Survey for NZ parents who have sought ORS/ORRS for their child

This is a message specifically for my New Zealand readers. Please consider taking part in a current survey about your experiences with ORRS / ORS, and choosing a school for your child. The researchers are looking for anyone who has … Continue reading →

Review of Seth Mnookin’s “The Panic Virus”

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“The Panic Virus” is a tale of vaccines gone wrong and vaccines gone right, and how it is that autism got so tightly wrapped up with the issue of vaccine-injury. Seth Mnookin makes it easy to understand how desperate parents … Continue reading →

Autism, by any other name…

There are a wide range of responses to the proposed changes to the DSM criteria for autism (due to come into effect in 2013). Some view it positively for the exact same reason that others view it negatively (“Aspergers will … Continue reading →

The impact of birth order, on attitudes towards the child, autism, and parenting

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My first child was autistic. The fact that I hadn’t raised or parented a child previously, had a huge impact on my experiences with and attitudes towards autism. The combination of first-time-mother anxieties and experiential ignorance, with a special-needs child … Continue reading →

Autism & Oughtisms’ Facebook Page

I’ve had a few people ask me over the last couple of months, whether I had a Facebook page for my blog. Since I’ve just been asked again, I’ve decided to set one up. I’m not exactly tech-minded, but I’m … Continue reading →

Commentary on results of “World Autism Views” survey

Last month I took part in a “world autism views” survey by an organisation called “Relate to Autism”. I came across it randomly via a local online forum. As you can see from the discussion in that forum thread, we … Continue reading →

From my old blog: “Discovering my Son”

Back in 2009 I tried blogging about my son’s autism as a therapeutic exercise that had been recommended to me by a friend. I felt awkward about writing about my son so publicly, so I didn’t turn on the search … Continue reading →

Autism is not

(All of these misunderstandings about autism, are ones I’ve had to personally deal with, most of them in face-to-face conversations. I recently had to deal with a bunch of these over a phone call.) Autism is not the inability to … Continue reading →

The Crying Stranger in the Playground

Yesterday I took my one year-old to the local playground. The morning’s rain was still collected in puddles at the bottom of slides, and the grass fields alongside were full of hidden marshes that threatened to pull my slip-ons from … Continue reading →

Dear Sleep

Dear Sleep, We haven’t spent much time together lately, and I miss you like crazy. No, that’s not quite right. Missing you is driving me crazy. Maybe you feel I abused you when I was a child; pretending we were … Continue reading →