel than any other movie out there, I truely believe that my son uses the images and scenes from all of his movies to help him make sense of the "real" world. .From now on when I tell someone that my son is Autistic and they ask "like Rain Man" I will say no

 "like Temple Grandin".

Greetings! I am a graduate student, delving into the world of autism, among other things. A few months ago I stumbled on a lengthy blog-like article by an adult with autism who described how he taught himself to connect with the world. I remember most vividly his description of how his perception of the world around him began to 'pop out' into three dimensional visuals. Unfortunately I haven't been able to recover the web address and I don't know if it was an online article or the start of a book. Does this ring a bell with anybody out there? I would be very appreciative of any direction you can provide. 

 And thanks heaps!

Thehop 

On Feb. 12, the Autism Society Chapter-Kern Autism Network will hold its 15th Annual Autism Awareness Conference at the Marriott Hotel, 801 Truxtun Ave., in Bakersfield. Featured speakers are Dr. Stephen Shore and Dr. Blythe Corbett.

Diagnosed with “atypical development with strong autistic tendencies,” Shore was viewed as “too sick” to be treated on an outpatient basis and recommended for institutionalization. Though he was nonverbal until the age of four, with much help from his parents, teachers, and others, Shore completed his doctoral dissertation at Boston University, which was focused on matching best practice to the needs of people on the autism spectrum.

Recently, Shore has accepted a professorship at Adelphi University teaching courses in special education and autism.

In addition to working with children and talking about life on the autism spectrum, Shore presents and consults internationally on adult issues pertinent to education, relationships, employment, advocacy, and disclosure as discussed in his books Beyond the Wall: Personal Experiences with Autism and Asperger Syndrome, Ask and Tell: Self-advocacy and Disclosure for People on the Autism Spectrum, and the critically acclaimed Understanding Autism for Dummies.

President emeritus of the Asperger’s Association of New England, Shore serves on the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee, for the Board of Directors for Autism Society of America, Unlocking Autism, MAAP, the College Internship Program, and USAAA.

Click on the newslink to read the full story.

Six-year-old Alexander Mitchell of Dallas has trouble keeping up with other kids.

As a child with Pervasive Developmental Disorder, a condition on the autism spectrum, Alexander struggles to control body movements and use appropriate social interactions.

But he's flourishing in Lynne Silberman's yoga program for special-needs kids, says his mother, Kellie Baker-Mitchell.

 "It has a calming effect," says Baker-Mitchell as Alexander settles happily in class, giggling with his friend Sarah Grace Salaiz, 8, of Dallas, who has Down syndrome. "When he has a meltdown at home, we do the breathing exercises."

Silberman, 25, who has worked with special-needs kids since she was 16, believes that yoga is uniquely suited for connecting with these children. One of just a handful of practitioners in the Dallas-Fort Worth area licensed by the Florida-based group Yoga for the Special Child, she sees it as a way of improving attention span, balance and strength as well as confidence and self-control. An independent instructor, she used to teach at Dallas Services, which continues to offer the program.

All kids need exercise, Silberman notes. But too often, kids with special needs are rejected from organized sports or recess play for not being coordinated, focused or fast enough. In her class, they all feel like winners as they improve their skills.

Click on the newslink to read the full story.

As daylight spread across upper Cleveland County on the morning of June 13, 2009, county Emergency Management Director Dewey Cook was already hard at work.

Equipped with a radio device, he listened for beeps - clues that would help him find a missing woman who had walked off from home.

In Cleveland County, she is one of about 20 Project Lifesaver participants who range from elderly patients with dementia to a child with autism.

Within six minutes, Cook had tracked the 79-year-old woman, an Alzheimer's patient, and found her behind a mobile home about a mile from her house.

Nationwide, the project has conducted more than 2,000 successful searches, with a couple of those coming from Cleveland County.

This summer, Cleveland County's Project Lifesaver received two awards for quickest searches, and that's something Cook is proud of, especially since he took on a key role in both.
"What we do when we get a call is we follow the guidelines," said Cook. "We turn on the receiver, then get in the area.
"I picked up a signal with the all-directional antenna, then switched to the directional one," he said. "It hones you in to where the person is."

Cook is one of a group of officials from law enforcement and emergency management who work with the project.

"We're a team," he said. "When we make a find, it's a team effort."

Project Lifesaver has joined with LoJack, the company that tracks stolen vehicles, to make finding lost clients even easier, said Cleveland County Sheriff's Office Lt. Wayne Thomas.

The transmitters were previously equipped with a radio frequency tracking device, which is now coupled with the satellite capabilities of LoJack, he said.

Click on the newslink to read the full story.

My son is 8 years old and was diagnosed with Aspergers last year. He's always been a handful, but just over the last few weeks we've noticed some changes and are consequently in counceling. He's told me he's had thoughts of suicide in the past, but I don't know how serious those thoughts were. He's very secretive with his feelings and in fact seems to enjoy having "secrets" as he calls them. Often times when he's upset he'll share that he has secrets and wants us to be sure to know that we won't know what those secrets are. Seems to bring him a lot of satisfaction and an odd sort of peace.

 In any case, I have a lot of concerns about his emotional health and well-being. I actually love that he's different. He's highly intelligent and imaginative and brings us a lot of joy with his stories and silly humor, but then there's the other side that is emotional, frustrated, and sometimes angry to the point he hits, kicks, and curses. He's getting bigger all the time and I don't know what I'll do when he one day is as big or bigger than I am. I really don't have a lot of control over him.

 I've started a blog about us... it's really about our relationship, mother and son and what I learn from him as we watch him develop into a young man. You can find us at An Aspie Story

I'd love to have you stop by and share your wisdom with me. I believe we can all learn from one another! I'm very glad to have found this site and look forward to meeting others who've been there/done that!

Maggie

I am a widow and single mother of a mildly to moderately autistic boy.  He will turn 3 years old in two weeks.  He was diagnosed with Autism just before his 2nd Birthday.  When he was diagnosed he couldn't talk or communicate, he wouldn't respond to his name, and there was no eye contact.  He was still drinking from a bottle and still eating baby food.  He has improved a lot in the past year.  His eye contact is really great now, he responds to his name, has learned to communicate some, immitate and initiate words.  He is now trying to tell us what he wants sometimes.  He drinks from a sippy-cup, sometimes from a straw, and sometimes out of a regular cup.  He still eats baby food.  We are still working on trying to get him to eat table food.  Because of his sensitivity to textures and also because change is hard, he will not eat anything he has to chew.   I have learned that parents are the best advocates for their children.  Parents know their children better than anyone.  What works for one child may not work for another child.  Each parent has to figure out what works best for their child, this could be true for normal children as well as autistic children. My son has a speech therapist, occupational therapist, and play therapist.  He has also been in daycare 3 days a week around normal children.  My son has a happy, sweet, loving, and playful nature.  He relates well to me when I play with him.  He likes games, like peek-a-boo. He is becoming good at imaginative and pretend play.  read more »

Hi everyone! Here's a hello and a little about me and Zachary:

When my son Zachary was born, he was the third boy and clearly different. Club foot, colic, esotropia, were the 1st apparent issues. Oh, yea his APGAR score was 2.

Still, I looked at each one of these diagnoses as 'problems to solve' and like most parents began tackling what interventions would best treat Zachary. As we seemed to be making progress with these issues my gut was tearing away at me. It was clear Zachary was not happy. He was in fact acting like his environment was constantly provoking him into hysteria, which he had no ability to control or come down from.

I began experimenting with environmental controls, and finally after months of trial and error I discovered that a low light, 66 degrees, organic cotton diaper and organic cotton blanket swaddled with soft classical music, very low was his happy spot.

We spent a considerable amount of time in this cocoon. I breast fed Zachary here, had his brother come in his room rather than him leave it for interaction. The range of what Zachary could tolerate in this environment improved greatly and for the first time since he was born, he could relax and trust.

I leapt on this foundation of trust. Without language and highly sensitive, I needed Zachary to trust that if he was with me, he was fine. Thank goodness for the mild California climate, it gave me courage to take Zachary out in 'just a onezie’! So we began, venture after venture, within the house, out of the house, in the car, stretching Zachary’s tolerance of his environment. One day when Zachary wasn't doing well at one of his brother's baseball games, a friend asked me why I didn't go home.  read more »

Some of you are probably aware of this, and quit honestly I knew this as well but just wasn't completely prepared for it yesterday.....

Dr. Pepper does not make DVD players work better......but it does make a nasty smell.

You may have heard that they wanted to hold that big terrorism trial in downtown Manhattan, in what would no doubt be a lively courthouse at the southern tip of the island on which I and my family live.

You wouldn’t think that this event – with its attendant NYPD checkpoints, rooftop sniper guards, and overall sense of not telling yourself over and over that a suicide bomber intent on destruction is going to succeed no matter what the police erect – would have much to do with Alex’s junior high school. But like a drop of dishwashing soap dripped into a pan of greasy water, the event has caused the NYC Department of Education to move as many schoolchilden as possible from what could be a new Ground Zero. That in turn has caused new crowding in many schools up the length of Manhattan...

at jeffslife.tripod.com/alextheboy

A new registry is aiding law enforcement and providing some peace of mind to families of autistic children and adults in El Dorado County.

The registry through the sheriff's office "is unique in Northern California and maybe in the state," said Ron Huff, director of clinical and intake services for Sacramento-based Alta California Regional Center. The center helps secure services for children and adults with developmental disabilities.

The sheriff's office has worked closely with the center in recent months to better prepare deputies and dispatchers to handle cases involving people with autism. That includes making sure critical information is available to officers responding to calls for service.

"In El Dorado County, there are 158 people known to have autism," said Sgt. Todd Hammitt, who oversees the department's training program.

Families may fill out an autism registration form, available on the department's Web site, providing basic information and a physical description, as well as information about the person's condition or temperament.

Autism has a wide range of symptoms that affect a person's ability to socialize and communicate, Huff said. An officer might think an someone who doesn't speak or who engages in bizarre behavior is being disrespectful or is high on drugs, he said. Knowing that the person is autistic could affect how the officer approaches the situation.

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Location(s)

The Basic Course on the DIR®/Floortime™ Model, taught by child psychiatrist, Stanley I. Greenspan, M.D. comes to you online.  This annual conference features an overview of the Developmental, Individual Difference, Relationship-Based (DIR) Model and focuses on Assessment, Diagnosis and Intervention for Developmental and Learning Disorders, including Autistic Spectrum Disorders.

For the third year, the course will be offered online, allowing participants to participate from the comfort of their own home.  It is presented as a series of 15 video lectures, each approximately one hour long, and will be available for an eight-week period, from March 12 to May 9, 2010.  Participants can view the segments sequentially at their own pace, any time during the eight week period that the course is offered.   Dr. Greenspan will be available to respond to questions from conference attendees and participants will have a chance to interact with parents and professionals from around the world through an interactive bulletin board.

For more information on the course and workshops, visit www.stanleygreenspan.com .

To download a complete brochure  read more »

The area's only comprehensive autism treatment center opened this week through a partnership between Southwest Regional Rehabilitation Center and Summit Pointe.

Facilitators say the Envision Center, located in the rehabilitation hospital at 393 E. Roosevelt Ave., will increase the quality of life and functional independence of children ages 18 months to 18 years with mild forms of autism.

One in 110 children in the United States is estimated to have an Autism Spectrum Disorder, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. People with the disorder have developmental disabilities in thinking, feeling, language and the ability to relate to others. There are a wide range of disorders on the autism spectrum, from very severe cases of autistic disorder to milder cases of Asperger syndrome, according to the National Institute of Mental Health.

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I have a grandson who is 5 years old and he has autism and hyperactivity.  His parents have not toilet trained him yet.  He is a handful now, what is he going to be 5 years from now?

For the first time, the county is receiving a grant from Autism Speaks to buy bracelets and tracking receivers to help safeguard children with autism who may wander off, said Sheriff Jean Stanfield.

Stanfield, who administers the Project Lifesaver program, said the grant for 2010 is $6,950.

"This grant will greatly help to ease parents' fears as they struggle to protect a child with autism and will enable the sheriff's department to expand the much needed services we offer," she told the Burlington County Board of Freeholders at a meeting Wednesday night.

The bracelets, which cost $300 each, are embedded with an individualized radio frequency to make it easier and faster for first responders to locate missing people.

The county has been participating in the national Project Lifesaver program since 2006.

Previously, the department had used forfeiture money from drug arrests to pay for the bracelet program and also asked families with autistic children to buy bracelets if it was possible to do so.

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Eastern Michigan University’s Autism Collaborative Center was featured on PBS on Tuesday evening.

The center is the only nonprofit, university-based autism center in the country that provides nutrition, therapeutic recreation and other extensive services for children and adults with autism.

Autism is a brain disorder that makes it hard to communicate and relate to others. With autism, the different areas of the brain fail to work together.

The PBS news magazine show “A Wider World” focuses on developments and issues people with disabilities face.

Pamela Lemerand, assistant professor of occupational therapy and project director for the center, said the show approached the center.

“They heard about us from newspapers and families that knew about us,” Lemerand said.

The center is appealing because it provides a variety of services to autistic individuals.

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Hi!  This is my first attempt at blogging, so I guess I'll start with what brought me to this site.  I am a mom, and one of my kids was diagnosed with autism.  His problems are pretty severe, so he's been connected with lots of help with his speech delay and other difficulties.  I was confused at first..why does he have this?  What kind of life will he have?  Will he ever be independent?  The more I heard from specialists and experts, who put his symptoms into words, the more a dawning realization crept up on me.  His need for repetition and ritual, his detatchment, the hand flapping...all things I had done as a kid, and some that I still do.  Mikey didn't get his autism from vaccines or anything like that...I had a feeling he'd gotten it from me.  But wait...granted, I was a social train wreck as a kid, and have difficulty perceiving emotions, and a sackful of others symptoms, I never had anything resembling a speech delay.  Since this is one of Mikey's primary troubles, it bothered me, and I went online looking.  It didn't take too long before I was certain that I had Asperger's Syndrome.  The next step for me was to get some kind of validation from a professional.  I went to Mikey's appointments, asking if I could pursue some kind of workup.  To my surprise, I was met with repeated brushoffs.  One woman told me that I couldn't be autistic, since I'd obtained a BS degree.  Seriously....?  I was disgusted.

I decided to go outside of the large provider in our area to see if anyone else could help me.  A family counselor of my acquaintance connected me with a therapist who was qualified to test for Asperger's.  I met with her, gave the reasons for my suspicions, and we made our way through a couple of tests, and I finally had my answer...I have Asperger's!  read more »

A Quebec school's security measures, which include two teachers wearing helmets to work with students with autism and developmental problems, are under attack by the Autism Society of Quebec's local chapter.

Doris Dubé of the Abitibi region chapter said she is worried about the welfare of the students at Pavillon L'Élan in Rouyn-Noranda. The students range in age from 10 to 12, and 15 to 18.

Helmets and a security guard in the classroom create an atmosphere of aggressiveness, which can lead to more aggression, Dubé said.

An autism expert, first brought in by the school last fall, has returned to help train the teachers on how to work with the autistic students.

Luc Gravel, spokesman for the union representing the teachers, said the two didn't think wearing helmets was the best idea, but went along with their principal's suggestion in order to protect themselves.

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Are you having a hard time raising a child with autism? If you're like me you can use all the help you can get.

I came across a book that helped me with many of the problems on raising my child with autism.

PROS:

Tips about which natural supplements helps autistic children sleep

Tips for getting your autistic child photographed

Techniques for potty training an autistic child

Tips for celebrating holidays with your autistic child

And many more!

CONS:

Though this book helped me out a great deal, it didn't solve 100% of the problems.

CONCLUSION:

I am very happy with this book, it made my families lives so much easier.  I highly recommend you check out this resource.

GO TO:   SOWORTHIT.INFO

A search is on in Halifax for an 18-year-old woman with autism.
Jennifer Graves-Smith was last seen leaving Halifax West High School on Tuesday at 3:30 p.m., Halifax Regional Police said in a news release.

She's a special-needs student at the school.

Police say she didn't take her assigned school bus and was seen walking down a wooded pathway toward the Keshen Goodman Public Library on Lacewood Drive.

Halifax ground search and rescue has also been called in to help look for her.

Police describe Ms. Graves-Smith as five-foot-eight and 130 pounds with shoulder-length brown hair.

She was wearing a slate blue Columbia jacket. She's known to usually have the hood up, the news release noted. She is also known to turn away when strangers approach.

She had a black and red backpack with her.

Police are asking the public to call 490-5016 with any information.

(CNN) -- The medical journal The Lancet on Tuesday retracted a controversial 1998 paper that linked the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine to autism.

The study subsequently had been discredited, and last week, the lead author, Dr. Andrew Wakefield, was found to have acted unethically in conducting the research.

The General Medical Council, which oversees doctors in Britain, said that "there was a biased selection of patients in The Lancet paper" and that his "conduct in this regard was dishonest and irresponsible."

The panel found that Wakefield subjected some children in the study to various invasive medical procedures such as colonoscopies and MRI scans. He also paid children at his son's birthday party to have blood drawn for research purposes, an act that "showed a callous disregard" for the "distress and pain" of the children, the panel said.

After the council's findings last week, The Lancet retracted the study and released this statement.

"It has become clear that several elements of the 1998 paper by Wakefield et al. are incorrect, contrary to the findings of an earlier investigation. In particular, the claims in the original paper that children were 'consecutively referred' and that investigations were 'approved' by the local ethics committee have been proven to be false. Therefore we fully retract this paper from the published record."

Has autism touched your life? Share your stories, thoughts on vaccination study

Dr. Richard Horton, editor of The Lancet, said he reviewed the General Medical Council report regarding Wakefield's conduct.  read more »

My wife Jill’s cousin Allen died yesterday. He died of a heart attack. He was 48, and he has a son with autism. “Had.” I guess I meant to write “had” there.

They lived in Chicago, and I saw Allen and his son Eric on New Year’s Eve. “Is it okay if we come?” Allen asked ...

at http://www.yaiautismcommunity.org/blog/

We made the decision to not give anymore medication during the daytime anymore as we were not seeing any results from it. Sam has been on a plethera of ADHD meds, and handfulls of others, all with little to no results...my last option and hope was Marinol, a synthetic THC, but the main ingredient is sesame oil, and he's allergic to sesame. So far he is actually doing ok, but has ALOT of issues in school, and I feel like I'm being pushed to give meds again, but will not, as they all have nasty s/e, and when he starts to come down off them he is crazed like a crack addict ( I work in a drug clinic, so I know what this looks, and acts like). His toilet training is actually going quite well, and other than poo accidents, he's scootin' along very well. His developmental Ped told us she could no longer help us as she has never had a child as complex as mine, so now off we go to another specialist, this time more on the natural spectrum since none of the traditional meds have worked. Are there any suggestions for natural meds for kids who are so very high strung such as my own?? I have looked into medical marijuana, but am not at that point yet, and the state I live in does not recognize it's use as medical yet (work in progress). I have tried giving caffine, and pop, but the only thing he gets from it is diarrhea...I think due to the fact his diet is so clean, and all that crap is artificial...Zevia is a new natural pop with caffine, but again, the diarrhea thing. Any suggestions??? I do still use some clonidine, and melatonin at NOC for sleep, and am looking at getting some magnesium cream for sleep time as well....for him and I both.

Spread the word, join the cause...Autism Awareness. Please visit my page for Ava and the Autism Awareness walk.

http://asadayton5kwalk.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=338879&lis=0&kntae338879=7D1C82831F9D44EC89E5B69D94B9C2A3&supId=282733648

Given the many challenges involved in raising an autistic child, parents are willing to try a variety of potential remedies, many of which are controversial and unproven.

But one potential treatment that has gained attention recently is one that was controversial well before its first mention in connection with autism.

"At first I did some research, and I found a doctor who actually had a protocol for medical marijuana in children diagnosed with autism," Mieko Hester-Perez of Fountain Valley, Calif., told "Good Morning America."

Hester-Perez made her decision to try giving her 10-year-old son, Joey Perez, medical marijuana after his weight had become dangerously low due to his unwillingness to eat. She said that at the time she began the approach, he weighed only 46 pounds.

"You could see the bones in his chest. He was going to die," she said.

"The marijuana balanced my son," said Hester-Perez, noting that she has never used marijuana herself. "My son had self-injurious behaviors. He was extremely aggressive, he would run out of our house... he was a danger to himself and others."

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My wife was watching the Doctors yesterday and she mentioned that they had a family on there that was treating their autistic child using Medical Marijuana. Apparently, they were getting some results with the drug, it was helping him focus and helped his appetite. They were making brownies out of it, so he wasn't actually smoking it. So far Medical Marijuana is legal in 14 states and is gaining steam in other states. I am just curious what everyone's view is on the subject?

 Please comment...

Last session, lawmakers created an Autism Task Force. Members included lawmakers, doctors and parents dealing with ways to help parents and kids better deal with the issues associated with autism.

The group is looking for ways the state can help parents of autistic kids emotional and financially.    

Numbers show there's a need for such a task force in Arkansas. In fact, a University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) study has found that 1 in 145 Arkansas children has autism, the fourth highest rate among 14 states participating in a national study.

The UAMS Arkansas data was used as part of the largest-ever U.S. study of autism published Feb. 9 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The study found that about 1 in 150 American children, or 560,000, have autism, making the disorder an "urgent public health issue," said Marshalyn Yeargin-Allsopp, chief of the developmental disabilities branch of the CDC.

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Though the thin, sprightly 14-year-old from New Windsor is at times quite literally half the size of his classmates, he is treated exactly the same as his older counterparts.

The class only meets for an hour each week, but the feelings of acceptance stay with him for much longer.

Diagnosed with autism at the age of 8, Bob has had a difficult time finding a place where he belongs among with people who understand him, according to his mother, Sharon.

“Before we came here, Bob used to go to a place in Westminster for Hap Ki Do,” she said, “and there were a couple kids there that didn’t get it.”

But Bob has never let any of the negative feedback deter him from reaching his goals. In the eight years that he has been practicing Hap Ki Do, a Korean form of martial arts which translated means “the way of coordinating energy,” Bob has risen from a beginner’s white belt all the way to a first-degree black belt. He plans on testing for his second-degree black belt as soon as his instructor, Chris Shirey, thinks he is ready.

Along with instructing there, Shirey has owned United Hap Ki Do of Eldersburg for 16 years. During that time he has taught other children with autism, but none of them reached the level of expertise that Bob has attained. Shirey credits his success in Hap Ki Do to the constant support of Sharon, who sits in on every class, and to Bob’s overall tenacity.

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The hardest hurdle to clear when growing up with a sibling diagnosed with autism, according to Arika Abdalian, is communication. Her younger brother, Eric, was prone to repetitive behavior and had difficulty verbalizing his needs to his family, which often led to tantrums. Such misunderstandings often strain family relations, which is precisely what the program, For OC Kids, hopes to combat.

The For OC Kids Neurodevelopmental Center, a joint project between the UC Irvine Medical Center’s Department of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital of Orange County, caters to an extensive variety of learning and developmental disorders in children, such as autism.

The organization’s specialists, comprised of individuals capable in a wide range of backgrounds, consist of pediatricians, social workers, psychologists and speech-language pathologists.

The key to treating autism, according to Judy Burton, Administrative Director of For OC Kids, is early intervention. The center’s Infant Screening Project, for instance, highlights the organization’s approach to tackling autism.

The study aims to set up a method to detect autism in children younger than six months through comprehensive developmental evaluations.

Because patients can span the autism spectrum from mild symptoms to more serious conditions, For OC Kids offers a variety of services.

Occupational therapy, for example, focuses on directed coordination and perception. Speech and language therapy, designed for children like Eric in particular, helps develop the ability to interact in a social environment.

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