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Autism, Parenting, and Summer: Keeping Busy

Shannon Des Roches Rosa www.squidalicious.com What do we do when my eleven-year-old autistic son Leo is out of school for the summer? We plan, and we keep very, very busy. We rely heavily on visual schedules to structure Leo’s unstructured days. These can be laminated paper (below) or via iPad apps like First-Then Visual Schedule, Routinely, or ChoiceWorks. These schedules let Leo anticipate what his day will be like, and help reduce any related anxiety. Plus Leo is a visual schedule pro, and can now help put his schedules together. We figure out what Leo likes to do. We focus on the things he likes to do that we can make happen. Leo likes swimming and hiking. He likes balls, and trampolines. We can make those things happen. I cut out other activities, and responsibilities. Leo is an energetic, 1:1 kid, and I need to keep up with him. This…

Business-NOS: A Standard of Professionalism

Zoe Gross  illusionofcompetence.blogspot.com There’s a new girl in the office and her brain is weird. One of the labels my weird brain has acquired is Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not Otherwise Specified — PDD-NOS, for short. This is an outdated term for autism, but I still harbor fondness for it because it includes the word “pervasive.” My disability is indeed pervasive, affecting all areas of my daily life — including my work life, and including [my current] internship. Being Autistic changes the way I interact with the professional world, in ways that have been — until now — Not Otherwise Specified. I actually really like working in a formal setting. I like my Senate staff ID badge. I like suits and pleats and zippers. I like taking the metro to work, I like leather shoes, I like taking my belt off and before I go through the metal detector and putting…

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Busting Myths About Autistic Girls and Women

…One Unicorn at a Time. Carol Greenburg aspieadvocate-ascd.blogspot.com We Unicorns seldom have a chance to gather in the magical wild lands of Manhattan, but thanks to a press pass arranged by Sharon daVanport, president of Autism Women’s Network, I got to meet another of my species at a panel entitled Autistic and Female: They say That’s Rare and so Many Other Things at the Disability Studies in Education conference at Hunter College, on May 27: Dr. Elizabeth “Ibby” Grace. With a generous dollop of the whimsy autistic people are alleged to lack, Dr. Grace, an assistant Professor with the Diversity in Learning and Teaching Department and research methodologist at Louis University in Chicago, used her unicorn analogy to expose the myth behind the assumption that females with autism are rare. In fact, Dr. Grace maintains, autistic girls and women like her, and like me, are everywhere, but vastly under-identified and…

The Dangers of Misrepresentation

Lydia Brown autistichoya.blogspot.com Anders Behring Breivik, the Norwegian terrorist gunman who killed seventy-seven people in one day last summer, appeared in court yesterday morning as a psychiatrist declared that he likely “suffers” from Asperger syndrome and Tourette syndrome. One news article claimed that “Asperger’s is a developmental disorder on the autistic spectrum that often is characterized by a lack of empathy.”1 Another article paraphrased the psychiatrist and wrote that “Norwegian mass killer Anders Breivik has a rare, high-functioning form of Asperger’s that has left him incapable of empathy or real friendship.”2 Although even a peer-reviewed paper published as early as 19913 found no evidence for any correlation between violence and Asperger Syndrome — further finding that the incidence of violent behavior in those with Asperger’s is lower than the incidence in the total population — the media has continually and repeatedly conflated being Autistic with a propensity toward violent or…

The Social Benefits of Inclusion

Meg Evans megevans.com It’s June again — that time of year when we wake early to birdsong and a bright sunrise, our days are long and pleasant, and summer camps are getting underway for school-age children. For parents who have an autistic child, a major consideration in choosing a camp is how well it can meet the child’s needs. Many families choose an inclusive camp, where children with and without disabilities participate equally and often are paired as buddies to encourage them to spend time together and develop friendships. The games and activities in such programs generally are cooperative rather than competitive, so that all of the campers can have fun regardless of their skill levels, and no kids are left sitting on the sidelines. Inclusive camps often are promoted as having educational value for autistic children, in that they provide an opportunity to interact with non-autistic peers and develop…

For Autistic Teens Feeling Doomed or Broken

You are not alone. Many teens who receive an autism diagnosis feel broken, and suffer from pain of acceptance — even to the point of suicidal thoughts. And the resources you need are not easy to find. So we asked several adult autistics who were once autistic teens themselves: If you were in this headspace, how would you feel, what would you want people to say to you, what could possibly help? These are their replies. Karla Fisher I was angry the day I received my diagnosis. At first it just made me feel “broken.” People tried to tell me that I was the same person I was before. But those words did not make me feel better. Reaching “acceptance” of my label took me around eighteen months. There is very little written about this process that pertains to autistic people as our emotions do not neatly lineup in the…

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IMFAR 2012: Androgens and Autism

Emily Willingham www.emilywillinghamphd.com Much of what I saw at IMFAR (self-selected, obviously) focused on assessing sex hormone differences or the presumed outcomes of such differences in autistic vs non-autistic populations. As the Father of the Extreme Male Brain Hypothesis that androgen levels relate to autism, Simon Baron-Cohen appeared as senior author on several posters in this subject area and also gave a talk on the same topic. While he is possibly best known in a negative light in autism circles for his tautological “autistic people do poorly on my empathy test ergo autistic people lack empathy” ideas, what I discuss below is not related to that, at all. It’s all about the steroid hormones during development in the womb, and I found it fascinating — again, self selection as someone whose research focus was hormones during development. I’m not the only TGPA editor to have an interest in the link…

Sensory Issues vs. Behaviors: On the Recent AAP Policy Statement

Brenda Rothman mamabegood.blogspot.com Last week, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) released a policy statement (1) on sensory integration therapies. The AAP recommended that pediatricians should not diagnose sensory processing disorder as a stand-alone diagnosis, but should refer children for an evaluation for other possibilities, like autism, ADHD, motor, or anxiety disorders. AAP also advised pediatricians to inform parents of the limited amount of research for sensory therapy and to help them set up a program to determine its effectiveness. Stating that we should monitor and judge the effectiveness of sensory therapy seems straight-forward and logical. However, the pediatricians’ statements about the policy reveal an underlying problem. Their argument that sensory issues may actually be behavioral is not untenable. But it also has the potential to cause harm. Given the discomfort, the related issues like emotions, relationships, brain science, parenting, and the risks of treating sensory issues as behavioral, we…

Dangerous Interventions: MMS and Autism

Emily Willingham biologyfiles.fieldofscience.com Last week we became aware that a protocol for “treating” autism, called MMS (Miracle Mineral Solution), was presented at the most recent AutismOne conference. The convoluted science behind this “solution” would be enough to turn many people off, but the actual “treatment” is so abhorrent we wanted to make sure that people know the background of MMS. Warning: the links in this post may be a trigger because many of them point to communities that equate autism with damaged goods. -JBM AutismOne has a history of providing a platform for dubious “practioners” to showcase potentially harmful wares to a willing audience. The peddlers at this conference are no different from any other pseudoscience-pusher, including the fact that they are more than willing to take advantage of the pop culture fascination with autism, and induce a gullible audience to part ways with their money, regardless of how ineffectual,…