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My son Charlie does not simply like music. It’s simply an essential, and natural, mode that he expresses himself with and just something that he enjoys. He did music therapy when he was 2 1/2 years old and enjoyed hearing someone sing and play the piano to him and try to get him to play […]
Hope you got the perfect gift for Mother’s Day—-Margaret Lenahan has. Her 16-year-old son, James, was diagnosed with autism around the time that he turned two; today, he is a junior in the Ryken program for special needs students at Xaverian High School in Brooklyn, and a member of the varsity B basketball team for […]
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 […]
Mid-70s weather last week and Charlie’s still wearing his blue fleece jacket with the hood pulled far over his head, or his fleece vest with the zipper all the way zipped, or his fleece gloves (which, having survived several turns in the washing machine, are decidedly un-fleecy). He’s not been wanting to shed his winter […]
It’s been noted that some autistic children can sing before they can talk. My son Charlie was taught to say sounds and then words starting from when he was three and, while he’s always hummed and responded to music, it was a few more years before he started to sing short melodies and bits of […]
Researchers in the Department of Occupational Therapy and Occupational Science at the University of Missouri are using neurofeedback to “retrain” autistic children’s brains. Children play video games while sensors are attached to their scalps; they are “rewarded” with movements on the screens and special sounds for concentrating and focusing. From the April 23rd Science Daily:
If […]
Laurie Duddy’s 8 year old twins, Tommy and Alex, both have severe autism. She—and a number of other parents of autistic children—are now studying for a master’s degree in Applied Behavior Analysis at Caldwell College in northern New Jersey. Today’s New York Times profiles the program and some of the parents who are studying […]
Behold the Disklavier Mark IV, the first piano (a Yamaha) in the whole wide world with an internet (a WiFi) connection—yours for $42,000.
Think we’ll stick to the slightly out of tune upright that once graced a practice room on the 4th floor of Saint Louis University’s Verhaegen Hall. Charlie’s working on “Frère Jacques” now and […]
My college students are performing Cabaret and tonight Charlie and I went to see it. For the past month, Charlie has been doing something he has never done before, putting his hands over his ears when the radio is on in the car and when he hears human voices that are too loud or […]
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 […]
Autism mother gets on her soapbox.
Written by Kristina Chew, PhD [email] for b5media.
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