Early Screening: Ode to the MCHAT

Dr. Som The Pensive Pediatrician Editors’ Note: Some years ago, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended that childhood primary care physicians –family practice and pediatricians — screen for autism in well-child visits, as well as screening for other developmental delays. One autism screening tool is the M-CHAT, or Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers, which is validated for children between 16 and 30 months of age. The following is Dr. Som’s plea to her fellow primary care physicians to use the M-CHAT regularly. Ode to the M-CHAT Parents with toddlers we know you can read. 23 questions is all that we need. Answer yes, answer no, is all that you do– Just five short minutes when your child is two. It need not be English. Try Hebrew, Chinese, Turkish, Polish, perhaps Japanese. What’s up, doc? You cannot? No, not today? No copier. No pens. Insurance won’t pay? But Adam’s autistic,…

Church With the Special Needs Child

Amanda Broadfoot www.lifeisaspectrum.com We found a church today. At least, I’m pretty sure we have. We’ve been looking for a while, and talk about finding something right under your nose: We ended up at the same place where we’ve been attending Kindermusik every Wednesday night for the past five months, Good Samaritan United Methodist. Dave went to the nursery with Billy and Willow to help ease Billy into his new surroundings. We explained to the nursery staff that Billy is autistic, and they were all just wonderful. After an initial, brief meltdown over the sight of Mama high-tailin’ it to the grownups’ room, Billy apparently settled in very nicely. At coloring time, he helpfully shared his orange crayon with everyone — whether or not they wanted a bit of orange on their drawing — and serenaded the whole class with a couple of verses of “Jesus Loves Me.” I got…

Loving Lampposts: Accepting and Understanding Neurodiversity

When my son Leo’s autism comes up in casual conversation, the person I’m talking with usually reacts as follows: either they have a relative or close friend with a child with autism and want to talk about it, or they just love that Temple Grandin movie and want to talk about it. In both cases, I’ve longed for a more appropriate autism movie to recommend, one that explores the complexity and diversity of autism experiences beyond one brave, famous woman’s challenges and successes, one that reassures and educates families of children with new autism diagnoses, one that  immerses the viewer in the autism worldview I believe best serves our community: neurodiversity. That film is finally here. It’s called Loving Lampposts. The director, Todd Drezner, showcases the varied faces of our community: the advocates, the adults, the loving parents, the beloved children — plus the professionals, the doctors, the researchers, and…

Hi-Fi Pseudo-Sci, Occupational Therapy, and Making Some Lemonade

Adam J. Slagell Science-Based Parenting Being involved parents of an autistic child, my wife and I go to many different groups and meet lots of other parents of children with PDD (Persistent Developmental Delay) or ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder). I am used to the barrage of pseudoscience and misinformation from well-meaning parents (e.g, anti-vaccination, chelation, gluten-free diets, etc), but I have always expected that professional Occupational Therapists (OTs) would steer us towards evidence-based treatments. They have certainly been critical of many of the common autism myths, like the vaccines and autism non-connection. Unfortunately, my expectations were overly ambitious, and I let my skeptical guard down. Our older son is very sensitive to loud noises and gets upset quite easily. He seems to have a lot of sensory issues both tactile and auditory, and addressing sensory issues is a large part of what his OT therapies work to alleviate. Our OTs…

Reading for Answers

Sarah MacLeod quarksandquirks.wordpress.com findingmygrounduu.wordpress.com My younger son had a rocky start, with a changing set of labels. At two months, it was colic. At 12 months, he was a “fussy baby.” By four, hypontonicity, sensory processing disorder, convergence disorder, and possible PPD-NOS entered the scene. At six, a psychologist evaluated his cognitive skills and “profound giftedness” joined the party. At nine, he returned to the psychologist for treatment for anxiety and tantrums. Recently, at the end of three frustrating months, the psychologist added Asperger’s syndrome to the list. We — his father and I — had known for years that he was an unusual child. From the start, I scoured bookstores and libraries, searching for answers to or at least a name for what made my younger son so uncomfortable in the world. The answers had to be somewhere in print, I figured. My bookshelf, computer, library card, and I…

April Is Autism Story Sharing Month on TPGA

April is Autism Awareness month. And every day during the month of April, TPGA would like to share an autism perspective: yours. As members of the autism community, we know that awareness is only a first step. Increased awareness brings opportunities to share our experiences and strive for what people with autism deserve: understanding, and acceptance. If you’d like to participate, please send us a short essay on one thing you want readers to know about autism — as it relates to you.  Share what you’ve experienced or witnessed. Tell readers about a formative experience; something joyful, or a brief moment of despair. Share your hopes, dreams, past, or future. Anecdotes laced with humor — however dark though not mean-spirited — are especially appreciated. You are welcome to submit a previously published item, or one you’d like to republish elsewhere. And if you feel self-conscious about your writing, please know…

George Takei on My Mind

Carol Greenburg aspieadvocate-ascd.blogspot.com Please forgive the delay in my addressing the horrors of the earthquake/tsunami in Japan, which are linked to me in ways that will become obvious as you read this essay. I’m diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome, a type of autism. Although I am verbal and can express myself in writing, one difficulty I have is gaining enough control over strong emotions to communicate them constructively. Like many Aspies, another difficulty for me is obsessiveness. Autism experts call this perseveration which is one of those pathologizing terms used to describe a quality they’d call persistence in non-autistic folks. I’m used to perseverating and hearing myself described as obsessive. Nothing new there. The topic of my hyper-focus in these past two weeks, however, is new to me: I can’t stop thinking about George Takei. George Takei and I actually go way back, though we’ve never met. I used to edit…

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iPads and Autism Resources: Fundraising, Donations, Research, and Education

Shannon Des Roches Rosa www.thinkingautismguide.com www.squidalicious.com www.blogher.com Leo playing Swapsies While so many of us are waiting for our iPad2s, many (too many) kids with autism and other special needs are waiting to get any iPad — any iPad at all. Families who want to buy iPads privately often don’t have the means (these devices are expensive!), and school districts and insurance companies often cite the lack of longitudinal studies supporting the effectiveness of iDevices in special education. To address both areas, I’ve been updating our iPad Apps for Autism spreadsheet with links to iPad Fundraising & Donations, as well as Research & Education links. I’ve pasted in the current listings below, but will be updating and expanding the list as more resources come in — or are brought to my attention (hint, hint). If you want to help a child get an iPad, look through the Fundraising & Donations…

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An Interview with Dr. Robert Goldberg, PhD, Author of Tabloid Medicine

I got a chance to talk with Dr. Robert Goldberg PhD about his new book “Tabloid Medicine.” In it he breaks apart the formula for Tabloid Medicine: change the terminology to fit your agenda, create an instant expert, play the little guy against the big guy, proliferate bad information, then find a celebrity to lead the charge. Voila! Your very own epidemic-I make light, but this book doesn’t, since it’s not really a funny topic. We spoke of how he came to the topic as a parent, when his own daughter struggled with misinformation in the media, but continued, fueled by the tragedy that with so much good the internet could be doing, it was being “hijacked” by the likes of Andrew Wakefield, Jenny McCarthy, David Healy, Sidney Wolfe MD, and Barbara Loe Fisher. Passionate about the subject, and well-grounded by facts, Dr. Goldberg answered a few questions for me.…

Processing Grief After a Child’s ASD Diagnosis

Sharon Morris sharon-theawfultruth.blogspot.com I’m a new arrival to Planet ASD. I use this analogy deliberately as it does feel as though I have stepped through, or fallen into, a wormhole opening to another universe. I wonder where all these research papers, all these treatment models, all these parents and children, and their courageous stories have been. Where have they been hiding? How was I so blind to this ever-expanding ASD community apparently living right under my nose? Sure, I’d heard of autism. Though I hadn’t  given it a lot of thought.  And when it had crossed my mind in years past I considered the possibility of an autistic child with ignorant terror. Now I am a new, life member of the autism community. Prior to Harri’s ASD diagnosis two weeks before his second birthday my mummy mantra was ‘This too shall pass.’  This idea was a lifeline during his incredibly…