New Brunswick is a Canadian (and North American) Leader In Early Autism Intervention and School Autism Services
New Brunswick is a Canadian, and North American, leader in early autism intervention and school autism services. I do not doubt that that statement is enough to prompt a retort from many jurisdictions. New Brunswick is not one of the wealthiest jurisdictions in Canada, let alone North America, but the fact is that New Brunswick has had publicly provided early ABA autism intervention to the extent of 20 hours per week for ages 2-5 for several years. 700-800 education aides and resource teachers also received the same UNB-CEL Autism Intervention training.
These services have been provi...
Source: Facing Autism in New Brunswick - August 30, 2013 Category: Autism Authors: H L Doherty Source Type: blogs
2 Harmful Acts: Autism Hate Letter And CHEO Removing Autistic Child With GDD From Early Intervention Program
The notorious autism hate letter that targeted an Ontario family and their autistic child has sparked horror and outrage around the world. As the father of a 17 year old son with severe autistic disorder, profound developmental delays and tonic-clonic (grand mal) seizures I recoiled when I heard the news of this hateful act and I believe I have some understanding of how the family felt and hope they are handling it as well as possible. I suspect that the person or persons responsible for this act are now fearful that they may become publicly identified. Why the person felt it necessary to commit such an a...
Source: Facing Autism in New Brunswick - August 27, 2013 Category: Autism Authors: H L Doherty Source Type: blogs
Hemispherectomy: Cut My Son's Brain In Half? No Way .... Unless
I am not a neurologist, neurosurgeon or medical doctor of any kind. I am not a psychologist or a certified behavior analyst. I am a lawyer and a father of two sons one of whom has a severe autism disorder, profound developmental delays and ... in recent years has suffered a number of seizures including absence seizures and grand mal or tonic-clonic seizures. He also suffered a life threatening adverse reaction to one of his anti-seizure medications.
With all that I can still not even begin to contemplate, with all the debates and lack of scientific confirmation of cause or cure that exists in the auti...
Source: Facing Autism in New Brunswick - August 24, 2013 Category: Autism Authors: H L Doherty Source Type: blogs
Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) Writes Off Child With Autism AND Global Developmental Delay (Intellectual Disability)
CHEO: No Teddy Bears & No Autism Program
for Severely Challenged Children
The Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario has been added as a respondent in a human rights proceeding, and accused of discrimination, after it kicked an autistic child with global developmental delay, severe intellectual disability, out of an early intervention program.
In an Ottawa Citizen article Don Butler reported:
"CHEO declined to comment specifically on the case Thursday. But in an email, it said the hospital’s care providers are “incredibly committed to the well-being of kids and would never discriminate against ...
Source: Facing Autism in New Brunswick - August 23, 2013 Category: Autism Authors: H L Doherty Source Type: blogs
SFARI Highlights Serious Risk of Epilepsy for Teens with Autism and Intellectual Disability
"Children with autism who are older than 13 years and have low intelligence are at the greatest risk of having epilepsy, says one of the largest epidemiological studies on the issue to date1. Children are typically diagnosed with epilepsy after having at least two seizures — uncontrolled surges of electrical activity in the brain. About 2 percent of the general population has epilepsy2. Most studies peg its prevalence among people with autism at 30 percent.
The new study, published 4 July in PLoS One, breaks down this prevalence by age. It finds that among children with autism, up to 1...
Source: Facing Autism in New Brunswick - August 20, 2013 Category: Autism Authors: H L Doherty Source Type: blogs
You Can Help the Chalmers Hospital ICU Save Lives!
The Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at Fredericton's Chalmers hospital saves lives even with vitally important monitoring equipment that is more than 10 years old. We found out first hand how important the ICU is when our son Conor spent 6 days at the ICU with a life threatening adverse medication reaction:
Conor during his 6 day stay in the ICU
Conor, in full recovery mode, 3 months after leaving the Chalmers ICU
I understand that the Chalmers Foundation hopes to meet their target for purchasing the new monitoring equipment by the end of August.
If you are interested in helping the ICU save lives vis...
Source: Facing Autism in New Brunswick - August 17, 2013 Category: Autism Authors: H L Doherty Source Type: blogs
Autism Breakthrough? Autism Speaks Recognizes Autism Heterogeneity!
Rethinking Autism Variation and Complexity by Lynn Waterhouse is a recent work which provides a thorough, expert and extremely well researched picture of the variation and complexity of autism spectrum disorders.
Hopefully the rest of the professional and academic autism community will read Rethinking Autism and come to grips with autism variation, complexity and heterogeneity. The highly influential autism advocacy corporation Autism Speaks has typically done a poor job of representing the heterogeneity of the autism spectrum of disorders. AS has aggressively promoted the careers of John E Robison and Alex Plank tw...
Source: Facing Autism in New Brunswick - August 14, 2013 Category: Autism Authors: H L Doherty Source Type: blogs
OTARC Panel: Dr. Giacomo Vivanti: Does Severe Autism Cause Intellectual Disability?
Excellent panel discussion by the La Trobe University Olga Tennison Autism Research Centre (OTARC) with Dr. Giacomo Vivanti, Dr. Cheryl Dissanjake and Dr. Cynthia Zierhut. The panel comments on the cultural representation of autism as genius in movies such as Rain Man and television series such as the Big Bang theory. Dr. Vivanti talks about autism research tendency to focus on high functioning autism perceived by many autism researchers to constitute "pure" autism research. He calls this bias into question as non evidence based, circular reasoning. There is no legitimate basis to separate autism and inte...
Source: Facing Autism in New Brunswick - August 10, 2013 Category: Autism Authors: H L Doherty Source Type: blogs
Severe Autism: Autism in the Shadows - Thank You Amy Mackin
"My son’s story is one of hope, not unlike the stories regularly broadcast on television, printed in magazines or making the rounds on YouTube.
Yet the autism spectrum is wide and diverse, and many who suffer from severe autism will never reach the level of functioning that my child has achieved. Although these people are also part of the story, we rarely hear their stories."
Amy Mackin, Autism in the Shadows, Washington Post, July 19, 2013
Amy Mackin is a writer and a blogger who writes at www.amymackin.com. She is also the mother of an autistic child who she describes as high functioning in the Autism in t...
Source: Facing Autism in New Brunswick - July 29, 2013 Category: Autism Authors: H L Doherty Source Type: blogs
Conor Countdown Continues In Support of FLEXIBLE, EVIDENCE BASED Inclusion
The Conor Countdown continues, as Conor gets up each day at 6 am and changes the number reflecting the number of days until school resumes.
My son Conor, and his autism disorder disability, have been well accommodated in schools here in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada. He has benefited both from the assistance of education aides and resource teachers trained in the UNB-CEL Autism program and by placement, at our request, outside the regular classroom for his ABA based instruction.
His placement is not segregation in the sense of the racial segregation which once prevailed in the American south. &...
Source: Facing Autism in New Brunswick - July 27, 2013 Category: Autism Authors: H L Doherty Source Type: blogs
Run Jump Fly Boy Is Back - Thank You Again DECH ICU!
A few months ago, Conor was lying unconscious in a bed at the Intensive Care Unit of the Chalmers' Hospital (the DECH) with tubes running out of his body and hooked up to 10+ year old monitoring equipment. Notwithstanding the age of the monitoring equipment the fantastic DECH ICU team brought Conor back to us without any restrictions or impairments. Conor's recovery has been constant since his release and we are happy. Today on the trail Conor hit the final recovery benchmark with the return of our Run, Jump, Fly boy! (Source: Facing Autism in New Brunswick)
Source: Facing Autism in New Brunswick - July 25, 2013 Category: Autism Authors: H L Doherty Source Type: blogs
Autism`s 40% With Intellectual Disability? Auti$m $peak$ Doesn't See YOU, Doesn't Speak For YOU!
Autism Speaks has done much to create publicity around the word autism, the color blue, puzzle pieces and ... some very talented, high functioning individuals with autism diagnoses like Alex Plank and J. E. Robison. In terms of its public statements and presentations though it does little to nothing to raise awareness about one very basic fact: autism has a very close relationship with intellectual disability to the extent that 40% of persons with autism spectrum diagnoses (DSM-IV) also have intellectual disability.
Prior to the DSM-IV and prior to the addition of PDD-NOS and Aspergers persons with int...
Source: Facing Autism in New Brunswick - July 24, 2013 Category: Autism Authors: H L Doherty Source Type: blogs
Why I Chose Autism REALITY As My Social Media Name
The picture above, for those visiting my blog for the first time, is my son Conor now 17+ years old. I love him dearly and he brings great joy into my life every day. He is also severely autistic with severe cognitive challenges (intellectual disability) and like many with those characteristics he also suffers from epileptic seizures. As great a joy as he is he also engages in acts of self aggression and suffers from sensory challenges, meltdowns and obsessively repetitive behaviors that are very disruptive in themselves.
For Conor his autism is not a joy, a blessing, a superior ability or a dif...
Source: Facing Autism in New Brunswick - July 24, 2013 Category: Autism Authors: H L Doherty Source Type: blogs
Severe Autism Breakthrough: J. Cole Offers Sincere Apology And Acknowledges Existence of Severe Autism
Rapper J. Cole has offered what appears to this observer to be a very sincere apology, one offered without qualifications and one which actually offers a breakthrough for those who, like my son, suffer from severe autism. Unlike most prominent autism advocates rapper J. Cole actually acknowledged the existence of, and included in his apology, those at the severe end of the autism spectrum.
Many autism advocacy organizations and "self" advocates routinely denigrate anyone who mentions severe autism disorders. Television series, movies and feel good mainstream media rarely acknowledge the severe, low functioning en...
Source: Facing Autism in New Brunswick - July 22, 2013 Category: Autism Authors: H L Doherty Source Type: blogs
Dear Anna Kennedy: Please Stop Misrepresenting Autism, Autism Is A Health DISORDER NOT a Gift
Anyone described as "having autism" or "being autistic"
would have received an autism disorder diagnosis
pursuant, in all likelihood, to either the DSM or the ICD
Dear Anna Kennedy
My 17 year old son Conor who was diagnosed 15+ years ago with "autistic disorder" (now autism spectrum disorder) and profound developmental delays ( a euphemism for intellectual disability) is truly a gift. Conor brings great joy to our lives as shown on the sample pictures that follow. While Conor is a joy, however, his autism disorder is not. Nor is his autism disorder a GIFT or a SUPER ...
Source: Facing Autism in New Brunswick - July 17, 2013 Category: Autism Authors: H L Doherty Source Type: blogs
