autism

I was recently followed and friended by Carly Fleishmann, a young girl who has autism. She's non-verbal but communicates with the use of a computer. Here is a link to her website:

Carly's Voice

 My boyfriend is awesome and is the caregiver for his autistic brother. I was trying to think of activities that we can include him in... He is high functioning and is 23. Any ideas? We're not particularly wealthy either

 I didn't know I had any autoimmune diseases, then. And I do know that I have kids who do not have Autism and I know others who have autoimmune disorders far worse than my own who have children who are neurotypical.

My husband had traits and I seem to be pretty much AS, although I don't have a diagnosis.

We have four children. Two have ASD. Two seem to be fairly NT.

I had enough trouble dealing with "refridgerator mother" theories, which are still floating around the medical community.

Autism Links to Mother's Autoimmune Disease

I'm the mother of a 6yr old girl that is severely affected by autism. Though I have been a member of the community for years, I have not been active (I lurk, I admit), I do like to see what other issues others are having, and what advice is offered to them.

Something that is very important to me is autism advocacy and education. To be able to help someone learn/understand more about it, even try and get them interested in helping others.

Twice a year, I go on a local radio show to do just that- and I have a blast, and love being able to do something that brings attention to a cause so dear to me.

I wanted to do something a little more involved, try and get people connected on a more personal level, so I created a Twitter about my daughter. With this, I hope to give people a bit of insight to what our daily life is like. I don't think the general public knows, or understands that autism is a truly disabling condition, and not just an excuse. Members of this community certainly can understand what I'm talking about- people saying that those with autism are "fakers", or have "lazy parents who don't want to discipline". That's certainly not the everyday that I love with, you know?

I thought some people here might be interested, so I wanted to share this Twitter with the community, and encourage them to share it with others. I pre-approved it with the mod :)

Here's the link:
http://twitter.com/autismlove

Thanks a ton,
Kim

Basically, what the subject line says.

We are travelling from London to Los Angeles -- 12 hours -- in a week. I'm starting to panic big time. Because of the recent heat and hay fever my poor son has had a hard time of it recently. He's been having a lot of tantrums. We've flown with him many times before and it's been relatively fine, but now he's bigger and louder and more adamant than he was previously.

Has anyone got any advice to help make the journey tolerable for him, us and the other passengers?

Thanks so much!

Are there any lj groups for parent support where we can talk about when things get overwhelming with our autistic kiddos and the world?  I had a few on my list but they all have been deleted or are very inactive.  More often then not my friends on my personal journal don't really get it or care and it would be a helpful resource for me sometimes.

I'm not sure if anyone else has posted (if it has, my apologies) about this site LBRB. It's being ran by someone I'm following (mutually) on twitter.

For most that know me, they know that I find Developmental Centers for the Developmentally Disabled deplorable. Nothing but overglorified mental hospitals or prisons.

http://www.news10.net/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=61296&catid=2

This article supports my belief.

I am working on a grant to build class rooms for our DD kids in the barn.  The class rooms will be used for camps, and field trips.  The barn has a Tin roof and in my experience, when it rains, it is extremely loud.  I have noticed that some of our autistic kids can't handle the noise as well as others.  I am going to ask in the grant for extra money to try to soften the rain noises, but I am not sure how to achieve that, insulation, different roofing material?  Anyone have any suggestions?  Also we want to make a sensory class room too, again, working on a grant for that.  Any ideas of what to put in it?  What have your experiences been with sensory activities?

Well, it is that time of year again, summer camps for DD kids is in full swing.  I have a very active group this first week.  6 boys, all ADD/ADHD, aspbergers or autsim, one that has siezures, and 2 nonverbal.  I was excited to have a child this week that came to camp last year, and last year he was completely non-verbal, this year, he is forming 6 word sentences!  It is amazing to see that transformation!

We had a camp director that quit on us 1 week before camps, so I had to take over at the last minute.  My expertise lies in therapeutic horse back riding, not as a camp director for special needs kids....though, I think I have done well with the activities thus far.

Camp is 4 hours, and I have one hour blocked for therapeutic riding, one hour for ground work with the horses and kids and the rest of the time for arts, games, potty breaks and several snack/water breaks.  The art projects are apparently too "girly"...lol, so I have improvised and taken the group in search of sticks, horse hair and mud to make birds nests.  We also have had a big success with water activities. 

4 of the boys are very high functioning and very active, they are fairly easy to figure out.  It's the other two that I need ideas for.  One little boy is non-verbal, autistic, add/adhd, he wears a helmet because he likes to head butt not only people but the ground.  He also will fling himself to the ground and slam his head into the dirt when he is not allowed to do something (i.e. go behind a horse, go into the driveway, steal food from another child, etc).  He has not been able to participate in many of the activities that the four other boys participate in.  He does enjoy the water, but I am wondering what other activities I could do with him.   He also responds really well to horseback riding, but throws a fit when his turn is over, even head butting our therapy horse square across the side of her face (thank god it didn;t phaze her, she is really a great horse).

Another boy I have has Downs and Autism, he is non-verbal and a lover.  He loves playing with our 30 inch horse tinker bell, and is happy to pet her for 4 hours, he never has a fit, but will not participate in any of the other activites, except the water and sand art.

Any ideas for awesome activities for these boys would be great, I want them to have a good experience from camp like the other 4 do.

Thanks:)

First-time poster, long-time lurker....

My son now 6y/o, was unofficially diagnosed with ASD by the Developmental Paediatrician back in 2004 shortly after his 1st birthday and officially in 2007 (un/officially - the MD's terms, not mine). Back in late April 2004, before his birthday he had gotten sick with the flu and dehydration and was hospitalized for over a week, then was discharged from the hop on his birthday. I have in the past 5 years, I have posted about my son's condition, my cynicism, etc... in my journal so I won't bore you with all the details. But I will state, that I'm not in denial that my son doesn't have an LD, that's he's right as rain or that I'm wearing "rose-coloured glasses". I just have my doubts that what my son has is not necessarily autism.

My husband, GP and I doubt the diagnoses because there are things that my son does not do that would "normally" fit into the autism spectrum - yeah, I know there's no such thing as "normal" - that just doesn't make sense. He made all his milestones: crawled, rolled across the floor, flung spaghetti at his sisters, etc... when he was supposed too. And when I bring to the autism team the suggestion that maybe it's not autism it's another LD, they get really defensive and tell me that I'm just a pathetic "layman" and don't know what I'm talking about regardless being the child's mother and the mere suggestion of a second opinion is out of the question because no one will go against the Autism Team's diagnosis.

Another thing that got me to think, maybe they're wrong is a few years ago an acquaintance of mine who's son was also diagnosed (by the exact same team members) as being severely autistic, turned out that their diagnoses was incorrect and the little boy has a different LD. I know each child is different, but if these professional were wrong about the other little boy what's to say that they're wrong again?

Anywhoo....

A friend of mine sent me the following links. Naturally, I read them both and I'm not quiet sure what to think of them. I was wondering if anyone here has read these

autism next wave of human evolution?


Indigo

My cousin has mild autism, I babysit him frequently, but at least once a week when I'm watching him he throw's a huge tantrum. When I babysit other kids I usually just let them cry and stuff, unless they start throwing thing's at me/other people, but most of the time he'll start hurting himself slamming his head against the wall etc. And I'll grab him but for an 8 year old he's pretty strong, but is there any way's I could get him to calm down? My aunt says he get's like that at home too but they can't really figure away to calm him down except holding him so he doesn't hurt himself.

 ^^  I don't post very much, mostly because I understand most of my brother's quirks (I mentioned in a much earlier post he is autistic).

I'm just wondering if this is something common.   You see, we're both in our mid/late 20's, and quite close to each other  (we even live together).  So we almost always go shopping & places together.  But when it comes to needing to go up to a service desk and ask for something.........  Or go to a fast-food place to order something........    he sooner hides right behind me and has me do all the asking/ordering.   

I know that when he's by himself and needs to order food, etc....   He CAN do it himself  (I discovered that by accident -- went out of town for a couple days & made sure he had plenty of food in the fridge as well as how to reach me, etc.   He decided to order a pizza which I found the left overs in the fridge & asked about), but I'm curious as to why he takes so quickly to "hiding" behind me if I'm there.   Is this just something normal?  
If we are at a casual restaurant, he can usually tell the server what he wants without me having to do it -- but not before I have placed my order (he won't go first).  ^^;  

To all com members that have an ASD, some advice please?
I have a student with Asperger's. He's 15, really bright. He has a recurring problem with formulating thoughts and putting them on paper.

Here's an assignment example that trips him up:
Read an article.
Summarize
Give opinion

He can read the article just fine. He can verbally tell me what is happening and what his thoughts are but if I ask him to put it on paper his brain just shuts down on him. He can't think. Our agreed upon adaptation is that he will dictate his thoughts and response to me and I type or write it down. But even in this format, he thougths are still disjointed. FYI - he has trouble with penmanship and is not proficient enough at typing for it to be done with any speed, in addition, his typed assignments typically have five word phrases that omit capitalizaion and punctuation with seemingly random spacing.

I asked him if he can explain what is happening in his mind when he has to do an assignment like this. He said it's that he can't get it "just right" with the words. That he knows what he wants to say about it but can't make it "come out right". I take that to mean that he has trouble with language processing and maybe a little OCD tendencies in that if it's not exactly right, it's not good enough? I wonder too, if it's that it takes so much effort between cognitive thought and motor skill to put his thoughts on paper since he can verbally complete the task - so much effort that the task seems impossible and therefore he shuts down mentally? Maybe it's more of an occupational issue since his fine motor skills are poor?

And since we've made the modification in the classroom, it seems like it shouldn't be a big deal, except that his english teacher is not applying the same modification (i'm the science teacher) and his score reflects this problem he has. In addition, making the classroom modification doesn't solve the overall problem - how does he learn to translate thought to written word without hitches?

Do any of you have the same vexxing issue with translating text, creating an independent thought and putting it in written words? If so, can you tell me what was happening in your mind that created the glitch? Anyone over come this problem with some success and have tips/advice for me? I have an eight year old son with Asperger's as well, so my interest in finding a solution is personal as well as professional. Plus, I rather like my student and want to build a good platform for his future successes.

Thanks!
Jennie

If anyone who helped me out w/sharing their experience or is simply interested in a 3+ week update of my 8 year old's experience w/taking Melatonin at night, I posted it here: http://autismblog.livejournal.com/3891.html

So...some of you have been following, some haven't. For those that haven't, I've been struggling with the school system here and dealing with very poor quality teachers. Teachers who boarder on abusive with their treatment of my son. I finally have him with a teacher that I really like and is good with him, the problem is that he is now so far behind they aren't interested in keeping him in that classroom. The school they suggested is for severe disabilities. I saw the school and nearly cried. Actually, I had an anxiety attack and cried all the way to work.

I wrote them a very nasty letter and now his Regional Center Coordinator and I are looking at Non Public Schools. Problem there, is they cost money and while teh school district has to pay, getting them to pay will not be fun.

I saw an add for this and thought maybe someone here would be interested. It looks wonderful though I've never seen one first hand. It looks like a great way for special needs kids to get therapeutic exercise. I'm a Behavioral Health Professional at a group home with five wonderful young men with Autism but they're too old to use the Power Pumper it seems. If anyone has one of these or has seen one in action I'm really interested to hear about it :)


http://www.powerpumper.com/

NEW Prism*Vox The neurodiversity friendly podcast.

This episode is about has a new segment, Q&A or Ask the Bard, Please e-mail at Solonightstorm@hotmail.com for questions and comments. I would love feed back, I will also love to learn how to RSS feed it.

Download here


Will X-post it all over the place