FEAT DAILY NEWSLETTER
Sacramento, California http://www.feat.org
“Healing Autism: No Finer a
Cause on the Planet”
December 26, 2001
News Morgue Search www.feat.org/search/news.asp
·
Despair of Loving an Asperger’s Husband
·
Parents of Autistic Children Need Clarity On Therapy
·
Learning to Cope With Students’ Disabilities
·
Stop The Bullying
[This writer quotes a 1 in 250 incident rate for Asperger
Syndrome.
For the rate to be this high, it would have include a
grouping of those not
clinically diagnosed, such as those with the
off-the-spectrum, non-disabling
latent autistic personalities (Parlor Aspergers). –LS. By
Helen Rumbelow in
the Times, UK.]
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,2-2001595499,00.html
Christmas is a notorious flashpoint for marital arguments,
when women
complain that their men do not understand their feelings
and men claim that
they do not know what all the fuss is about.
By Boxing Day [the day after Christmas] most rows are
forgotten. But
for the thousands of British women married to men with
autism this state of
tension is an extreme and lifelong problem leading to
loneliness and despair.
One in 250 people has Asperger syndrome, a type of autism
that affects
people of normal to very high intelligence. It affects
about ten times as
many men as women.
Although the stereotype of autism is of isolated loners,
many people
with Asperger’s get married without realising that they
have the condition.
They often have so little concept of emotions that they do
not realise that
their partner is sad, even if they are sobbing, and then
ignore it because
they have no idea how to offer comfort.
About half such marriages have no sexual contact because
the Asperger
partner finds physical affection unnatural and many can
cope with their fears about the world only by being verbally and sometimes
physically abusive.
The emotional intimacy of a relationship, for many the
reason that
they married, is barely there. Some women feel as if they
are going mad.
The National Autistic Society desperately needs
money to offer
diagnosis and support to couples affected by Asperger’s
and to transform the
lives of their children.
One of the biggest problems for those new to the condition
is to understand how it differs from “typical bloke” behaviour involving selfishness
or egotism, according to Maxine Aston, the only Relate counsellor specialising
in Asperger’s.
“The male chauvinist, or man behaving badly, has a choice:
he can sit
down and empathise with his wife, and he doesn’t have to
go to the football
match. If he has been inconsiderate he has the capacity to
recognise it and
show remorse,” she said. “A person with Asperger’s doesn’t
have a choice. It
’s not that they won’t empathise — they can’t.”
Ms Aston was once married to a man with Asperger’s, with
whom she had
three children. “The Asperger’s caused a complete
breakdown of communication
which prevented us from sorting out the problems we had,”
she said. “But my
husband was not diagnosed until the divorce. Awareness is
crucial.”
A first step in diagnosis is getting a Partner’s
Pack from the
National Autistic Society, she said. “It is the sense of
loneliness which is
the worst.”
Rachel Kruft Welton, 31, had been in a relationship with
her husband,
Nick, 41, for five years before they realised what was
wrong. “Right from
the first I knew he was a bit eccentric. He was the
stereotype of an
absent-minded professor, incredibly intelligent, but very
absent-minded and
lacking life skills,” she said.
When his awkwardness became difficult, a GP referred him
to a specialist who made the diagnosis.
“If we hadn’t had the diagnosis our marriage would have
broken up,”
she said.
“Before, if I was crying he would have sat on the other
side of the
room and just looked at me, and I’d think: ‘How can you
pretend to love me
and be so cruel?’ “Now I’ve taught him that if I’m
obviously upset he should
hug me, although if I’m looking just a bit down he may or
may not notice.
“He is a very loving man, but he found it hard to
show it. Now he
works incredibly hard at making me happy.” Copyright 2001
Times Newspapers
Ltd.
* * *
[This first appeared in the Oregonian. By Susan M.
Stewart. Thanks to
Kathy Harris.]
http://www.oregonlive.com/commentary/oregonian/index.ssf?/xml/story.ssf/html
_standard.xsl?/base/editorial/1009198507376727.xml
My 10-year-old son, Eric, has autism, a neurological
disorder that
impairs communication and socialization.
Because of Eric, I have been involved in the autism
community for the
past eight years. During that time, I have been encouraged
to try:
Vaccine-reduction, wheat-free diets, high-fat diets,
acidophilis,
milk-free diets, applied behavioral analysis, facilitated
communication,
large amounts of vitamins especially B6, flax-seed oil,
Omega-3 oils,
sugar-free diets, dye-free diets, immune-regulating drugs,
SSRIs, Ritalin,
secretin therapy, music therapy, rhythmic enhancement,
auditory training,
horseback riding therapy, sensory integration therapy,
chelation therapy and
swimming with the dolphins.
Only a couple of these therapies, most notably
applied behavioral
analysis and immune-regulating drugs, helped my son. None
of them provided a
cure.
The National Institute of Health is the federal research
organization
that should help confused parents like me make informed
decisions about treatments that have been proven to help children like ours.
Unfortunately, the NIH and its branch that includes autism
research,
the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication
Disorders, have
lately been focused on basic research projects that are
not directly related
to people with disorders. Much of the recent research has
focused on animal
models and genetics.
The mission statement of the NIDCH states that its grants
to outside
researchers should be balanced equally between basic
research and clinical
research. The American Speech-Language-Hearing
Association, an organization
of speech-language pathologists and audiologists, has
found that the institute no longer maintains this balance between basic and
clinical research.
I am worried that too much money is being spent on
genetics and animal
models studies. I am worried that other clinical research
projects, which
might have a more immediate and forceful impact on
individuals with disabilities, are being ignored.
We need to contact our congressional leaders so they can
encourage the
institute to return to its original mission statement and
balance its research dollars between basic research and clinical trials.
I need to know which treatments have been scientifically
proven to be
effective, and my son needs help now. He is already 10. He
cannot afford to
wait. Susan M. Stewart of Lebanon is a graduate student in
speech-language
pathology at the University of Oregon. She can be reached
via e-mail at sstewie@proaxis.com.
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* * *
Teacher’s new book aims to help other educators and
parents identify student
problems
[We have not yet seen this book, and it is not yet on
Amazon.com. By
Maria Cook in The Ottawa Citizen. Pembroke Publishers.]
http://www.canada.com/ottawa/news/story.asp?id={7626F68B-0E70-4469-A3FE-E333
The educational trend of placing children with
disabilities and
behaviour problems in regular classrooms creates
challenges for teachers,
and puts the children at risk of falling behind, says the
author of a new
book that aims to help teachers cope.
“Kids who may previously have been in special education
classes now
have to be taught by the regular teacher in the regular
classroom,” says
Cheryll Duquette, a professor at the University of Ottawa
faculty of education.
“It’s not unusual for 30 per cent of the class to have exceptionalities.”
Ms. Duquette’s book, Students at Risk: Solutions to
Classroom
Challenges, Pembroke Publishers Ltd., 128 pages, $18.95,
is a how-to guide
for teachers whose classrooms now include a wide range of
students—from
the highly gifted to those with developmental delay,
attention deficit
hyperactivity disorder, physical disabilities, impaired
hearing or sight and
disruptive behaviours.
“It’s not easy being a teacher these days,” says Ms.
Duquette, a
special education expert who has taught at Merivale and J.
S. Woodsworth
high schools and at Greenbank, Manordale and Kars primary
schools.
“They’ve had a new curriculum and insufficient training in
the new
curriculum. They’ve had more and needier children in their
classroom. There
are some teachers who could use some support.”
She was recently speaking with a Grade 1 teacher in
the
Ottawa-Carleton District School Board who has 29 students.
They include a
child with autism, a number of children on ritalin,
youngsters who are
exceptionally bright and need an enriched program, as well
as children who
are lagging behind and require extra attention.
“For the most part, kids with learning disabilities are
placed in the
regular classroom, regardless of the severity, and without
much assistance,”
she says.
Over the last 20 years, there has been a movement to
integrate most
children into regular classrooms.
This is driven by budget cuts, ministry policy, lobbying
by parents,
and a philosophy that all children have a right to have
their academic and
social needs met in a regular classroom, and that exposure
to diversity breeds tolerance among children.
Due to funding cuts, there are fewer special education
classes, educational assistants, opportunities for teacher training, and
special education consultants.
“Not every child’s needs can be met in a regular
classroom,” says Ms.Duquette. “I think each board has to ensure that there are
a range of placements for children.”
While some teachers have upgraded their skills, many
others have not
had training in working with special-needs children, she
says. Five years
ago, the University of Ottawa became the first education
faculty in the province to introduce a mandatory special education course for
student teachers.
At the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board, more than
9,000 children
out of 80,000 have been identified as having an exceptionality.
In her book, Ms. Duquette describes strategies for
working with
children whom teachers suspect are at risk of developing an
academic or
behavioural problem, as well as those who have been
identified by the school
system as having special needs.
Ms. Duquette suggests that a caring and alert
teacher can make a
difference by observing students, keeping notes on
strengths and weaknesses,
and developing an informal plan for addressing them.
“Instead of saying ‘Gosh, there’s something going on with
this kid,
but I don’t know exactly what it is,’ I have presented a
plan for teachers
to observe the child and start planning some strategies.”
She gives the following case study:
Andrew was a Grade 9 student who was considered a “behaviour
problem”
for arriving late for English class or skipping it
altogether. He handed
assignments in late and refused to complete some
assignments.
The teacher took notes of his strengths over two weeks,
(expresses
ideas well orally) and weaknesses (written assignments too
short and
handwriting very messy.) He told her he disliked writing
because he found it
hard to organize his thoughts.
The teacher decided to work privately with Andrew on
formulating his
points, allow some assignments to be done orally,
encourage him to type assignments, and to keep a log-book recording his late
arrivals and absences.
By the end of the semester, Andrew’s mark in English had
risen to 64
per cent from 52 per cent, and attendance was no longer a
problem. The
teacher suspected a mild learning disability, and referred
him for testing;
however that would not take place until April.
Andrew’s attempt to hide his weakness had been turning
into a behaviour problem.
Ms. Duquette argues in favour of really seeing the child
and figuring
out the underlying issues.
“Sometimes we are so ‘stuck’ in our ways that we
automatically blame
the student when we could act to improve the child’s
behaviours,” she writes.
Other methods that work include breaking work down
into smaller
components, and a multi-sensory approach: For example in
counting, the child
sees a number line, hears numbers counted orally, and
points to the numbers
as they are being said to establish a link.
Ms. Duquette says that parents can also use the book to
learn more
about problems their children may be having, and to make
sure that teaching
techniques that could help them are being used.
“Parents have to be vigilant and advocate for their
children,” she
says.
* * *
[Not reviewed. Written by: Ken Rigby, Pembroke
Publishers.]
http://www.pembrokepublishers.com/homeresult.html?1-55138-137-0
This practical and researched-based book helps teachers
appreciate the
actions they can take to stop bullying. Stop the Bulling
will help
teachers — find out what is really happening in their
school — develop sound
and well-supported anti-bullying policies — work
effectively with children
in classrooms to gain their support in dealing with
bullying — deal
appropriately and constructively with children who bully —
support and help
children who are victimized by peers at school Teachers
will find
reproducible activities that help students recognize and
effectively deal
with a variety of issues related to bullying. This timely
book will help
teachers work with colleagues and parents to make schools
safer places for
all. ISBN: 1-55138-137-0
$18.95
Lenny Schafer, Editor@feat.org •
CALENDAR EVENTS@feat.org Michelle Guppy
Catherine Johnson PhD
• Ron Sleith •
Kay Stammers • Edward Decelie
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