Tag: autism

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Autism cases in U.S. jump to 1 in 45

CDC

By Ariana Eunjung Cha November 13 at 12:47 PM

The number of autism cases in the United States appeared to jump dramatically in 2014 according to new estimates released Friday, but researchers said that changes in the format of the questionnaire likely affected the numbers.

The report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and National Center for Health Statistics shows that the prevalence of autism in children ages 3 to 17 went up nearly 80 percent from 2011-2013 to 2014. Instead of 1 in 68 children having autism — a number that has alarmed public health officials in recent years and strained state and school system resources —  researchers now estimate that the prevalence is now 1 in 45.

Lead author Benjamin Zablotsky,  an epidemiologist at the NCHS, and his colleagues said that in previous years some parents of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder likely reported it as a developmental disability instead of or in addition to autism because it was listed first. The new questionnaire flips the two categories, which researchers said made the autism estimates more similar to ones from other sources.

As might be expected from this change, the prevalence of other developmental disabilities declined significantly from 4.84 percent based on 2011-2013 data to 3.57 percent in 2014.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2015/11/13/autism-cases-in-u-s-rise-to-1-in-45-a-look-at-who-gets-the-diagnosis-in-8-simple-charts/

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Ridgewood mother, son team become autism heroes

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SEPTEMBER 18, 2015    LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2015, 12:31 AM
BY DARIUS AMOS
STAFF WRITER |
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS

Children doodle; it’s a known fact.

Some pieces are individual works of art, while others are simply innocent mishmashes of various shapes and lines.

But Melissa O’Sullivan saw things unmistakably two years ago when she came across drawings of penciled space men and oddly-shaped beings. In her son’s drawings, the Ridgewood mother of three not only saw pure art, but she also saw signs of enriched expression from a child with an impaired ability to communicate.

“We were just amazed,” O’Sullivan told The Ridgewood News last week, as she shared one of several spiral-bound notebooks full of her son Jake Soper’s sketches and doodles.

Jake, 13, is a freshman enrolled in the Ridgewood Intensive Special Education (RISE) program and has high-functioning autism. Though he has difficulty articulating his thoughts, he speaks clearly and honestly.

He also has mastery over pen and paper, and that’s a skill O’Sullivan and her family have recognized.

https://www.northjersey.com/news/business/mother-son-emerge-as-autism-heroes-1.1412647

Autistic Hero Teeshirts is a T-shirt brand featuring infant/toddler/youth/adult clothing based on Autistic cartoonist Jake Soper’s drawings.

https://www.facebook.com/Autistichero

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How to Prevent Wandering

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July 1,2015
by Vee Cecil

Vee Cecil has a passion for wellness. She channels that passion into her work as a wellness coach, personal trainer, and bootcamp instructor. She also shares her knowledge and findings on her recently-launched blog. She lives in Kentucky with her family.Drowning is a top cause of death for children with autism. Parents and caregivers understand exactly why the number of children with autism who drown
is so tragically high. They recognize that it is directly connected to a characteristic that is common among people with autism—the need to wander.

In fact, the Autism Wandering Awareness Alerts Response and Education (AWAARE) Collaboration notes that 50 percent of children with autism wander.
And because many children with autism are also fascinated by water, their elopement from home can quickly become very dangerous.
With summer getting into full swing, many people are opening up their pools, which can be especially dangerous for children with autism. One of the
best things parents can do to help keep their child safe is to teach them to swim.

This guide on the benefits of aquatic therapy for kids with autism provides great advice on how parents of children with autism can find a swim lesson program
that will meet their child’s needs.

In addition to swimming there are many other wandering prevention measures that parents and caregivers can take. Here is a selection:

Place extra locks on doors. Securing exits is one of the best ways parents can protect children with autism from wandering. AutismSpeaks.org provides advice
on a few options. For example, it suggests using deadbolts that require a key on the outside and inside, connecting doors to alarm systems that will alert you
when the door is opened, installing hook and eye locks that are high enough your child can’t reach them, and more.

Get the neighbors on board. Parents of children with autism can take every possible step to keep them from wandering, but many kids will still find a way out
of the home. And because it’s nearly impossible to make your home 100 percent secure, you should absolutely enlist the help of others to keep your child safe. As
PsychologyToday.com advises, let neighbors and family members know about your child’s autism and their wandering. Be sure neighbors with pools know that
your child might be drawn to the water and ask them to always keep their pool fences and gates secured.

Use signs. Sometimes a helpful reminder can be all it takes to keep a child from wandering. To that effect, WebMD.com recommends posting “Stop” or “Do Not
Enter” signs on or near doors to deter your child from wandering.Track your child. If your child is an especially frequent or adept wanderer, you
might want to consider having them wear a tracking device. SpecialNeeds.com notes that a device can be an “invaluable tool” when a child goes missing, and

FriendshipCircle.org provides a list of tracking devices, along with their features and pricing. While a parent can never fully prevent their child from wandering, taking these steps will help you decrease those opportunities and will make it easier for you to find your child when they develop.

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The miracle that cured my son’s autism was in our kitchen

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By Mackenzie Dawson

June 17, 2015 | 4:04pm

When a doctor told Susan Levin her 4-year-old son, Ben, was autistic, she was shocked. It was October 2007, and autism wasn’t mentioned in the media nearly as much as it is today.

“I remember thinking, ‘Oh my God. What are we going to do?’ ” Levin recalls. “Everyone knew autism was a lifelong disorder and couldn’t be cured.”

Except that in Ben’s case, it could be. And it was.

The family’s journey — the many treatments tried and dismissed, from biomedical interventions to speech therapy to occupational therapy and more — is detailed in her new memoir, “Unlocked: A Family Emerging From the Shadows of Autism.”

Levin doesn’t call this particular cure a silver bullet for autism: There is no silver bullet, no one-size-fits-all approach. Rather, she credits his transformation to a number of things, including a home based and child centered social-relational program called the Son-Rise Program.

https://nypost.com/2015/06/17/is-diet-the-key-to-curing-autism/

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Yellow-shirt volunteers go the extra mile at Go the Distance for Autism

Autism+theridgewoodblog

June 1,2015

Ridgewood NJ, During the sixth annual “Go the Distance for Autism,” volunteers from the World Mission Society Church of God in Ridgewood provided a torch of encouragement for the cyclists riding for autism awareness and education. Lending a helping hand at the largest charity cycling event in New Jersey, about 100 of the volunteers worked in their well-known yellow shirts from early in the morning to the end of the event, held yesterday at Bergen Community College.

“We’re here to cheer, we’re here to win, so push that bike on till the end!” Volunteers stationed at each of the checkpoints shouted with one voice, while also providing cyclists with water, fruit and energy bars.

Even themed costumes were in the order of business for some of the volunteers. One volunteer in particular sported a renaissance outfit and a plastic light saber, yelling, “We are proud of you, we are proud of you!” Cyclists couldn’t help but smile as they passed him by.

“It takes a huge effort to put on this event,” said Chantelle Walker, director of development for Alpine Learning Group, an educational and behavioral center for individuals with autism and beneficiary of the event. “We have never had a volunteer effort like this church group. We’re stunned. We really are completely stunned about how wonderful they are.”

Walker continued to rave on about the great difference the Church of God volunteers made. “I think your crew has definitely changed the tone of things,” she said. “I’ve had comments from people here today, that they feel a different feeling than in years past. They felt a welcome from the minute they came through the entrance.”

The event raised more than $800,000 for the four participating autism programs: Alpine Learning Group, EPIC, Garden Academy, and REED Academy. All four are located in New Jersey, where autism affects 1 in every 45 children, and particularly 1 in every 24 boys.

After being shocked by the unity and selfless of the volunteers of the Church of God during past charity events in Washington, D.C. and Virginia, Eventage, an event planning company, was eager to work with them again and invited the Church to join this event.

“They’re pretty much heaven-sent, actually, because we couldn’t have done any of this stuff without you guys,” said Joey Farmer, director at Eventage. “When the team showed up this morning – a hundred people in the yellow shirts – we were just like, ‘thank goodness.’”

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No links between autism and vaccinations: study

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No links between autism and vaccinations: study
By News.com.au
May 19, 2014 | 6:40am

Whether to vaccinate children has sparked fiery debate among parents for decades.

Many parents feel immunization is unnatural, and there are fears about a link between vaccination and autism.

But a new report led by the University of Sydney appears to have settled that argument.

A review of available data from around the world has found that there is no link between vaccination and the development of autism or autism spectrum disorders.

The study examined seven sets of data involving more than 1.25 million children and concluded that there was no evidence to support a relationship between common vaccines for measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough and the development of autism.

The paper’s senior author, Associate Professor Guy Eslick from the Sydney Medical School, said he was inspired to look into the issue after watching some documentaries on the medical debate.

https://nypost.com/2014/05/19/no-links-between-autism-and-vaccinations-study/?utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_source=NYPFacebook&utm_medium=SocialFlow

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Report: New Jersey’s autism rate is the highest in the U.S.

Autism1

Report: New Jersey’s autism rate is the highest in the U.S.

MARCH 27, 2014, 1:25 PM    LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY, MARCH 27, 2014, 4:34 PM
BY BARBARA WILLIAMS
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD

Autism rates continue to rise sharply across the nation, with New Jersey now reporting the highest rates in the country – one in 45 children here are diagnosed with some form of the developmental disability, though federal officials said they are unsure if that is due to better screening methods or an actual uptick in cases.

Nationally, autism rates have risen 30 percent since 2012, the Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday. One in every 68 children in the United States – nearly 1.2 million children under 21 years old – are estimated to have the disorder.

Boys are hit especially hard with the condition — one in 28 boys in New Jersey and one in 42 nationally are on the autism spectrum, the report showed.

“The rate among boys in New Jersey is over 3 percent,” said Walter Zahorodny, the director of the New Jersey autism study and an assistant professor of pediatrics at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School. “A population with 3 percent of the boys having this is frightening. Some children do improve but many, many CQ don’t have a typical life.”

For the CDC study, researchers looked at community records, and in most cases, the educational records, of 8-year-olds in 11 states, including those from four counties in New Jersey. Experts say eight is the age when autism is most prevalent.

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/report-new-jersey-s-autism-rate-is-the-highest-in-the-u-s-1.752693#sthash.qAII2vkx.dpuf