That’s how Christine Gralow describes her job as a teacher of special needs children yesterday in Becoming an Autism Educator on the NY Times’ Lesson Plans blog:
It sometimes astonishes me that I found my perfect career. I never meant to be a teacher. I meant to be a serious journalist. But when my grad school classmates went off to write for esteemed media outlets, I went off to teach special needs kids. It made no sense. It was the best decision I ever made.
Gralow works mostly in Manhattan, providing preschool and home-based services to autistic and other special needs children; …read more

After a big day at the beach yesterday, it’s been a very quiet Labor Day around here, Charlie humming and hanging (and getting in some cello practice after a few weeks’ hiatus). My dad took some videos of Charlie swimming and we all watched those, and Charlie and Jim went on a bike ride past four train stations. (And I’ve been more than glad that it’s Labor Day as, felled by a stomach thing, I would not have been able to do too much laboring today).
The announcement about Governor Sarah Palin’s daughter and reports about Hurricane Gustav kept us all …read more

Jim and I both noticed her. She was a few inches shorter than Charlie, shiny black hair in a page boy cut. She had a turquoise blouse and pants of a different shade of blue, and so beautiful, something about her big dark eyes and her perfect features. She moved quickly into the room, not so much running as rushing in with deep reserves of energy. She held her arms at a stiff angle with the elbows bent briefly, and then, a sound, a squawk. When I looked in her direction again, she was slapping her head.
We were in the …read more

Charlie once took the car key and put it in the lock of the front door lock. We park our car outside and, fortunately, we soon noticed the key in the lock and quickly retrieved it, realizing that our car could have been driven away by the next passerby. Charlie’s never (yet) tried to get behind the wheel and given his visual processing difficulties, that wouldn’t be a good thing to occur.
An autistic 16-year-old in Apex, North Carolina, drives his family’s SUV, damaging mailboxes and cars and accidentally striking his father, today’s WNCN-TV reports.  And in tomorrow’s New York Times, …read more

Am not exactly thinking of the newly released Metallica song (I’m more likely to be found listening to this artist) with the title “The Day That Never Comes.” As the mother of an autistic son, I’ve caught myself sighing a phrase like “the day that never comes” from time to time. Charlie is 11 now, adolescent and pre-teen. Watching him running his feet through the sand at the beach, I feel more and more aware that the “gap” between him and children his age grows with each year. Charlie’s not sneaking furtive looks at the opposite sex, not doing a …read more

This summer has seen its share of discussion of the challenges of traveling with special needs children (on airplanes, in particular); more recently, there’s been discussion of traveling with autism assistance dogs, too. The August 12th International Herald Tribune describes the difficulties of caring for a special needs child when you, the parent, have to travel for work.
Some special needs children cannot understand that a parent is away. “When you have a child who doesn’t speak, I can’t explain anything,” said Candi Nichols Carter, a television producer in Chicago, and the creator of the children’s entertainment company It’s Hip Hop, …read more

Today’s WFAA.com reports that 15-year-old Kati Jo Hazlett, who is 5′ tall, has dark blonde hair and blue eyes, was last seen at her McKinney home. Go here to see her photo. And hope she is found and home, soon.

Yes, third day at the beach was the charm and on the fourth day, we were back in beach business, so to speak. As the afternoon wore on—when the sunlight was not as intense—Charlie stood at the edge of the water and deliberately, unhesitatingly, walked in and started swimming. Almost every day this past summer, he and I have gone swimming at the YMCA pool and while Charlie doesn’t exactly do full laps (he’ll be swimming across the pool, flipping onto his back, and then suddenly disappear under the water—he’s sinking down to the bottom)—he’s been getting some solid …read more

Being at the beach, water safety is not just a concern; it’s an every moment necessity. Charlie did a lot more swimming today (more on that later) and I still remember the relief I felt when, at the age of 6, he learned how to swim. This meant that, while still always keeping an eye on him, going to the pool and the beach was a bit (a bit) less nerve-wracking. Back in April, Deanna Muniz’s autistic son, Christopher, got out of the house and drowned. In his memory, Muniz has founded an organization, Christopher Connections, that, among other goals …read more

An article in the July 31st American Journal of Human Genetics suggests that mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) mutations are “common in the general population.” According to the study, one in 200 people has a DNA mutation that could potentially cause a mitochondrial disease in them or in their offspring. Mitochondrial disease is (according to the United Mitochondrial Disease Foundation (UMDF) ) a “devastating and often fatal disease, and mitochondrial disorders are at the core of many well known diseases and chronic illnesses, such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and autism spectrum disorders.” Mitochondria are the body’s main energy source; are in …read more