I had my first telephone conversation with Dr. Temple Grandin two years ago. In exploring names for keynote speakers for a local autism event, and she was my obvious first choice. She has been lecturing to autism parents for decades, providing lessons that parents might find valuable, and this parent had heard her speak in the 1990s. Many know Temple from the HBO movie that depicts her remarkable life. To those of us personally touched by autism, she literally wrote the book; diagnosed with "infant schizophrenia" in the 1940s, today she is a … [Read more...]
Why I Team Up! with Autism Speaks
** Updated February 25th, 2015 for the 10th anniversary of Autism Speaks Running with my boy in tow. It's personal. With the recent, (and to most of us not unexpected), announcement by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention that in 2008 one child in 88 received an autism spectrum diagnosis (in 2015, that number has increased to 1 in 66), it confirms that few Americans have been left untouched by this prevalent disorder. If you are among the now millions of parents in this country with a child on the spectrum, … [Read more...]