The Autism Retort: January 2012

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Autistic boy wanders from school, elementary didn't notice - KFOR

OKLAHOMA CITY -- A metro family is upset with Oklahoma City Public Schools after a kindergartner with autism walks home from school in the middle of the afternoon. It was about an hour before school got out on Friday, 6-year-old Trevor, who has autism, walked away from Oakridge Elementary School in Southeast Oklahoma City.
He made his way through the neighborhood to his house.
When the family contacted the school to let them know he had made it home, they say no one even knew he was even missing.
http://www.kfor.com/news/local/kfor-autistic-boy-wonders-from-school-elementary-didnt-notice-20120131,0,3760239.story

Monday, January 30, 2012

Depressing News of the Day: Kids with Disabilities Friendless

Special needs disability parenting BLOOM: Half of Canadian kids with disabilities friendless: ""The problem is most serious for boys – who tend to have far more developmental disabilities and fewer social skills – and it gets worse with age," Picard writes. In childhood, efforts are made, but by the time kids hit age 10 or so, when cliques and social circles form outside of parental control, ostracization and isolation is near complete.""

'via Blog this'

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Carol Sarler - Having a child with autism wrecks your life, abort them if we can ever test for it ...

Easily the most ignorant and condescending article on autism that I have seen in a LONG time. (It's not new, just resurrected on Facebook this week.) There may finally be someone that all facets of the autism community can reach common ground on ... Carol Sarler.

Wisely, the Daily Mail and Carol Sarler are not allowing comments on her article, Why can't we face the truth? Having an autistic child wrecks your life ... | Mail Online. If they were they would surely hear the opinions of some actual autism parents.

Last year, I gave them Charlotte Moore's book, thinking, foolishly, that it might afford comfort.

It actually meant nothing; they simply could not see Tom in George and Sam. Autistic children, like any other children, presumably reserve the right not all to be the same.

But if there's a chance of a Tom, and a chance of a test to indicate his condition, then - with the obvious proviso that it never be mandatory - I would urge its opponents to think less of Mozart and Einstein and more of otherwise everyday people: Cath, John, Helen, Bill. And Tom.

I would not be impertinent enough to ask Cath if she wishes she'd had such a chance.

In any case, that is a difficult question after the event: it is hard for a mother retrospectively to wish away a living child who, come what may, she loves.

But looking on, as a relatively dispassionate observer; looking at the damage done, the absence of hope and the anguish of the poor child himself, do I think that everyone concerned would have been better off if Tom's had been a life unlived?

Unequivocally, yes.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1116602/Why-face-truth-Having-autistic-child-wrecks-life-.html#ixzz1kUMzr7dh

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Teacher's assistant , Maureen Coello, Charged with slapping special needs student

Teacher's assistant charged with slapping special-needs student - News Story - WSOC Charlotte

HUNTERSVILLE, N.C. -- A CMS teaching assistant was arrested Friday on charges she slapped a special-needs student across the face.Maureen Coello has been a CMS employee for three years. She has worked at Bradley Middle School in Huntersville for two years.Police said she slapped an autistic boy after class on Thursday. Officers said around 4:30 pm, Coello was in charge of a group of special-needs students in the cafeteria as they waited to board a school bus.Huntersville police said one of the students kept touching or moving a book bag on the table, even though Coello told him to stop.That's when, they said, she slapped him across the face.

More @ http://www.wsoctv.com/news/30265626/detail.html

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Missing autistic teenager found in good spirits - Alamogordo Daily News

An autistic 15-year-old El Paso boy is back home safe Monday with his family after he went missing from his family members at White Sands National Monument while they were sledding on the sand dunes Sunday.
Monument spokeswoman Becky Wiles said Angelo Baca was found walking around 10:15 a.m. in the sand dune field carrying his round pink sled by an Air Force Black Hawk helicopter out of Kirtland Air Force Base. Baca had been missing for about 19 hours.
"He was found in good health and spirits," Wiles said. "He was walking in the dunes approximately six miles from the point he was last seen. He was flown to the command post and reunited with his family. He was waving friendly to the helicopter. He was hungry and thirsty."

The Autism Retort Recap Wed 1/18/2012

The Autism Retort 2010® Autism Spectrum Disorders in the News (Drudge Style);

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Mother killed autistic son 'to get rest', court hears - Telegraph

Yvonne Freaney, 49, who had marital difficulties, was found in a hotel room with multiple knife wounds, but survived. She told police that her son, Glen, was in heaven, adding: “He’ll be happy now.”
Cardiff Crown Court heard that Freaney and her son, who needed one-to-one care, had a “loving and devoted relationship”.
But there had been a “general build-up of pressure” on Freaney as she felt her marriage was at its end, and she had been unable to find anywhere for herself and her son to live. Freaney, who has three other children aged 14 to 23, had moved out of the home she shared with her husband Richard, 48, a former RAF officer, and had been living in hotels for about a month before her son’s death.
She told police that she used a belt to strangle her son in her room at the Sky Plaza hotel in Rhoose, Cardiff.
Officers found her sitting on the bed with knife wounds to her wrists, arms, shoulder, chest and feet. She had laid out her son’s body, having dressed him in smart clothes and surrounded him with his favourite cuddly toys.
She told the officers: “I killed him about 36 hours ago. I tried to join him.
More @ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/8503800/Mother-killed-autistic-son-to-get-rest-court-hears.html

Friday, January 13, 2012

Mother remembers autistic child killed after running into traffic - Bakersfield.com

There was a time about eight years ago when doctors weren't sure if David DeSantiago would ever learn how to communicate with others or perform simple functions after he was diagnosed as autistic.

But David thrived under therapy and ended up interacting well with family, played sports and even made a couple of friends -- something that is often difficult for autistic children to do.

"He was so full of love," said David's mother, Lorie Stewart.

David, 11, was killed Jan. 6 after he was struck by a pickup while crossing Brundage Lane. He was hit in the No. 2 westbound lane, Bakersfield police reported. The case remains under investigation.

Stewart said at her south Bakersfield home Thursday that she and David had just parked at the Society for Disabled Children and she was getting two of her other kids out of her vehicle. She thought David, as usual, had run inside the building.

She said she had no idea he had instead run across Brundage. David was crossing back over when he was hit, she said.

Stewart heard the impact. She heard a man yell "It's a kid, it's a kid!" and she called 911, not knowing it was her own child lying in the street.

She walked over to see if she could help.

"The worst frickin' nightmare of my life," Stewart said. "It was David."

more @ http://www.bakersfield.com/news/local/x1275887702/Mother-remembers-autistic-child-killed-after-running-into-traffic

Peter Bell of Autism Speaks to serve on President’s Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities | City Brights: Laura Shumaker | an SFGate.com blog

The White House has announced that the President intends to appoint Autism Speaks Executive Vice President of Programs and Services Peter Bell to serve on the President’s Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities, which advises the President and Secretary of Health and Human Services on issues that impact people with intellectual disabilities and their quality of life.

Thursday, January 12, 2012

The Big List of S*%# Linked to Autism: Winter Conception

FROM ... AutismParents.NET! » The Big List of S*%# Linked to Autism: Winter Conception

A new one for the “might cause Autism” list … Winter Conception.

A new study has revealed that those conceived in winter have up to a16 per cent greater risk of autism than those conceived in July.

The Big List of S*%# Linked to Autism

Air Pollution (Mercury in air pollution = more autism)
Anti-Depressants (Mom on autism = more autism)
Birth Weight HIGH (more weight = more autism. Related, see big head.)
Birth Weight LOW (less weight = more autism)
Brain size (Bigger brains = more autism)
Brain Cells (Too many neurons = more autism)
Cell phones (More cell phones = more autism)
Clever Parents (Smart parents = more autism)
Clomid (Clomid = more autism, see IVF)
Closely Spaced Births (Born soon after sibling = more autism)
Complications at Birth (Catch all, any complication = more autism)
Father’s age (older dad = more autism)
Genetic (squirrely genes = more autism)
Highways (Mom lives near freeway = autism twice as likely)
Internet (Increased Internet usage = more autism)
IVF (Invitro Fertilization) - (IVF = More autism)
Lead (More lead exposure = more autism)
Lyme Disease (linked to autism)
Metabolism (Poor metabolism = more autism)
Missing DNA (missing DNA in boys = more autism)
Mother’s age (older mom = more autism)
Neanderthals (Evolution vaguely linked to autism)
Pasteurized Milk (Pasteurization = more autism)
Pesticides (More pesticides = more autism)
Premature birth (Premature baby = more autism)
Rainfall (higher precipitation areas = more autism)
Smoking (Mom smoking during pregnancy = more autism)
Television (More TV watching = more autism)
Tylenol (More Tylenol = more autism)
Vinyl Flooring (House with vinyl flooring = more autism)
Winter Conception (Mom and Dad get busy in the Winter = more autism)

School Locks Special Needs Kids In ‘Scream Rooms’ To Calm Them Down – ‘Had To Clean Blood Off Walls’

Other children at Farm Hill Elementary told their parents they could hear screaming from the two windowless rooms, once used as book cupboards.
The school district claims the cupboards, which they call ‘timeout rooms’, are used to separate disruptive students from the rest of the class.
The child is led to the concrete-walled room and staff stand outside the until the child has calmed down, they say.
But parents lashed out at the school – attended by children both with and without special needs – for the practice during a Board of Education meeting held on Tuesday.
‘The so-called “scream rooms” are just closets,’ Jeff Daniels, a local union member, said. ‘These are book closets turned into rooms for the children.
‘The building custodians had to go in and clean blood off the walls and clean urination off the floors.’
More @ http://widk.com/2012/01/11/school-locks-special-needs-kids-in-scream-rooms-to-calm-them-down-had-to-clean-blood-off-walls/

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Bacteria in the gut of autistic children different from non-autistic children

Bacteria belonging to the group Sutterella represented a relatively large proportion of the microorganisms found in 12 of 23 tissue samples from the guts of autistic children, but these organisms were not detected in any samples from non-autistic children. Why this organism is present only in autistic kids with gastrointestinal problems and not in unaffected kids is unclear. More @ http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120109211825.htm

Speech Therapist Kathy Roupe files felony battery charges against STUDENT WITH AUTISM

This is a tad ridiculous. The kid obviously didn't have control. I wonder if there was a behavior plan in place, etc.

Autistic student faces felony battery charges | Pensacola News Journal | pnj.com

A speech therapist at Ferry Pass Middle School is pressing charges against a 13-year-old autistic student who hit her in the head with a set of headphones.

Kathy Roupe, 57, of Pensacola filed felony battery charges against Conner Brown, whom she told deputies hit her in the head “with so much force, it felt like my skull cracked.”

Conner was booked and fingerprinted Jan. 2 at the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office on a charge of battery on a public or private education employee, a third-degree felony. His arraignment is scheduled for today at the Escambia Regional Juvenile Justice Center.

A message left for Roupe was not returned.

More @ http://www.pnj.com/article/20120110/NEWS01/120110028/Autistic-student-faces-felony-battery-charges

Forever Changed by Autism

The Forever Changed by Autism blog has been added to The Autism Retort!

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Where do Autistic Adults Go After Special Education Ends? - YouTube

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

WHAT IS AUTISM? Some Experts Worried Over Revised Autism Guidelines

Some Experts Worried Over Revised Autism Guidelines | Fox News

The New Year hasn’t even started yet, but some parents are already looking ahead to 2013.

In May 2013, the American Psychiatric Association will release a new, revised set of guidelines for diagnosing someone with autism spectrum disorder.
And some experts don’t think this is a good idea.
Dr. Keith Ablow, a psychiatrist and Fox News contributor, said rather than having separate disorders in the autistic “arena,” the association is proposing one name for all such disorders, which include repetitive behavior (autism spectrum disorder, pervasive development disorder-not otherwise specified and Asperger’s).
“They are monkeying with the definition of how severe symptoms must be to fit into a new and broad category called autism spectrum disorder, rather than autism and Asperger’s, et cetera,” Ablow said.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/health/2011/12/28/some-experts-worried-over-revised-autism-guidelines/#ixzz1iRGx0xmQ

Monday, January 2, 2012

Preparing for Your Special Needs Child’s Future By Planning for Your Departure - Talk About Curing Autism (TACA)

This article is about death. This is not a pleasant topic for anyone. This is not something that should not be avoided and carefully planned for anyone with children – especially children with special needs.
In the past year, five local autism families have had a parent die suddenly. Any death can rock a family but an unexpected death can shatter the world of a child with autism, as even a simple change can be difficult.
In our community, we joke that parents of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) kids are never allowed to die. We must live as long, or longer, than our children with autism to safeguard them. But we have to be realistic, that wish is just not going to happen.
Consider this – if you were hit by a bus tomorrow, what would people need to know about your child to care for him? What scares him? What comforts him? Whoever is going to take care of your child in your absence is going to need some information so they don’t have to guess and get it wrong.

The Autism Retort