May 8th, 2008
The decision to put an autistic child on medication is never easy for a parent to think about. When the medications in question are antipsychotics (like Risperdal) and antidepressants (like Zoloft), and when the child is disabled and has little or no language to explain how he feels while on the meds, a parent has […]
By Kristina Chew, PhD -- 11 comments
May 4th, 2008
It was a couple of months ago that my son Charlie started—for the first time in his life—to show sensitivity to sound by putting both hands over his ears. We’ve known autistic children and adults who’ve found the sound of merry-go-round music, clapping, sirens, and much more unbearable, but never (we thought) Charlie. And then […]
By Kristina Chew, PhD -- 18 comments
April 18th, 2008
Marla who blogs about life with her daughter Maizie wrote recently about Maizie’s uncertainties about change and preference for things to stay the same. This is a topic I have thought about a lot: My son Charlie, like many (most?) autistic children, is hesitant about change and doing things differently. He’d like me to always […]
By Kristina Chew, PhD -- 17 comments
March 27th, 2008
We’re still going back and forth with Charlie’s case manager about a time for his IEP and annual review—-the district seems to want to have students’ meeting by the end of April (although it is possible for any member of the Child Study Team (CST) to call an IEP when that member wishes to; […]
By Kristina Chew, PhD -- 8 comments
March 26th, 2008
Eat your breakfast and (if you’re an adolescent) you’re less likely to become overweight, according to a recent study in Pediatrics (March 2008) of adolescents from Minneapolis-St. Paul public schools (here’s a write-up in the New York Times, too.) Charlie definitely eats, and definitely needs, his breakfast—but he’s never ready to eat it before getting […]
By Kristina Chew, PhD -- 11 comments
March 20th, 2008
Read about it here in the March 15th Philadelphia Inquirer. The therapy has autistic children build with Legos and animate what they make by taking a sequence of digital photographs. Members of the “Lego Club” meet for one hour a week at the Center for Neurological and Neurodevelopmental Health in Voorhees, N.J. under the supervision […]
By Kristina Chew, PhD -- 10 comments
March 14th, 2008
A post here on adult sexuality in autistic individuals led to a very interesting exchange, including critique of the survey itself. The survey is being conducted by the North Shore Long Island Jewish Health System is and the University of New Brunswick and the researchers have sent me a response (see below, after […]
By Kristina Chew, PhD -- 8 comments
February 21st, 2008
To be “in the Nation’s Service and in the Service of All Nations” is the “informal motto,” of Princeton University, where I went to college. On Tuesday, Princeton announced that it hopes to create an “international ‘bridge year’ program,” in which “would allow newly admitted undergraduates [can] spend a year of public service abroad […]
By Kristina Chew, PhD -- 7 comments
February 11th, 2008
The North Shore Long Island Jewish Health System is doing a joint project with the University of New Brunswick on Adult Sexuality for individuals between 21 and 65 who fall into the Autism Spectrum. Individuals can participate in the study via a confidential online survey. Here is some more information:
The purpose of this study is […]
By Kristina Chew, PhD -- 19 comments
February 1st, 2008
A “group of German researchers” has announced that they have “perfected the method for inducing autism.”
??!!!?!?!???
They have also, it is parenthetically noted, figured out how to “cure” autism (this study on reversing symptoms of autism and Fragile X is cited). Cure being a fighting word in discussions about autism, I’ll note that this “autism-inducing drug” […]
By Kristina Chew, PhD -- 16 comments
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