This is a great article which sums up my feelings on autism and how it effects our family. Autism is my son’s disability, difference, and superpower. Sometimes all in the same moment! It confers great benefits and challenges. When I speak up to help raise the voices of autistic people who do not want a […]
Why You’re Probably Thinking of Autism Wrong
In this post, you’ll see why I didn’t become an artist. I feel this subject is too important and too difficult to explain only in text to avoid drawing it out, so please forgive my terrible drawings. Why You’re Probably Thinking of Autism Wrong When most people first learn about autism, they imagine it like this: […]
What can I do now at home to help prevent or treat developmental delays? -A Guide for Concerned Parents Part 3
This is part three of “I Think my Baby has Autism. -A Guide for Concerned Parents”. The first part, What are the early warning signs of autism? How can I tell the difference between a sign of autism and normal behavior? covers the early warning signs of autism for infants and toddlers and discusses what developmental delays […]
I noticed some red flags in my baby or toddler. Now what? -A Guide for Concerned Parents Part 2
This is part two of “I Think my Baby has Autism. -A Guide for Concerned Parents”. The first part, What are the early warning signs of autism? How can I tell the difference between a sign of autism and normal behavior? covers the early warning signs of autism for infants and toddlers and discusses what […]
The connections in autistic brains are idiosyncratic and individualized — Each autistics’ brain is distinct; non-autistics’ brains are remarkably uniform
You’ll often hear, those of us involved with autism say, “If you’ve met one child with autism, you’ve met one child with autism,” but never before have I seen a study that so accurately captures what we have observed. Autistic brains, in contrast, were all different. Each had regions of high and low connectivity, and […]
Autism 101: Hating Your Autistic Child
Before my son was diagnosed, my view of autism was overwhelmingly negative. I saw it as something that needed to be cured. Ray Hemachandra has written a beautiful piece on why it is not OK to say that we hate autism. Really thought provoking and worth considering, he explores how a person can accept autism, […]
It’s natural to fear a connection between vaccines and autism
When my twins were about 6 months old, we went for their 6th month checkups, and then to the immunization clinic in the same building for their shots. Shortly after that, my son, Corwin*, broke out in a high fever that reached 104.8 at its peak and a prickly red rash that spread over his […]
How to find a good ABA therapist so that ABA can be safe and helpful for your autistic child.
When my son was diagnosed with autism at 17 months by a developmental pediatrician, she suggested I enroll him in ABA therapy immediately. She gave me a sheet with a long list of providers and very little information about each one. My son’s Early Intervention coordinator had warned me that I needed to carefully screen […]
Autism rates have not increased
Amanda Baxter (Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research in Australia) and her colleagues have put together a study entitled “The epidemiology and global burden of autism spectrum disorders”. You can read it here (warning PDF). In 2010 there were an estimated 52 million cases of ASDs, equating to a prevalence of 7.6 per 1000 or […]
Stop Using my Children to Scare Parents out of Vaccinating
This article sums up why I left my local crunchy parenting group. I was sick of seeing my son treated as broken. As an autism parent, it offends me my children’s condition is being used to scare people away from life-saving medicine. I don’t want that to happen. It angers me that there are people out […]
Discussion