Autism Superpower
This is why Autism is your super power. Helping people understand Autism from a person with Autism’s perspective.
Autism is your super power and in this video I talk about my experiences growing up with Asperger Syndrome and how I turned autism into the super power of autism.
MMJ and autism
Parents of children diagnosed with autism recently sat in the ballroom of suburban Chicago hotel listening attentively as a renowned neurologist extolled the benefits of using cannabis to treat the disorder.
During his May 25 speech, Ronald Aung-Din, M.D. made clear that non-psychoactive Cannabidiol, or CBD, was a viable treatment for the disorder during his presentation at the AutismOne Conference at the Westin Lombard Yorktown Center in Lombard.
Autism is one of the fastest-growing developmental disorders, affecting 1 in 68 children in the United States. Given that every autism diagnosis is unique, the disorder has been difficult to treat using traditional drugs, according to Aung-Din.
“The pharmaceutical industry has not met the needs of some of these patients, and as a traditional physician I was very much dependent on pharmaceuticals,” said Aung-Din, one of the few doctors in the country licensed to prescribe medical cannabis.
Is MMJ value as a therapy for autism? A Point of View! Do you agree?
Traditional medications tend to target the symptoms of a condition, but CBD goes after the cause of those symptoms, he said. Pharmaceuticals generally stimulate or block receptors to provide their function, while cannabis-based treatments change or adjust receptors in the brain.
This means CBD can be used to treat a range of disorders, including anxiety, depression and epilepsy — which affects about a third of people diagnosed with autism.
Read more here.
Ghianina s Flyer for Recruitment
I am writing to invite you to participate in a project looking to understand the siblings’ experiences and perspectives in children with Autism.
Siblings spend most of their daily activities together since the parents or caregivers cannot be available at any time due to work or other responsibilities. Children probably share most of their first social and emotional experiences with their siblings, for example, conflicts, prosocial behaviours, sympathy, appreciation, and so on, just to name a few. Recent studies have been focusing on the effect of siblings’ relationships with autistic children to the siblings’ experiences. However, it is also important to see it from the perception of the autistic children in regards to the presence of siblings throughout their development.
The project will specifically study these understandings through a face-to-face semi structured interview. This will focus more on their personal experience with their brother or sister.
Long term care
If you are interested, I would like to have access to names and contacts of families that might be interested and willing to participate in this study. I would also ask for you to extend this invitation to families along with the parental letter that I have attached in this e-mail.
I appreciate that this is a considerable nuisance and I am happy to discuss ways that I can contribute to the school whether through this project or else. Direct benefits of this research would be to have extensive understanding on the ways children with ASD think and feel with the presence of their siblings in their day-to-day activities in which might lead to certain interventions that could improve certain aspects in the children development.
Finally, I can guarantee the confidentiality of all data collected, the project has acquired ethical approval and I have obtained an enhanced DBS check. Please contact me if you have further questions or concerns about the project, I can be reached through my phone in 07930880528 or my email ghianina.armand.17@ucl.ac.uk. I am looking forward to hearing from you.
Ghianina Armand, MSc in Child Development at UCL Institute of Education May 2018
Poppy Arabella Clarke
Autism and policing
In 2016 in North Miami, Florida, a police officer’s lack of knowledge about autism led to a shooting. Arnaldo Rios, a 26-year-old man with autism, had strayed from his group home and was sitting in the middle of the street. One of his therapists had followed and was trying to coax him to return home. A passerby alerted the police, and, mistaking the toy truck in Rios’ hands for a gun, an officer fired.
The bullet hit the therapist in the leg, and the incident so upset Rios that he began having trouble eating and sleeping, which led to him being moved from his group home to a psychiatric institution.
Last July, a 14-year-old Arizona boy with autism named Connor Leibel was standing in a park awaiting his caregiver. Connor was playing with a piece of string, which he kept raising to his nose and sniffing. A police officer trained to recognize drug use noticed Connor from his patrol car. He pulled over and approached the boy. “What are you doing?” he asked.
“I’m stimming,” Connor replied, using the familiar slang for the repetitive movements that people with autism often make to calm themselves.
The officer had no idea what Connor was talking about. “What?” he responded, and then, in a threatening tone, “Stop walking away from me,” and “You have any ID on you?” Connor turned away, his way of de-escalating the situation, but his reaction increased the officer’s suspicions. He forced Connor to the ground and attempted to handcuff him while yelling at him not to move.
Read the full article here
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Autism and policing
Homeopathy
B.C.’s top doctor says there are “huge potential harms” connected to a homeopathic treatment based on the unfounded claim that vaccines cause most cases of autism.
Three registered B.C. naturopaths are the subject of a complaint to the College of Naturopathic Physicians because of the treatment, known as CEASE therapy — “complete elimination of autism spectrum expression.”
Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry told CBC News she was concerned to learn that CEASE is being offered in B.C.
“It’s certainly not based on science. It’s based on a belief system,” Henry said. “My big concern is that it really misleads parents into believing that immunizations are a cause of their child’s autism.”
CEASE is based on the unsubstantiated claim that 70 per cent of autism is caused by vaccines, 25 per cent by medications and other substances, and five per cent by disease.
Practitioners who offer CEASE use homeopathic remedies made by repeatedly diluting vaccines, as well as substances like vitamin C, in an attempt to “detoxify” autistic children.
Read more here