Posted by Deb on Apr 30, 2010 in
Autism Therapy I remember watching ESPN a couple of years ago and being mesmerized by this amazing story. A professional surfer and his wife starting a surfing “camp” for children with autism. Parents Israel and Danielle Paskowitz saw how surfing had helped their son Isaiah (who has autism) and wanted to share the gift. Parents saw there was a great need in aquatics autism therapy.
Israel Paskowitz was a championship award winning surfer. From the outside, they seemed like the perfect family. But, their son Isaiah had sensory problems. The water helped. Israel gently put his son on a surfboard and Isaiah was a different child. The stresses, the sensory issues melted away. And a father bonded with his son.
Israel and Danielle decided they wanted to share this unique therapy with other children affected by autism. They began to host day camps at the beach where children and their families could be exposed to a completely new experience of surfing. A wonderful, fresh form of aquatics autism therapy.
Read more…
Technorati Tags: Autism Education, Autism Information, Autism Therapy
Tags: Autism Education, Autism Information, Autism Therapy
Autism Awareness Month. Walks everywhere. People are holding all sorts of awareness events. It’s so remarkable. Many parents remember where the Autism “movement” was 20 or more years ago. I can’t even imagine how lonely and isolating that must have felt. I only remember how our family felt in 2002 upon hearing our oldest son’s diagnosis. It changed our lives forever.
At first, it was crippling. Heartbreaking. We chose to tell very few people. Only family members and a few select friends. Family understood. Friends tried, but they didn’t. How could they? I even had one say, “why are you acting this way? He isn’t dead!”
She was right. But our hopes and dreams for him changed. As any special needs parent understands.
He showed promise in the area of art, so we enrolled him in an area art program. He excelled. And a side benefit: he gained confidence and social skills. It was so amazing to see this child blossom.
As I volunteered in h
is classroom, I had the opportunity to work with children who were severely impacted by autism. Back then, we didn’t have the luxury of occupational therapists or physical therapists in the classroom to work with our kids. I had the pleasure of working with a child who touched my heart and changed my life: Gabriel. Yes, Gabriel was an angel. But not at first. He had unmanageable behaviors. Outbursts in the classroom. No one else could be taught because someone always had to re-direct Gabriel. That’s where I came in.
I sat down w
ith Gabriel. We started simply at first. Taking blank pieces of paper and chunky crayons (he was 14 at the time and no one had ever taught him how to grip a crayon or pencil). We scribbled together. I let him lead. After a while, he could scribble on his own. And he was able to sit down for longer periods of time without re-direction. Yea Gabriel!
I will always remember Gabriel. He and our oldest son helped us hatch the seed that is now “our baby”. The Dockery Foundation and Art for Autism. Founded in 2006. I saw that if art could help Gabriel and our son (who were on either ends of the autism spectrum), art could help almost every child impacted by autism.
My husband, both of our sons and me…we have truly been blessed by our autism community. We have been received so much love and support over the years from a very generous community. Families who have volunteered their time for our board of directors, generous benefactors who have donated time and money, and the wonderful families themselves. I smile whenever I think about the little ones scribbling with chunky crayons. Whenever I attend one of our events, I look around and think about Gabriel all those years ago and wonder how he is. And if he will ever know what an angel he was to me.
Technorati Tags: autism awareness, Autism Education, Autism Information, Autism Therapy
Tags: autism awareness, Autism Education, Autism Information, Autism Therapy
Wow…here we 
are again. Another “vaccine” court says that thimerosal doesn’t “cause” autism. Has nothing to do with autism. And vaccines are safe.
Hmmm….
Let’s think about this for a minute.
In 19
99, thimerosal was taken OUT of all childhood vaccines (except for the flu shot). Safe, huh? Thimerosal is a known neurotoxin (mercury). But, it isn’t the ONLY neurotoxin in our kids’ vaccines. You might want to take a gander at the ingredients the next time you are in to see your neighborhood pediatrician. And the mere fact that they inject our kids with HiB vaccine when they are first born? I wasn’t properly informed in the delivery room as to what and why they were vaccinating my boys. It was standard protocol.
If I am to be honest with you, I think our son with autism exhibited symptoms of it very early. We would take him out as a newborn & instead of being curious about the world, he would shut his eyes and “play possum”. He was completely overwhelmed by the sounds and would shut down. We were new parents and thought he was tired. However, after his major vaccines, he would stutter, loose some vocabulary, and become very clumsy. He ran a fever and had yeast infections.
In my opinion (and I am no doctor), I think our son had autism at birth. Very mild case. Do I think something in his environment made it worse? Vaccines, food, water, something? Yes, I do. I have NEVER once heard big pharma, CDC, NIH, no one say: “hmm…maybe these children with autism…maybe their immune systems were compromised by the vaccines. Maybe there is an environmental trigger and since their immune systems were compromised, is it possible that their autism was more severe?”
I believe that our children need to be vaccinated against major diseases. They have turned back the clock on polio and the like. Great job! 
But there HAS to be a way to make them safer and preservative free. If big pharma wants autism parents off of their backs, make single dose vaccines. Work with our pediatricians on a less stringent schedule of vaccination (CDC & NIH, take note here). And take the preservatives out of our vaccines. Pediatricians, pharma, parents…we can all work together and make this next generation of children healthier and who knows? Using common sense might lessen the numbers of children with autism.
Technorati Tags: Autism Education, Autism Information, Autism Therapy, Vaccine, vaccine court
Tags: Autism Education, Autism Information, Autism Therapy, Vaccine, vaccine court
So, the CDC finally weighed in with their numbers last week. 1 in 110 children in this county with autism. That’s actually lower than previously announced (1 in 91), but considering that it’s the CDC (sorry, had to take a gratuitous swipe).
Now comes the fighting within the autism community. And quite frankly, it makes me ILL!
The bio-med community vs. the genetics community. Everyone sparring on Twitter and Facebook over the weekend. I caught a bit of it myself on Twitter, Facebook and e-mail with the release of my book. Oh, well. I have thick skin. Everyone has an opinion as to where autism came from. Truth is: no one truly knows.
Then, there’s the adult Asperger’s community. And I feel for them. They do not feel acceptance. It is difficult for them in the work force. They have had to endure a life of not fitting in anywhere. They finally have a diagnosis. But where DO they fit in? We can learn so much from their experiences, but will we listen?
Honestly, will we listen to each other? Until we do, we shouldn’t expect anyone outside of our community to listen to US. Until we can have respectful dialog and appreciate each other’s differences, we will never advance the one thing that unites us all: Autism Awareness.
I’m sure that you have an opinion on this and I would LOVE to hear it! In the spirit of Christmas and the holiday season, let’s open the dialog. Ideas on detente? Olive branch? Let’s make this one of our goals for 2010. Peace in the Autism Community.
Blessings,
Deb
I was born in Central Florida. Every time the show “Flipper” came on, I was glued to my TV set. I envied Sandy and Bud as they swam with the dolphin Flipper every day (I caught it every weekday afternoon in syndication). 
Little did I know back then that I would be blogging about Flipper? Well, not so much Flipper, but dolphins as a part of aquatics autism therapy.
When our family lived in South Florida, I heard of a “dolphin camp” called Dolphin Cove. Dolphin Cove is located in Key Largo, FL. Dolphin Cove’s autism therapy is headed by Dr. David Nathanson. Nathanson refers to his special brand of therapy as Dolphin/human therapy. His team of therapists offers Special Needs Children & adults therapy with dolphins at Dolphins Cove nine months of the year.
Dr. Nathanson states on the Dolphin Cove website, “Dolphin Human Therapy helps improve skills in speech/language, motor areas, behavior, etc. The DHT program is also family interactive. The staff encourages input and participation from parents, teachers, therapists, and physicians. DHT believes that family involvement, support, and follow-up are essential to the future success of special needs children and adults.”
Dr. Nathanson doe
s say that his brand of autism therapy (Dolphin Human Therapy) does not “cure” autism or related disorders. However, it does help participants improve rapidly. He has seen improvement in people with autism, cerebral palsy, and Downs Syndrome as well.
If you would like more information on Dolphin Cove, this is the link to their website: http://www.dolphinscove.com/dolphin-human-therapy.htm. How I wish for our son’s sake that we weren’t so land locked. This is another out of the box example of aquatics autism therapy helping our children with autism spectrum disorder.
As always, if you have an idea for me to research or a comment, please feel free to leave it here. We are one family, linked by autism.
Many blessings to you and your family,
Deb
Technorati Tags: Dolphin Therapy
Tags: Dolphin Therapy
