May 16th, 2008
Bathe your pet in flea shampoo while you’re pregnant and you are twice as likely to have an autistic child, according to new research to be presented today at the International Meeting For Autism Research in London (scroll down on this link, past the report on how baby bottle chemicals can sentence a child to […]
By Kristina Chew, PhD -- 2 comments
April 29th, 2008
Nuala Gardner’s son Dale was born in 1988 and diagnosed with autism. In an essay in yesterday’s Guardian entitled The day I could no longer cope with my autistic son, she writes about how she contemplated suicide when her son was three years old but did not:
At the time I felt incredibly guilty about how […]
By Kristina Chew, PhD -- 4 comments
April 14th, 2008
There’s been more and more stories about therapy dogs for autistic children (indeed. here’s an organization called Autism Service Dogs of America. But what about a seal?—–a therapeutic robot seal named Paro, that is?
Paro is $5000: Personally, I think I’ll stick to providing Charlie with fleece blankets and jackets, and hats and gloves for their […]
By Kristina Chew, PhD -- 6 comments
March 23rd, 2008
It might be better to ask what wasn’t discussed about autism in the past two weeks—-below are posts about genetics, the special diet, Hannah Poling, vaccines, music, education, Ashley X, diagnosis, special education, mitochondrial disease. And a racehorse. And a very very personal matter.
Thanks for reading and please keep letting me know what you […]
By Kristina Chew, PhD -- 0 comments
March 19th, 2008
A Difficult Youth Is A Good Thing for a Fisher——um, a fish, according to a study about the Bluehead Wrasse reported about in Science Daily back in February:
[Scientists] discovered that fish larvae that survive a long, rough, offshore journey eventually arrive at a near shore reef in good condition, and that they thrive afterwards.In contrast, […]
By Kristina Chew, PhD -- 2 comments
March 17th, 2008
Neurobiologists from Duke University have found that, in birds who are able to learn songs—parrots, songbirds and hummingbirds—the brain structures involved in singing are connected to those that control movement. Further the brain areas that control movement “share many functional similarities with the brain areas for singing. This suggests that the brain pathways used for […]
By Kristina Chew, PhD -- 11 comments
March 13th, 2008
The $1000 yearling named Autism Awareness who won the El Camino Derby at 62-1 odds is out with a knee injury, according to the Thoroughbred Times. They do say that horses—even wit a name like Autism Awareness—-can go bad overnight like strawberries….
Tags: asd, asperger, athletes, autism, horse racing, Parenting, pdd-nos, race, Sports, trackShare This
By Kristina Chew, PhD -- 0 comments
March 9th, 2008
Yes, and a horse who beat the odds Saturday at the El Camino Real Derby at Bay Meadows in northern California, as reported in Bloodhorse. With jockey Luis Contreras, Autism Awareness won by 1 1/2 lenghths while covering the 1 1/16 miles in 1:43.17. The horse won $90,000 for his El Camino victory and paid […]
By Kristina Chew, PhD -- 12 comments
March 2nd, 2008
A few weeks ago I posted about Trapper Leeth, whose parents have gotten approval to get him a therapy dog and now need to raise the funds. In Minnesota, 9-year-old Reece Trahan’s therapy dog, Pudge, just started to go to school with him, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports: He’s a school “aide” of a different, and […]
By Kristina Chew, PhD -- 2 comments
February 25th, 2008
Michael Fitzgerald, a professor of psychiatry at Trinity College in Dublin, recently argued that the genes for creativity and for autism and autism spectrum disorders are “‘essentially the same,’” the February 21st Telegraph notes. Historical figures ranging from scientists Isaac Newton to Albert Einstein, from composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to writer George Orwell, from US […]
By Kristina Chew, PhD -- 23 comments
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