Feed: autisable's Autisable - AggScore: 50.1

iPad App for Speech Delays: Panda Pal

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Technology has progressed at light years compared to when I was helping my son with speech and language delays associated with Aspberger's Syndrome (an ASD). In recent years iPad Applications (apps) for children with speech delays have become necessary tools in classrooms and for those treating autism spectrum children. Now, you don't even have to be a professional to help children with speech delays or language learning difficulties. More Here...

Pica and Autism: One Family's Solution!

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Pica ~ An eating disorder characterized by the consumption of non-food items for more than a month.

PICA AND AUTISM, our history...

I used to ask myself, "How can she eat TOILET PAPER, CARDBOARD, FOIL, PAINT CHIPS (and more) and not eat the meals I carefully and lovingly prepare for her????

No one had an answer to this question..... some offered judgmental expressions; as if my mothering her wasn't up to snuff. And yet the contempt in others' voices was present, as they questioned how she got the object or substance in her mouth in the first place.  More Here...

Needs For Services Goes Beyond Economics

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Guest post by health services researcher David Mandell, Sc.D., of the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Mental Health Policy and Services Research and the Center for Autism Research at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

[Editor’s note: This past weekend, Dr. Mandell and his colleagues presented the early results of “Estimating the Economic Costs of Autism,” a study funded by Autism Speaks with guidance and technical assistance from the World Health Organization. You can read our related news story here.]

We knew we’d grab attention with our updated estimate of autism’s economic costs: $126 billion annually in the United States. Our comprehensive analysis, supported by an Autism Speaks research grant, included indirect costs such as lost income and care giving, as well as direct costs in healthcare, education and adult services.More Here...

A Taste of Normal

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“Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal.”
Albert Camus
More Here...

Tackling Allergies

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It's Spring, and we've had a dry Winter, followed by fits of light rain. It's made for a horrible allergy season. On top of that there are several vineyards and a horse stable in back of us. The grasses, blooms, spraying, plowing, and wind have all combined to wreak havoc on our sinuses, throats, and noses.   More Here...

A Little Boy and His iPad

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Hi Geraldine & Jen,

We just wanted to say thank you, to you and everyone involved in the mobile phone recycling offer which allowed us to get an ipad for our son.

The ipad is such a great tool for him as he is learning whilst enjoying himself without realising. He will use the phonics apps without prompting which provide reinforcements in terms clapping and cheering noises when he gets things correct which he loves.  More Here...

Feeling Like a Fraud

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He gets so much help at school, he cannot regulate himself, he scripts, he stims, he has PICA, he spoke almost entirely in movie quotes until he was well over 4, he makes fleeting eye contact, his social pragmatics are so poor he couldn't even get a a score and yet I wonder. Yet somewhere inside I wonder if it's in my head, if he really is fine and it's me who is the mess.  More Here...

GAPS Diet, It has helped the boys

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I found out about GAPS via a mom at the OT office . Two years a go, there wasn't much about this, but since then, it seems to have blossomed. I just wanted to share two great sites that has helped my kids. I wasn't that stick. We already ate bone broths, and I already cooked everything homemade. I did have to switch to making GF breads vs other breads that I made. I did have to switch noodles.  Also, I took a year to make the switch. My kids were so finicky about foods, that I couldn't change it all at once. I had to give them a chance to adapt. So while this is a great diet for kids and adults who deal with autism, it also isn't smart to make radical changes quickly.  While change is necessary, you must give them time to change and it will not happen over night.  More Here...

Welcome to Walmart

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When your child gets diagnosed with a disability, they give you some antidepressants and a copy of Emily Perl Kingsley's "Welcome to Holland." She's a mother of a child with Down syndrome who, by all accounts, is the shiznit. I'd go into detail, but then you'd compare me to her, and I'd hate for someone as well known for being awesome to be taken down a notch or two because of my own awesomeness. You understand.

Anyways. This little metaphor is PERFECT for when your child gets diagnosed with Down syndrome. PERFECT. It's short, so I'm going to paste it here:

More Here...

Speaking His Language

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I've had my preconceived notions when my son initially didn't respond as was expected.   

Sure he was developing ok physically, but mentally and emotionally it was like something was missing.

He tries to talk to me, but starts crying, as if his voice was taken away.

 

I can see it in his hitting of the walls and furniture, and sometimes even my wife and I.

He wants so desperately to share something with us, but struggles at times to get even a word or two out.

 

It's like he's a foreigner visiting a country where their is no english translation.

 More Here...