When you have a child with special needs who attends public school, you usually negotiate an IEP for your student with the school. The IEP, Individual Education Plan, outlines the special services your child will receive during the school year. For example, some children go to another class for reading, math, and spelling. Some children receive speech therapy, occupational therapy, or physical therapy during the school day. Some children even have a one-on-one aid who goes through the school day helping a single student. There are children who have so much difficulty... more

New research indicates there is a relationship between mitochondrial disease and autism. Although at this point, researchers are not sure if mitochondrial disease plays a role in the development of autism, or if the muscle weakness in a child with autism points to a genetic defect that causes mitochondrial disease. Mitochondrial disease results in muscles not getting the energy they need. This is because the mitochondria convert energy... more

Parents of children with autism earn 14% less than parents of children without autism says an article in this month’s Pediatrics magazine. This statistic is based on surveying the parents of 11, 000 children with autism whose ages are between kindergarten and 8th grade.

Comparing the parents with other parents of comparable careers, the survey found that on average a household with a child with autism makes $6200 per year less. Remember these are averaged... more

Tomorrow, Wednesday, April 2 is the first World Autism Awareness Day. Falling in what has become Autism Awareness Month, this day was declared by the United Nations last November as an annual day to “encourage Member States to take measures to raise awareness about children with autism throughout society.”

It’s estimated that 35 million people worldwide have autism and face discrimination and an extreme lack of resources. CNN will devote unprecedented coverage to autism tomorrow throughout the entire day on CNN/U.S., CNN International, CNN en Español and Headline... more

“Wait and see,” the ______ said. (You can fill in the blank with teacher, doctor, therapist, adoption worker.) But regardless of who says it, it’s just plain wrong!

This point was driven home for me as I watched LuLu work through a computer-based program that tests her on some academic basics in math and language. LuLu is currently working slightly behind grade level in math, but further behind in language. In the last two years her language abilities, including speech, reading, auditory processing, etc., have been tested and retested. And regardless of who... more

A fellow adoptive mom asked me this question this week. Her son has been diagnosed with ADHD, and has seen some improvements through medications and the removal of food coloring and casein from his diet. But she’s seeing signs that he’s struggling academically, and there are still many more “little” things going on.

Initially the professionals they were consulting dismissed the idea of the autism spectrum because her son has language, and very assertively uses it. She knows LuLu, and knows that we’ve had the diagnosis of PDD-NOS for several years. “He reminds... more

Meet Hannah. The picture in this online article is small, but Hannah’s face is blazoned on the top fold of the front page of the Atlanta Journal Constitution today with the headline “How Hannah Made History”. Hannah’s case is being dubbed the first autism-vaccine link case. What will happen next is anyone’s guess. I first blogged on the Federal court’s decision to pay Hannah’s parents out of the federal vaccine injury fund last week, having no idea that... more

As I was looking for information on the “different” brain movement among some adults with autism, I came across yet another opinion about autism…that it is a disease. This definition implies more of a possibility of “curing” it than if autism is labeled a disorder.

Of course there are those out there who believe that autism is only a difference. But as LuLu grows and is better able to express herself, I’m not buying that she believes that she’s only different. The physical... more

I’ve blogged about Amanda Baggs before. Her YouTube video is legendary, and well worth the viewing, if you know anyone who has autism (and who doesn’t know someone at this point?)

But this article in Wired, The Truth about Autism: Scientists Reconsider What They Think They Know, brings up a whole slew of points and counterpoints. One of the main ones is that there is a movement out there to... more

A sad story out of Illinois last week as the mother of a 3-year-old with autism who killed the child in May 2006 testified on her confession. The story is a tragic one – horrendous to many readers. But I suspect that many parents of children with challenging special needs, such as autism, have a tinge of understanding for where the mother was coming from.

This mother suffocated her daughter with a plastic bag. It is the ultimate of horrific acts. Yet, she... more