Arne Duncan, the superintendent of the Chicago school system, has been chosen as the new Secretary of Education by President-Elect Barack Obama, as noted yesterday in EdWeek and on the New York Times’ The Caucus blog. From EdWeek:
As Chicago schools CEO, Duncan tapped a panel to craft curriculum-based assessments to guide teaching, bolstered spending on anti-violence prevention measures, and tested out a program allowing teachers to evaluate one another.
Duncan supports the basic framework of the No Child Left Behind Act. In testimony before a congressional committee in 2006, he called on lawmakers to “maintain the law’s high expectations and …read more

Yes, it’s today, Tuesday, Dec 16th  – 9AM, 12:30 PM and 8 PM (Pacific Standard Time). Autism Twitter Day is open to Twitter members, specifically those who are members of the autism community, whether you’re a parent, sibling or relative, and too those on the spectrum. Prizes will be given out, most geared to children and young adults with autism or Asperger syndrome; lots more information about the day is here.
The hashtag to be used for autism twitter day is #ASD. So, if you post a tweet today on the topic of autism / positive autism awareness, please use the …read more

While I’m contemplating where to locate twinkling bike lights and as it’s the holiday season, I thought I’d make a confession:
Charlie’s never sat on Santa Claus’s lap.
We have tried, when he was much younger and we found ourselves in a mall in New Jersey, the land of malls and mallrats. Or maybe we had gone to the mall that day for that sole purpose. Something about “mall air” and the deliberately smiling velvet-clad elves/Santa’s helpers, and the line of overly excited, bored, or wandering about children, led Jim to say, quite wisely: “Let’s get out of here.”
We never really brought …read more

There’s been studies about older parents, both fathers and mothers, being more “at risk” of having an autistic child, and especially if it’s their first-born child—-now, a study published in Oxford University’s Schizophrenia Journal is suggesting that being a younger dad means you’ll have healthier children. From today’s Science Daily:
“There is a growing body of data showing that an advanced age of parents puts their kids at risk for various illnesses,” says Dr. [Mark Weiser from Tel Aviv University’s Sackler School of Medicine]. “Some illnesses, such as schizophrenia, appear to be more common the older parents get. Doctors and psychologists …read more

‘Tis the holiday season and I have pretty much finished shopping for everyone on our list, from relatives to my sister to multiple cousins, office staff, the letter carrier, Charlie’s teacher and aides, Jim—-and I’m down to one last person.
Charlie.
What do you get for the boy who doesn’t seem to want anything?
Today’s Chicago Tribune captures this dilemma:
Parents struggle with whether to oblige the child who desires nothing more than church directories, word puzzles, spinning toys or even cleaning supplies—all real examples from youngsters’ wish lists.
Friends might see the child’s exotic interests as humorous or cute. But the youngster’s family recognizes …read more

16 months ago, Olivia Agbonlahor and her 7-year-old twins, Great and Melissa, were deported from Clonakilty, County Cork, in Ireland, to Nigeria. Great is autistic and, as reported in the Irish Indepedent, he is considered “wicked” and “possessed by voodoo” in Africa.
Great’s autism is simply not recognised due to the common stigma in Africa against autism. “I have to do my best, but it is not easy,” said Olivia.
“His behaviour is getting worse every day — that is the problem. He cannot play with other children. People ask ‘what is wrong with this boy’ all the time,” she said from …read more

My son Charlie is, as I’ve noted here, 11 1/2 years old. He’s been attending middle school since September and it hasn’t been easy, and we’ve started to get the feeling that it’s not going to get easier. Charlie is in a self-contained classroom, located in a large middle school in our school district. There are three other boys—all older than him by a year or two, and all shorter than him—a teacher, and four aides in the room. He starts the day with Adapted Physical Education (APE) around 8.30am) and has speech therapy briefly with a speech therapist most …read more

So says 15-year-old Roderick Robertson, who takes care of his younger brother, Tim, every day. Tim has autism and his older brother is his regular caretaker, today’s Courier-Mail reports:
Roderick, who also lives with his stepfather, two stepsisters and stepbrother, describes home life as “hectic” but says it with a smile.
There are times when he misses out on social outings with friends because he looks after Tim and school holidays aren’t always as fun and carefree as they are for many of his peers.
“I have a roster of when I need to be at home to look after Tim over the …read more

Sports “tap into an autistic person’s basic needs for social and physical interaction and participation in purpose-driven tasks,” according to Chantal Sicile-Kira, whose autistic son is an adult and who’s written three books on autism. Sicile-Kira is quoted in an article in today’s Orange County Register about the first school-district sponsored sports league for autistic children. The league was started by Kathy Murphy, a speech language pathologist at Harbor View Elementary in Newport Beach; soccer, T-ball, and track are offered. No one keeps score and, during a soccer game, “……everybody, no matter what team they were aligned with, cheered when …read more

The terrible two’s are really just another name for “regressive autism spectrum disorder”?????—-so suggests a professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Temple University. From yesterday’s UPI.com:
Gerry A. Stefanatos of Temple University in Philadelphia said regressive autistic spectrum disorder describes children who have been diagnosed with autism who demonstrate a history of a regression. The regression refers to a marked loss of previously acquired developmental skills such as language or social ability.
“Often children with regression aren’t being seen by professionals at the time of the loss of skills,” Stefanatos said in a statement. “The parents are aware of a problem, …read more