Are More Measures Needed for ABLE?

The 529 ABLE plans in the U.S., launched a year ago, are useful for people with disabilities because they provide a tax-free way for themselves, their families or friends to save money for qualified expenses such as education or transportation. They also help protect people with disabilities from losing social security benefits when they cross income thresholds. However, policy makers need to redefine disability and revisit restrictions that existing laws place on people with disabilities from taking employment and becoming independent, experts from Wharton and the University of Texas said.
The 529 ABLE plan is “an important statement and a great opportunity for people with disabilities,” said Lex Frieden, professor of biomedical informatics and physical medicine and rehabilitation at the University of Texas. “Philosophically, the approach is at least equally as important as the potential impact.” Frieden also directs the Independent Living Research Utilization program at The Institute for Rehabilitation and Research at Memorial Hermann hospital in Houston, Texas. He is best known for his contributions to the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.

CDC: 1-in-5 Kids Have Mental Disorder

Millions of American children suffer from depression, anxiety, autism spectrum disorders and an array of other mental health issues, and the prevalence of such conditions is rising, a new study shows.
Roughly one in five children experience a mental disorder in a given year, according to a report released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The costs for health care, special education, juvenile justice and other services for people under age 24 with mental disorders total nearly $250 billion each year, the report shows.

Autism Stigma: Father Opens Up About How Schools Can Better Serve Students On Spectrum

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in 88 children in the United States is diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder. And though autism awareness is improving, the public perception of these disorders still holds a certain amount of stigma. Nancy Redd hosted a segment on HuffPost Live exploring autism today and how we can better educate the public as well as educators on issues surrounding autism.
Redd spoke with Stuart Chalfetz, a father and autism activist in Cherry Hill, NJ, about how schools can better serve autistic children. After seeing his autistic son's behavior begin to change, Chalfetz taped a recording device to him to find out how he was being treated at school. What he found out was astounding.

Relating to Children on the Spectrum

According to a study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one child in 88 has an autism spectrum disorder (ASD). That’s a 23-percent increase since the organization’s last report in 2009. That ratio is even higher in New Jersey, which reported one child in 49 diagnosed with an ASD.

In spite of his autism spectrum disorder, Daniel Stefanski wrote 'How to Talk to an Autistic Kid' at the age of 14.

While it may seem like an epidemic is underway, the CDC attributes a lot of this increase to improvements in identifying, diagnosing, and treating children with ASDs. It has absolutely nothing to do with vaccines, according to the Institute of Medicine, and the CDC agrees.
Some experts believe that New Jersey ranks so high simply because its medical and educational personnel are particularly adept at identification and diagnosis—and because parents in New Jersey are more aware of ASDs as well.

Toxic Chemicals and Rising Rate of Autism

Melissa Wolfe and her son Edgar.

While pregnant with her son Edgar, Melissa Wolfe followed the lead of many a cautious woman before her. She took prenatal vitamins and ate organic vegetables. She avoided dyeing her hair and using hairspray. She even went as far as to leave the kitchen whenever someone turned on the microwave.
"I was very vigilant. Perhaps a little crazy," said Wolfe, of Brentwood, N.H.
Yet Wolfe still fears that her 4-year-old's autism may have resulted from chemicals infiltrating her womb, whether components of her migraine medicine, contaminants brought home from her husband's work installing rubber flooring, or remnants of the remodeling the couple did on their house.

Blogger Writes From the Heart

The author writes Welcome to Aspie Land at blog.robertmoran.org 

 We are not all the same.
The belief that all autistics are the same is still one of the biggest misconceptions that autistics have to deal with.

Robert Moran

Now that the Centers for Disease Control has determined that the diagnosis rate of some level of autism is 1 in 88 people, the numbers may seem startling, but it just means that there are more accurate methods of diagnosing autism. Better and more accurate methods, in this case, are important because no two autistics exhibit the disorder in the same way. The new diagnosis rate has indirectly shown the world that autistics are all different.

CDC Study Expected to Show Autism Rate at 1 in 100

With the latest autism rate figures due out tomorrow from the Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network and the Centers for Disease Control, thought this piece from Age of Autism would be of interest. Like to hear your thoughts.

ATLANTA - Researchers report that autism has risen to an epidemic rate of 1 in 100 children in a study to be released on Friday by the Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring (ADDM) Network office of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). This rate represents a 50% increase between the two birth cohort years of 1994 and 1996 and mirrors a recent study released by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), which found a rate of 1 in 91 children, 1 in 58 boys.
In 2007, the ADDM released a similar study conducted in 2002 examining children born in 1994 that found the autism rate to be 1 in 150. In the study to be released Friday, the CDC looked at children born in 1996 (8 years old in 2004) and determined that there was a substantial increase of 50% between those two birth years.
This study and other recently published research clearly indicate that autism cannot solely be caused by genetic differences because it is impossible for genetic diseases to increase at such astronomical rates. It also cannot be explained by better diagnosing, changes in diagnostic criteria or migration patterns. It is clearly triggered by the environment. It’s well past time that CDC and NIH treat the autism epidemic with the national emergency status it deserves and act with crisis level response.

Swine Flu Poses Greater Risk to Children With Special Needs, CDC Reports

At least 36 children died from swine flu in the United States as of Aug. 8, most of whom had an underlying illness or developmental disability, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Now, doctors are warning that extra attention must be given to children with special needs who present with flu-like symptoms.
Of the 36 children ages 2 months to 17 years who have died, two-thirds had a chronic illness or developmental disability such as cerebral palsy, developmental delay, muscular dystrophy, respiratory troubles or cardiac problems.

Autism Rate Now at 1 Percent of All Children?

From David Kirby of The Huffington Post
A pair of federally funded studies on autism rates is about to make news -- big news -- and it isn't good: It would appear that somewhere around one percent of all US children currently have an autism spectrum disorder. The rate is even higher among six to 11 year olds and among boys, according to data from at least one of the new studies.
If you are an expectant parent, or planning to have a child soon, you might want to sit down before absorbing these staggering statistics, recently released by the National Survey of Children's Health (NSCH), which is supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the US Department of Health and Human Services.
According to data from the 2007 telephone survey of parents of nearly 82,000 US children, the odds of a child receiving an ASD diagnosis are one in 63. If it is a boy, the chances climb to a science fiction-like level of one in 38, or 2.6% of all male children in America.