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

Now we’ve got the New York Times weighing in on radio host Michael Savage’s savage language about “bratty” autistic kids. As About.com notes, Savage is “successfully sucking time, money and energy” from the autism community (and sucking in ratings, I would think). All I can say again is, ’nuff said!
And, we have found the actual parasite.

It seems no wonder that right wing talker Michael Savage’s last name is, well, “Savage” after reading what he said about autism on his radio show. I’ll list the words he uses to refer to autism:
moron, putz, idiot, fool, dummy, a girl, losers, beaten men
More of Savage’s savagery is quoted on Left Brain/Right Brain.
If Savage’s intent was to shock, using such words about autistic children is a no-brainer way to do it and perhaps ratings will spike as rightfully indignant autistic self-advocates and parents of autistic children respond. What troubles me in particular is Savage’s contention that autistic children …read more

I first heard about training dogs specially for autistic children years ago through a friend of a friend; since then, there have been frequent reports about “four-footed therapists.” An organization called 4 Paws for Ability has placed more than 200 service dogs with autistic children, today’s Star-Ledger (NJ). The parents of 7-year-old Will Polak are trying to raise $11,000 for a service dog; so far they’ve raised $3500 through fundraising letters and a garage sale. Dogs need to receive some 500 hours of training from inmates at a local correctional facility first, then from professional trainers and then the family.
A …read more

While the rest of his classmates went on a field trip, an autistic student at Stephen Decatur School in Philadelphia sat in class with a bus aide, CBS3 news reports:
While his classmates went on the trip, Jimmy was supposed to enjoy a day of learning, but that was not the case.
Dawn said her son was left in a classroom with only his bus assistant who is not trained to teach autistic children.
“I cried, I cried first and I just had it,” Dawn said. “I thought you had a choice, you could just sit there and take it or you do …read more