Top Posts From the Past 2 Weeks

Much happened over the past two weeks but I want most of all to think about Evan Kamida, who passed away on July 24, just a few days shy of his eighth birthday. Please keep his mother Vicki Forman and Evan’s family in your thoughts and prayers—-and to honor his memory, here’s a small and lovely thing to do: Please take a photo of flowers at a swingset and post it to this Flickr pool. Shannon Des Roches Rosa and Jennifer Graf Gronenberg have posted more information.

Thinking of Evan.

• Not a Team Player in the Office?—-Not Necessarily
  The difficulties that autistic individuals face in the workplace.
• Use of Restraints Increasing in Public Schools?
  Kids coming home with bruises on their wrists, arms, legs: That’s not supposed to happen in public school, and not at the hands of teachers—well, it does.
• Mouth or Eyes: How do you look at someone’s face?
  Researchers studied 42 parents of autistic children and found that some of the parents evaluated facial expressions in ways similar to autistic individuals.
• The Latest Players in the Vaccine Drama
  Hollywood meets science……
• The Perils of French Fries
  On a ubiquitous staple of American kids’ cuisine.
• 4-year-old shown the door at Georgia restaurant
  A Georgia mother and her daughters are kicked out of a Jackson restaurant because one daughter, 4-year-old Alyssa, who is autistic, was crying.
• Savage Language, To What End I Do Not Know
  Talk show host Michael Savage mouths off on autism and starts a media maelstrom.
• “He’s Just a Late Talker—He’ll Grow Out of It”
  Late talking child or child on the autism spectrum?
• About a “grossly misinformed actress” and a certain doctor
  Jenny McCarthy, a certain doctor, and……
• Back in Jersey Where There’s “Looming Dread of Autism”
  Has autism become this generation’s polio?
• Remembering BART, BlogHer, and Some Books
  Reflections on BlogHer and being in the Bay Area.
• A Little Autism Education for Michael Savage
  What Michael Savage needs to know.
• The R Word and Not So Nice Language
  Is it time to retire the word “retarded”?
• Here’s the Autistic Adults
  The Vancouver Sun doesn’t quite know what to say about autistic adults.
• 9 Years Ago Charlie Was Diagnosed
  9 years ago, we received Charlie’s formal diagnosis of autism.
• Rates of Autism in Somali Children in Minneapolis
  Why are first generation U.S.-born Somali-speaking children in Minneapolis schools disproportionately identified as having autism?
• Network Defends Dr. Savage
  Talk Radio Network has announced that it will not be firing Michael Savage in the wake of his incendiary comments about autism.
• False Controversy: Autism and Vaccines
  On science, medicine, doctors, scientists, and the mommy gambit.