Autism Parents Club

Autism in the community

Mary — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 12:19:34 +0000

Timely news, articles, events and more from the leaders in Life Line Screening.

People with autism are often regarded as inferior because they have a disability. Their thinking and doing is different than that of the average man. This society is full of obstacles for people with autism. By naming a disability, autism society noted that people with autism are entitled to extra support and reasonable adjustments so that they get opportunities.

1. Education:

A child with autism must:
- As independently as possible at one time structuring and deal with schedule changes. they must organize themselves to get the desired activity;
- Both a verbal and a nonverbal way to communicate and thus to express their needs;
- Activities of leisure and relaxation, work and school functions better control;
- Teaching and management strategies relating to social intercourse. A child with autism must discover his own emotions, recognize those of others, and to learn how to handle a civil manner;
- An insight into his own environment, thus preventing inappropriate behavior and panic attacks significantly decrease.
- Autism information websites

2. Job opportunities:

Many autistic adults are severely handicapped in a normal environment to function, so they are best placed in a sheltered workshop. These workshops accept people with various disabilities or mentally retarded. Part of the staff should have experience with their specific problems, aims to help autistic adults. Also must be provided in sufficient variety to perform work.

3. Home guidance:

For support and advice, parents can contact the home guidance. They come home to help parents find answers to their many questions. They seek to capture a suitable or appropriate education and also assisting the parents in collaboration with other services. It also gave them notice their child taught to get to know through various techniques such as observation, interviews and research. This gives parents an insight into both the possibilities and limitations of their child, making them an appropriate relationship with their child can find. Parents are assisted in the processing of disability, so that the autistic child can get a place within the family.
There is no standard program, whereby the duration and frequency of home visits in consultation with the parents is determined.

4. Housing:

To adults with autism and adults with intellectual disabilities include facilities such as sheltered and assisted living. The problem is that there are a number of problems such as inadequate homes, infrastructure and sometimes even a lack of privacy.

http://elderkind.com/can-you-care-for-your-elderly-parent-at-home/

Autistic children

Mary — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 09:50:37 +0000

Signs of autism may be visible already during the first two years of life.
Signs of autism include:

- weak ability to connect
- delayed language development
- a repetitive and obsessive behavior

The diagnosis of “autism” can be set when all features are present, otherwise we use the term “autistic traits”.

How can I find out if your child has autism?

You get no interaction with the child, who often avoid eye contact.
The child shows no interest in ordinary toddler toys, and you realize that there is something seriously wrong with it.

Why are some children autistic?

It is shown that the hereditary system plays a major role, and children with autism more often than healthy children, have complications before and in a first few months after birth.
There were many proofs that autism is caused by a disturbance in brain function, but it is not known exactly in what way the failure occurs or what does it consists. There is a lively research in this area now.

Is there anything I can do to prevent your child will have autism?

No, there is not. The most important thing is to find a way to interact with your child.
Using sign language has proven to be useful.

Is autism something to go to the doctor?

Yes, if you are troubled by the idea that something is seriously wrong with the child.
Then you should talk to your doctor. The sooner, the better.

How can the doctor tell if your child is autistic?

First, the doctor can tell you about child development and behavior. After that he can observe the examination of the child. It will show that the child is severely abnormal.
It is not customary to set a clear diagnosis in the first place.

What can the doctor do next?

Infantile (children) autism is such a rare condition that the doctor always want to refer the patient to child psychiatrist or pediatrician. When the child is thoroughly examined by a specialist he can set up a treatment plan along with the child’s special education teachers.
Your doctor can also make sure you get adequate relief and the benefits you are entitled. Your doctor can provide information about “National Association of autism,” where you can share your experiences with other parents who have autistic children.

How to live with autism?

The condition lasts for life and sufferers will always depend on help from others, even as an adult.
But, with early and good help autistics can have a reasonably good life, and parents can avoid getting psychiatric problems if the outside world understans and provides them adequate relief.

http://www.australiaonlineadvertising.com.au/business/accounting/Business-in-Mind-l58825.html

Autism Parents Club

admin — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 20:01:10 +0000

By Jennifer Lebovich and Kathleen McGrory | Miami Herald

Three boys were charged Wednesday in the sexual assault of an 11-year-old autistic girl in an elementary school restroom.
One of the boys, also 11, followed the girl into a restroom at Norland Elementary School in Miami Gardens earlier this month and forced her to perform oral sex on him, authorities said.

He is charged with sexual battery on a child under 12 and with false imprisonment.
The two others, ages 13 and 11, acted as lookouts outside the restroom, the arrest report said.
The Miami Herald is not identifying the youths because of their ages.

“It’s a terrible, unfortunate incident,’ said Miami-Dade Schools Police Chief Charles Hurley. “I don’t know where youngsters are learning some of these things. These are acquired behaviors.
The girl’s mother said she did not find out about the attack until two days later, when she got a call from the school. She said, though, that family members noticed a change in the girl’s behavior right away.

“She wouldn’t hold her head up, she wasn’t the same,’ said the girl’s mother.
The girl has Asperger’s syndrome, a mild form of autism, and is in a special education class at Norland Elementary, 19340 NW Eighth Ct.

The girl’s mother and attorneys hired by the family called for more security to prevent such incidents in schools.
“Two places your children should be safe: home and school,’ the mother said. “That should be a safe haven for them.’

The attorneys said they had not ruled out taking legal action.
A schools spokesman said the alleged assailants had been suspended and would be recommended for expulsion. The three, who were charged as juveniles, were not physically taken into police custody. Instead, the department filed the charges directly with the Miami-Dade state attorney’s office.

Police said the assault took place about noon March 3. The girl had been in a class preparing students for the FCAT, the attorneys said.

She was in a restroom when one of the boys came in and locked the door.
The boy “told the victim to get on her knees and he unzipped his pants,’ the arrest report said. He then made her perform a sex act .

The two other boys were outside the bathroom acting as lookouts, the report said. They were charged with false imprisonment and as accessories to sexual battery.
Hurley, the schools police chief, said his department approached the case “with an extreme amount of caution, care and sensitivity.’

“Instead of just making a quick arrest, we tried to gather as much information as we could,’ he said.
School administrators said they were reviewing procedures at the school.
Hurley said schools remain a safe place for children.
“We open our doors every day to 340,000 kids,’ he said.

Source: http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/crime/three-boys-charged-in-miami-dade-elementary-sex-445346.html

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The Autism News English autism, autistic, autistic girl, Miami-Dade elementary, Norland Elementary School, sex attack, sexual assault, Three boys
http://www.mommyposh.com/2011/09/20/childrens-choice-fashion-finds-for-2011/#more-5000

Support for parents with Autistic children – Autism Parents Club

admin — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 20:01:10 +0000

(Joanne Rathe, Globe Staff Photo, photo taken from http://signposts-au.org/)

Family health insurance is important if you are looking for secure future.

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The Autism News English, English Aimee Mury, autism, autistic, Eliza Mury, film

Eliza Mury was only one year old when she said her first word — ”doggie” — and a few more words followed. But soon her parents noticed that her vocabulary seemed frozen. Speech therapy didn’t help.

Eliza’s mother, Aimee Mury, took her daughter to doctors and specialists, but none diagnosed anything more serious than a hearing deficiency. Friends and relatives, though, had gently begun to suggest that Eliza might be autistic. Aimee Mury was so fearful of the condition, she could barely say the word.

After repeated exams by specialists, Eliza was diagnosed with autism when she was 2 1/2, in the spring of 2007. Aimee Mury read everything she could about the condition. But as she learned about traits and treatment, she had a hard time seeing what an autistic child looked like.

”It’s very hard initially to meet other people and kids,” Mury said. ”I was on YouTube and I was trying to search for autism. And I found there was very little out there.”

Nearly three years after Eliza’s diagnosis, Aimee Mury has helped create a movie about her daughter and their struggle to get her diagnosed called ”Eliza, My Songbird.” The movie, produced and directed by Mury’s neighbor, Zadi Zokou, will have its first public showing Sunday at Natick’s Morse Institute Library.

Mury, 42, saw the movie as a chance to help other families with autistic children get diagnosed more quickly than Eliza. But Eliza also plays a prominent role in the movie. Mury and her husband, John, pastor of Natick’s Beacon Community Church, hope that making autistic children more visible will help diminish the stigma of the neurological disorder.

”I think it’s a wonderful tribute that she is willing to do this,” said Kelly Gryglewicz, a member of the board of directors of the Autism Alliance of MetroWest, and a friend of Mury’s. ”A lot of people are not willing to disclose the diagnosis.”

Getting Eliza diagnosed with autism was a long and frustrating process that began when the girl was 18 months old. Appointments with specialists took months to book, and in the beginning, none of them believed Eliza was autistic. Girls are less likely than boys to be autistic. And while many autistic children shy away from social contact, Eliza was very social — even though she was indiscriminate, trying to sit on a stranger’s lap, for instance.

”That’s what I was quickly learning was that even within the professional group, there’s a lot of misunderstanding of what a child with autism can look like,” Aimee Mury said.

Finally, a friend who works with families with autistic children persuaded the Murys to see a neuropsychologist, and this time the diagnosis was firm: Eliza had autism. The doctor saw Eliza on a Saturday and he told Mury to get on the phone the following Monday, trying to set up the array of services she would need. Now Eliza spends about 26 hours getting special services at Johnson Elementary School in Natick.

Once Aimee Mury began researching autism, she realized her daughter had some of the classic signals early on: She didn’t point to things. She didn’t respond to her name. She didn’t show her mother things. Mury made the film hoping it might encourage other families to get their autistic children diagnosed early.

Now, at 5 1/2, Eliza says only a few words and the name of the movie came from the noises she made when she was younger. ”She chirped just like a bird as toddler,” her mother says, in the movie.

The Murys make a point of taking their daughter out in public, even though it may create awkward situations — Eliza has tried to drink out of a stranger’s cup. But when they explain that she is autistic, others are usually understanding.

The last few years have been hard on the Murys. Aimee Mury discovered she had inherited a gene linked to breast cancer and a rare form of stomach cancer — which killed her mother in her 40s — and underwent nine surgeries in three and a half years, removing her stomach and both breasts. John’s brother died unexpectedly a little over a year ago.

When Mury told her neighbor, Zokou, that she wanted to make a YouTube clip about her experiences getting Eliza diagnosed and finding services for her, he offered to help. Zokou is a sales associate at Neiman Marcus but he was a screenwriter in his native country of the Ivory Coast.

When Mury told him about her plan, he had recently bought new film equipment and he told Mury he would help her. Zokou encouraged her to think bigger than YouTube. Next, Zokou would like to raise money for a longer film about Eliza and the rest of her family.

When Mury was done telling her story for the film, Zokou asked her a few more questions. He wanted to make the film more personal.

”I wanted her inner feelings about having an autistic kid,” he said. ”I was glad that she answered the questions.”

http://central.ly/kulkynekampers

“Beading to Beat Autism”

admin — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 20:01:09 +0000

The Autism News | English

By Fox 41 | Louisville News

Michala Riggle is taking her “Beading to Beat Autism” project to prison. Wednesday the 13-year-old from Louisville spoke to nearly two dozen inmates at the Kentucky Correctional Institution for Women. The women have volunteered to bead bracelets to be sold on her website.

KCIW Warden Janet Conover explains, “I think the inmates get a sense of giving back to the community. You know they’ve committed some crimes, been convicted by a court, and this is their way of giving back to society in a positive way.”

Jail officials say more than thirty inmates signed up, but only 23 are participating. The program’s goal is to help in raising $300 million to build the most comprehensive autism research and treatment center in the world.

Source: http://www.fox41.com/Global/story.asp?S=12197465

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The Autism News English, English autism, autistic, Michala Riggle, Prison

Daily challenges of raising a child with autism

admin — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 20:01:09 +0000

The Autism News | English

Published by Trumpeter Books

Given the daily challenges of raising a child with autism, it’s easy for parents to lose themselves and for their overall quality of life to plummet.

The Autism Mom’s Survival Guide contains many parents’ stories and ideas (including my own) on handling feelings of despair and hopelessness, caring for your marriage, enjoying your life as an adult — not just as a parent — having fun with your kids, finding a good balance between accepting your child and seeking new treatments, dealing with the rest of the world’s attitudes towards your child, looking toward your child’s adulthood, letting go, and allowing yourself to find your own joy even in the midst of great struggle.

Paperback: 208 pages
Publisher: Trumpeter (March 30, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1590307534
ISBN-13: 978-1590307533
Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches

Click to look inside

Source: http://susansenator.com/survivalguide.html

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The Autism News English autism, autistic, book, The Autism Mom’s Survival Guide, Trumpeter Books

National disability insurance scheme

admin — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 20:01:09 +0000

By Mike Steketee | The Australian

Voters are being asked to back only parties that promise a national disability insurance scheme

IN the 1976 movie Network, Peter Finch in his role as a television broadcaster urges people to go to their windows, stick their heads out and shout: “I’m as mad as hell and I’m not gonna take this any more.” Windows are thrown open and the words echo around the country.

Australians with disability and their supporters are hoping for something similar from the campaign they are launching via their “australiansmadashell” website. As it says, “we are not going to take it any more — and there are millions of us”.

They are asking people to take a pledge to vote in state and federal elections only for parties that promise to introduce a national disability insurance scheme. The responses will be compiled and candidates, particularly in marginal seats, will be told of the number of pledges in their electorate.

An insurance scheme, rather than paying a welfare benefit or damages, as with motor vehicle or workers’ compensation schemes, would provide the essential services and facilities to the disabled and increase their prospects of a meaningful life, including a job. It would constitute a landmark economic and social reform and, while costly in the short term, would pay for itself in the long run, according to its proponents.

The insurance concept is based on the fact that all Australians are at risk in life’s lottery, whether they are among the one in 160 born with autism, one in 400 with cerebral palsy, are blind or deaf, have Down syndrome, suffer severe intellectual disability, fall from a skateboard and suffer brain damage, or dive into the surf and end up as a quadriplegic. As Sue O’Reilly, one of the campaign organisers, puts it: “This is not something that happens to Martians on another planet.”

People decide how to vote for all sorts of different reasons and there are any number of issues jostling for a place on the political agenda. But grey power helped elevate the concerns of older Australians up the scale of political priorities and the Women’s Electoral Lobby succeeded in putting issues such as child care on the agenda.

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare estimates there are 1.5 million people with a severe disability and that will grow to 2.3 million by 2030. Including parents and other primary carers, extended family members, disability support workers, health professionals and specialist teachers, organisers say their campaign could influence more than 2 million voters, people for whom disability is not just one of many issues but central to their lives.

For years, the disabled and those supporting them mostly have accepted their lot, often consumed by the daily struggle to survive. Now, something is definitely stirring. O’Reilly says they hit on their theme because they kept hearing people saying, “I’m just so angry, just so fed up.” Under her maiden name, Corrigan, she wrote an article last year for The Weekend Australian Magazine that told of parents who, at the point of collapse, resorted to abandoning their children in emergency respite centres. She wrote of her experiences raising a son with cerebral palsy, how the lack of support drove her family to live in England, where there is a legal right to vital equipment and services, including a residential secondary school.

The death of her husband prompted her to return to Australia, to be confronted all the more starkly with the lack of services here. Her article prompted one of the biggest reader responses the magazine has received.

Last weekend’s South Australian election saw the election to the upper house of Kelly Vincent, a 21-year old wheelchair-bound candidate for Disability with Dignity. She replaced the lead candidate, Paul Collier, who died during the campaign but whose name remained on the ballot paper. The party received only 1.2 per cent of the primary vote but came ahead of a string of other single-issue parties and independents, and picked up enough preferences to win a seat.

The Rudd government’s Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities Bill Shorten has no doubts about the political potency of the issue. “I have a 100 per cent conviction that this is far more important than Canberra insiders, including in the press gallery, have treated it up to now,” he tells Inquirer.

As for the new campaign, “I am very supportive of moving disability from the important to the urgent column.”

To a considerable extent, it is the government that has given the issue traction.

It set up a Disability Investment Group of outside experts who reported that, despite governments spending $20 billion a year on disability welfare through a patchwork of programs and an army of 2.5 million family members and other carers providing unpaid care and support, the present system was “a national disgrace”, with glaring gaps and increasing unmet demand.

It warned that the demand for services was growing at 7.5 per cent a year after inflation, with a rising incidence of disability as the population aged combining with a shrinking pool of ageing carers and the huge cost of replacing informal, largely unpaid care with formal care. The group’s principal recommendation for a national disability insurance scheme would use a social insurance model to assess the risk of disability in the general population, calculate the costs of meeting their essential lifetime needs and estimate the premium or cost required to pay for them.

The emphasis would be on early intervention and access to education and training to maximise long-term independence. The government has asked the Productivity Commission to look at the feasibility and costs of such a scheme, as well as other options for long-term care and support. In the meantime, the government has substantially increased funding to the states for disability services and guaranteed real increases of 3 per cent a year, as well as increasing the disability support pension and the carer payment.

Bruce Bonyhady, chairman of Yooralla, Victoria’s largest disability service provider and a member of the group, says its work established the significance of disability as not just a social but an economic issue, “one with quite profound economic implications if we don’t do anything. We are at a tipping point where it is now becoming a political issue. Once you have an all-embracing solution like an [insurance scheme], you open up the possibility that it becomes a political issue, as opposed to a partisan issue.”

The major parties will have difficulty making an ironclad commitment to such a scheme, given the Productivity Commission is not due to report until the middle of next year. It is a scheme that comes with a price tag: a net $4bn to $5bn a year to cover people aged under 65, according to an analysis by PricewaterhouseCoopers. It also argues that the scheme could pay for itself, possibly after 10 years, through reduced disability support pension and carer payments, and lower bills for health, aged care and other social programs.

Bonyhady says the scheme could be funded through a Medicare-type levy of 0.8 per cent of taxable income. Politicians will baulk at a new tax, particularly in an election year, although Tony Abbott will find it harder to invoke his great big new tax argument on this issue.

However the parties react to the election pledges she is seeking, O’Reilly will be happy if she hears Kevin Rudd and Abbott declare their commitment in the next term of government to a radical overhaul of the disability system.

Source: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/politics/opinion/disability-group-mad-as-hell-and-ready-to-fight/story-e6frgd0x-1225845897896

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The Autism News English autism, autistic, Disability group, insurance, vote

World Autism Awareness Day

admin — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 20:01:08 +0000

The Autism News | English

By WorldAUtismAwarenessDay.org

On December 18, 2007, the United Nations General Assembly adopted resolution 62/139, tabled by the State of Qatar, which declares April 2 as World Autism Awareness Day (WAAD) in perpetuity. Her Highness Sheikha Mozah Bint Nasser Al-Missned, Consort of His Highness Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani, the Emir of the State of Qatar, supported the campaign for a World Autism Awareness Day through the current 62nd UN General Assembly Session, garnering consensus support from all United Nations Member States.

This UN resolution is one of only three official disease-specific United Nations Days and will bring the world’s attention to autism, a pervasive disorder that affects tens of millions. The World Autism Awareness Day resolution encourages all Member States to take measures to raise awareness about autism throughout society and to encourage early diagnosis and early intervention. It further expresses deep concern at the prevalence and high rate of autism in children in all regions of the world and the consequent developmental challenges.

World Autism Awareness Day shines a bright light on autism as a growing global health crisis. WAAD activities help to increase and develop world knowledge of the autism epidemic and impart information regarding the importance of early diagnosis and early intervention. Additionally, WAAD celebrates the unique talents and skills of persons with autism and is a day when individuals with autism are warmly welcomed and embraced in community events around the globe.

By bringing together autism organizations all around the world, we will give a voice to the millions of individuals worldwide who are undiagnosed, misunderstood and looking for help. Please join us in our effort to inspire compassion, inclusion and hope.

UN World Autism Awareness Day Resolution (.pdf format)

Source: http://www.worldautismawarenessday.org

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The Autism News English April 2, april 2nd, autism, autism awareness, autistic

The Many Faces of Autism: From Behavior to Biology

admin — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 00:44:45 +0000

The Autism News | English

By University of California Television

Dr. Robin Hansen, Director of Clinical Program at the UC Davis MIND Institute explores the current research on the heterogeneity of autism spectrum disorders in terms of both behavior and biology, and advances in knowledge of etiology and application for treatments. Series: M.I.N.D. Institute Lecture Series on Neurodevelopmental Disorders [4/2010] [Health and Medicine] [Professional Medical Education] [Show ID: 17653]

Source: YouTube

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The Autism News English, English autism, autistic, behavior, Biology, heterogeneity, Robin Hansen, treatment

Newer Genetic Test for Autism More Effective

admin — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 00:44:45 +0000

The Autism News | English

Study finds chromosomal microarray analysis detects more abnormalities

By Jenifer Goodwin | HealthDay Reporter

A newer type of genetic test is better at detecting abnormalities that predispose a child to autism than standard genetic tests, new research has determined.

Researchers offered about 933 people aged 13 months to 22 years who had been diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder three genetic tests: G-banded karyotype testing, fragile X testing or chromosomal microarray analysis (CMA), which has been available only for the past few years.

Karyotype tests identified chromosomal aberrations associated with autism in about 2 percent of patients, while the fragile X genetic mutation was found in about 0.5 percent of patients.

CMA detected chromosomal abnormalities in slightly more than 7 percent of patients, making it the best available genetic test for autism spectrum disorders, the study authors said.

“The CMA test alone has triple the detection rate of karyotyping or fragile X,” said co-senior author Bai-Lin Wu, director of the Genetics Diagnostic Laboratory at Children’s Hospital Boston. “CMA should be added to first-tier genetic testing for autism spectrum disorders.”

The study appeared online March 15 and will be published in the April print issue of Pediatrics.

“When parents have a child diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder, one of the first questions they often ask is ‘how did this happen?’ ” said Dr. Robert Marion, a pediatric geneticist at Children’s Hospital at Montefiore Medical Center in New York City.

“In the vast majority of cases, we believe there is at least a genetic predisposition to autism, but the ability to identify a specific genetic cause has been very elusive,” Marion said. “Part of that is because of the technology that’s been available. A larger part is at this point, we just don’t fully understand what the genetic mechanism that leads to autism is.”

Standard practice is to offer children with autism two tests as a first-line genetic work-up: karyotype and fragile X testing, the researchers said.

In karyotyping, forms of which have been around since the 1960s, geneticists use a microscope to look for chromosomal abnormalities that are associated with autism, explained Dr. David Miller, a clinical geneticist and assistant director of the Genetics Diagnostic Laboratory at Children’s Hospital Boston, which conducted the new research along with Boston’s Autism Consortium.

Like karyotyping, CMA also looks for chromosomal abnormalities, but does so at 100 times the resolution of the earlier test, Miller said. CMA, a genome-wide test, can identify sub-microscopic deletions of duplications of DNA sequences, called copy-number variants, known to be associated with autism, he said.

“Think of chromosomes as a library full of books and each book as a gene,” Miller said. “What we look for are shelves of books that have gone missing, which represent a missing fragment of a chromosome, or extra fragments of chromosome, that could contain genes related to autism.”

While both Children’s Hospital Boston and Montefiore have offered CMA testing for several years, not all hospitals do, nor does all insurance pay for it, the researchers noted.

The main purpose of genetic testing of children with autism is to help parents determine if they’re at a higher risk of having another child with autism, Marion said.

If tests pinpoint an autism-related chromosomal abnormality in the child, the parents are then offered testing. If a parent is also found to have the abnormality, geneticists conclude that the couple is at higher risk of having a child with autism. (The precise risk depends on what the variant is.)

But if the parents don’t have the abnormality, geneticists conclude that the deletion or duplication happened by chance, and the parents are probably not at any greater risk of having another child with autism than the general population, Marion said.

Still, there is much geneticists can’t tell parents. Between 10 percent and 15 percent of autism cases can be traced to a known genetic cause, the researchers noted. Of that, CMA alone can detect 7 percent of those.

There are a few other genetic tests that can explain another few percentage points of autism cases.

But that leaves 85 percent or more families with little explanation for the disorder, Marion said.

“CMA is better, but it’s not great,” Marion said. “The vast majority of children who have autism have no identifiable genetic markers that will help in genetic counseling for future pregnancies. That is very frustrating.”

Source: http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/content/healthday/636945.html

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The Autism News English, English autism, autistic, dna, genetics, research