At Christmastime, Autism Creates Family Struggles

GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- When Suzanne Holman takes her two children, Alex and Will, to see Santa Claus, she waits in the line while Will rides the escalator up and down with his father.
Will, 5, is too fidgety to wait so long, so the escalator keeps him entertained without overloading his senses.
Will is autistic, which poses special challenges around Christmastime. The disorder affects the brain's normal development of social and communication skills.
"We usually have to prep Santa and his helpers to make sure he understands this is an autistic child and there may be some issues with that. Santa's scary to him," Flowery Branch resident Suzanne Holman said.

Parents Worry as School Year Nears

SILVER SPRING, Md. — All three of my kids went back to school this week, which is both wonderful (I am alone! Alone! Finally alone!) and uncertain (How are my guys going to do in their new classes?) and terrifying (Will my special needs kids be successful this year — or will they crash and burn?).
All parents experience trepidation when they send their children off to school, but parents of special needs children face extra worries. We worry about the class work and if our children will be able to keep up. We worry about the start of homework and the battle of wills that comes with it. We worry that our children will be bullied, and if not bullied, that they won't be able to interact successfully with their peers. We are concerned about the transition back to school and wonder if halls full of students will be too much for our children. We also worry that our kids won't be able to connect with their teachers, and hope that those teachers will understand and welcome them.

Being Realistic and Accepting Your Child

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. -- Karen French is calm and reflective today, so you have to imagine the range of her emotions 17 years ago when her son was diagnosed at 2 years old with autism.
There was sadness, she says simply, for all that he will never have. Today she acknowledges: "He's like a 6 foot-2 inch, 4-year-old."
Matter of factly, though, French moves on.
She adds that David, now 19, is a really happy kid who lives in a group home and has a really good life.

McDonald's Manager Punches Customer with Service Dog

ATLANTA -- A Marietta McDonald's manager is accused of punching a mother who brought a service dog and her autistic children into the restaurant.

A Cobb County warrant charges Tiffany Denise Allen with simple battery, simple assault fear and disorderly conduct.

According to the warrant, Jennifer Schwenker entered the Marietta McDonald's located at 1291 Bells Ferry Road with her children and service dog on July 12.

Allen, off-duty at the time, became irate that the dog was in the restaurant, the warrant says.

Parents Weigh In on LaBrie Case

SALEM, Mass. -- As Lynn Tougas followed the trial of Kristen LaBrie, she could not help thinking about her own bewildering years caring for an autistic son. They were tough times.
When he was diagnosed with Crohn's disease, she had to get help holding him down to give him his medication. And though she and his teachers spent months trying to inoculate his fears, practicing with a syringe that had no needle, he still kicked and screamed when he had his blood drawn.
As LaBrie faces sentencing today in the death of her son, Tougas can sympathize with the depression, overwhelmed feelings, and helplessness LaBrie may have experienced when prosecutors say she withheld life-saving cancer treatments for her son Jeremy.
But Tougas said she cannot forgive LaBrie for letting Jeremy die.

Divorce and the Child with Special Needs

Came across this on Huffington Post.

Divorce is always difficult for the children, but what happens when the parents about to split have a child with special needs? According to the most recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) statistics, the number of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders has grown to 1 in 110 children today, while another CDC study indicates that 1 in 10 children aged 4 - 17 has been diagnosed with Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Combine these sobering statistics with the ever-rising divorce rates and you have a perfect storm of people navigating the very rocky waters of divorce with the added pressure of needing to effectively co-parent a child with special needs long after their marriage is over.

What Is the Real Picture of Autism?

A few weeks back Lisa Belkin, a wonderful writer, had a piece on a New York Times blog about the recent study addressing the stress parents of children with autism experience. Well, this article has generated much attention and created some interesting comments.

Here is the original column
The University of Washington released a study earlier this month concluding that being the mother of a child with autism is more stressful than being the mother of a child with other kinds of developmental disabilities. One reader’s first reaction to this news was “I could have told you that,” because her son, who is five, has Asperger’s syndrome, and his condition rules much of her life.
Then she read the report, and became angry. Its description of life with a child who has autism was sanitized and simplified, she thought. In part that’s because the words that exist in the English language fall short in evoking what she calls “the nightmare.”

Here is a response written by Lisa Jo Rudy, of about.com, the mother of a teen on the spectrum.

Be sure to scroll down and check out the comments.

The Stress of Autism

Tara Parker-Pope of The New York Times interviews Annette Estes, Associate Director at the University of Washington Autism Center and the center's recent study about how parents of children with autism spectrum disorders experience more and a different type of stress than parents of children with other developmental disabilities. Be sure to check out the comments on The Times' page, and share yours with us.