b5media.com

Advertise with us

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

Autism Vox

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 17th, 2008

JRC Records Seized by State Police

This past Thursday in Virginia, a 24 year old autistic man was tazered by James City County police after he was to “become unruly with employees at Wilsons Leather at the Prime Outlets-Williamsburg shopping mall,” according to the Daily Press. It was only after the man was placed under arrest and charged with […]

By Kristina Chew, PhD -- 3 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 22nd, 2008

Fears, More Fears and Too Many Mistakes

Children who wander away and are not able to find their way home, and who cannot tell someone who they or their parents are. This is a fear of parents of autistic children: Last Wednesday, 13-year-old Celeste Robinson, who is autistic, was missing for some 13 hours from her home in East Texas, the Typer […]

By Kristina Chew, PhD -- 8 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 14th, 2008

Adversaries (Unfortunately): School Districts and Parents

“I don’t understand why it has to be so adversarial…..”Why can’t they listen to these parents and get a clue that maybe they have some merit?”
So Melissa Van Hook, who has two boys on the autism spectrum, says about the Gilbert School District in today’s Arizona Republic. Van Hook and a former special education teacher, […]

By Kristina Chew, PhD -- 9 comments

March 7th, 2008

Look Both Ways First

Yes—what with the poll over at Larry King Live asking if you believe that vaccines cause or contribute to autism; and the CNN report tonight; and the fact that all I had to do while standing in line at the store with two bottles of melatonin, sushi and watermelon for Charlie, and my eco-friendly “carry […]

By Kristina Chew, PhD -- 9 comments

March 3rd, 2008

Embracing Autism: New Book

Embracing Autism: Connecting and Communicating with Children in the Autism Spectrum is a new book edited by Robert Parish, whose autistic son Jack is now a teenager. Parish has also made a number of DVDs about autism including Come Back Jack and ASD 101; he is one of many parents of autistic children whom I […]

By Kristina Chew, PhD -- 9 comments

February 29th, 2008

Making a Little Big Difference

I was talking to two of my students yesterday about classes for next year, their majors, scholarships and fellowships. Both had looked at websites for scholarships, and read the biographies of the winners, of college students who, while maintaining the highest GPAs, playing varsity sports, and conducting research in molecular biology, create medical […]

By Kristina Chew, PhD -- 10 comments

February 14th, 2008

Heartfelt Help: Donors Choose

I’ve gotten my valentines (and gave a better-than-chocolate-one to my students in the form of “no weekly quiz”). Phoebe passed on a link to Donors Choose—–if you search under the word autism, you’ll come to this page, on which a number of teachers and therapists have posted requests for toys, puzzles, pictures for flashcards and […]

By Kristina Chew, PhD -- 7 comments

Site Meter
Close
E-mail It