Parents Get a Chance to Laugh

Kansas City, Mo. — There's nothing funny about autism.Wait a minute. Yes there is - especially when Chris Long tells the "boob" story.But let's back up.

Read more here: http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/2014/02/28/2977366/whats-so-funny-plenty-for-parents.html#storylink=cpy

A Different Kind of Theater Comes to Life

NORRISTOWN, Pa. — The lobby of Theatre Horizon in Norristown is cacophanous during a weekly playwriting workshop.
The sounds do not always seem to be productive. Somebody may be singing to herself, a man may be squawking in a high falsetto, another person may be busily repeating a series of words. Conversation can be fast, loud, and insistent.

N.J. Moves Up Closings

TRENTON — The Christie administration has accelerated the closing of two institutions that are home to 415 people with developmental disabilities, choosing to close one in Totowa in July and another in Woodbridge in January 2015, according to a memo obtained by The Star-Ledger.

Two years ago, a task force decided to close the Woodbridge Developmental Center and the North Jersey Developmental Center in Totowa by 2017 in an effort to reduce New Jersey’s reliance on institutional care for people with developmental disabilities.

'I Couldn't Talk or Walk. But I Had a Brain.'

Young Catherine Badgley's refuge at Cedar Springs was a window in the ward she shared with 65 other children -- a ledge where she could pull herself up by her noodle legs, stare outside and imagine a life beyond the institution's locked doors.

Today Catherine Badgley lives
in an apartment with her two cats.

"If it rained, I could see it trickling down the window. I always cried, the tears just coming right down."

My Lessons in Autism

The author and her son.

“James is so lucky to have you for a mother!” I’ve heard it so many times, I should have T-shirts printed. When you develop a professional specialty over 15 years, study with experts, become one yourself, and then give birth to a person who might have been referred to you, people think you have an insider’s advantage. So James is lucky, my clients are lucky. It’s been hard to resist seeing myself as unlucky.
If I were a villain, it would be sweet justice. But I’m not. I’m a child psychologist specializing in autism spectrum disorders, and it turns out that the first of my two children fits those diagnostic criteria.

Bill Proposes Follow-Up After Transfer From New Jersey Developmental Centers

TRENTON — The state would be required to assess how well disabled people are faring after their transfer from two institutions the Christie administration has begun closing, under a bill the Assembly Human Services Committee approved today.

The Woodbridge Developmental Center and the North Jersey Developmental Center in Totowa are slated to close by 2017, in an effort to reduce New Jersey's over-reliance on large institutions for people with intellectual disabilities. They are among seven centers operated by the state.

Parents Nurturing, Affection Can Shape a Child's Brain Development

Parents do a lot more than make sure a child has food and shelter, researchers say. They play a critical role in brain development.
More than a decade of research on children raised in institutions shows that "neglect is awful for the brain," says Charles Nelson, a professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and Boston Children's Hospital. Without someone who is a reliable source of attention, affection and stimulation, he says, "the wiring of the brain goes awry." The result can be long-term mental and emotional problems.