RECOMMENDED: "Disney, Treatment for Children With Autism" by autism parent and advocate, Anne Dachel

[proverbialwisdom]

Last edited Mon Mar 10, 2014, 04:19 PM - Edit history (3)

http://annedachel.com/2014/03/09/disney-treatment-for-children-with-autism/#sthash.VKjHm8GR.dpuf

Disney, Treatment for Children With Autism

Mar 09
by Anne Dachel

Disney has become a treatment for children with autism, as Ron Suskind, journalist for The New York Times and Animated Language Learning, an Irish company show. One of Suskind’s children, Owen, started showing signs of this disease when he was three years old and could only communicate by means of Disney movies, which he watched repeatedly even after he grew up. At the same time, Enda Dodd, the founder of Animated Language Learning developed a technology that educates children with autism with the help of Disney and Pixar movies.

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http://allparentsonline.com
Animated Language Learning

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/09/magazine/reaching-my-autistic-son-through-disney.html?_r=0
See full article (excerpt of an upcoming book) plus multiple corroborating comments and information regarding Q&A with author, Suskind.

http://allparentsonline.com/?page_id=546

The Dodd Family

Enda and Valerie Dodd relocated to the San Francisco Bay area in a final attempt to find a solution to the autism they faced daily with their twin sons, Conor and Eoin. Dedicated to daily development, Enda and Valerie created a state of the art visually based language learning program that has lifted their children from the isolation of autism, and they want to share this success with other families in a similar situation.

http://vimeo.com/12879532
Posted 3 years ago.

http://www.irishcentral.com/news/ireland-based-company-use-disney-and-pixar-to-help-educate-autistic-kids-217363451-237766851.html

Ireland-based company use Disney and Pixar to help educate autistic kids
IrishCentral Staff Writers @irishcentral July 29, 2013 04:02 AM

Animated Language Learning, run by Irishman Enda Dodd, is developing technology that uses Disney and Pixar movies to help educate children with autism and language learning disorders.

The Ireland-based company is set to create 100 jobs, creating this technology that could improve the lives of these children and help them communication with the world around them.

Dodd told TheJournal.ie “People who are diagnosed as autistic or with language disorders are highly intelligent individuals – they can see the structure of things and organise visual thought and idea much like an architect or a surgeon.

“Their problem is that they lack language so they can’t communicate this.”

Dodd was inspired to create this technology by his two sons, Eoin and Conor, who are both autistic.

He said “When I looked at my own two children at four and five-years-old it looked like they could need institutionalisation.

“They were so severe that we had to go to California to find a solution.”

Dodd worked with researchers in California on trials to test the technology and his own children took part in the first case study.

The technology remixes Disney and Pixar movies to help children associate visualisations with language.

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[1monster]

1. Saved for later.

[proverbialwisdom]

2. Ron to speak at the Simons Center for the Social Brain at MIT on March 12, 2014.

http://ronsuskind.com/ron-giving-talk-at-simons-center-for-the-social-brain-at-mit-on-march-12-2014/

Ron to speak at the Simons Center for the Social Brain at MIT on March 12, 2014

Ron will be speaking at the Autism and Developmental Disorders Colloquium Series at MIT on March 12th. The colloquium is presented by the Simons Center for the Social Brain at MIT and the Autism Consortium, a unique collaboration between 75 clinicians and researchers across 13 Boston-area institutions to seek the causes and develop therapies for autism.

Title: “Mapping the substructures of common affinities for ASD population to create tools for intellectual and emotional growth.”

6:00 p.m., Wednesday March 12, 2014; MIT Building 46-3002 (Singleton Auditorium) Building Address: 43 Vassar Street, Cambridge, MA 02139.

Followed by a reception.

NYT Comments are closed. No longer find info on Q&A with author either. Hmm.

[proverbialwisdom]

3. Anne Dachel reports on autism news from Utah.

http://annedachel.com/2014/03/07/fox13-salt-lake-utah-has-a-higher-rate-of-autism-than-any-other-state-in-the-country/

FOX13 Salt Lake: “Utah has a higher rate of autism than any other state in the country…”
Mar 07

Of course no one tells us WHY Utah has such a horrific number of sick kids and the reporter on the video doesn’t mention WHAT THAT RATE ACTUALLY IS (one in 47).

VIDEO: Utah Autism Coalition official discusses proposed legislation

Christine Passey, Utah Autism Coalition: “Families across Utah have gone into bankruptcy, they’ve mortgaged their homes, and many have gone without therapy. It’s a really hopeless feeling as a parent, to know there is a therapy out there for your child but you cannot provide it . . . The cost of the therapy is $40,000 to $50,000 a year, if you’re providing it yourself. You can imagine that most families just can’t pull that money together out of pocket.”

Comment by Anne Dachel posted at link:

It’s incredible that a disorder that affects one in every 47 children in Utah has gotten so little attention from lawmakers. Do insurance companies refuse to provide care for children who are blind and deaf in Utah? Why is there such discrimination if the unfortunate child has a diagnosis of autism?

We’re talking about children who often can’t speak and who require constant care. Many have concomitant health problems like seizures and bowel disease.

In the face of this, parents are left on their own to deal with an often devastating condition. Lawmakers in Utah need to realize that when we talk about autism, we’re talking about CHILDREN with autism. No one has ever found a comparable rate among adults–especially adults with severe autism whose symptoms are easily recognized. If money isn’t spent on these disabled children NOW, the taxpayers of Utah will be paying for lifetime care cost when they’re adults.

http://fox13now.com/2014/03/07/utah-autism-coalition-official-discusses-proposed-legislation/
http://fox13now.com/2014/02/26/2-proposed-bills-would-offer-resources-to-utahns-with-autism-spectrum-disorders/

[proverbialwisdom]

4. Utah, NJ rates similar according to CDC research presented at Jan 2014 IACC meeting.

http://videocast.nih.gov/live.asp?live=13514
http://videocast.nih.gov/summary.asp?Live=13514&bhcp=1

(~4:15 pm)

BASED ON CHILDREN WHO WERE 7-9 YEARS OLD AND LIVING IN MINNEAPOLIS IN 2010

Overall: 1 in 48
Somali: 1 in 32
White: 1 in 36
Black (excl Somali): 1 in 62
Hispanic: 1 in 80

Technical report to be presented in peer-reviewed literature soon:

3 year study
12,000 children studied
Somali rate similar to rates in NJ and Utah

[proverbialwisdom]

5. Numbers don't begin to capture this.

http://tacanowblog.com/2014/01/27/so-autism-is-even-more-common-than-last-year-who-cares/

So Autism Is Even MORE Common Than Last Year. Who Cares?

JANUARY 27, 2014
By Dr Bob Sears

I was really hoping that my latest blog would be entitled “Finally, Someone Cares About the Autism Epidemic!” But alas, it is not to be. The word “epidemic” is being reserved for the hundred or so cases of measles we see in the U.S. each year (no fatalities), or the very tragic twenty to thirty annual deaths from whooping cough. But autism? Don’t worry, it’s NOT an epidemic, because the government continues to reassure us it’s not an epidemic (Past blogs have been featured here 1.)

Tell that to the one million or more children currently affected (2.)

Remember back when autism was 1 in 10,000 and eventually 1 in 1000? Then 1 in 150 came along, and some of us got worried. Last year we were told it had jumped to 1 in 50. So, I was certain that “the powers that be” would finally step up and declare an emergency. Either that, or show us research that demonstrates autism is on the decline. But silence? SILENCE? What’s up with THAT?

What got my blood boiling again was the latest news (which I didn’t actually see on the NEWS): 1 in 48 Minneapolis children ages 7 to 9 have autism (3.) For Somali children in the city, the number is 1 in 32. We’d heard about the Somali problem a few years ago, and the government figured the Somali issue was due to some sort of genetic factor. The rest of our children in the area, whose parents were voting constituents, were safe. Not so. This latest study shows that Caucasian children in the city have an autism rate of 1 in 36. In other ethnicities, it’s less-commonly identified, thus diluting the total number down to 1 in 48. So, it’s not just some genetic factor unique to certain populations.

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I’m tired of getting my weekly “Eye on Influenza” newsletter from the public health department. Where’s my “Eye on Autism” weekly update? If 1 in 48 of my infant patients is going to develop a disorder, I want to know that the government is on top of it. I want to know that someone, anyone, cares.

Dr. Bob Sears
Pediatrician, TACA Physician Advisor, and author of The Autism Book

References:

1) Past Dr Sears previous “Who Cares” Blogs:
http://tacanowblog.com/2012/04/10/so-autism-is-common-who-cares/
http://tacanowblog.com/2013/03/20/so-autism-is-now-even-more-common-anybody-care-yet/

2) Autism Statistics http://www.tacanow.org/family-resources/latest-autism-statistics-2/

3) Minneapolis Somali Autism Spectrum Disorder Prevalence Project 2013 http://rtc.umn.edu/autism/doc/Autism_report.pdf

http://tacanowblog.com/2014/01/27/so-autism-is-even-more-common-than-last-year-who-cares/#comment-3888

RECOMMENDED COMMENT:

Kendra
January 28, 2014 3:10 pm

George,

Let us look at my state alone. 25 years agao there were SIX children in Oregon known to have Autism and receiving services, special education, therapies. Now, let’s say there was a sudden recognition that autism might be an under-diagnosed – under-recognized disorder that might be affecting some of our children that we were labeling as something else. They often refer to this as “diagnostic substitution”. I would expect that number of SIX children to go up some, let’s say a few percentage points. How about to 50 kids in Oregon with Autism. I still would find that jump alarming, wouldn’t you. And let’s say this newfound awareness swept in some kids with NO previous diagnosis before….”increased awareness”, I would gladly and generously give you another 50 children, though again alarming, so now we would have 100 kids in the state of Oregon, diagnosed with Autism and receiving services.

Now i have to admit that even this gives me pause as i personally do not believe that 25 years ago, 50 years ago that parents, teachers, daycare providers, sunday school teachers simply didn’t notice or recognized the distinct aspects of autism and report that they had children that didn’t simply have retardation or other obvious developmental delays but children who toe-walked, flapped their hands, screeched, smeared feces, couldn’t talk, couldn’t sit still in class, had to have one-on-one educational paras shadow them throughout their day, were prone to elopement, self-injury, lashing out at others, were not just socially awkward but seemed to find it painful to interact with other children and/or adults. I just can’t seem to wrap my brain around the idea that these things would have been missed and that schools should not be going broke and screaming about the costs of these record numbers of children if we simply called them something else, because no matter what we called them, the schools would still have had to deal with them, spend on them, etc. No these number are new and costing billions of dollars, so it simply cannot be diagnostic substituion. Plus the numbers of all other disabilities have held steady in my state based on population percentages.

So, the question is George, what is the number today vs. the SIX children known over 20 years ago. Taking into account the possible 100 I have given you as possible if it is simply better diagnosis, recognition, or diagnostic substitution. Well it is over 8,000, yes approaching 9,000….over EIGHT THOUSAND children in Oregon now diagnosed with Autism and receiving services, special education, therapies, etc. Over 8,000 children who will not likely go to college, join the military, get a job, get married, get a driver’s license, who will need care or supervision for the rest of their lives. Over 8,000 children in one small state alone, that didn’t exist a little over 20 years ago, but do now, who will cost us even more billions to house, feed, assist, care for…well, for a lifetime. These are not simply socially awkward people with quirks, those we used to call geeks. These are children with a profound and devastating developmental disorder, not easily overlooked or missed.

I hope you will rethink your theory!