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Archive for August, 2007

Oh, Crud Tomorrow is Friday! What Color Day is it?

Friday, August 31st, 2007

I almost forgot your freebie!

My mother was a kindergarten teacher and she always has great suggestions. For a long time we have thought that Little Pickel is color blind because he refuses to learn his colors. But, my mom has told us to have color theme weeks wherein we do everything with the same color.

So, next week, do everything RED! Obviously, you can’t travel in a red car if you don’t have one but point out all of the red cars, head to the library and check out books about red, wear red shirts, eat red apples, make red jello, etc.

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Disability Carnival

Thursday, August 30th, 2007

Wow…awesome job putting these incredible articles together. Read these snarky posts..they will keep you busy, and laughing, for hours.

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Did Your Treatment Work?

Thursday, August 30th, 2007

I wrote yesterday about how I believe that Little Pickel’s chelation treatment has done wonders for him. But, how can I tell if it really has worked?

The DAN (Defeat Autism Now) Autism Research Institute has an Autism Treatment Evaluation Checklist (ATEC) that they recommend completing each month for several months after treatment.

Little Pickel is still struggling with some of the issues on the checklist but has improved in the areas of temper tantrums, sensitivity to other’s feelings (actually gave an unsolicited “I’m so sorry” yesterday!), less violence and repetitive speech, much more physically able to eat a variety of foods, more affectionate and responsive (unsolicited “I love you’s”!).

Find out if your current treatment is working!

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Summer Reflections, I am SO Proud of You

Wednesday, August 29th, 2007

The start of this summer, as many of you remember, was very difficult for us, as we were beginning our chelation with Pfeiffer Treatment Clinic. Little Pickel had an extremely difficult time with his initial toxin die-off and then again when we introduced the Nystatin, a yeast treatment it got even worse. We had days of constant, literally constant screaming.

However, his improvement this summer, has been dramatic. In fact, we are so enthusiastic about his progress that we are going to keep him on the chelation protocol for several more months because it is a vitamin and amino acid therapy and can do no harm to his system…only good. We realize that this can be costly to us but we see such a different kid and we love it.

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What a Difference a Year Makes

Tuesday, August 28th, 2007

Last year at this time, on the first day of school, I drove Little Pickel to school to help him feel comfortable with his new school and teacher. We had just moved to our new home less than two weeks prior and he was still apprehensive about EVERYTHING.

Due to his Post Traumatic Stress and his Separation Anxiety he was not not wanting to leave my side. He screamed for over a half hour before we went to school because he knew he was going to have to go. He had met his teacher and liked her, he had ridden a bus the entire summer to camp and LOVED it. So why was he so scared?

We still have no idea.

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Chicago Moms Blog Contest

Tuesday, August 28th, 2007

Contest: Show us YOUR “Faces of Chicago”

PictureSummer has not ended lazily for most of us Chicagoans. We have been sandbagging our homes, wadding through the streets, and praying that our sump pumps will continue pumping water away from our precious belongings.

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How Much Can She Do?

Tuesday, August 28th, 2007

We’ve all seen celebrities who claim they will work hard for a cause or who speak out and then disappear. Case in point…Holly Peete Robinson? So, how can a lesser known celebrity do much better? Is she just using the platform for her pageant or is she legit? I would hate for it to be the latter.

Rachel Brooks, recently crowned Miss Pennsylvania, is the latest winner to use her state-wide platform to bring attention to autism, a cause close to her heart. Her 18-year-old brother, Brandon, was diagnosed with autism as a child.

“I see how he struggles with the disease on a daily basis,” she said. “Seeing the prevalence of it and seeing that it appears to be a growing epidemic, I knew I had to get involved.”

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Increased White Matter Linked to Poor Motor Skills

Monday, August 27th, 2007

What is white matter? Its one of the two main solid components of the central nervous system through which messages pass.

In typical children increased white matter volume usually predicts improved motor skills. However, research has recently found that increased white matter volume in autistic children indicates and predicts poor motor skills.


Children with autism are typically motorically clumsy and awkward, similar to how they are socially clumsy and awkward. They often experience difficulties with basic motor control and with learning more complex motor skills, such as riding a tricycle, pumping their legs on a swing or buttoning, zipping and tying shoe laces. Additionally, high-functioning children with autism often excel in academic areas, such as math, as opposed to athletic activities, such as baseball. Because measures of motor function are highly quantifiable and reproducible, they are much easier to study than measures of social and communication behavior. Motor signs can serve as markers for deficits in parallel brain systems important for control of socialization and communication.

Researchers at the Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore, MD used anatomic magnetic imaging (aMRI) to study 76 children and the Physical and Neurologic Examination of Subtle Signs (PANESS).

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Autism Symptoms

Sunday, August 26th, 2007

Lets get back to basics a little…what exactly are the symptoms of autism? Kyle’s Treehouse , a new 501 c3 Kyle’s Treehouse Foundation is a new 501(c) 3 organization dedicated to empowering all people touched by autism to make effective choices, has a comprehensive, yet simple explanation of the symptoms.

Exclusivity/ Lack Of Significant Peer-To-Peer Relations

People with autism often find ways to avoid spending meaningful and intense interactive time with others. While at times they may converse, interact or play with others, there is a significant difference between the amount of quality time an autistic child spends with people versus the amount of time a non-autistic child might spend with others. There are three basic ways this exclusivity presents itself. They are:

1.

Repetitious and self-stimulating behaviors
The single most defining characteristic of autism is “self-stims,” exclusive and repetitious behaviors. For instance, the child may line up objects on the floor repeatedly, flap his hands in front of his head, watch TV or videos over and over, stare off into space for long periods of time, or repeat particular sounds or phrases. These are the behaviors that lead people to describe autism as a child being in his or her “own world.”
2.

Lack of consistent eye contact
While many people with autism can look consistently at objects for long periods of time, they often make little eye contact with other people.
3.

Low attention span for human interactions
Most autistic people don’t interact with others for significant periods of time. Autistics will often halt an interaction by walking away and doing a self-stimulating behavior (see above). They will sometimes return to the interaction after having done the self-stim.

Developmental Delays
Autism is a developmental delay. This means that different aspects of the child’s development are slowed. These aspects can vary, but often include: language challenges, self-help skills (such as dressing, toilet training, and brushing teeth), academic issues, and injurious behavior to self or others. Some autistic children have many evident developmental delays, while others may have no apparent delays at all. This is part of what makes treating autism so complicated—and one of the reasons we created Kyle’s Treehouse.

Language Challenges
An autistic child’s language skills can range from being completely non-verbal to having a huge vocabulary with the ability to speak in long, meaningful conversations. The main aspects of language are size of vocabulary, clarity of speech, and using speech as the main form of communication versus a self-stimulating behavior.

Self-Help Skills
Some people with autism dress themselves immaculately, others prefer to wear nothing at all. Some are extremely conscientious when they go to the toilet, others will use a diaper or go on the floor. Some eat a variety of foods, others refuse to eat anything but cookies. As with all developmental delays in autism, the range is immense.

Academics
People with autism may have very strong academic abilities or may show no interest or ability at all in academics. In most cases, autistics don’t value academics and give it little attention. While others are excellent at academics—they love words and numbers and use them as a self-stimulating behavior, a way to be exclusive.

Injurious Behaviors
Some children with autism will hit, kick, or bite themselves and others. This may happen when the child is not getting what he or she wants, but may also occur at other times with no explanation.

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The Kid’s Got an Arm!

Saturday, August 25th, 2007

Apparently Little Pickel has developed an arm that can whip spiral and throw a 90 mile an hour fastball. And, he can do this left and right handed.

He has also learned how to catch and kick the soccer ball like a champ.

football.jpg?

I just hope that he will be able to comprehend the rules and plays of the game.

I’ve been working hard on hitting the baseball with our baseball sprinkler (very cool BTW) and Papa Pickel works on the Soccer and Football. We already know he has a talent for swimming and he is starting to also show a love for gymnastics…so perhaps he will be an athlete after all

Friday, August 24th, 2007

Technorati Profile

Freebie Friday: Colors

Friday, August 24th, 2007

For a long time we thought Little Pickel was color blind because he absolutely refused to have anything to do with colors. He would get so frustrated that he would scream and throw things at us. Instead of looking at a color and thinking about it he would simply guess at the first name that came to his mind. He even refused to color with crayons or markers. It was all very odd to us.

So, the earlier kids get their hands on crayons and start matching colors, the better. Here are some color matching worksheets for you to print out and use at home or in the classroom. I have simply put the link there for you for ease.

http://www.schoolexpress.com/fws/get_image.php?id=59078

http://www.schoolexpress.com/fws/get_image.php?id=59079

http://www.schoolexpress.com/fws/get_image.php?id=59080

http://www.schoolexpress.com/fws/get_image.php?id=59081

http://www.schoolexpress.com/fws/get_image.php?id=59072

http://www.schoolexpress.com/fws/get_image.php?id=59075

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Gene Linked to Families

Thursday, August 23rd, 2007

Pardon my timeliness on this particular article but I do find it particularly interesting. In my search for news and information on Autism I often come across blogs and article about families who have two or more children with Autism and they vehemently blame vaccines and the environment on their children’s disease. In my opinion, there has to be some sort of genetic marker for all of their children to be affected, right?

The National Institute of Health reports on just that back in October 2006 in their article titled: Gene Linked to Autism in Families with More Than One Affected Child.

“We know that autism is the most heritable of neuropsychiatric disorders, but, thus far, we have not identified genes that consistently are associated with this developmental brain disease,” said NIMH Director Thomas Insel, M.D. “This new finding is an important clue, which if replicated in an independent sample, will take us closer to understanding the genetic basis of autism.”

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Special Diets for Special Kids

Wednesday, August 22nd, 2007

Special Diets for Special Kids is one of the best reference books on special diet there is. Written by an autistic mother, Lisa Lewis, the book gives specific examples of food allergies, intolerances, and the impact they have on a child’s body. One of the first to experiment with the Gluten Free/Casein Free diet, Dr. Lewis outlines the diet with recipes, vitamins, supplements, and resources.

This book was the first one I read after we started the GFCF diet and helped lead me to resources both online and in print.

See the second book in the series: Special Diets for Special Kids, Two


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Leaps and Bounds Sale

Monday, August 20th, 2007

Leaps and Bounds is clearing house! It’s the start of fall if you have not noticed…I sure have with the week long rains (and a week more to come). All I want to do is shop and my husband hates me for it. So, I am handing this task off to you. Head to Leaps and Bounds for their Childcare & Essentials Sale as well as their Toy Sale.
kettler_bike.jpg
My favorites? The foot flush because Little Pickel loves to flush all sorts of things and this might solve the trigger finger habit. And, the Kettler bike/trike because it would be a great bike to help his gross motor skills (and it’s half price!).
foot_flush.jpg

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