Claire Nossiter says her daughter Lyndsay was “routinely restrained” in her years at Bothwellpark High in Motherwell

An angry mum plans to sue a council claiming her daughter’s face was left bruised and swollen after she was restrained by school teachers.

Claire Nossiter says her daughter Lyndsay was “routinely restrained” in her years at Bothwellpark High in Motherwell, Scotland, which caters for pupils with additional support needs.

Lyndsay, who has Prader Willi Syndrome and autism, “kicked off” one day and had so many bruises afterwards she looked like she had been in a car crash, her mum claims.

Claire waited four years for the conclusion of council and police inquiries into the injuries to her daughter, now 20.

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A long-distance telehealth study at Purdue University could help researchers identify autism symptoms in infancy, which could ultimately help children receive targeted therapy earlier.

“While we have made a lot of progress in autism as far as understanding what the symptoms look like, and how to treat and support families, we are still lacking reliable markers of autism before the first year,” said Bridgette Tonnsen, an assistant professor of clinical psychology, who studies autism in high-risk infants. “The brain changes rapidly during the first year of life, so if we are not detecting children until they are three or four we are missing a great opportunity to support their development. We certainly don’t want to rush a diagnosis, but having some pre-diagnostic interventions could significantly help these children for the long-term.”

Tonnsen is leading the five-year study which is focused on prospective surveillance of autism symptom emergence in high-risk infants with fragile X and other neurogenetic syndromes. The nearly $1 million study is funded by the National Institutes of Health. Tonnsen is a member of the Purdue Autism Cluster.

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Shannon Rosa
www.squidalicious.com

“When others don’t understand our [autistic] experiences and don’t understand how our actions are meaningful responses to them, they may think our actions don’t make sense, and try to control them in ways that are harmful to us.” –Elizabeth Bartmess

I think it should be OK to write about our autistic kids. I do. Because I think other parents, especially those who aren’t autistic themselves or who are new to autism, need parent role models who do their best to understand and love their autistic kids, and be the parents those kids need them to be. These role models are needed because media messages and social attitudes about autism and autistic people are consistently fear-ridden and awful, so parents who have never heard anything about autism besides negativity need guidance for accepting who their kids are, so they can avoid blaming their kids for who they aren’t. Those parents also need permission to give mainstream social expectations a flying middle finger.

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What is your view on autism parent memoirs? Have your say here.