Social Skills Therapy: Ineffective?

Lisa Jo Rudy has initiated a discussion at About.com on social skills classes for children with ASDs. She refers to a recent review article which looks at studies of social skills interventions. The results are not so great.
See the discussion here.
An article about the study is here.

Study Shows Signs of Autism Appear Early in Some Children

Anita Manning writes in USA Today that "Children with autism can be identified as early as 14 months old, the youngest age at which the disorder has been diagnosed, a study by researchers at the Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore suggests.
But about half the time, symptoms may not show up until months later. That suggests at least two distinct paths leading to autism: one that starts early in life and one in which a child seems to develop normally and then regresses, losing language and social skills. " Full story here.

Author to Appear on NPR

Ralph Savarese, author of REASONABLE PEOPLE: A MEMOIR OF AUTISM & ADOPTION, will be interviewed on the nationally-syndicated National Public Radio program, "The Diane Rehm Show", on Monday, June 25th to talk about his autistic son and the new book. He will be on from 11am - 12pm in the Washington DC area, although the show airs in hundreds of markets around the country. Please use this link to find a local station in your area that airs the show and the time it will air: http://wamu.org/programs/dr/about/affiliate_stations.php

The Help Group

This California Based organization has a nice collection of practical articles on ASDs and Asperger's on their web site here. Topics include - how to talk to your pediatrician, improving behavior, medications. They are brief, and may be worth sharing with family members who might be having difficulty understanding what ASDs are.

Autism Research Bills Pass NJ Assembly

From the AP wire in the NJ Courier-Post:
"Amid concern about New Jersey having America's highest autism rate, state senators Thursday pushed forward proposals to promote autism research.
The Assembly-approved bills would establish a statewide autism registry and provide more money for research and treatment. The bills are among several autism-related proposals that can now be considered by the full Senate."

Here is information on the registry bill.
This bill also seems to be moving along.
Information on other bills related to autism pending in the State Legislature is here.

Blog Carnival

The Special Education Law blog is hosting a blog carnival on June 18, 2007. Guidelines for submission are here. This is a great way to discover other blogs.

Hacking My Child's Brain - Update

Here's a progress report from Mark Woodman, who wrote a series of articles in Wired magazine about treatment for his son's sensory processing disorder.
"Despite the encouraging results, the program isn't a quick fix for sensory processing disorder. Proprioceptive awareness is still pretty tough for Caleb. His brain may be getting the right information now, but he still has to learn how to use it for the first time. We hope that he now has the neurological wiring needed to eventually catch up with his peers in social areas. The intriguing aspect of this whole experiment is to see evidence that my son's brain continues to reorganize itself around the sensory information. Caleb is experiencing the world in new ways, and only time will tell what comes of it. "

Autism and Race

Kathleen Megan of the Hartford Courant reports on the 18 month lag time in diagnosis for an African American child with autism.

" Wendy Fournier, president of the National Autism Association based in Nixa, Mo., said the issue is "actually driving us crazy. ... I think there are probably a lot of kids with autism in the minority community who are going undiagnosed."Fournier said her group is establishing a committee to reach out to minority communities. "At conferences we go to, there are no black people there, no minorities. It's kind of freaky. It's very, very noticeable.' "

"[David] Mandell, assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, studied children on Medicaid in an attempt to eliminate income as a factor in quality of care. He found that white kids were diagnosed at 6.3 years old, compared with 7.9 years for African American kids. This late age for diagnosis is "not good for anybody," said Mandell."

"Mandell's study also showed that African American children were less likely - by 2.6 times - to receive an autism diagnosis on their first visit to a specialty care office and more likely to be misdiagnosed with conduct disorder and adjustment disorder."

When a Child Outgrows the Safety Net

UPDATE: I neglected to include the essay's author in my initial post. It's Lisa Romeo. My apologies.

The New York Times publishes some wonderful essays on the weekends. I have really liked what I have found in their "Modern Love" weekly in the Sunday Styles section. The "New Jersey/NY Region" section also has some really good pieces.

This one appeared on Mother's Day in the NJ section, under a heading that said "Generations". I don't know how much longer it will be available for free online. But I thought it was worth sharing. A few excerpts:

"How does a mother keep from continually moving the net? Am I done with all that because Sean no longer arranges toys in straight lines or needs listening exercises? Because he can focus on a tennis ball in play, calmly enter new classrooms sans rehearsal? He is no longer so different, but is there still a special need? Something he still needs, from me? Maybe knowing, but not revealing, where his molted skins lie?

What do I know anyway? That it took 136 vision therapy sessions for his eyes not to hurt when the TV picture rolls or the sun glints off the pool? That his toddler habit of repeating every sentence I said was not cute but a sign of neurocognitive miswiring?

Sean may not be so different now, but I will always be a different mother, with painful memories of what could have been ordinary moments...

...I cherish the cheerful, dimpled adolescent with the amazing vocabulary, but he comes packaged with the recovered child of a thousand traumas. And the mother-advocate is a role difficult to relinquish. I was good at it. I got him through..."

This essay is adapted from “Special Gifts: Women Writers on the Heartache, Happiness and Hope in Raising a Special Needs Child,” to be published by Wyatt-MacKenzie in June.

We Just Got a Diagnosis, What Do We Do?

This brief article has some good tips.

I would add to it "Visit Your Library." Most of the library's books on autism have been selected because they have gone through the publishing process, which usually involves some sort of fact checking, and they have received good reviews from reliable professional resources. (Our library uses Booklist and Library Journal, along with catalogs from specialized publishers.)

A staff member at our library is also creating a collection of worthwhile web sites that will soon be posted on our library's home page. As soon as it is up I will link to it from the blog.

Jenny McCarthy Goes Public About Son with Autism

"I did want to acknowledge and confirm the fact that my son does, indeed, have an autism diagnosis," McCarthy, 34, said on Thursday's edition of ABC's The View, on which she served as guest cohost.

McCarthy's book on the subject, Louder Than Words, is scheduled to published in September.

"I just want moms ... who have children out there with autism ... to know that I am coming back in a few months with this book, and I am planning on using my big, giant, controversial mouth to blow the lid off a lot of things related to autism to give moms hope," she said. "It is so needed."

People.com story here.

Garage Door Cakes

"When he turned three years old, I brought out my inner “Martha Stewart” and baked a birthday cake that I knew no one else would ever imagine — a cake in the shape of a garage door."

Just another day in the life of a parent of a child with autism!

"It is never my intention to have him labeled ... I just want to have him understood."

"...I didn’t want to write this commentary to draw attention to my child. I just think it’s important for everyone to be aware that all too often there’s “more than meets the eye”. Before I had my son, I admit to judging a parent’s skills if the child misbehaved. But now I’m aware that we don’t know the whole story. I’m still learning patience and know that there is hope for each child diagnosed with austim, wherever they fall on the spectrum."

Book Review: Children's Fiction

Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell Out of a Tree by Lauren Tarshis
Did you ever watch that wildlife show with Marlon Perkins that was on Sunday nights before "Wonderful World of Disney"? Marlon Perkins was so unflappable and smart, like a scholarly grandfather. Emma-Jean is sort of like Perkins, observing the behavior of her fellow 7th graders at William Gladstone Middle School. Their antics are quite messy and illogical, according to her. But they don't bother with her much, so she is free to observe them at her liesure. But one day she stumbles on Colleen Pomerantz crying her eyes out in the girls' bathroom, and Emma-Jean decides to see if she can apply her knowledge and intellectual abilities to solving Colleen's problem. To her great satisfaction, Emma-Jean's efforts are successful. This leads her to try to fix the problems of other students and some teachers at her school. What happens next teaches Emma-Jean a lot about matters of the heart and the mind.
It's hard for me to be subjective about this book. I devoured it in about a day and absolutely loved it. Though it is never stated, Emma-Jean displays many hallmarks of high functioning quirky kids on the autism spectrum. What is so cool is that Emma-Jean may be odd, but she is not really any stranger than the kids at the public school she attends. And by the end of the book, Emma-Jean takes her place among them - even though she is a bit odd, she finds a way to belong. Phew! Even thinking about it now makes me a little bit verklempt. I truly hope kids take to this book - it's got such a positive, affirmative message - we are all different, and we all belong.

Spanish Language Site

Here is a web site providing information and support for Spanish-speaking parents of children with autism.

I found this on my colleague Ellen's blog. Thank you, Ellen for your encouragement and hard work on behalf of families of autistic children!

TV Show Alert

Nick News on the Nickelodeon network is broadcasting a show entitled "Private Worlds: Kids and Autism" on Sunday, April 22. It will be hosted by Linda Ellerbee and profile one child with autism, one with Asperger's and one with savant abilities. Temple Grandin also appears, asking kids not to tease their classmates with autism.
More details here.

New Early Diagnosis Test

Found this on the Special Education Law Blog:
Researchers have discovered that something as simple as calling out a baby's name to see if he or she responds could be the first step in early diagnosis of autism. "If a child fails the test at 12 months, they're highly likely to have some abnormal developmental outcome that could probably respond to therapy," said Dr. Sally Ozonoff, a professor at the University of California, Davis' M.I.N.D. institute.
Full article here.

Sensory Wall

An Occupational Therapist has designed a wall that helps kids with sensory integration issues. The article includes this description of SID:
"It's like when you are watching television," explained Merrin Brown, registered occupational therapist at BMH and team leader for Blount County Schools. "You are using your sense of sight, sound, touch and also taste if you are eating. You are also using cognition to enjoy your favorite show. But if the dog starts barking or the kids are screaming or the phone rings, you will either get frustrated or yell at someone to be quiet. With children with sensory needs, it's like that every day."

Celebrate!

It's National Library Week! If you haven't visited your local public library lately, give it a try. There's lots of good stuff there, including DVDs, magazines, and books. Check out what they have on ASDs - you might be pleasantly surprised. And it's a lot cheaper to borrow books than to buy them!
In celebration of reading, here is a heartwarming story from a mom with two children on the spectrum.
"...when my twins were diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum, I could feel my legs go numb as I read all the things an autistic child might never do. One of my favorite activities with my children has always been reading books to them; could it be they would never share that joy? Would I never hear them read "Go, Dog. Go!" to me?"
"...although there are many fears for our children, they can reward you with wonderful surprises, just like a colorful flower suddenly pops from the barren and cold ground. It was there the whole time, just waiting for everything to come together."

Did Mr. Darcy Have Asperger's?

At first I thought this was a bit silly, but upon further reflection, maybe it demonstrates that people on the spectrum have been around for a very long time, and represent a predictable, recurring aspect of human nature.

I may touch more on this after I finish reading Unstrange Minds, a new book on autism written by a medical anthropologist. It explores the labels we give to different human behaviors. So far it is really good.

Learning Social Skills by Watching

Two new studies at Indiana University demonstrate that videos depicting exemplary behaviors can be effective in helping children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders develop social skills and daily living skills.
Details here.