Eureka! A possible stocking stuffer that combines sensory input with one of Charlie’s preferred foods—edamame—and can be attached to the D-ring on his bookbag and readily squeezed when the noise on the schoolbus gets, well, noisy:
Asovision Edamame
If that seems a little weird (and the price is kinda steep—equivalent to buying a couple of bags of frozen edamame), there’s always virtual bubble wrap.

This is the last week of classes at the college where I teach; after finals, spring semester does not start till mid-January. It’ll be good not to have to rush around so much and to work more around home, and, certainly, not to have to hurry home on the highway to meet Charlie’s schoolbus.
It does occur to me that, if I didn’t work, I could spare us a certain amount of anxiety: What to do when Charlie is sick? What to do if there’s an early morning meeting to attend or one in the later afternoon? What I do at …read more

The Prenatally and Postnatally Diagnosed Conditions Awareness Act, also known as the Kennedy-Brownback bill, authorizes the use of federal funds to train doctors to inform parents about Down syndrome or other prenatally and postnatally diagnosed conditions with up-to-date information on child development and life expectancy. If funded at the recommended $25 million over five years, the bill would provide for referral networks, to connect parents who’ve recently received a diagnosis with parents of older children, as reported in today’s Eagle Tribune (North Andover). Dr. Brian Skotko of Children’s Hospital Boston—who has a nephew with Down syndrome—published a study of the …read more

MMR and autism have become indelibly linked in the public consciousness.
What about MMR and asthma?
A study in the December 1st American Journal of Epidemiology asks if there is an association between receiving the MMR vaccine and asthma in early childhood. 871,234 children were examined; researchers Anders Hviid and Mads Melbye looked at rates of hospitalization in those with asthma diagnoses and (for a subset of the cohort) the use of anti-asthma medications. Significantly larger numbers of children who had received the MMR vaccine were less often hospitalized with an asthma diagnosis and also used anti-asthma medication less than unvaccinated children. …read more

8-year-old Mari Klages—-whose was asked not to return to a Girl Scout Brownie troop for girls with special needs in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, after attending one meeting—-is now again a Brownie again, thanks to her former troop leader, Dina Johnston, and the Girl Scouts organization. Writes Laurel Walker in today’s Journal Sentinel:
Anita Rodriguez, vice president for organizational strategy at the southeast Girl Scouts chapter, said, “The bottom line for us is we do not discriminate and the Girl Scouts did not kick her out” but worked to find a solution.
Unfortunately, she said, the special needs troop that was tailored to …read more

An audit of the South Carolina Department of Disabilities and Special Needs has reported numerous oversights including failures to follow up on up on safety violations and insufficient efforts to keep abusers off facility payrolls, yesterday’s Associated Press (via the Courier Post) reports.
The audit recommends Disabilities and Special Needs require fingerprinting and FBI national background checks for caregivers, not just a check through the South Carolina State Law Enforcement Division. The agency said it would consider the feasibility of fingerprint checks.
Meanwhile, the agency isn’t doing enough to check references. It “does not have an adequate system to ensure that direct …read more