GamecockDoc

autism links

It's the last day of April so here are the last autism links. Today I'll give you some links to information on treatment. There are many options out there and not everything works for every child. This is definitely a situation where parents needs to get informed and make good decisions.

Treatment information from the Autism Society of America. Includes a discussion on different methods of behavioral therapy.

An overview of treatment options from WebMD.

I've worked as an Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) therapist and have seen kids make amazing progress with this therapy. Some information on the therapy designed by Dr. Lovaas.

Information on TEACCH, another method of behavioral therapy, from the University of North Carolina.

People with autism may have a dysfunctional sensory system that may be the underlying reason for such actions as rocking and hand flapping. Some people may benefit from sensory integration therapy that can include brushing, deep pressure, and music therapy. Experts disagree on whether or not these are helpful, but here's some info from the Autism Society of Canada.

And now a final excerpt from Tilt.

This is real time. Or is it? I think it's lapsed. If you download a photograph of a person onto a computer monitor from the internet, you see first some hair, and then nothing. Then an eyebrow. Then nothing. Then the top half of some eyeballs. Then nothing. Then more eyeball. Then nothing. And you're thinking, "What the hell is this person going to look like? I can't tell the first thing about them with just this eyebrow..."

And that's what this real time feels like: here's a little bit of autism-the hair. Can you tell what it looks like now? Here's another stripe, one piece of eyebrow. Can you predict the shape of the rest of the day? If you get an eye, can you predict the way her future will look, whether or not she will need to be in a group home when she is ten? If we give you a piece of cheek, can you tell if she will develop skills? An ear comes down, and now can you tell if she is severely retarded? If she will have caretakers in a group home? If they will abuse her? If her money will be stolen? If her sister will visit her when her parents are dead? If she will love a man or a woman or a pet? If at age thirty she will be standing in a hardware store with a personal care attendant, flapping her hands, rocking from side to side, foot to foot, letting out intermittent barks? Is that what elapses in front of me?

Or can someone or something punch through the screen and take the image by the throat, twist it, wring it out, give me my girl as tall as a sunflower, heliotropic, basking in love and care and strength and affection? Dear God?

posted by GamecockDoc @ 11:52 AM