Hello everyone! How are you all doing? The community seems to have slowed down a lot lately. I know I've been absent for a while too.
And for anyone who's new or has forgotten, I'm mod Jasmine.
Have any of you heard all the news about autism lately? I've seen it EVERYWHERE. An episode of house, Jenny McCarthy has a new book out now, Louder than Words, about "healing" autism, I saw an episode on 20/20, I think, about it. And it's all in the news now. 1/150 kids will diagnosed. The numbers are staggering. Boys of course, such as my brother, more likely to be diagnosed. And there's so little funding for autism research.
Have any of you heard about the new diet and reasons behind it? The casein free, glutein free diet. It's supposed to help a great deal, but not for all. Anyways, the research they're coming out with lately is just really interesting.
Hey, ya'll. I'm currently working with a student with autism and, after watching her on the safety bar of our classroom trampoline, have gotten the idea in my head that she could really benefit from an adaptive ballet class. See, we joke about her having rubberbands for bones for two reasons: one is her extreme flexibility and the other is her inability or unwillingness to stand straight (she loves to lean or twist herself or do almost anything but). Assuming it's an inability, the teacher in the classroom supposes she just might not have that centerline concept down. Assuming it's an unwillingness, she might not realize the benefits or the fun of standing up straight.
Of course, it's up to her whether or not she wants to change all that (oh, she's 7 by the way), but either way, I thought that adaptive ballet would be a good thing to try, see if she's interested.
Unfortunately, everything google is showing me is on the East Coast (Maine, Pennsylvania, New York, Boston) and we live out here on the Left Coast. San Jose, California, to be exact. Does anyone know of any resources out here that I might be able to take advantage of?
for mother's day sunday, my mother, sister, and i went and saw my brother, dakota. we took him out to a park near his group home and had a picnic.
for those of you who don't know, my brother has been at his school/group home for about 4 + years. he's almost sixteen, and his main diagnosis is autism and MR.
anyways, we went out on a picnic at this park, and there are slides and a jungle gym, and swings and all that good stuff. well, dakota has NEVER been one to play with toys or interact with his environment, ie., play on playgrounds.
well we get through eating and he walks straight off the pavilion and towards the swings! we put him in our lap, and he even swang a little by himself. then we put him on a horse that he could bounce on. he looooves bouncing. but usually it's just on a bed or trampoline.
the part that i thought was the best was when he HIMSELF tried to climb up a short ladder onto a jungle gym to SLIDE down a SLIDE! by himself... it was just so awesome.
Dakota has just NEVER in his life played.
it was a really good moment for me.
they've been working with him a lot there at his school, and don't allow him to stim...and all that extra time and lack of constant distraction, i think, has enabled him to tap into our world instead of being in his own all the time.
he's just be so good lately. he's doing so good.
well, that's all for me. hope all of you are doing well!
(x-posted)
In the beginning, autistics had no voice
Then behavioural science put a label on them
The autistics still had no voice
Then their mothers were blamed
The autistics still had no voice
Then science freed the mothers from blame
The autistics still had no voice
Then the more privileged wrote books
The autistics still had no voice
Then the media took interest in the books
The autistics still had no voice
Then cinema made a few movies praising society for not using the gas chambers.
The autistics still had no voice
Then the organisations began to grow
The autistics still had no voice
The organisations were only interested in published observers, parents and snake oil
The autistics still had no voice
Then behavoural science found a niche
The autistics still had no voice
Then the theraputic community found profiteering through excessive diagnosis
The autistics still had no voice
Then any geek, oddball or eceentric but normal person could feel justified for being different
The autistics still had no voice
Then the internet came along
The austistics still had no voice
The justified geeks turned them away as curebies
The autistics still had no voice
Their self-affirmation cause was plagiarised by the geeks
In the end, the autistics still had no voice.
B - 12-24-05
Hi everyone! My name is Chris and I am an instructional aide at PACE (Pacific Autism Center for Education; www.pacificautism.org). I would very much like to atart working with my student towards him writing poetry. I have seen autism netverse and some of the work there is AMAZING! However, being new to the field, I am unsure how exactly to go about it. I have talked somewhat with my teacher, but wanted other points of view and resources as well. If anyone has any or can point me to some, I will love you forever and name my firstborn after you :-)
More specifically, while I despise cinquains and diamantes and things of that nature as being boring, anti-creative, and actually turning people off of poetry at a young age, I just now thought that an emulation of a poem (basically making a Mad Lib out of it) might be effective to start him down the path. What do ya'll think?
do you guys know of any books that cover the topic of autism specifically? it doesn't matter if they are fictional or factual.
