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Autism Vox

July 13th, 2008

Bay Area School Districts and Autism

I’ve lived in New Jersey (and on the East Coast) for several years (and am still highly capable of getting completely lost on Jersey roads). I grew up in California, in the Bay Area, and I’m ever curious to know what is going on (and not only because we may end up out there one […]

By Kristina Chew, PhD -- 18 comments

June 20th, 2008

The Burden and the Goal

Said NBC’s chief medical editor, Dr. Nancy Snyderman, during a recent Today show segment on Missouri families seeking insurance coverage for autism treatments:
“The burden right now is on the parents and I think most Americans would say that’s not fair because the goal has to be intensive treatment early and get these kids into mainstream […]

By Kristina Chew, PhD -- 11 comments

May 22nd, 2008

US Dept of Ed Investigates Louisiana School Board

We’ve had our problems with school districts and at (low) one point took Charlie out of school and homeschooled him for a month back in the fall of 2005. But things were always pretty local. In Louisiana, the St. Landry School Board is being investigated by the US Department of Education. According to WDSU news:
According […]

By Kristina Chew, PhD -- 1 comment

May 20th, 2008

So Is It Really Autism?: The search for medical signs

According to Dr. Fernando Miranda of the Bright Mind Institute, maybe not. A report in the May 19th Good Morning America/ABC News describes some children who were initially diagnosed with autism, and later found to have Landau-Kleffner Syndrome. For some of the children, anti-seizure medication has produced dramatic results and Dr. Miranda is said […]

By Kristina Chew, PhD -- 26 comments

March 31st, 2008

Paul Offit on the case of Hannah Poling

Paul A. Offit, chief of the infectious diseases division of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, writes this about the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program and the case of Hannah Poling in an op-ed in today’s New York Times:
Now, petitioners need merely propose a biologically plausible mechanism by which a vaccine might cause harm — even […]

By Kristina Chew, PhD -- 10 comments

March 27th, 2008

It’s Time for the IEP (if we could just find a time)

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 27th, 2008

Legal Standards, Science, and the Cause of Autism

In determining what causes autism, you would think that scientific evidence would have the final say. Just in the past year, there has been more and more evidence refuting a link between thimerosal and rising autism rates, and more and more studies pointing to a complex web of genetic factors in autism. And yet, again […]

By Kristina Chew, PhD -- 24 comments

March 26th, 2008

Don’t Forget the Breakfast

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 21st, 2008

It’s Time for the IEP

Just emailed our school district about Charlie’s upcoming IEP meeting—for the past two years, the district has been sending us a letter with the time, without first asking us when we can meet. My husband Jim and I are both college professors and teach classes throughout the week—Monday April 7th at 11.30, when the district […]

By Kristina Chew, PhD -- 13 comments

March 18th, 2008

What’s In a Classification (vs. a Diagnosis)

The first thing to keep in mind is that “classification” is not the same thing as a diagnosis.
So writes Andrew Tirrell, a lawyer with the nonprofit organization Advocates for Children of New York, in City Room on the New York Times website (March 17). Tirrell took questions from parents and readers about the rights of […]

By Kristina Chew, PhD -- 15 comments

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