b5media.com

Advertise with us

Enjoying this blog? Check out the rest of the Health & Wellness Channel Subscribe to this Feed

Autism Vox

Archive for the ‘Language’ Category

July 18th, 2008

Savage Language, To What End I Do Not Know

It seems no wonder that right wing talker Michael Savage’s last name is, well, “Savage” after reading what he said about autism on his radio show. I’ll list the words he uses to refer to autism:
moron, putz, idiot, fool, dummy, a girl, losers, beaten men
More of Savage’s savagery is quoted on Left Brain/Right Brain.
If […]

By Kristina Chew, PhD -- 41 comments

July 12th, 2008

Genes, Music, and Practice Makes Perfect

Today’s Scientific American reviews the new study about autism genes in 88 Middle Eastern families and emphasizes that the genes found are “linked to a heightened risk of autism” and, too, that these genes are crucial to a child’s ability to learn.” Noting that marrying second and third, and even first, cousins is not […]

By Kristina Chew, PhD -- 6 comments

July 6th, 2008

Last Week’s Top Posts

This is the final paragraph of an article in the July 6th Scotland on Sunday about 20-year-old Dale Gardner, who was severely autistic as a child, and his mother, Nuala Gardner.
His mother is bursting with pride. When she first found out about Dale, part of her grieving process was to wonder if it would have […]

By Kristina Chew, PhD -- 0 comments

July 4th, 2008

Watch Your Words When the Subject is Autism, and Vaccines

Last Sunday a group of experts on mitochondrial disorders met for a meeting in Indianapolis to discuss the case of Hannah Poling, whose underlying mitochondrial disorder was found to have been aggravated by vaccines, after which she developed symptoms of autism. A June 30th New York Times article announced the meeting and noted the case […]

By Kristina Chew, PhD -- 24 comments

June 30th, 2008

Associated Press Says “Mentally Retarded” Is Outdated Term

The latest update of the Associated Press Stylebook says, no more using “mentally retarded” (”mentally disabled” is preferred). Notes Gawker:
Journo-nerds rejoice: the AP Stylebook has been updated! It’s the Bible of all that is considered acceptable in middle American newsrooms, and, like middle America itself, is consistently several years behind the times.
Make that at least […]

By Kristina Chew, PhD -- 20 comments

June 30th, 2008

A Loose Tooth, Language and Vaccines

Late Sunday afternoon Charlie was hanging around the front door when I looked at him and saw that three of his left hand fingers were bloody, and then noticed a similar Hawaiian Punch-like stain on his left cheek and a little white wadded-up-paper-looking-thing in his right thumb and finger….
“You lost a tooth!” I said.
“Tooth!” said […]

By Kristina Chew, PhD -- 8 comments

June 16th, 2008

What Music Gives

13-year-old Thomas Gonzales plays trumpet, trombone, baritone and flugelhorn and has accepted an offer to be a professional member of Mariachi Nuevo Ensueño in Azusa, California, the June 15th Whittier Daily News:
Michelle Lazar, founder of Coast Music Therapy, a San Diego-based agency for children with special needs, said that while the topic has yet to […]

By Kristina Chew, PhD -- 14 comments

June 6th, 2008

Panic, Emotions, and No Words To Explain It All

Panic disorder and the inability to express emotions (alexithymia) may be related, according to a new study:
In patients with panic disorder (PD), the difficulty to identify and manage emotional experience might contribute to the enduring vulnerability to panic attacks. Such a difficulty might reflect a dysfunction of fronto-temporo-limbic circuits.
Moments of extreme panic—catastrophic thinking, anxiety—-in Charlie […]

By Kristina Chew, PhD -- 0 comments

June 4th, 2008

The Rallying of the Green

A couple of years while teaching this poem to an English Literature 101 class at a mid-sized university in New Jersey (it’s not where I teach now), I asked my class what “green” signifies. While we live in New Jersey, I grew up in California (think Berkeley not Los Angeles) and — having started to […]

By Kristina Chew, PhD -- 70 comments

May 28th, 2008

A Pill for the Placebo Effect

Jennifer Buettner, who has three young children, has created a new company called Efficacy Brands which makes placebos for children. The company will see cherry-flavored dextrose tablets (”Obecalp”—-guess what word that is, spelled backwards?); $5.95 for a bottle of 50. Buettner came up with the idea while taking care of a niece with a “raging […]

By Kristina Chew, PhD -- 21 comments