Archive for February 2014

Monthly Archive

Autism and Trajectory

Your Child’s Trajectory

I am hearing more and more about people wanting to know the trajectory for a child with autism. First, let’s define what that means.

According to Merriam-Webster Online:

Trajectory: A path, progression, or line of development that resembles a physical trajectory (the curved path along which something moves through the air or in space)

For our kids, it means the path of their overall development from the time of diagnosis to adulthood. When I recently asked one of our doctors to help the parents of a patient whose teacher asked for his trajectory, he told me he’d be glad to dust off his crystal ball.  With no sure-fire treatment for autism and with such a broad presentation of features, predicting the future is a tricky thing to do. Read full post »

Intentional Behavior and Autism

“He did it deliberately consciously purposefully willfully.”

Most parents have heard their child’s behavior described as being deliberate and may themselves wonder whether behavior is done “on purpose” or not. Often it is a disruptive behavior, such as hitting or throwing. We asked Seattle Children’s psychologist, Emily Rastall for her thoughts on the topic of intentional behavior and what tips she has to offer to parents and others seeking to better understand our kids. Here’s what she had to say:

Lynn: Why do you think there is a tendency to describe behavior as being deliberately disobedient or willfully disruptive? Read full post »

Seattle Children’s Autism Center Founding Member Begins New Journey

This month our colleague and wonderful trailblazer, Ruth Benfield, vice president of Psycho-Social Services, retired after 37 years of service at Seattle Children’s. Benfield came to Children’s in 1977, hired as the nursing director for outpatient clinics and as a nurse practitioner. Over the years Benfield has been an administrator over almost every single operational department at Children’s with the exception of the operating room.

Under the umbrella of Psycho-Social Services lives the inpatient psychiatric unit, outpatient psychiatry services including mental health services at Odessa Brown Children’s Clinic, the Alyssa Burnett Adult Life Center, and the Autism Center. The Autism Center opened in 2009, during a time that many thought it was crazy to expand; a recession underway and no precedent for this kind of a center. Read full post »

Hats Off to Tony Posnanski and the Woman and Child Who Sat at Table 9

Tony Posnanski may not know it yet but he will soon learn that he is a hero to many a family of a child with autism. And there are a lot of us out here. So often parents feel the sting of the judgment and criticism of others who just don’t know what we live with. Without even knowing what living with autism entails, he responded to a mom’s simple question with an act of compassion and kindness that many parents have not ever known. And to the mom at Table 9: Thanks for finding the courage to educate others about our kids and our challenges.

Take a look-see at the video interview and read his blog entry about how one mother and a noisy little girl with autism taught him about people and just doing the right thing.