2010 In Review: Thanks to All Contributors

Liz Ditz http://lizditz.typepad.com/i_speak_of_dreams/ http://lizditz.typepad.com/academic_remediation/ On behalf of my fellow editors, Emily Willingham, Jennifer Byde Myers, and Shannon des Roches Rosa, I’d like to thank all of the 2010 contributors to The Thinking Person’s Guide to Autism. What follows is an alphabetical list of contributors, with links to their TPGA posts, their website(s) and twitter accounts (where available — some of our contributors have neither websites nor twitter accounts). Eighty contributors. 120+ posts. Many, many different perspectives on autism. Autism through the lifetime. Thank you all. Kate Ahern, Living the Least Dangerous Assumption. Blog: http://teachinglearnerswithmultipleneeds.blogspot.com/. Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/teechkidz . Presentations: http://www.slideshare.net/teechkidz Kyra Anderson, Bring Everyone Out. Blog: http://kyraanderson.wordpress.com/ Anonymous Special Needs Professional, Why I Can’t Breathe Tonight Emma Apple, If the Scarf Fits Blog: http://www.bluehijabday.com/ Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/bluehijabday Devon Koren Asdell, How I Know Vaccines Didn’t Cause My Daughter’s Autism Blog: http://community.advanceweb.com/blogs/ot_9/ . Website: http://dkoren.freeshell.org/. Stacey Ashlund, Comparative Misery and a Born-Again Buddhist…

And Thoughts are Turning Back to School

Liz Ditz http://lizditz.typepad.com/i_speak_of_dreams/ http://lizditz.typepad.com/academic_remediation/ I know we said a break, but… Today, Gary Brannigan PhD and Howard Margolis PhD (the authors of a great book, Reading Disabilities: Beating the Odds) published a blog post Stonewalling the IEP. While Brannigan and Margolis are writing about specifically reading issues, their advice can be generalized to all kinds of issues. The blog post is particularly about “Present Levels of Performance” and how many IEP teams skimp this section. Brannigan and Margolis suggest there are four reasons: The school members of the IEP Team don’t know how to develop a Present Levels section that’s complete, meaningful, and functional. The district’s evaluations failed to supplement norm-referenced data from standardized tests with instructionally-relevant functional information. School members of your child’s IEP Team have overwhelming caseloads. (Rarely): To wear parents out and send a message to other parents: “Be satisfied with what we give you.” Brannigan and…

Holiday Wrap-Up

Liz Ditz http://lizditz.typepad.com/i_speak_of_dreams/ http://lizditz.typepad.com/academic_remediation/ The editorial team here all thought we would all take a break until January 3rd, 2011 but I changed my mind. This year, I actually wrote down all the recipes I used so I’d remember them next year, and I thought we could use this time to note down what worked and what didn’t, as far as the holidays, travel, and autism are concerned. Shannon shared her tips and those gleaned from others in Autism and Holidays: Success Through Meticulous Planning (inclused my new favorite seasonal carol, Let Me Stim, Let Me Stim, Let Me Stim. Here are a few more autism & Christmas posts from around the blogosphere: Caren Zucker at the Daily Beast wrote Christmas With My Autistic Son, (also at TheMcGlynn) in which there was a failure of communication, which resolved into increased family closeness. Check out Mickey’s Christmas list! Lisa Jo Rudy…

A TPGA End to 2010

 In the spirit of evidence-based and informed approaches, enjoy: Autism 101: Parenting advice from total strangers We’re going to be celebrating the holidays with a wee break from posting essays – may you all have reasons to celebrate, too. Happy holidays, happy new year, and see you on January 3rd. Video from Laura Bobcat/www.youtube.com/user/goo200

Recent Autism Studies in the News: Overpromising, Big Time

Emily Willingham, Ph.D daisymayfattypants.blogspot.com biologyfiles.wordpress.com Two autism studies made recent headlines: How a Gene Mutation Leads to Autism and Proximity to Freeway Increases Autism Risk. The first is a close-up on a particular gene using mice as a model and the other is an epidemiological study. The mouse study examined a gene/protein known as SHANK3, which has been implicated previously in autism. The epidemiological study looked at correlations between living near highways and autism rates. Let’s take a look at the mouse study [PDF] first. SHANK3 has emerged as a protein of interest because of its roles in nerve connectivity. Researchers also have found that losing one copy of the SHANK3 gene — normally, people have two functional copies — can be associated with behaviors linked to autism. The authors of this new mouse study, which is being published in Molecular Autism, decided to knock out one Shank3 copy in…

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I’m an Embarrassment

Carol Greenburg aspieadvocate-ascd.blogspot.com I don’t have much in the way of shame. I’ve learned enough social skills over the years to not to embarrass friends, family, or even complete strangers as often as I used to, but my Inappropriate Meter isn’t entirely consistent. So hang around with me for a moment or for years and risk blushing. Sometimes people do bad things, so I suppose I can justify my tactless exposure of their misdeeds as a kind of karmic justice. Then again, sometimes people make innocent mistakes and I make everything worse by pointing out their faux pas. I try my best not to be the source of hurt, and try to have faith that most adults are able to forgive whatever role is I play in their discomfort. But I worry about embarrassing kids, in particular my autistic son. Yeah, I know some parents of autistic kids worry about…

Raising Asperger’s Kids: Generalizing the Specifics

Elise aka aspergers2mom asd2mom.blogspot.com A primary issue for children on the autism spectrum is generalization: the ability to take what they learn from one situation and apply it in a totally different scenario. The scenarios may not even be all that different, but introduce a new dynamic or remove a familiar item, and the child can get thrown off kilter and lose the resources they just learned. It’s similar to the issues my younger son, HSB, has in math. When given a math formula and the appropriate number equivalents for the algebraic letters, he is able to apply the formula and even understands the reasoning and purpose. But if he is required to take that formula and apply in an unfamiliar word problem or with an unfamiliar set of numbers, he will get lost. He is not able to generalize the specific information that he learned for that math equation.…

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This One Goes to Eleven

The Domestic Goddess thedgoddess.com There are days when I’m a bit arrogant and a know-it-all and I’m all, “Autism? Expert!” and things run smoothly and calmly and we almost feel normal around here. Normal. Whatever that is. Then there are days like the last two. It’s like being caught in a tennis match, except the ball moves faster than the speed of light and I get a bit dizzy. Bugaboo is fast, y’all. See, here’s the thing about autism: When you’ve met one child with autism you’ve met one child with autism. It’s like snowflakes, no two are alike. My two couldn’t be further apart in terms of functioning. You know, like onions. Onions have layers (name that movie for five points. Six if you name the character who says it). And children with autism? Are very complex. They have many layers, many colors, many idiosyncrasies. Many things that make…

After the Thunderstorm

J. Lorraine Martin www.cheeselesspizza.blogspot.com I was sitting in a lawn chair in my garage with the door open. A thunderstorm was in progress.  My tears synchronized with the outpouring. I don’t usually take the time to really feel and watch a storm, but on this day I was drawn to the outside, perhaps seeking a powerful physical stirring to match the emotional stirring that had just occurred. Earlier, mulling around the kitchen, I reviewed the details of our planned social outing with each of my kids. My initial goal was to gently stretch my autistic son outside his comfort zone by having my daughter invite one of her friends to join us to go bowling; however, it soon hit me that allowing new people a full view into our life brings to the surface feelings of vulnerability that we all would prefer to avoid.  In fact, the mother of our…

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Autism and Holidays: Success Through Meticulous Planning

Shannon Des Roches Rosa www.squidalicious.com As the 2008 holiday season sputtered out and the last relatives left our house, I exhaled, then smiled. I’d really enjoyed all the feasting and fun, from the morning moment the kids’ cousins started frolicking underfoot, until the last precious late-night conversation wound down. But there is no way in hell we can manage another holiday season like that one, because floundering in all the happy happy joy joy was one miserable, disoriented, sleep-disturbed little boy with autism and his equally disoriented parents. Please, learn from our mistakes and successes so that your holiday season can be as enjoyable as ours was but suck less than ours did. Your advocacy skills need to go into overdrive during the holidays. Of course you need to advocate for your child, to ensure they’re accommodated — but you also need to advocate for yourself. Your children are sensitive…