The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has just issued a new report on the prevalence of autism in the United States. The estimate now is that 1 in every 88 American children is diagnosed with autism (1 in 54 boys, 1 in 252 girls). That’s up from the 1 in 110 number just a few years ago.
The CDC’s alarming new statistics reveal that there has been a 78% increase of autism diagnosis cases throughout the US, over a 6 year period (2002-2008), which can be considered a cautionary reminder to all of us how serious and vast this issue has become.
With Autism Awareness Month approaching, Different Roads to Learning is pledging to participate in Autism Speak’s Light It Up Bluecampaign on Monday, April 2 to help raise public awareness. We hope you’ll join us. Now more than ever, we need to be sure that proper attention, research, education, intervention and funding is focused on the children and families living with autism.
During the month of April, Different Roads to Learning will be hosting a wide variety of events including sales, giveaways, an Autism Awareness Ribbon Project, and more. Be sure to stay tuned to our Blog, Facebook and Twitter pages for up to date information on how we’ll be supporting our community and raising awareness this April.
If you would like to learn more about the recent statistics, you can visit:
It’s been a really exciting few months here at Different Roads to Learning and we wanted to share some of the highlights with you. Different Roads to Learning was one of ten small businesses selected for the CEO-UBS Small Business Advisory Program, a philanthropic partnership between UBS Wealth Management Americas and the William J. Clinton Foundation. Our App – Tell Me About It! – was developed by the incredible and innovative talent at inFusion, and is a product of this program.
The entire process was really exhilirating for all of us here. As a small business, we gained so much incredible knowledge and had the opportunity to work with a team of gifted individuals. And to top it all off, our App was unveiled at a dinner where we had the privilege of meeting President Clinton! That was a truly exciting night for all of us.
Julie and Abigail meet President Clinton along with our mentors Amy Butte and Sharon Sager
At the dinner, they even showed a short video about the making of Tell Me About It! which we wanted to share with you here. Along with interviews and demos, you’ll learn about how and why we created this App for children with Autism and a bit more about Different Roads in general. You can also read the full press release for Tell Me About it here. We hope you enjoy it!
We also wanted to share the absolutely wonderful reviews of Tell Me About It! that we’ve received thus far from trusted sites devoted to reviewing Apps for children and those with special needs:
There have been a lot of strong reactions to the proposed changes to the criteria for an Autism diagnosis in the revised DSM-V. We wanted to present some thoughts from some of the people we rely on most:
From Julie Azuma:
We’ve all known for some time that the DSM V is going to exclude some children on the spectrum as in the Asperger’s Syndrome student. Everyone has been asking what we think about it. The article in last week’s NY Times, alarmed many of our families.
When Different Roads started participating in the autism community back in 1995, Asperger’s Syndrome was little known. Somewhere around the year 2002, there was an answer to so many parents who questioned the behaviors of their kids. Michael John Corley, an advocate of adults with Asperger’s Syndrome said in the NY Times last week, and I paraphrase…”some people needed to give it a name and to understand. ”
For those parents of children who are more classically affected by autism, they will continue to get services; those without language, academic or daily living skills. And we want them to continue to get support.
Even if Asperger’s Syndrome or PDD NOS in no longer in the DSM V, we think that the cat is out of the bag. Awareness has already set in. Parents will continue to advocate and fight for services, classes and programs for their children. One way or another, this will not be a setback but a new road of discovery on ways to support all of our kids.
We know our parents, and we know that they won’t give up getting whatever their children need.
The proposed changes to the DSM-V for the Autism Spectrum Disorders would have a profound impact on those dealing with this disability. These changes would greatly reduce the rates of people diagnosed with autism. The primary question is: What will happen to those that would have received a diagnosis under the old criteria but no longer receive the diagnosis under the new criteria? The biggest concern with combining the different diagnoses from the current DSM-IV (Asperger’s, Autism, PDD ) into one category with only three different levels is that it may exclude thousands of children and adults from obtaining crucial services that are necessary for them to become functioning members of society. Policy makers and school districts will be able to use this change as an opportunity to restrict services to those in need. They may also use the proposed level system of severity to allocate more services to the more severely impaired individuals while more mildly impaired individuals may not be given adequate services. Another extremely important area of concern surrounding this change is that it may restrict insurance coverage for people with Autism that many families and advocates have worked so long and hard to reform and recently pass across the country.
Combining the diagnoses of Autism and Asperger’s may also have a negative social impact for these groups. Many children and adults have formed identities for themselves to help cope with their disabilities and to advocate for services for themselves and others around them. People diagnosed with Asperger’s will often refer to themselves as “Aspies”. People with this diagnosis have also formed social groups during which they meet others with the same diagnosis to discuss difficulties that they face and ways in which they are able to integrate into society. By combining all Autism Spectrum Disorders into one category, people such as the “Aspies” could suffer a great loss of personal identity.
Finally, another major issue with the proposed changes concerns the research that has been conducted on the etiology and treatment of these disorders over the past decades. Many studies select subjects based on their diagnosis. With the combining of the diagnoses into one large category, it will be difficult to compare any research that has been conducted in the past to research that will be conducted in the future.
Here’s a piece that aired on ABC News, featuring ELIJA’s Co-Founder and Director, Debora Harris-Thivierge:
A new study by an expert panel appointed by the American Psychiatric Association is examining the impact that the proposed changes to the definition of Autism under the DSM-V would have both on diagnosis and on access to services. The changes would almost certainly exclude high functioning individuals. For more complete details on the findings and the ramifications, read the full article New Definition of Autism Will Exclude Many, Study Suggests in the NY Times.
This obviously raises a lot of strong emotions in our community. How do you feel about the changes? Do you think it would affect the access that your children or students would have to services?
It’s amazing that a whole new market of educational tools have popped up in the market for educating individuals with ASD. In the last few months, there have been so many apps for autism to choose from that it’s difficult for parents and teachers to navigate and find the ones that will work best for their particular child. There are now entire sites dedicated to showcasing various Apps and describing them in detail to help you narrow your choices. Check out today’s Gadgetwise column in the NY Times for the list of 4 sites so you can make wiser choices for your student.
We came across this article from a few years ago but thought that the content was certainly still relevent: mothers of adolescents and adults with autism have stress levels that match that of soliders in combat!? According to the study reported in the Disability Scoop, mothers of children with autism spent a greater portion of their day caregiving, were twice as likely to be tired and three times as likely to have experienced a stressful event compared to mothers of children without disabilities. In addition, their bloodwork indicated that a hormone associated with stress was very low, consistent with people experiencing chronic stress such as soldiers in combat.
That said, the mothers in the group were just as likely as their peers to report a positive experience, volunteer their time and help out their friends, in spite of more stress and less sleep. How much more amazing can one group of people be?
As parents, particularly, the moms out there, do you feel you’re able to manage your stress effectively? Do you have any advice for other parents out there?
The state of Oregon provided iPads to voters with disabilities who may find it difficult to use a paper ballot in Tuesday’s election. The program is being tested and if successeful, will continue in January. Read more about this inititative in the Disability Scoop.
Are you using apps with your students with ASD? If so, which ones? What do you think the value of the iPad and other tablets is to the learning needs of the autism population?
According to this article in the NY Times, the American Academy of Pediatrics has issued a statement that watching television or videos is discouraged for babies younger than 2 because studies suggest it could harm their development. These are the first guidelines issues by the AAP in more than a decade. What do you think of the AAP statement?
Coffee Klatch, a corporation dedicated to providing resources and educational programs for families with special needs children, has a new sister company called Special Needs Talk Radio which features interviews with leading experts, advocates and more in the field of Special Needs. Special Needs Talk Radio debuted on September 6 and will present six new shows hosted by twelve different moderators. This new network is aimed at providing parents with the most current news and information covering a wide range of special education topics.
The network will present six shows that will be broadcasted weekly and are currently scheduled to run through mid-October. They cover topics from Parenting Issues, Raising children with ASD, Special Education and the Law, Inclusion and more. The website also offers interactive features that allow users to be actively engaged in the content by suggesting topics, making comments, and asking questions that can be answered during the live shows.
To find the show schedule and to learn more about each program and upcoming guests, visit:
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has just issued a new report on the prevalence of autism in the United States. The estimate now is that 1 in every 88 American children is diagnosed with autism (1 in 54 boys, 1 in 252 girls). That’s up from the 1 in 110 number just a few years ago.
