My blog is connected to Google Analytics, which lets me see all sorts of stats on who visits this blog. I like to look at “keywords” people use that lead to my blog. One term gave me a pause recently — On February 13, 2011 someone from Florida stumbled upon my blog after googling “explaining [...]
Explaining Autism in 5 Minutes
I’ve just recently finished a graduate level communications class for which we had to present two 5-minute presentations. My first talk was about differences between the U.S. culture and other cultures in “smiling rates” and the understanding of when smiling is appropriate. I’ve decided to make my second speech about autism. The big stumbling block [...]
The IEP Process – Special Education Advice for Parents (Part I – The Beginning)
Learning about special education is a daunting journey. I’ve been doing it for over four years now and I’m still learning. I can barely remember the very beginning and how confusing it all was. That’s why when I read a call from Karen Nowicki (an integrative coach) for tips for parents with children on IEPs, [...]
Connection between levels of fetal testosterone and autistic traits
I wanted to title this post “Would you want to know if your child might be autistic?” but after reading in the Guardian Prof. Simon Baron-Cohen’s response article titled “Our research was not about prenatal screening for autism,” I have decided to give my post a different, more neutral title, and closer to the title [...]
Engineers, Hips, and Autism
The headline “Men who don’t find curvy women attractive ‘could father children with autism‘” sounds just too weird to pass up. I found it through Google alert on a rather curious blog “What Sorts of People.” The entry does not comment on the title, just refers people to an article in the Daily Mail Reporter, [...]
Biomedical Treatments for Autism
Saturday, November 1, and Sunday, November 2, 2008 there will be a conference in Weston, Massachusetts titled “Successful Inclusion in School & Community†organized by Autism Conferences of America. It looks interesting and I would like to see “Learning Social Skills Through Play: Life’s Most Important Skill Made Fun!†by Rick Clemens, MA, and would [...]
Yes, it is PDD-NOS after all!
We finally got the neuropsych (neuropsychological testing) results and it is PDD-NOS after all! (See the entry “Autism 101: A basic definition” for more on PDD-NOS.) That may sound like I’m happy and someone might be thinking “Has she gone crazy?” but it’s good to finally have one doctor agree with another (see the first [...]
Autism 101: A basic definition
What is autism? The Autism Society of America, “the nation’s leading grassroots autism organization,†founded in 1965, says on their introductory web page that “Autism is a complex developmental disability that […] affects a person’s ability to communicate and interact with others. Autism is defined by a certain set of behaviors and is a ‘spectrum [...]
Personal Introduction
My son is twice exceptional — he is both academically gifted and special needs, or the other way around, depending on how you look at it. There are times when I’m amazed at his intellectual abilities. Even since he was little, he could always figure out very fast how toys are operated and what he [...]