Crime and Punishment: Autism

My son received an educational verification of ASD while in the Headstart program. He is currently in 3rd grade and I have actively participated in his IEP meetings, providing information and making recommendations. In the last few meetings, it had been brought up that he requires more challenges to keep from being bored. The recommendation that he be placed in a higher reading group was dismissed on the basis that he "wouldn't be able to catch up with the grammar". I was not happy with this, but felt it could be readdressed later.

Additionally, last year, my son's stimming behavior manifested in destructive clothes chewing. I personally researched solutions to this problem and purchased a necklace designed to accommodate chewing and "fiddling" for ASD persons. The necklace was confiscated at least twice by school staff because he was chewing and fiddling with it, despite his attempts to explain. He became paranoid about them taking the necklaces and stopped taking them to school.

Wednesday, I received a letter explaining that my son was being suspended indefinitely due to his "tearing pages from several text and reading books". When I asked him about this (because that is NOT something he normally does), he said he gets bored and jittery and tears small pieces out of the corners of pages. Upon further discussion, he said he would like to have the necklaces again.

Meanwhile, I have been trying to get a hold of the school principal to set up the meeting that we have to have before my son can get back to school. It's Thursday and I am still waiting to find out if I can (maybe) get a meeting on Monday. I did get the school counselor, who gave me the run-around and hung up on me when I protested the school's callousness towards my son's ASD issues. I eventually called the superintendent, who is trying to get us the late morning meeting on Monday.

I have tried to explain stimming and the need for challenging material in my son's IEP meetings several times. I have provided non-invasive methods for him to deal with his stimming urges and the staff saw fit to take away his property without the benefit of the doubt. His teacher and most of the staff seem to be completely ignorant of the idea that he would need something different than the other students, despite these same people being responsible for and (often) participating in his IEP planning meetings. His IEP seems to focus ONLY on activities and such that pull him from the regular class with NO solid plan or methods for dealing with him in the regular class. He has a different teacher for his reading class, who seems to have even less understanding of him.

Germ Warfare: Nature is THE BOMB!

Germs are bad, right? Not so fast, there.

There's a new bad guy in the fight against illness, and it isn't a micro-organism, virus or prion (the things that cause BSE [mad cow disease] and  Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (CJD) disease). It's hygiene.

When good immune systems go bad...

The Hygiene Hypothesis is the idea that too much hygiene, being too clean and too not-sick, at too young an age leads to the immune system having not enough to do, so it doesn't work as well.

Sometimes the immune system gets all wonky and results in allergies or even (some speculate) autism. Sometimes it means you don't get the bacteria in your intestines that helps digest food (eating issues anyone?). Sometimes it shuts off completely.

An episode of House in Season 6 resulted in a diagnosis of over-hygiene, or low-functioning immune system (extra-intestinal Crohn's, they called it). Additionally, CNN and Parenting magazine have both done articles talking about the positives of adequate germ exposure (here and here).

Love bugs!

So what does this mean to pagan parents? Well, if Mother Nature (the Goddess) did us right, we should live a more natural lifestyle, embracing not only the seasons, plants and animals, but also the tiny living creatures that we need to live healthy natural lives. That's right: Love nature, love germs!

Aren't they cute?!?

We are made to be little micro-bug hosts, using some germs to practice our martial-immuno-battles on, using some germs to help digest or process certain foods, and using some germs to become immune to bigger, badder things.

Love your kids; get them infected!