We’ve been through a lot of challenges with Charlie over the past several years but the one thing we’ve never had to argue about is his diagnosis. While the St. Paul Public School District initially wrote down “communication disorder” as Charlie’s diagnosis on his first Individual Family Services Plan (IFSP; we were living in Minnesota at the time), it was soon evident that Charlie had autism, and that’s been his diagnosis ever since. I think it’s been Charlie’s limited language—-when he was two, the only thing he said was “dah”—that especially stood out (he also had some “challenging behaviors”—some bouts …read more

What gets “disclosed” and what does not was the issue at the center of the recently released document concerning Hannah Poling. I have “disclosure” and “transparency” of a slightly different sort on my mind right now. Charlie’s IEP meeting is today and, amid reading over documents and evaluations and forms, reading up on IDEA at Wrightslaw, writing up some things, reviewing the draft IEP, I’ve been thinking about how key good, honest, and trusting communication is not only in creating Charlie’s IEP, but for his education as a whole.
Charlie’s speech is very limited and—aside from what I observe in his …read more

It might be better to ask what wasn’t discussed about autism in the past two weeks—-below are posts about genetics, the special diet, Hannah Poling, vaccines, music, education, Ashley X, diagnosis, special education, mitochondrial disease. And a racehorse. And a very very personal matter.
Thanks for reading and please keep letting me know what you think!

A Horse Named Autism Awareness
Autism Awareness won $90,000 for his El Camino victory and paid off at $126, beating 62-1 odds. Hurt and no longer running for the roses, owner Johnny Taboada “insists his horse is meant to do something really special.”
Metaphors, Mitochondria, and …read more