Goodbye Lawrence Kim Peek (1951-2009)

You may not recognize the name or even the picture but you have been touched by Kim Peek. While the movie 'Rain Man' is not based on his life, Dustin Hoffman based many of his mannerisms and speech-patterns on Mr. Peek. Hoffman even thanked Mr. Peek in his Oscar acceptance speech and went so far as to give Mr. Peek his personal Oscar. Below is a wonderful video about his life.

Enjoy and gods speed Kim...

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Welcome 2010...

A quick series of interesting articles that have been sitting in my 'tabs' for days:)

First up are a couple of NY Times blog posts.

1) How to raise IQ in Toddlers with Autism by Tara-Parker Pope
It's all about the Early Start Denver Model. They published results of a 2-year study with 48 participants in the journal Pediatrics. The results suggest that, as a result of their intervention, children in the Early Start program demonstrated greater gains than a control group. I am 100% in the pro-early intervention camp but have a couple of concerns with this article and research. The article frames the Early Start Denver Model as a new approach. Far from it, the Denver Model is a fairly classic early-intervention program based on the principles of Applied Behavior Analysis. There are many such programs and all show similar results. As to the research, this is not 'double-blind' research by any stretch of the imagination. Research is conducted and data compiled by people with personal, professional and financial investments in the outcomes. Does this make it suspect? Not really as their results merely add to the body of research supporting early intervention but as someone who has worked in University funded 'community-based' schools, I can assert that any data taken in-situ by staff (IOA be damned:) is somewhat suspect...
Lastly, this school is supported by the UC Davis M.I.N.D. Institute so this 'community-based' school has multiple PhDs. on staff, many Master's students employed there and a extremely highly-trained staff. This model is NOT transferable to your average school...dont' get me wrong. I LOVE center-based research but these models do not work well in non-university based settings...
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2) Can you teach empathy to children? by Lisa Belkin.
This piece revolves around an essay by Liane Carter who runs and founded a sports league for children with a range of deficits and disabilities. Here's a taste as a mother of one of the teenage volunteers call her:

“I need a report describing your program, discussing what my son has contributed, and what kind of growth you’ve seen in him. And also, what he’s learned from working with those kids,” she says.

Those kids.

“I’m sorry, what did you say your son’s name is?” I say, starting a slow seethe.

“Jeremy.”

Who is Jeremy? I honestly don’t remember him. We have so many volunteers.

But as usual I am polite. “Sure, happy to,” I say, savagely chopping the tomatoes, thinking: If it’s your kid’s community service, why isn’t he calling me himself? Why isn’t he writing his own report? “Oh, just one more thing. Could you have it for me before Friday? I can pick it up, just leave it in your mailbox.”

“No problem,” I say, and hang up. I whack at a pile of carrots, thinking: Let me save you the trouble. I’ll just give him a T-shirt that says: “Look, I’m selfless and wonderful. I volunteer with autistic children.”

It's a short post but check out the posts at the bottom. It really touched a lot of nerves...not just parents of children with disabilities but average readers who took issue with Mrs. Carters 'empathy':)

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How'd I Miss this?

I blame the United States Post Office for not bringing me last month's Wired Magazine which had an excellent article on the use of vaccines on children and the possible link to Autism (spectrum disorders). It does not focus on the autism question but instead looks at the debate from a public health standpoint and posits the following: The decision to NOT vaccinate is driven by FEAR and not understanding and, in addition to putting YOUR child at risk, the decision not to vaccinate puts MANY children at risk. The article is told through the lense of a lengthy interview with Dr. Paul Offitt.
While a very important article I have two critiques. One, it was not very balanced. It does children no good to characterize anyone who is concerned about vaccines as kooks and two, the author is not a science writer with a history of covering complicated scientific issues. This leaves her in a position wherein she relies too heavily on her interview subjects and less so on her own understanding and research.
Still...a MUST READ.

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Merry Christmas Me Hermano Negro...

You are my sunshine...
My only sunshine...
You make me happy...
When skies are gray...
If you only knew Dear...
How much I loved you...
Oh please..don't take my sunshine away...

You are as loved as love can get my chunky monkey brother from the same mother. Enjoy this little movie and know that everyone you've ever touched is thinking about you today...especially the ones you touched naughty-style:)

Love and Christmas...

Adam

From the 'Obvious' files...

The more alcohol expectant mothers drink, the greater the effects on their children. Research from Perth's Telethon Institute for Child Health Research has found evidence that the amount and timing of alcohol consumption in pregnancy affects children in adverse ways.

“Mothers who reported what we would classify as heavy drinking in the first trimester of pregnancy were nearly three times as likely to report that their child suffered with anxiety and/or depression or somatic complaints,” Lead author Colleen O'Leary said.

“Those who drank moderately during that first trimester were twice as likely to report those types of behavioural issues for their child."

So drinking while pregnant is not a good idea. Who would have guessed it?
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Cigarette smoke and air pollution cause people to cough...I know, it sounds silly but they've actually discovered exactly how this occurs on the hopes they can help people with chronic coughs...

In another story, exposure to metals and diesel emissions linked to respitory problems in children...

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving

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Science notes from the Frontline.

Babies language learning starts in the womb.

I love this research as it reminds me that children with ASD need thousands of opportunities to come into contact with language in order to learn. We must babble with them, talk to them, read to them and constantly 'immerse' them in language.

Research suggest that learning to talk makes it easier to understand the speech of others.

This is fascinating news coming out of Haskins Laboratories (and if you are not familair with those guys, definitely check them out: Haskins Laboratories)...

Dr. David Ostry:

"Our study showed that speech motor learning altered the perception of these speech sounds. After motor learning, the participants heard the words differently than those in the control group...One of the striking findings is that the more motor learning we observed, the more their speech perceptual function changed."

I read material like this and think "I know nothing":) So much to learn...

Stay learning...

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British Journal of Psychiatry: Sugar causes violence?

A very interesting study that came out recently. I've cut n pasted a nice article on About.com from Elizabeth Hartney.

"A study published in the British Journal of Psychiatry has shown a link between the daily eating of sweets and violence later in life.

Based on a study of 17,500 ten-year-old children in 1970, the research found that of those who went on to commit violent crimes in adulthood, nearly 70% ate candy every day, compared to 42% who did not go on to commit violent crimes.

The study took many different factors into account, including parenting style, and found that the candy-violence relationship remained when these factors were included in the analysis.

The study authors speculated that the cause of this phenomenon may be the use of candy by parents to control children's behavior. This prevents children from developing the ability to delay gratification, which has been found in other studies to be related to delinquency. Candy also contains additives which have been found to promote aggression.

This is scary news for parents. So what should you do if you think your child is addicted to food or a chocoholic? Obviously, limiting sugar will do no harm, and may do a lot of good. Saving sugary treats for special occasions, rather than allowing them to become a daily expectation may be helpful. And avoid the use of candy to control your child's behavior -- it may seem like a "quick fix" at the time, but in the long term, it may lead to greater problems.

Encouraging children to enjoy healthy alternatives, such as fruit, will have numerous short and long term health benefits, as well as psychological benefits. And parents should remember that their most powerful tool is role modelling, so hold off on eating candy in front of your kids, and let them see you munching a banana or apple as a healthy snack. "