Change.org has been running a competition to vote on the top Ideas for Change in America. The competition ends on December 31st—-yes, that’s Wednesday—and here are three ideas that I think can clearly make a difference in the lives of autistic individuals:
Fully Fund Medicaid Waivers for the Developmentally Disabled
Replace No Child Left Behind With a Strong Education Policy
Independence and Services for Disabilities and Autism
The top 10 ideas will be announced in January.
(For discussion about the idea about the “Autism Reform Act,” see this post on autism legislation.)

And here’s autism on a list of CNN’s top 10 health issues of 2008, with more than a nod to the vaccine issue …… and from Mark Miller’s special needs blog, his list of the “top 10 moments” in disability policy and politics.
Your top 10 of 2008?

The Florida legislature has declared the first half of October as Disability History and Awareness Weeks, today’s West Volusia Beacon notes. Indeed, the legislature is said to be “trying to change the negative image, perception and treatment of people with disabilities.” The article highlights programs for disabled students throughout the county, such as Deltona High School’s Multi-VE program.
VE stands for varying exceptionalities. Multi-VE students’ disabilities and challenges include hearing or language impairments, mental handicaps, emotional and behavioral disorders, multiple physical handicaps and disorders all across the autism spectrum.
Located in Building Z on the 92-acre campus, Deltona High School’s …read more

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