SPECTRUM CONNECTION

By Toni Lapp
When classes ended at Penn Valley Community College in May, the school laid to rest its ABLE program, another victim of the sour economy, The Kansas City Star reported.

ABLE, an acronym for Academic Bridges for Learning Effectiveness, helps students with learning disabilities — many of whom are on the autism spectrum — navigate the transition to college life. It was founded at Longview Community College and had been in place for 10 years at Penn Valley.
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By Jeanne Holverstott, M.S.

Question: It seems like summer can be full of pitfalls for my son with Asperger’s — the structure has gone away, and he’s no longer in contact with classmates. He is content to play on the computer all day, but seems to get moody more easily. Should we treat summer vacation as a long break from school-year stress, or what?  

Answer: Summer vacation presents a contradiction: Children with autism spectrum disorders thrive on structure, routine, consistency. Summer vacation throws these principles of ASD parenting and behavior management in flux.
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By Toni Lapp

Computerized binocular infrared pupillography measures light reflex in a study participant at MU Thompson Center.

It’s oft been said that the eyes are the window to the soul. Now researchers are wondering whether the eyes can offer insight into a person’s brain functioning. They suspect that pupil response times can indicate whether a person has autism.

Researchers as far back as 1961 noted that children with autism had sluggish pupil changes when attempting to track objects. Building on these observations, University of Missouri researchers at the Thompson Center for Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disorders are conducting a study of pupil response times in individuals with autism compared against response times of neurotypical individuals.

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By Toni Lapp

Critics of Autism Speaks have long complained that the group did not have any autistic people on its boards. Launched in 2005 by grandparents of an autistic boy, through a series of mergers Autism Speaks has quickly grown into the nation’s largest autism advocacy and research organization.

But many adults with autism, particularly those with Asperger’s and high-functioning autism, have asserted that Autism Speaks does not represent their interests. They have a mantra: “Autism Speaks doesn’t speak for me.”
(Disclosure: my 17-year-old son with Asperger’s Syndrome considers himself among this group.)

Could it be that Autism Speaks listened? Last week it was announced that John Elder Robison joined the group’s Scientific and Treatment Advisory Boards.
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By Jeanne Holverstott, M.S.

An initial clinical interview with a parent of a child with an ASD commonly follows this script:

Me: “Can you tell me about your child?”

Parent: “Yes. Well, he’s high-functioning. He…..”

Pause Script.

Question to Reader: Have you heard this before? Said this before? If so, complete the sentence with what you have said or heard.
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By Toni Lapp

Several people have asked me for updates on my son Ryan’s job-hunting quest. To date, he has not been called for an interview at the grocery store where he applied, but then, there are probably lots of teens without Asperger’s syndrome who are waiting for a callback, too.
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By Jeanne Holverstott, M.S.
Rumor has it that the new Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-Fifth Edition (DSM-V) will eliminate the diagnostic category of Asperger’s Syndrome, 16 years after its inception in the DSM-IV. “Asperger” symptoms will be combined with those of another mild form of autism to create a new category to be named.
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By Toni Lapp
There have been times that I doubted whether my 16-year-old son with Asperger’s, intelligent as he is, would be destined for college. When he reached the age when his teachers started giving out homework, I began receiving notices that assignments had not been turned in. Heck, sometimes I’d get notices that assignments that he’d completed in class hadn’t been turned in; they somehow got lost between his desk to the teacher’s inbox.

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By Jeanne Holverstott

Q: When we go out to dinner with friends and family, my teen-age son often regales the table with political discussions on topics that are usually out of reach for most kids his age. When he was a preteen, this would elicit chuckles from our friends. Now it’s starting to make me uncomfortable. Sometimes these friends will take the bait and debate him, and it never seems to turn out well. Other times they’ll wave off his precociousness, but he’ll persist. Sometimes he’ll even make political comments to the wait staff. It’s like he doesn’t know how else to engage people. I’m not sure how to handle these situations: by nipping it in the bud, playing along with him and hope it doesn’t go too far, or trying to change the subject.

What are your thoughts?
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By Toni Lapp
Over the weekend I attended Johnson County Community College’s conference on autism spectrum disorders, where I met several other parents, who, like me, were there to find more ways to support adolescents with Asperger’s syndrome.

I’m raising a teen-ager who attends mainstream classes at an area high school. One concern of mine has long been for him to have a social network.
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