Autistic Daily

Redbook magazine is featuring 3 installments of a day in the life of a mother of three with an autistic son as she tries to seek treatment, help, and advice for him.

Nicole Kalkowski and her husband have discovered their son, Ryan, has regressive autism. Ryan appeared to be developing normally until about 17 months, when his autistic symptoms surfaced.

“Living With Autism” can currently be found in the July issue of Redbook.

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FF6600 on Flickr

We briefly touched on a few sports that help autistic children develop athletically earlier in the week.

Now, yet another sport, rock climbing is purported to be good for their physical development and confidence skills, with some programs being endorsed by autism advocate groups.

Katherine Weadley, Boulder Rock Climbing Examiner, points out that climbing works to improve motor skills that autistic children often have troubles with.

“Climbing and related activities help to develop the vestibular system (balance) and proprioception (spatial body awareness). It improves overall muscle tone in people who typically have undeveloped muscle tone. Fine motor skills (fingers and toes) and gross motor skills (legs, arms) are developed simultaneously by this sport.”

Programs exists for autistic and other individuals who are challenged.

In Utah, for example, Splore’s Rock On! offers a rock climbing program specifically for autistic children and has recently received a grant from the autism advocacy group, Autism Speaks.

And in Boulder, Colorado, ABC Kids’ Climbing gives one on one private instruction to children with disabilities.

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Svadilfari on Flickr

The parent of an autistic or Asperger’s child may have it easier when it comes to drawing up the grocery list every week, as many children on the spectrum have very restrictive food preferences.

But this predictable palate may lead to nutritional deficiencies that parents may need to be on the lookout for.

Research at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies meeting in Baltimore in May found children on the spectrum could benefit from increasing variety in their diets.

Using what they called a “food variety score,” the research team found children with autism not only had lesser degrees of food variety than normal children, they also suffered from nutritional deficiencies.

The researchers recommended screening children for food variety, as this could be a clinical marker for problems later on in development.

“Children with low food variety scores who are at risk could then be referred to dieticians or therapists to help them expand food choices and improve nutrition,” said Michelle Zimmer, MD, lead investigator and a pediatrician in the division of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics at Cincinnati Children’s.

via theautismnews.com

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• Enhansa: An Effective Autism Supplement?
• Loopey The Pig + City Ordinance = Autistic Boy’s Heartbreak
• Autism Rate Now One Percent Of All Children?
• The Sexy Stereotype Of Autism In Hollywood