Upcoming

This site will gradually evolve into a series of articles about autism, intervention, family education, advocacy and current research. At this time, my intention is to be the primary author of these articles, and to provide links to meaningful sites for follow up.

Great intentions. Meantime, my mother had a stroke about the time of the first post and I’ve been working overtime on personal and family issues ever since.

So let me say for the record, about myself, that I’ve been working with children and adults with autism for about ten years now. I have both strong feelings about autism and a substantial body of knowledge about different kinds of  interventions and current research. Truth be told, if I were rich, I would never work another day in my life, but as I am not, I feel both fortunate and challenged to have found this population in my work and my life.

I’m cautious about biomedical interventions; I’ve seen some suffering in my families that have chosen that route. My preference as a clinician is to work with the family as a whole to develop an individualized blend of behavioral, educational, developmental, and social-emotional methods to support growth and meaningful function in the world. Yada yada, but my point is that I don’t just pick a single approach and beat it to death. We are all individuals, and life is more interesting for all when we keep that in mind. 

I have sympathy or empathy or both for people with autism, their families, friends and teachers as they experience distress, trying to negotiate through our complicated world. I also have affection and moments of wonder. When connecting on a personal level with someone who has autism, I often feel that I’ve been given a visual hug – powerful, but fleeting.

That’s all for now. Back to my family and my laundry and pets and weekend chores. If you’ve stopped by for a quick look, please feel free to ask questions or suggest topics. I anticipate posting only once or twice a month until things settle down a bit.