Mutterings Of A Mindless Mommy » Autism

Someone Tried to DDOS Me

Melissa — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 18:51:30 +0000

If you tried to visit Mindless Mommy yesterday, you may have noticed that the site was down for quite some time. Someone launched a DDOS attack against me. Me! Little ole me! There is no benefit in taking down my site, seriously. I’m guessing that someone mistyped the IP address and discovered it yesterday evening. A typo in the IP address in a DDOS attack is laughable.

A friend joked that perhaps Adam Jasinski commissioned it after I called him out for calling children with autism “retards”.

Three Years Ago Ava was Diagnosed with Autism

Melissa — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:00:20 +0000

Three years ago, on November 20, 2006, a local psychologist told me that Ava has autism. I can honestly say that I wasn’t completely surprised, I’ve always been an information junkie and kind of expected it but the words were still a bit of a shock to my system. However, I didn’t have much time to dwell on things, as November 21, 2006 was Ava’s third birthday.

I started Mutterings of a Mindless Mommy, in part, as an outlet for my emotions. I never thought of autism as a death sentence and I’m not generally a doom and gloom person by nature, but navigating the healthcare system, the educational system, etc in order to get services for my daughter was stressful and so I needed an outlet.

Every year at this time I like to look back at the growth that Ava has made. Just as I did last year, I want to start off with excerpts from my previous two reflection posts.

Reflecting – The Autism Diagnosis

It has been a year of tremendous growth, lots of backsliding, and a whole heckuva lot of fun. All-out meltdown at Sea World complete with judgmental parents telling me my child was spoiled. Numerous parents commenting on public freak-outs and diapers on a “child her age.” Lots of dirty looks, rude comments, and nice enlightening conversations on my part (depending on my mood hehe). What I do know is over the last year not only has *my* understanding and impression of autism and all spectrum disorders changed but so has that of all of my friends and family. My daughter is a happy, affectionate, and loving little girl and I am so thankful to have her in my life.

Two Years Ago was Diagnosis Day

The past year has been filled with more ups than downs. She figured out how to go potty and aside from a few accidents a week, spends her days out of diapers or pull-ups. She’s still in pull-ups at night but hey, this is a huge convenience to have her in panties all day. She’s come a long way with her language and actually tested out of her IEP at school. She is still about a year delayed in vocabulary/receptive language but it isn’t quite enough to qualify for speech therapy.

Although the growth between her fourth and fifth birthdays was amazing, my baby girl will be six on Saturday and this past year has been an amazing year for her. She is in kindergarten now and is starting to act like typical kindergarten girls. She has this sassy little attitude that I know she picked up at school. She talks about how the girls chase the boys and the boys chase the girls. She is also reading.

Yes, that is right. Ava is READING. She is up to 30 sight words now. The funny thing is, she had a really difficult time memorizing sight words when they first started to learn them. She couldn’t memorize the words but she could certainly sound them out. Then something clicked and she is memorizing sight words like crazy. She’s not just learning sight words though; she sounds out any and every word she sees. We were in line at Chipotle and all of the sudden she exclaims “Chicken Burrito!” Yes, that’s right, that big sign says Chicken Burrito on it.

As was the case last year, she still has her quirks. Yes she still smells everything. Yes she still has problems with emotional self-regulation. Yes she still has an odd language processing delay. Yes she loves to line up things including cars and the miniature pumpkins on Auntie’s driveway on Halloween night.

But yes she still greets everyone with a warm smile. Yes she still does a fantastic job in dance – we’ve gone beyond ballet and tap to include jazz, hip-hop, tumbling, and technique classes this year. This may sound like a lot for an almost six year old but Ava absolutely thrives in the dance environment and I truly believe that dance is responsible, at least in part, for the amazing growth she’s made over the past year.

Happy birthday baby girl and I can’t wait to see what the next year brings us.

Blast From the Past – Adam Jasinski Busted for Reselling Oxycodone Pills

Melissa — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 17:39:21 +0000

I peeked at my Google Analytics stats for today and noticed that my blog was getting a massive influx of traffic, way more than I usually get on a single day. The majority of the traffic is coming in via Google searches related to Adam Jasinski. So what’s a net sleuth like myself to do? Google Adam Jasinski myself to see what is up. *wink* Sure enough, the former Big Brother winner is back in the news amidst new controversy. Adam Jasinski was recently busted for using his Big Brother earnings to buy and resell Oxycodone pills. Yes, our favorite “retard” loving Big Brother winner is also a drug dealer.

Adam Jasinski, 31, of Delray Beach, Fla., has been charged with attempting to sell 2,000 pills in Massachusetts to a government witness.

Federal prosecutors said Jasinski was arrested Saturday after he flew to Boston and showed the witness a sock containing two plastic bags filled with oxycodone, a powerful painkiller that is a popular street drug because of its euphoric effects. Source: Huffington Post

It looks like he could be facing some serious time, up to 20 years in prison.

Rally to Protest Disability Cuts in Arizona

Melissa — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 22:56:11 +0000

PRESS CONFERENCE ON TUESDAY JUNE 23, 2009, 12:00 PM, HOUSE LAWN, ARIZONA STATE CAPITOL

RALLY/DEMONSTRATON TO PROTEST SEVERE CUTS TO DISABILITY SERVICES IN ARIZONA – “YOU ARE NOT LISTENING”

Phoenix, AZ – On June 4, 2009 the Arizona State Senate and House of Representatives passed a budget that at best can be described as punitive – at worst it is economic and social violence against Arizona’s most vulnerable citizens with developmental disabilities and their families.

“Across this state a diverse group of Arizonan’s are coming together as one force to fight the extremely destructive appropriations that will hurt people with disabilities, their families, and their service providers for years to come,” said Tom Schramski, Ph.D., a Psychologist and CEO of TBC Services, LLC. “On Tuesday, June 23, 2009, we will return to our State Capitol to make it clear to those we elected to represent us that we will be heard.”

Tuesday’s event and press conference is being led by the Arizona Association of Providers for People with Disabilities, a group of approximately 100 Arizona providers of services to the Arizona disability community, as well as advocates and family members from across Arizona.

Principal among the community leaders speaking at the noon press conference on the House Lawn will be Tom Schramski, PhD, Timothy Schmaltz, coordinator of the Protecting Arizona’s Family Coalition (PAFCO), a broad alliance of Arizona health and human services organizations and other community groups, several family members and to be named Legislators.

For additional information contact Monica Attridge from AAPPD at 480-557-8445 or mattridge@qwestoffice.net.

Arizona Special Ed Restraints Bill – Call to Action

Melissa — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 19:48:17 +0000

Posted with permission:
***
As some of you know, there has been some press recently on the dangers of restraints/holds for our Special Education students in schools. There have been over 10 deaths nationwide from using these practices on our children. We had the opportunity to meet with Senator Huppenthal and Representative Crandall (the Education chairs in the Senate and House). Senator Huppenthal is running a bill to establish a task force on restraints/seclusion and we need your help to contact via phone and e-mail each of the 30 Senators. See the e-mail below. Please join us in helping to protect these vulnerable students from these dangerous and inappropriate holds/restraints/seclusions for our kids. We went down for the first hearing in the Education committee and it passed unanimously 7-0, however, Dept. of Ed. was trying to keep this task force under their watch and we want this separate set of eyes on this new task force to take a look at this issue and make recommendations.

I personally know several families that have gone through horrific experiences with restraints, so this is happening here in Arizona and we need your help to get this legislation put into place!

To track the bill: (This bill started out as a dental bill but was changed so click on show adopted amendments to see a version of this bill)

Arizona SB1197

To watch the Senate Education hearing on Senate Bill SB1197:

Arizona State Senate COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION ACCOUNTABILITY AND REFORM

In order to maximize the impact to the Senators, please cut and paste your message into an individual e-mail to each Senator. Learning from our experience last year passing Steven’s Law, they will just delete any e-mails that are sent to all Senators. Thanks for your help, we couldn’t do this without ALL of you contacting ALL of the Senators! Once again, this is URGENT, so please take action ASAP!!

Update on SB1197 the Arizona seclusion/restraint Bill: It creates a task force that will report to the Arizona Board of Education “Best Practices” on Special needs behavior management.

It is now an ‘emergency measure’ that will take effect June 30, instead of 90 days after. It will take 60 days to report back it’s findings, not a year. We need 2/3’s of the Senate to vote “yes” for this to pass-because it will have to take effect immediately,
in order for the Task force to report to the US Department of Education; THEY want all States to have clear guidelines by Start of SCHOOL YEAR:)

All 30 Senators will vote on SB1197 Thursday, in the COW (whole vote) of the Senate. So,
1. Write a nice letter:
Dear Senator ________. Please, vote “Yes” for SB1197, Task force Special Education Behavior Management.
we need a task force that will recommend best practices for special needs children in schools. Thank you very much for your consideration,
Signed, You. (Be sure to put “Please Vote Yes for SB1197” in the subject line of your e-mail!)

Be super-thankful, and we really need each of their votes. If we don’t get it-the Bill will stop there.

2. Call each Senators office and leave a message with the Secretary stating you would like Senator _____ to vote “Yes” on SB1197. The Secretary keeps a tally for the Senator and will let them know how many phone calls they get on each particular bill.

Please try to do both of these today since they will be voting on this tomorrow!! THANK YOU!

Paula Aboud 28 D paboud@azleg.gov 602-926-5262
Amanda Aguirre 24 D aaguirre@azleg.gov 602-926-4139
Carolyn S. Allen 8 R callen@azleg.gov 602-926-4480
Sylvia Allen 5 R sallen@azleg.gov 602-926-5219
Manuel V. “Manny” Alvarez 25 D malvarez@azleg.gov 602-926-5895

Meg Burton Cahill 17 D mburtoncahill@azleg.gov 602-926-5993
Ken Cheuvront 15 D kcheuvront@azleg.gov 602-926-4124
Jorge Luis Garcia 27 D jgarcia@azleg.gov 602-926-4171
Pamela Gorman 6 R pgorman@azleg.gov 602-926-5284
Ron Gould 3 R rgould@azleg.gov 602-926-4138
Chuck Gray 19 R cgray@azleg.gov 602-926-5288
Linda Gray 10 R lgray@azleg.gov 602-926-3376
Albert Hale 2 D ahale@azleg.gov 602-926-4323
Jack W. Harper 4 R jharper@azleg.gov 602-926-4178
John Huppenthal 20 R jhuppenthal@azleg.gov 602-926-5261 (Doesn’t need to be convinced since he is the bill sponsor, but could use thank you’s for doing this!)
Leah Landrum Taylor 16 D llandrumtaylor@azleg.gov 602-926-3830
Barbara Leff 11 R bleff@azleg.gov 602-926-4486
Linda Lopez 29 D llopez@azleg.gov 602-926-4089
Debbie McCune Davis 14 D dmccunedavis@azleg.gov 602-926-4485
Al Melvin 26 R amelvin@azleg.gov 602-926-4326
Richard Miranda 13 D rmiranda@azleg.gov 602-926-5911
John Nelson 12 R jnelson@azleg.gov 602-926-5872
Jonathan Paton 30 R jpaton@azleg.gov 602-926-3235
Russell Pearce 18 R rpearce@azleg.gov 602-926-5760
Steve Pierce 1 R spierce@azleg.gov 602-926-5584
Rebecca Rios 23 D rrios@azleg.gov 602-926-5685
Jay Tibshraeny 21 R jtibshraeny@azleg.gov 602-926-4481
Thayer Verschoor 22 R tverschoor@azleg.gov 602-926-4136
Jim Waring 7 R jwaring@azleg.gov 602-926-4916

Special Education Meeting Hosted by the Arizona Autism Coalition

Melissa — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 00:09:02 +0000

Special Education Issues Got You Confused or Frustrated?

You’re Invited to a Meeting Focused Entirely on Education Issues Related to Autism.

All Are Welcome and Please Feel Free to Distribute!

DATE: July 15, 2009
TIME: 6:00-8:00 PM
LOCATION: Disability Empowerment Center, 5025 E. Washington Street, Phoenix, AZ 85034
GUEST SPEAKERS INCLUDE: Dr. Joe Gentry, Dr. Bryan Davey, Elaine Berkley, Jan Cawthorne, Barbara Ross, and mor

The Lupron Protocol for Autism – Seriously??

Melissa — Fri, 22 May 2009 05:07:12 +0000

I just saw a link to this article posted on a message board I frequent. The article, ‘Miracle drug’ called junk science
Powerful castration drug pushed for autistic children, but medical experts denounce unproven claims, discusses the (in)famous duo of Dr. Mark Geier and his son, David Geier and their new “lupron protocol.”

“Geier and his son developed the “Lupron protocol” for autism and are marketing it across the country, opening clinics in states from Washington to New Jersey. In the Chicago area, the treatment is available through Dr. Mayer Eisenstein, a family practitioner in Rolling Meadows.” Source: Chicago Tribune

Long-time readers of my blog know that I’m pretty much anti-cure but reading this article just made me absolutely sick to my stomach. So I kind of understand the vitamin/supplement thing – not from a cure standpoint but hey, it might help a person feel better. The B12 shots make me squeamish to think about but it’s a vitamin (albeit in a high dose and via injection) but Lupron…seriously? This is sickening.

Ohio State ASAN Chapter Trying to Get off the Ground

Melissa — Fri, 01 May 2009 04:38:03 +0000

The Ohio State chapter of the Autistic Self-Advocacy Network (ASAN) was originally formed in late 2008 but the group is trying to get the organization off the ground and up and running. An article appeared in today’s edition of The Lattern – Autistic students self-represent.

A big difference between ASAN and similar organizations is that it is a self-supporting organization where autistic members holding power.

“We’re an alternative organization. We’re especially concerned with self-advocacy and issues of representation, and issues of speaking for versus speaking as or speaking with,” Yergeau said.

Perhaps the group’s biggest break from the norm of other autism organizations is its anti-cure stance.

Read the entire article on The Lantern.

Autism Genes Discovered; Help Shape Connections Among Brain Cells

Melissa — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 17:44:38 +0000

Autism Genes Discovered; Help Shape Connections Among Brain Cells

-Findings Suggest Biological Reasons for Altered Early Neural Development-

PHILADELPHIA, April 28 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — A research team has connected more of the intricate pieces of the autism puzzle, with two studies that identify genes with important contributions to the disorder. One study pinpoints a gene region that may account for as many as 15 percent of autism cases, while another study identifies missing or duplicated stretches of DNA along two crucial gene pathways. Significantly, both studies detected genes implicated in the development of brain circuitry in early childhood.

“Because other autism researchers have made intriguing suggestions that autism arises from abnormal connections among brain cells during early development, it is very compelling to find evidence that mutations in genes involved in brain interconnections increase a child’s risk of autism,” said study leader Hakon Hakonarson, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Center for Applied Genomics at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. He is on the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, as is his main collaborator, neuroscientist Gerard D. Schellenberg, Ph.D.

“This comprehensive research opens the door to more focused investigations into the causes of autism disorders,” said Philip R. Johnson, M.D., chief scientific officer at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “It moves the field of autism research significantly ahead, similar to the way oncology research progressed a few decades ago with the discovery of specific genes that give rise to cancers. Our extensive pediatric genomics program has pinpointed particular genes and biological pathways, and this discovery provides a starting point for translating biological knowledge into future autism treatments.” The hospital’s Center for Applied Genomics, launched in 2006, is the world’s largest facility dedicated to the genetic analysis of childhood diseases.

Collaborating with researchers from more than a dozen institutions, including members of the Autism Genome Project (AGP), Hakonarson led both studies, which appear today in the online publication Nature.

Autism is the best known of the autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), a group of childhood neurodevelopmental disorders that cause impairments in verbal communication, social interaction and behavior. Currently estimated to affect as many as one in 150 U.S. children, ASDs are known from family studies to be strongly influenced by genetics. Previous studies have implicated several chromosome regions harboring rare variants in raising the risk of ASDs, but until now, research has not been consistent in identifying and replicating common genetic variants.

One of the two studies by Hakonarson’s team is the first to identify common genetic variants associated with autism. By using highly automated genotyping tools that scan the entire genome of thousands of individuals, the researchers found that children with ASDs were more likely than healthy controls to have gene variants on a particular region of chromosome 5. That region is located between two genes, cadherin 9 (CDH9) and cadherin 10 (CDH10), which carry codes to produce neuronal cell-adhesion molecules.

Neuronal cell-adhesion molecules are important because they affect how nerve cells communicate with each other, thought to be an underlying problem in ASDs. “These molecules are expressed on the cell surfaces of neurons, and they are involved with shaping both the physical structure of the developing brain and the functional connections among different brain regions,” Hakonarson said. “Although a particular gene variant may contribute a small risk for an ASD in a particular individual, we estimate that the variants we discovered may contribute to as many as 15 percent of ASD cases in a population — typically referred to as the population — attributed risk of the variant.”

Hakonarson’s team first performed genome-wide association studies on DNA from over 3,100 subjects from 780 families of children affected with ASDs, then performed further studies in a cohort of 1,200 affected subjects and 6,500 unaffected controls. They then replicated their results in two additional independent cohorts. In total, they analyzed DNA from 12,834 subjects.

“Autism Speaks is pleased to have facilitated this critical research, having provided both funding and access to thousands of DNA samples through Autism Speaks’ Autism Genome Research Exchange (AGRE),” said Geraldine Dawson, Ph.D., Chief Science Officer for Autism Speaks. “Access to biomaterials and clinical data from thousands of families through the AGRE substantially expedites the research our community seeks and needs. Our goal is to accelerate genetic research that can ultimately lead to improved detection and medical treatments.” Dawson also is a co-author of both studies in her role as a faculty member of the University of Washington.

Hakonarson’s second study in Nature, also using genome-wide association tools, identified copy number variations — deletions or duplications of DNA — that increase a child’s risk of having an ASD. Interestingly, these variants were enriched in genes that belong to two biological pathways, one including the same neuronal cell-adhesion molecule gene family that harbored the common variant reported in Hakonarson’s first study. The other gene cluster impacted by copy number variations belongs to the ubiquitin degradation pathway. Ubiquitins are a class of enzymes that eliminate connections among nerve cells, and are involved with processing and degrading neuronal cell-adhesion molecules –thus linking the two gene pathways together.

“The copy number variations we discovered are active on two gene networks that play critical roles in the development of neuronal connectivity within the central nervous system,” said Hakonarson. “Finding genes that are biologically relevant to these neuronal systems increases our understanding of how autism originates.”

The gene discoveries, added Hakonarson, converge with evidence from functional magnetic resonance imaging that children with ASDs may have reduced connectivity among neural cells, and with anatomy studies that have found abnormal development of the brain’s frontal lobes in patients with autism.

“Many of the genes we identified concentrate their effects in brain regions that develop abnormally in autistic children,” said Hakonarson. “Our current findings, when coupled with anatomical and imaging studies, may suggest that ASDs are a problem of neuronal disconnection.”

His group’s ongoing research, continued Hakonarson, focuses on investigating the exact mechanisms by which these genetic variations cause autistic disorders. “For instance, we expect to manipulate similar cell-adhesion genes in mice to see if the animals show altered social behaviors that may correspond to human behaviors.” In addition, other genes remain to be discovered.

“Although we cannot immediately apply this research to clinical treatments, these findings increase our understanding of how autism spectrum disorders arise, and may in time foster the development of strategies for prevention and early treatment,” said developmental pediatrician Susan E. Levy, M.D., a co-author of both studies who is the medical director of the Regional Autism Center and a member of the Center for Autism Research (CAR), both at Children’s Hospital.

Support for both studies was provided by The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, the National Institutes of Health, Autism Speaks, and many other sources, including the Margaret Q. Landenberger Foundation, the Cotswold Foundation, the Beatrice and Stanley A. Seaver Foundation, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the Utah Autism Foundation. Scientists from 14 other centers in addition to Children’s Hospital and the University of Pennsylvania contributed to the discovery or replication of the findings.

Wang et al, “Common genetic variants on 5p14.1 associate with autism spectrum disorders,” Nature, published online April 28, 2009.

(http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature07999)

Glessner et al, “Autism genome-wide copy number variation reveals ubiquitin and neuronal genes,” Nature, published online April 28, 2009. (http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature07953)

Summer Plans for Children with Autism

Melissa — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 03:45:10 +0000

So summer is nearing and I’m dreading the transition. I know that all kids can have a rough transition from school to summer (and then again from summer to school) but my kids have some major issues. My daughter graduates from preschool next week – it is so great to see where she was when she first started preschool three years ago and where she is at now. She has been in the same classroom, with the same teacher and the same paraprofessionals for all three years of preschool. Next year she will be at a different school and she’s nervous. She told me last week she didn’t want to go to kindergarten. She knows that once preschool is over, she has summer break and then she knows new school, new teacher, new classmates, etc.

My son is who is most affected by transitions. School doesn’t let out until May 21 and I’m trying to come up with some ways to make the transition easy for him. One of his compulsive behaviors is picking a spot on his scalp. He’s done this for about a year and a half and has avoided infection all this time – until this weekend. Sunday evening it hurt and was a little red. It turns out that he has a MRSA infection. The good news is that because it is super tender, he isn’t picking at it. The bad news is, once school lets out he is likely to go to town on it. I’m hoping that I can come up with a way to ease his transition and maybe give him something else to do besides pic his scalp.

Right now, I’m not sure if we’re going to do anything organized for the summer. The problem with camps and other activities like that, especially for Alex, is that he is a nervous wreck prior to the start of the program and then he has a hard time transitioning out. If we just have laid back summer of fun with family then there aren’t additional transitions. However, he doesn’t always do well with unstructured time.

Sooooo, what are you all planning this summer for your kiddos that are on the spectrum?

Photo by Dan4th