INDIANAPOLIS -- An Indianapolis teen with autism is found cold and wet, but safe after disappearing for nearly 27 hours. Hunter
Valant was found on Old Oaklandon Boulevard North Drive just before
10:30 p.m. Tuesday. His friends and family are now celebrating, thankful
he's alive.
SALT LAKE CITY — Nobody can explain the bond Drue Sheffield has with birds, and perhaps it’s just as well.
Words aren’t really necessary when Drue carefully
scoops a pigeon into her arms at the park and delicately strokes its
neck feathers, or when she sets a mourning dove aloft after weeks of
tending to a broken wing.
All her parents know is that the connection with birds has always been there and that caring for the feathered creatures
has helped their daughter to soar as well.
From our friends at the Age of Autism. Something we've been talking about for years . . . autism isn't just about children; there are thousands of adults on the spectrum.
Looking back over the
last several weeks I’ve noticed a steadily increasing trend in the news — more
and more stories are coming around the country talking about the aging out ofthe autism generation. It’s not surprising that this isn’t a cause for alarm.
Mounting numbers of children with autism have been calmly accepted for the last
several decades by doctors, health officials, and the media. And of
course, children grow up, so this is only to be expected
BOLINGBROOK, Il. -- The state will work to find new homes for residents at a
central Illinois institution for the developmentally disabled after a
state panel agreed Tuesday to close it for good, part of Gov. Pat
Quinn’s sweeping plan to change the way such residents are cared for and
to save tens of millions of dollars a year.
The
Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board voted, 6-1, to allow the Department of Human Services close the Jacksonville Developmental Center, which has provided a home for developmentally
disabled adults for more than 100 years. Most will be moved into small
group homes or apartments, which many advocates say allows them to live
more productive and satisfying lives.
The closure had been set for today, but it was delayed until Nov. 21.
Matthew and I went to lunch the other day, and he ordered water to go
with his meal. When he stepped up to the water/soda machine, he decided
he wanted root beer instead, but paused and looked at me before he
filled his glass. “Isn’t there an extra charge for root beer? I’d better
go pay for it first.” The fact that Matthew stopped himself and wondered “Is this free like the water?” was huge, and I smiled about this victory all day.
The development of 6-month-old babies who are diagnosed with autism
in toddlerhood is very similar to that of children without autism, a new
study suggests.
"We always thought that if a child had autism, we would be
able to tell during infancy . . . but we were wrong," said study author
Rebecca Landa, director of the Center for Autism and Related Disorders
at Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore. "At 6 months of age, babies who end up with autism by age 3 are scoring similarly on tests to children who didn't have autism."
An innovative early intervention approach may be doing far more than
helping children cope with autism. New research suggests that the behavior therapy is actually modifying brain development.
The intervention known as the Early Start Denver Model incorporates
applied behavioral analysis, or ABA, with a play-based approach focused
on relationship-building. It can be used with children as young as 12
months.
WASHINGTON -- Michigan is one of several
states that has yet to decide which path it will take on expanding
Medicaid eligibility to an effective rate of 138% of the federal poverty
level starting in 2014. A new report concludes that if the state decides to proceed with expansion, it could save hundreds of millions over a decade even while increasing enrollment in the program by more
than 600,000 people under this Affordable Care Act provision.
There’s a lot we don’t know about what Mitt Romney would do if he won.
He refuses to say which tax loopholes he would close to make up for $5
trillion in tax cuts; his economic “plan” is an empty shell.
When Dame Stephanie Shirley lost her only child Giles, it could have torn her life apart.
Instead, she used the tragedy as a turning point to become one of Britain’s greatest philanthropists.
Since her autistic son died, aged 35, in 1998, Dame Stephanie —
or “Steve” as she likes to be known — has gone on to invest more than a
third of her £150million wealth into charities. “Philanthropy comes from inside and each of us has some sort of feeling of wanting to make a difference,” she explains.
“When we have some focus, such as a mother who has died of
cancer or a son who has autism, you think ‘I understand that area and I
can help that — I’m not just going to be a victim’. I object to being a
victim because I was a child refugee. If you can survive that then you
become a real survivor.”
Interesting story by Benjamine Wallace of New York Magazine.
"Is every man in America somewhere on it?” Nora Ephron wondered about the autism spectrum in an e-mail to a friend a few months before her death. “Is every producer on it? Is every 8-year-old boy who is obsessed
with statistics on it? Sometimes, when we say someone is on the
spectrum, do we just mean he’s a prick? Or a pathological narcissist? I
notice that at least three times a week I am told (or I tell someone)
that some man or other is on the spectrum.”
Ephron was hardly alone. In August, after a string of
campaign-trail bloopers by Mitt Romney (e.g., at a New Hampshire parade,
he described his lemonade as “lemon … wet … good”), noted
diagnostician David Shuster, a television personality at Current TV,
floated the idea that Romney might be on the spectrum. Shuster cited “an
uncle who specializes in the field of Asperger’s”—a mild variant of
autism—who had “suggested that perhaps Mitt Romney has some sort of form
of Asperger’s because he’s so socially inept in terms of being able to
connect with people. What he thinks is funny is really sort of not so
funny. I sort of wonder if there’s some sort of tic or something that he
has that’s related to that.”
POTTSVILLE, Penn. -- A Pottsville woman is fighting for her autistic son to receive a
desperately needed heart transplant after he was denied placement on the national heart transplant list.
Paul Corby, 23, has PDD-NOS, also
known as Pervasive Developmental Disorder-Not Otherwise Specified, an
autism spectrum disorder. But he is otherwise able-bodied and highly
functioning, and was diagnosed with a heart condition in 2008 when he
was 19 years old.
DENVER — The first national Down
syndrome patient registry to be housed at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development was spearheaded
by the Global Down Syndrome Foundation with support from many
organizations, including those on the National Institutes of Health
(NIH) Down Syndrome Consortium.
The national registry will collect much needed medical information from people with Down syndrome, and
connect people with Down syndrome and their families with scientists
engaging in research that is of interest to those people and their
families. The registry will be used to identify critical health trends,
the most effective treatments and clinical trials for potential
therapies.
Read more here: http://www.heraldonline.com/2012/10/26/4368630/national-institutes-of-health.html#storylink=cpy
Autism likely has deep genetic roots, but the latest research provides hope that some learning techniques can lessen symptoms of the developmental disorder.
In children with the mildest cases of autism, these techniques
resulted in changes in their brains that made them “indistinguishable”
from those of unaffected children of the same age — essentially
normalizing them, according to Geraldine Dawson in the department of
psychiatry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
For Dana Napoleon, a flight attendant in Tacoma, Wash., zipping in and
out the nation’s airports every week is second nature. Yet she is still
filled with dread every time she flies with her 10-year-old son.
The nation’s largest autism organization is launching a secondary entity with an eye toward bringing everything from medical innovations
to apps for those on the spectrum to market.
Officials at Autism Speaks said this week that they are creating a
new nonprofit known as Delivering Scientific Innovation for Autism, or
DELSIA. The spinoff, which will be led by some of the organization’s
existing staffers, will not raise any money of its own, but will rely
exclusively on grants from Autism Speaks to fund promising new
innovations.
Alex Jones is our family's human safety net.
Alex is the glue that keeps our household in one piece. Even though
she makes her way only intermittently into our lives without any
official title or regular timetable, she has more than managed to make
herself indispensible. Every special needs family needs an Alex Jones.
OCEANSIDE, Calif. -- When Nicole Rosen was in middle school she saw a girl fall down
on campus. Rosen realized the girl who fell was a special needs student,
and what really stands out in Rosen’s memory is that no one helped the
girl up.
“I saw all the rest of my classmates,” Rosen said. “Nobody responded to her and nobody helped her.”
SEATTLE -- Five years ago, a high-profile report found that Seattle's
public-school district was decades behind the rest of the country in
serving students with disabilities.
In response, then-Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson declared
special education a major priority and announced sweeping changes. Today, the problems are even worse.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- The topic is fear, and Nila Benito is a reluctant expert. Fear of today. Fear of tomorrow. Of meals not eaten, and dangers not seen. Of
lives not lived to their fullest, and of all of the complications in
between.
Mostly, fear of the anguish seen this week in another mother's eyes.
This is the Boyle
Family on vacation together: Matriarch Barbara Boyle and me with my two
children Lili and Jake, my husband David Boyle on the upper left, and
his brother Paul Boyle on the upper right.
"I highly approve of Romney's decision to be kind and gentle to the retard." Ann Coulter referring to President Barack Obama in a tweet during the final presidential debates October 22, 2012.
Like the "N word" or "fag," the word "retard" has joined the class of words disfavored in public discourse and polite society because these
words are most commonly understood to be slurs, used to hurt or diminish
a person, not to classify them in any helpful manner.
From Ariane Zurcher of Huffington Post's Healthy Living.
AZ: Paula, you've described yourself as a "non-speaking (at times) autistic."
Yes. I think the phrase "non-speaking at times" captures my
experience and also that of others who do have speech capabilities but
can't always access them. I could also say "partially speaking" or
"intermittent speaker." Just because one can speak at times does not mean speech is a reliable form of communication for that person. Also,
when a person can speak part of the time, others may not notice they are
having trouble speaking. I have sometimes not been able to speak and
other people just thought I was "being quiet" or did not have anything
to say; that dates back to childhood.
GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney has pushed for Medicaid block
grants that would significantly cut program spending and provide states with the ultimate flexibility to design the health care program without Washington meddling.
But the two examples of state Medicaid
programs he cited as success stories during Monday’s debate don’t quite
fit the mold of traditional block grants — at least not the kind that
Republicans have been clamoring for.
Depending on who is doing the talking these days, New York State is either a national model of how to curb Medicaid spending, or the nation’s prime example of Medicaid abuse.
Now billions of dollars in state revenue may ride on which image
prevails, as presidential politics puts a new spotlight on the joint
federal and state spending program for care of the disabled, the elderly
and the poor.
BELMONT, Calif. -- Barbara Aden, 31, has a love for life seldom seen.
She wakes up in the morning with a positive attitude, sings and
dances her way through the day even as she works and offers sincere
compliments to just about everyone she meets.
Helped by family, friends and agencies that serve people with
developmental disabilities, Aden not only holds a regular job, she also
has her own apartment in Belmont. She moved into the apartment earlier
this year, and it is the first time she has ever lived on her own.
Several parents have talked about their experiences taking their child with autism to Disneyland. Some parents have shared their experiences and advice which I have always found helpful. In fact, I've posted about this previously myself. I really wanted to share my recent experience.
XENIA, Ohio —A 6-year-old
autistic boy’s dream of getting a service dog almost was crushed after
an Illinois woman scammed his family last year.
But on Tuesday,
Samuel DeWitt met a donated service dog at 4 Paws for Ability in Xenia.
Lugnut, a golden retriever, was given to the DeWitt family after $23,000
combined was donated by an anonymous donor from Cincinnati ($13,000)
and Wrestle Against Autism ($10,000). The average cost to train a
service dog is about $23,000.
BRICK, N.J. -- A high school student with
autism becomes a hero on the football field. Sounds like a good movie
doesn’t it? Well, it’s a true story.
The score was tied with just 21 seconds left on the clock Friday
night. Out trotted Brick High School’s Anthony Starego, an 18-year-old kicker who’s used to facing adversity.
When he was diagnosed with autism at five years old, Trevor Pacelli
knew that his childhood and adolescence would be drastically different
than that of his peers. But he never let his disorder hold him back --
now 19, Pacelli is a published author. His book, "Six-Word Lessons On Growing Up Autistic: 100 Lessons To Understand How Autistic People See Life,"
offers practical guidance for understanding autism, and insight on the
way that autistic kids and teens view the world. In the excerpt below,
Pacelli shares 10 things you should know about autistic teens.
Jo Ashline's column from The Orange County Register.
Some feel panic. Some feel insulted that there's panic. Some don't feel nearly enough.
Me? I feel privileged to be my son's parent. I feel petrified about his future. I feel too exhausted to get in the middle of the ongoing
drama that continues to play out in our enormous and diverse community.
To me, you are more than a number, more than an ongoing debate about
the proper terminologly to use when regarding your diagnosis, more than
the bickering ad nauseam playing out on unfiltered internet connections
every single day.
Instead, I'd rather take the time to reassure you. To let you know that I see you; I see you everywhere.
DENVER -- Last Saturday, Annaliese Hauser and her parents traveled Denver and
met many celebrities such as Oscar-winning actor Jamie Foxx, two-time
Super Bowl champion quarterback John Elway and singer Natasha
Bedingfield.
But 11-year-old Annaliese felt like the true star of the day.
She
was among about 30 models chosen to walk in the Be Beautiful Be
Yourself fashion show, sponsored by the Global Down Syndrome Foundation.
Andrew Fuchs gets help from Pepper Stephy, a para professional.
WICHITA, Kans. -- It’s a typical morning in Beth Orth’s classroom at McCollom
Elementary School – though she might argue there’s no such thing – and
five children are learning about the letter “S.”
“S says ‘ssss,’ ”
says Orth, the teacher, pointing to a drawing projected on the smart
board. “Spider in the soup! Ssss-ssss-ssss!”
Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/2012/10/21/2540727/number-of-autistic-wichita-students.html#storylink=cpy
HARTFORD, Conn. -- When Carmen Veal's daughter Sania was diagnosed with autism at age 4, Veal's entire life became dictated by the disorder.
"I
was stressed. I was depressed," says this single mom, a lifelong
resident of Hartford. "I completely isolated myself and my child from
the outside world, family included."
After a period of soul
searching and reaching out for help, she learned to accept autism and
pull herself out of her self-described funk. But she has met many other
mothers and fathers who are struggling to cope every day. So she has
created a new kind of support group, an innovative concept that highlights the needs of the parent.
TAMPA, Fla. -- They spread out along the driving range that morning, six students who had never played golf. The pro at the University of South Florida's Claw
course handed them each a bucket of balls.
"Okay, now, let's keep an arm's length between the next person," said
Jeff Gibson, who is also a physical education professor at USF. "We all
need to loosen up a bit, then we'll get started."
Alex Lange, 20, moved to the left end of the line. "I just want to make that beautiful ball go sailing into the sky," he said.
BRICK, N.J. -- In an enormous upset from New Jersey's Shore Conference, Brick Township senior kicker Anthony Starego booted a 21-yard field goal with 21 seconds to stun Toms River North 24-21.
According to a YouTube video uploaded shortly after the game, the 6-foot-3, 163-pound Starego is autistic.
SAN FRANCISCO -- The California Department of Education
will investigate whether the San Francisco Unified School District improperly denied summer school services to students with special needs
to curb costs, violating federal regulations, officials said.
The state investigation follows a report by the Bay Citizen that Lisa Miller,
the district's head of middle school special education, directed
teachers and staff to consult with her before authorizing summer school
for students with disabilities, saying the cost had become "exorbitant."
Realize I'm late to the party with this story, but just incredible.
HACKLEBURG, Ala. -- An Alabama man credits a dog and her four puppies for helping
rescue a 10-year-old boy with Down syndrome who was lost in the woods
for 18 hours.
“Those puppies kept him company, they kept him warm and comfortable,” Jamie
Swinney of Hackleburg, Ala., told NBC News on Thursday. “We don’t know
what would have happened to him had the puppies not been with him. And
credit goes to the mother dog for leading me to the boy.”
From New Jersey Star-Ledger's guest blog, a post byLilia Kang, a freshman at Communication High School in Wall, who has
interacted with autistic children for four years and performed autism
research at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.
For a decade, the scientific community has made progress in the
identification of potential genetic and environmental causes of autism. Myriad problems remain unsolved and untouched.
Many autistic children are medically fragile. They endure physical
suffering from gut irregularity (reflux, diarrhea, pain, constipation),
insomnia, seizures, adverse reactions to medications and significant
allergies.
William Potts finishes his run during cross-country workouts.
Sixth grader William Potts was ready to run at Haddonfield Middle
School's last cross-country practice, as he has been almost every
practice day since September.
The coed team's roster lists 82 participants, but only two to three
dozen attend the optional five-day-a-week workouts, coach Maureen Baker
said last week.
Will came to almost every one, she said - "maybe he missed one."
Eleven year-old Jodi DiPiazza
was diagnosed with autism right before she turned 2, and her parents
feared their daughter would never speak. Not only does Jodi now speak, she has found a voice through music. Her mom says, "Through music and
through song, she's making herself known."
Jodi joined voices with pop star Katy Perry and they performed Perry's hit "Firework" as a duet on Comedy Central's "Night of Too Many Stars: America Comes Together for Autism Programs." Night of Too Many Stars airs Sunday at 8/7 Central.
Check out the video, and maybe have the tissues handy. After a few
minutes of introduction about Jodi, what parents went through with her
autism diagnosis and how Jodi is thriving, the "Firework" duet begins at
3:11.
Great read by a parent of two children with autism and how Medicaid is helping them.
CARY, N.C. -- There’s been a lot of talk about the “moocher”
class – those Americans who don’t pay federal income taxes and those
who receive some kind of government benefit. I must confess, I have two moochers living in my house – my sons, Kenny and Theo, ages 13 and 11 respectively.
They
both have autism, and they both have cognitive and severe language
delays. Because of their disabilities, they receive Medicaid coverage,
which pays for speech therapy and occupational therapy as well as their
medical care. Medicaid also pays for a service called home and community
support, which provides staff who work with the boys on goals like how
to make purchases at stores and how to behave appropriately in public.
Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/10/17/2418488/medicaid-showing-we-value-lives.html#storylink=cpy
Take a moment to picture every redhead you have ever seen or met in your life. Got it?
The most recent studies by the state departments of Health and Human
Services on autism put the current prevalence of children born with the
disorder at one in 88 births, a rate higher than children born with
auburn locks (which stands at one in 100). That means that in next few years you will know more children with autism than ones you can affectionately call “ginger.” The disability
has been growing at a double-digit rate since it was first discovered in
1943, when just one in 10,000 children were found to have the
condition.
ALBANY — The Cuomo administration is strongly considering a surprise bid from Syracuse University
to run a new federally financed nonprofit agency that will monitor
treatment of people with developmental disabilities and mental
illnesses, according to people involved in the process.
This Modified Life is a column by Jo Ashline
for and about the families in Orange County, Calif., living with special needs.
Jo is a freelance writer and married mother of two. She writes regularly
for OC Moms, the Orange County Register's parenting section.
Exactly one week after turning 2 years old, my son Andrew was
diagnosed with autism. Within days of the diagnosis, he was properly
enrolled in all of the necessary therapies: physical, occupational and
speech. We immediately began implementing an intensive behavioral
intervention program and our home quickly became our autism
headquarters; our kitchen table permanently littered with research
materials promising very little, and our hallway cluttered with
therapeutic toys and adaptive equipment.
That was 2004.
DEBARY, Fla. — An autistic boy's four backyard chickens were most
likely killed by an animal, and not in a human attack, a Volusia County
sheriff's spokesman said Monday.
HARRISBURG, Penn. -- Angered that Governor Corbett will not meet with them, disability advocates have returned to the Capitol. Many of the demonstrators are
Medicaid recipients who say further cuts will force them to live in
nursing facilities and institutions.
The activists gathered
inside the Capitol Rotunda Monday. Others moved to the hallway outside
the Governor's second floor office, closing the ceremonial reception
room. Still more went to the offices of the chairmen of the House and
Senate Appropriations Committee.
A simple, school-based yoga program can do wonders for kids with
autism, researchers say, yielding gains in both behavior and
socialization.
In a study
comparing children with autism who did yoga each day at school compared
to kids who followed a typical routine instead, those who participated
in the stretching exercises exhibited significantly less aggressive behavior, social withdrawal and hyperactivity.
OCALA, Fla. -- When you run a successful hot dog vending
business, you truly relish your work. And, that is certainly the case
for nine APD customers who collectively run a hot dog cart just outside
Goodwill industries on Silver Springs Boulevard in Ocala.Fred
Allen, Charlotte Coach, Anthony Dayton, Becky French, Aisha Issa,
Michael Jacobie, Josh Lessor, Kerr Sargood and Amy Thompson run the
enterprise. Learning how to operate their own business has changed their lives and the lives of everyone around them.
DEBARY, Fla. — A family's small but technically illegal flock of
chickens got a 60-day reprieve from the city's code enforcement board
Wednesday night, setting up what's likely to be a community campaign to
allow the birds in yards around town.
TAMPA, Fla. -- Sometimes a picture can be worth a thousand followers too.
Henry Frost outside the Republican National Convention.
That’s what happened to Henry Frost after he posted a photo to Facebook.
The photo shows 13-year-old Frost sitting on the steps outside a
downtown Tampa building with his service dog Denzel. Not shown are the
thousands of Republicans who had gathered nearby for the week-long
Republican National Convention.
Frost holds a sign. It reads:
“The Civil Rights Act of 1964 granted equal rights to all people. I am a person. I want these rights.”
Frost has autism and a list of related physical problems which have
so far eluded a tidy diagnosis. He communicates using an iPad app that
speaks what he types.
“We are all on hold, waiting to see what the election brings,” said Ms.
Beck, chief executive of Thayer County Health Services in Hebron, Neb.
When Americans go to the polls next month, they will cast a vote not
just for president but for one of two profoundly different visions for
the future of the country’s health care system.
ROMNEY: Actually, we had health care in America before Obamacare came along. And we still have health care in America…Each
of us today in America has a choice of the type of health care plan we
might choose. People who are poor are able to get Medicaid,
which is a government support effort for those who can’t afford to have
insurance. And these things aren’t going to disappear without Obamacare.
Peter Ripley wrote this column for the Peninsula Daily News.
Ripley, 52, has arthrogryposis, a congenital joint disorder that
makes him unable to walk.
As we commemorate National Disability
Employment Awareness Month this month, we need to reflect on far we've
come, and still need go, to overcome barriers to employment for the
disabled.
By Tara Kiene, director of case management with Community Connections Inc.
DURANGO, Colo. -- For more than a
decade, Colorado has maintained a waiting list for most of its programs
for people with developmental disabilities. Before the economic downtown
in 2008, this often meant that a person with developmental disabilities
who needed support to live as independently as possible in the
community would have to wait 10 to 15 years before receiving services.
The wait now is indefinite.
The
issue is money, or the state’s lack thereof. Although the majority of
Colorado programs for people with developmental disabilities is funded
by Medicaid, the state has to match dollar for dollar with the federal
contribution. During the last 10 years, Colorado has hovered between
46th and 48th in the nation when it comes to funding for developmental
disabilities.
More than 500 disabled individuals will need new homes as the state closes its Totowa and Woodbridge developmental centers over the next five years.
Sen. Loretta Weinberg wants to make sure that in planning
for those relocations, the state Division of Developmental Disabilities
takes into account lessons learned from earlier developmental center
closures.
STATEN ISLAND -- Drake takes drink orders, greets regular customers with a warm
handshake and sets the tables for the next wave of the lunch crowd. It’s
a stark change from the sheepish man who patrons first encountered when
Harvest Café opened its doors in the beginning of 2011.
“My goodness, it’s like night and day. You’d see the change in him
week by week,” says Jean Ringhoff, a regular at the café who works at a
nearby bank. “At first, he barely made eye contact.”
Drake, like the restaurant itself, now commands a second look.
The pale yellow house with the white wrap-around porches serves not only as a fully-operating restaurant, but also as a day habilitation program for people with developmental disabilities.
I wish I had heard about the respite facility for developmentally
disabled youths planned for a Town of Tonawanda neighborhood before the
neighbors did. Maybe I could have prevented what’s happening. At least I
would have tried.
To reduce risk of autism, it may be important for mothers to give their children enough nutrients like vitamin D,
thiamine and riboflavin if they excursively breastfeed their children,
according to a new study in Journal of American College of Nutrition.
TOMS RIVER, N.J. -- After a warm-up of jumping jacks and stretches in the bright dance
studio at Once Upon a Dance in Toms River, Jeremy Koven, 20, listens
attentively as his hip-hop teacher, Lauren “Lolly” White, instructs the
class on the new dance combination they’ll be learning that evening, a
series of step ball changes, body rolls and brisk arm movements set to
popular music. White praises Koven on his listening skills and mastery of the runner’s stretch, recognition that makes him smile, no matter that the classmates
to his left and right are largely girls half his age, or that he is a
man with high-functioning autism.
Simply put, “dancing makes me feel good,” the Toms River resident said.
What is it like to live with autism in Russia? A documentary depicting
the daily challenges of an autistic boy over a period of six years is
finally due to be released in Russia, a month after it was lauded in
Venice where it had its world premiere.
Anton's Right Here is the brainchild of the prominent Russian
critic-turned-filmmaker Lyubov Arkus. Her debut documentary chronicles her relationship with the boy who remains a child regardless of his actual age.
While autism is rising alarmingly throughout the
world, the challenges of raising a child in Russia often seem to be next
to impossible to cope with, the film's director Arkus soon makes clear.
When Patrick Murphy was 6, he became obsessed with vacuum cleaners. The
boy, who has autism, used to slip out of his house near Buffalo without
telling his parents, running to a nearby appliance store or into
strangers’ homes to marvel at vacuum cleaners.
Patrick is now 14, and his parents have double bolts on the doors in
their home and brackets on their windows. Still, Patrick — who is now
focused on dogs — manages to sneak out. Two weeks ago, he crept from the
house after his mother went to bed. When his father came home, he
alerted the police. They found Patrick running barefoot in his pajamas
at 2 a.m., three miles from his home.
From The Gazette in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Unfortunately, you can change the names and the location to almost anywhere around the country and find the same thing.
Most
of us are taught from childhood that work is an important part of
becoming an adult — a source of pride and identity — and developmentally
disabled adults in Linn County are no exception. Here are a few of
their stories as written by family members:
October is National Disability Awareness Month and National Disability
Employment Awareness Month. In a way, it is surprising that we need a proclamation of something so common.
Across all ages, genders, ethnicities and educational levels, about 11.9
percent of the U.S. population reports having a disability. Minnesota and
Wisconsin have slightly lower levels, with 9.8 percent and 10.7 percent
respectively.
The percentage of people with a disability grows as we age. Fewer than 1
percent of those younger than 4 have a disability. In the 75-and-older group, 50
percent of us have a disability. The origins of acquired disabilities are
diverse, including illness and military service. With the appreciative rise in
those diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, the percentages may well be
changing.
NEW YORK, N.Y. -- Tickets to the Sept. 30 autism-friendly performance of “The Lion King” sold out in a day.
Cheryl Squires, a refreshingly no-nonsense Queens school teacher whose
10-year-old son Geoffrey has autism, said she bought seats the minute
they were available because there’d be “no staring and no judgments” at the theater.
When the hit Disney show was over, she added, “We made friends with the parents and children sitting around us.”
DELRAN, N.J. — As the wife of a
senior master sergeant in the Air Force who is frequently deployed
around the world, Denise Bard said she sometimes feels like "a single
mother with a marriage license."
But when their son was diagnosed with autism and their daughter with a
number of chronic illnesses, the Delran mother of two quickly realized
that with her husband, Charlie, away from home so often, she couldn’t handle the responsibilities by herself.
For his 21st birthday, my son received cards from friends, relatives and
a favorite elementary-school teacher, yet few of these well wishes were
printed with his age. In searching out my own card for him, I soon
learned why. Tag lines that start, “So you’re 21?’ ” often end with
instructions to go out and tie one on; as my son is on the autism
spectrum, such advice would have been in dubious taste. Yet as much as I
appreciated the senders’ thoughtfulness, I found myself thinking: another difference. Again.
From NYTimes.com's Opinionater by Marie Myung-OK Lee
When my husband and I began mentioning to friends and family that we
were thinking about moving from Providence, R.I., to New York City,
everyone’s first question was not about what career opportunities
awaited us or which borough we wanted to live in, but: “What about J?”
J,
our 12-year-old son, has serious medical challenges and developmental
disabilities, autism among them. He’s prone to violent tantrums that can
be triggered by something as simple as catching sight of a dog 100 feet
away, which makes our everyday life often messy, always unpredictable.
But in Providence, we had the help of in-home aides and respite care provided by Medicaid,
as well as a close-knit group of friends. Whenever we had an emergency,
there were plenty of people to call. Whenever J had a meltdown, we
could just jump in the car and go home. What would this scenario look
like in New York?
"Have a good day at school."
Such an innocent, innocuous phrase, yet last year when I said that to
my son, Akian, when the school bus arrived in the morning, it sent him
into a spiraling panic. I would later learn that his pained reaction was merely the exposed wick of the candle -- a manifestation of a greater
crisis whose origins were, until I sent him to school with an audio
recorder in his pocket, buried beneath the surface and invisible to me.
This is so disturbing . "Jaime's
China" is a weekly column about Chinese society and politics. Jaime
FlorCruz has lived and worked in China since 1971.
BEIJING -- Even a grainy three-month-old video clip can stir up a controversy.
A closed-circuit
television clip, posted and shared on Chinese social media and reported
by the local press this week, has triggered sympathy and outrage here in
China.
TORONTO -- Her thin, delicate arms arced gracefully above her head, 10-year-old
Clara Bergs points her ballet-slippered toes then lowers herself to one
knee, grinning.
She’s watching the end of a taped performance of the ballet Coppélia,
and as the video audience applauds, Clara mimics the ballerinas’
elegant movements and bows to her own adoring fans: stuffed animals set
up along the couch.
“She really loves an audience,” says Clara’s mom, Lisa Anderson.
Until last week, that audience was whoever was gathered in Clara’s
downtown Toronto home. Now, the autistic girl who dances despite physical and developmental disabilities has hundreds of thousands of fans all over the world.
redOrbit (http://s.tt/1rqWi)
Several parents have talked about their experiences taking their child with autism to Disneyland. Some parents have shared their experiences and advice which I have always found helpful. In fact, I've posted about this previously myself. I really wanted to share my recent experience.
