I Speak of Dreams

Inspired by Thus Spake Zuska: 12 months of I Speak of Dreams

Twelve Months of TSZ (2010) | Thus Spake Zuska.

The rules for this blog meme are quite simple. -Post the link and first sentence from the first blog entry for each month of the past year.

• January (I skipped the Happy New Year Announcement) Accupuncture Watch
Accupuncture Watch is a part of the Quackwatch family of consumer advisory sites.
• February: Reading Recovery Revisited Most of what I knew about Reading Recovery started with several articles at Wrightslaw, all quite critical of the program. (Farrall;  Tunmer & Chapman (pdf);  Torgesen).
• March: ChelationWatch, part of the QuackWatch Family of Sites: Update July 1 2010 Doctor Barrett has been sued by a laboratory discussed in the following article: How the "Urine Toxic Metals" Test Is Used to Defraud Patients, which describes how chelationists mislead patients into believing that they need treatment for heavy metal toxicity.
• April: Combating Pseudoscience in Autism Treatment: Facilitated Communication The Association for Science in Autism Treatment has resumed publishing a quarterly newsletter, Science in Autism Treatment. The current issue features an interview with James Todd on the pseudoscience of "facilitated communication". Download Spring2010
• May: On Dyslexia This is the WikiHow article I wrote on dyslexia. It has since been flagged for deletion, for reasons I do not understand. The information presented here is more valuable than what is currently available at WikiHow.
• June: Announcing the Thinking Person's Guide to Autism Brand new and recommended.  Disclosure: I am one of the editors.
• July: Zooooommmmbies! Run! (or if it is too late, shamble) It turns out that ScienceBlogs has declared today ZombieDay.
• August: Travelling with Autism Back in June, The Thinking Person's Guide to Autism published Shannon Rosa's essay Outings, Travel, and Autism.
• September: Thinking Person's Guide to Autism: Authors June 6 to August 31: What A Lineup! Alphabetical list of authors June 6-August 31, Thinking Person's Guide to Autism
• October: Skip This Post If You Don't Want To Read A Mom Burbling On About Her Child So Jumper Girl used to have long hair:
• November: #vaxfax On vaccine fears, adverse reactions to vaccines, autism as "vaccine injury" and parental beliefs This week is vaccine awareness week  for blogs that are interested in reality- or science-based approaches to health.As a lay person (that is, not a physician or public health professional) I want to bring my perspective to bear.
• December (I skipped the two holiday announcements & the blogiversary post as they repeat every year) Girls and Women in Sports: Rally for Girls' Sports Day, December 8 The National Women's Law Center is organizing a "Blog for Girls' Sports Day" on December 8, 2010.

So there you go. A year of blogging.

Tamale Pie

Ditz Family Tradition: Tamale Pie

This is one of those casseroles that is infinitely expandable.

Ingredients for every 4 people, more or less:

2 Frozen Turkey Tamales, (Maita Bros' Golden West Brand)
1 can Creamed Corn (14 oz mol)
One can  Black Olives
1/4 lb. Cheddar Cheese, shredded (if you like, traditional,  but I omit it)

Thaw tamales sufficiently to unwrap.  Working over the large casserole you will use for the tamale pie, open the tamales, allowing the masa (the yellow cornmeal pastryish substance) to fall into the pot.  There are several layers:  the outer plastic wrapping, the inner paper wrapping, and the corn husks.  Also allow the stuffing (a mix of tamale sauce and diced turkey) to fall into the pot.  Add the can of creamed corn.  Begin to heat over very low heat.  The mixture should become rather thick. Drain the can of olives, and stir in. Continue to heat the tamale pie over low heat.  When thoroughly heated, you can sprinkle the grated cheese over the top.

Enjoy.

Savory Breakfast Brunch Bread Pudding for Six

 Ingredients

• 12 slices of sourdough bread
• 6 Eggs
• 3 cups of milk (whole or reduced-fat—your choice)
• ½ lb sausage (bulk or skinless links)
• ½ teaspoon salt optional
• ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
•  optional 1 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese

 Instructions:

The day before:

• cube the bread and allow it to stale. This is important, otherwise the pudding is soggy

Night before serving:

• saute the sausages until brown. After they are done, drain and reserve fat and slice the sausages. Refrigerate.

Morning that you are going to serve the dish:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
•  Butter a baking dish thoroughly ( I use a rectangular glass pan). You can also use the reserved sausage fat.
• Have a larger pan available to set the baking dish in.
• Place the bread cubes in a large mixing bowl, and lightly mix in the sausage slices.

Alternatives:

1. Folding beaten eggwhites into mix

a. Separate the eggs, and beat the whites until foamy, and then add ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar, and beat until stiff but not dry

b. Beat the yolks until light yellow, and slowly beat in salt and milk

c. Pour the yolk-milk mixture over the bread cube mixture, mix lightly to coat all cubes, and allow to soak for 15 minutes. You may have to stir again. The idea is to have little or no liquid at the bottom of the bowl.

d. Optional: fold in ½ cup of grated cheese

e. Fold the eggwhites lightly into the bread mixture

f. Spread evenly in the greased baking pan. Place baking pan inside the larger pan in the oven, and add hot water to the larger pan

g. Bake for about 30 minutes,

h. Optional scatter the remaining cheese over the top.

i. Bake for another 15 minutes, and test the center with a knife. It should come out clean.

j. Serve.

2. Easier method – beat whole eggs.  Not as puffy but just as delicious

a. Beat the whole eggs until light and foamy.

b. Slowly beat in salt and milk

c. Pour the egg-milk mixture over the bread cube mixture, mix lightly to coat all cubes, and allow to soak for 15 minutes. You may have to stir again. The idea is to have little or no liquid at the bottom of the bowl.

d. Optional: fold in ½ cup of grated cheese

e. Spread evenly in the greased baking pan. Place baking pan inside the larger pan in the oven, and add hot water to the larger pan

f. Bake for about 30 minutes,

g. Optional scatter the remaining cheese over the top.

h. Bake for another 15 minutes, and test the center with a knife. It should come out clean.

i. Serve.

Parents of students with disabilities and Individual Education Plans: Study and Survey

Cross posted at Academic Remediation

Direct link to the study is here: https://redcap.vanderbilt.edu/surveys/index.php?hash=ec47a5de1ebd60f559fee4afd739d59b

Robert Hodapp, PhD  is a professor of Special Education at Vanderbilt University and is Director of Research,Vanderbilt Kennedy Center and  University Centers of Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UCEDD)

He has a new, national survey seeking participants: Parents of students with disabilities between 3 to 21 years old

Description of the survey:

Parents are naturally interested in their child’s school experiences and services. For most students, academic and social achievements closely relate to the degree to which parents are involved with their child’s schools. In special education, however, we know little about these issues. Few studies have examined parent knowledge of the IEP process, parent advocacy skills, or parent-school relations, nor how each relates to parent stress. Similarly, we do not yet know the degree to which a parent’s ability to navigate the IEP process and collaborate with the school might be related to aspects of parents or of children with disabilities.

This study attempts to understand parent-school collaboration by asking about 5 distinct areas. After a first section in which we request basic demographic information, we then ask about characteristics of the child with disabilities; characteristics of the respondent; and characteristics of parent-school relations and services. We end this survey by inviting you to tell us—in your own words—about your overall experiences in dealing with the school and what advice you would give to parents and teachers.

All together, this survey should take about 25-30 minutes to complete. Your responses to this questionnaire are entirely voluntary and anonymous; they will be used in our ongoing studies of parent-school relations. In addition, you may withdraw your participation at any time and may choose to skip any questions that you wish.

Direct link to the study is here: https://redcap.vanderbilt.edu/surveys/index.php?hash=ec47a5de1ebd60f559fee4afd739d59b

Balance in journalism,"Chronic Lyme" edition

There's a kerfuffle going on over the response to an article in the Chicago Tribune on another questionable disease entity, "Chronic Lyme disease". 

PalMD at White Coat Underground and Orac at Respectful Insolence have covered the issue well.

From Orac:

I do know, however, that it is lazy and ultimately unintentionally deceptive to continue letting the mantra of balance result in promoting a false balance when discussing quackery and pseudoscience. As long as you can defend your position with data, science, evidence, and logic, don't be afraid to defend science and science-based medicine.

I'll go on crying out, NO CLOTHES! in reference to evidence-free approaches to learning disabilities and autism.

Update: Dr. Nescio weighs in at Primum Non Nocere

It does not matter which "controversy" you prefer, there will always be experts, and many more non-experts, that disagree with the consensus. However, a few lone wolves do not a scientific debate make! This is what any competent journalist should convey to his/her audience. As long as those journalists are insufficiently capable of drowning out the noise the general public can't help but be misinformed. At present it has become annoyingly clear that without this massive failure of journalism we would not have an organisation as Wikileaks.

Renaming Conditions Such as Dyslexia: Argument For

This is an important essay from Dorothy Bishop on the interplay between research, naming conditions, and understanding conditions such as dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia, and other neurodevelopmental conditions. 

Right this second, I don't have time to do more than put up a quote from the post, but we will be discussing the essay in depth.



BishopBlog: What's in a name?.

We are stuck between the proverbial rock and hard place. It seems that if we stick with medical-sounding labels for neurodevelopmental disorders, they are treated seriously and gain public recognition and research funding. Furthermore, they seem to be generally preferred by those who are affected by these conditions. However, we know these labels are misleading in implying that we are dealing with clearcut syndromes with a single known cause.

So here’s a proposal that attempts to steer a course through this morass. We should use the term ‘neurodevelopmental disability’ as a generic term, and then add a descriptor to indicate the areas of major difficulty. Let me explain why each part of the term is useful. “Neurodevelopmental” indicates that the child’s difficulties have a constitutional basis. This is not the same as saying they can’t be changed, but it does move us away from the idea that these are some kind of social constructs with no biological basis. The evidence for a biological contributory causes is considerable for those conditions where there have been significant neurological and genetic investigations: dyslexia, SLI, autism and ADHD.

"I've Had Classes in Autism" rejects advice from adult with autism, thoughtful autism parent

This just made my jaw drop.   The person who blogs at How Could You Not, who signs her posts as "Posted by the Boob Nazi", recently wrote a post  The Boy with Autism, in which she observed a boy having a difficult episode in a restaurant, and in which she reveals her theological views about autism and other disabilities.

 

(click to embiggen)

 It was a compassionate post, overall, even though it put The Boob Nazi at the center, not the child experiencing disregulation.

This blogger appears to have a large audience.

Both Shannon Rosa (the parent of a boy with autism who has had difficult episodes in the past)  and Corina Becker (an adult with autism) showed up in the comments to give their point of view on how bystanders could respond.  The Boob Nazi responded with:

There's an ongoing discussion chez Emily Willingham, the parent of children with autism, in which The Boob Nazi responds.

To me l'affaire Boob Nazi is about two things:

1. how pity and fear are poor substitutes for acceptance and understanding
2.  how professionals (like speech therapists and teachers) often disparage and diminish the expertise and understanding that their clients and care-givers can contribute.  

I hope that The Boob Nazi can take this teaching moment to reflect upon what her attitude in this blog posting reveals about her attitude toward her clients.

 

Autism "Treatments": HBOT -- Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Updated List

Almost two years ago, Do'C at Autism street assembled a list, Mild HBOT for Autism: A Brief Skeptical Guide

For readers who may be interested in a skeptical perspective with regards to “mild” hyperbaric oxygen therapy for autism, I’ve assembled a short list of links. These are articles that I’ve enjoyed reading, found interesting, or written myself.

 I've reorganized the list by date and included (a) relevant papers (b) some commentary

• Rossignol, D., & Rossignol, L. epub March 22, 2006 2006 Hyperbaric oxygen therapy may improve symptoms in autistic children. Medical Hypotheses 67:2 , 216-228.
• Do'C at Autism Street April 20, 2006 Autism HBOT: First Look Before you jump on the “Children With Oxygen-Deprived Brains” bandwagon and chase the claimed “healing power” of oxygen, there’s a lot worth looking into here.
  • The underlying science
  • Several clinical aspects
  • The marketing of HBOT
• Do'C at Autism Street April 24, 2006 What Say Dan, The DAN! Doc? In which Do'C  discovered a significant error in Rossignol & Rossignol's calculations.
• Do'C at Autism Street April 20, 2006 Nitpicking Sloppy Science More on errors in Rossignol & Rossignol's calculations.
• Rossignol DA. December 4 2006 Hyperbaric oxygen therapy might improve certain pathophysiological findings in autism. Medical Hypotheses. 2007;68(6):1208-27.
• Do'C at Autism Street July 6, 2007 Ridiculous Autism Treatment Statements - 1-- marketing claims from HBOT providers. "The oxygen level in the patient’s bloodstream is raised many times above normal? That’s incredible! It’s also very unlikely to be true."
• Do'C at Autism Street July 20 2006 Hyperbarics and Hypotheses
• Mike Stanton at Action for Autism September 9 2007 HBOT autism and the NHS
• Do'C at LeftBrain/RightBrain October 7 2007 When High Does Mean Low: Autism, mHBOT, and Dan Rossignol
• Prometheus at Photon in the Darkness: Nov 9 2007 HBOT: Is it just a bunch of hot air?

  it looks as though the “benefits” of HBOT are not due to increasing the oxygen content of the blood. And the jury is still out on what HBOT does to the blood flow, although it should be noted that the studies showing any changes were done at much higher pressures.

• Prometheus at Photon in the Darkness: November 16th, 2007 HBOT: Under Pressure

So, is there a chance that hyperbaric therapy might help autism? Perhaps, but not at the pressures attainable in the “soft chambers” used by most “alternative” autism practitioners.

If they really wanted to see the effects of pressure alone, the HBOT “researchers” could dilute the air in the “soft chamber” with an inert gas such as helium so that the partial pressures of nitrogen and oxygen remain the same as they are at sea level (or whatever the ambient pressure is). This would require (at sea level) a mix of 23% helium and 77% air. It would be a simple test (and safe - even breathing the mix at sea level pressure would not be dangerous, as it still contains 16% oxygen) and would finally put to rest any question about the need for (mildly) elevated pressure.

Unfortunately, the risks of using real hyperbaric therapy (not to mention the costs) outweigh the potential benefits (which are largely hypothetical and unproven), so a trial of real HBOT for autism is probably not in our future.

• Rossignol  et al.  November 16 2007  The effects of hyperbaric oxygen therapy on oxidative stress, inflammation, and symptoms in children with autism: an open-label pilot study. BMC Pediatr. 2007 Nov 16;7:36.
• Peter Lipson Md at Science-Based Medicine October 14 2008 Is there no end to unscientific treatments for autism? Discussion of science behind HBOT, and
• Rossignol et al, March 13 2009  Hyperbaric treatment for children with autism: a multicenter, randomized, double-blind, controlled trial BMC Pediatrics 2009,9:21doi:10.1186/1471-2431-9-21
• Lisa Jo Rudy at autism.About.com March 14 2009 Hyperbaric Oxygen as a Treatment for Autism: Let the Buyer Beware
• Jordan Lite at Scientific American News Blog March 13 2009 Can hyperbaric oxygen therapy help autistic kids?
• Steven Novella MD at Neurologica March 16 2009 Hyperbaric Oxygen for Autism
• Do'C at LeftBrain/RightBrain March 21, 2009 Autism, HBOT, and the new study by Rossignol et al. Discussion of study confounders, especially the effect of altitude of study centers on oxygen pressures, and other weaknesses.
• Nestor Lopez-Duran PhD at Child Psychology Research Blog March 27, 2009 Hyperbaric treatment for children with autism: First controlled clinical trials.
• Swift at James Randi Educational Foundation March 29 2009 Hyperbaric Oxygen for Autism? Not so fast
• Do'C at LeftBrain/RightBrain March 30 2009 Mild hyperbaric therapy for autism – Shh!…don’t say it’s expensive
• John Wills Lloyd at EBD Blog March 2009 Does Rossignol et al Show HBOT's Effective for Autism?
• Prometheus at LeftBrain/RightBrain: April 6 2009 More Hot Air about HBOT: this is a detailed analysis of Rossignol et al, 2009  
• John Wills Lloyd at EBD Blog November 2009 Reporter Falls for HBOT 
• Jepson et al (2010) August 3, 2010 Controlled Evaluation of the Effects of Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy on the Behavior of 16 Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders. J Autism Dev Disord. 

Publicly Funded Waldorf Education Update

The writer known as Thetis Mercurio has been writing a series on publicly-funded Steiner-Waldorf education in the UK at David Colquon's blog, DC's Improbable Science.  Part 3 has just been published.

 

• Part 1 The true nature of Steiner (Waldorf) education. Mystical barmpottery at taxpayers’ expense.
• Part 2 The Steiner Waldorf cult uses bait and switch to get state funding
• Part 3 Steiner Waldorf Schools  The problem of racism 

Recommended if a Waldorf charter is planned for your area.

Previously: Publicly-Funded Waldorf Education

Fundraising Season: A Suggestion -- Recipe for Hope and the Autism Science Foundation

Since I don't bake to speak of, I'm sharing a recipe that's a family favorite.  At the bottom, but you're on your honor to donate what you can to the Recipe4Success campaign

 There are a lot of needs in the autism community, but I believe that funding sound autism research comes high on the list. So won't you join me? Every dollar donated to the Autism Science Foundation from now through December 31 will go directly autism research. This video (1 min 13 seconds) explains the campaign.

For those of you who aren't familiar with the Autism Science Foundation, here's a short statement of its goals:

The Autism Science Foundation funds scientific research to find the causes of autism and to develop treatments that will make a difference in the lives of children, teens and adults. This holiday season, outstanding research is the greatest gift we can offer our families.

You can also read Shannon Rosa's BlogHer interview with ASF president Alison Singer for more about ASF and its goals. You can help the Recipe4Hope campaign by:

• Writing and sending an email to your friends, telling them why you are supporting the Recipe4Hope campaign and asking them to join you. There's a template here.
• If you use Facebook, you can use your status update to help raise awareness and funds. See some Facebook status update ideas.
• If you use Twitter, you can help spread the word by sending a tweet about why you are participating, using the hashtag #Recipe4Hope.
• If you have a blog, write a blog post

You can make an online, cash donation today through the secure dedicated CharityWeb site,

https://ssl.charityweb.net/autismsciencefoundation/Recipe4Hope.htm

(The form on the site will give you options about donor recognition and making a donation in honor of someone else. Some families have taken up giving charitable gifts in the recipient's honor, instead of exchanging tangible gifts.)

If you would like to send a check or another form of contribution (such as a gift of appreciated securities) see this page or contact the Autism Science Foundation

Sweet Corn Confetti Relish Makes: 10 cups

Start at least 2 days before you wish to serve this dish:

Ingredients

• 3 cups distilled white vinegar
• 3/4 cup water
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 tablespoons yellow mustard seed
• 1 scant tablespoon celery seed
• 1 teaspoon finely grated fresh ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon red-pepper flakes
• 5 Turkish bay leaves
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 pound bag frozen yellow sweet corn
• 1 pound bag frozen white sweet corn
• 1 green bell pepper
• 1 red bell pepper
• 1  white onion
• 5-8 ribs celery
• optional: 1/2 cup dried cranberries

3-4 quart heavy lidded saucepan

4 quart bowl, preferably glass

 

Directions

• The goal in dicing is to make the dice the same size as a kernel of corn.
• Dice the bell peppers and reserve
• Dice and measure the onion and celery; add to bowl with the peppers
• In a large, heavy pot with lid, bring vinegar, water, sugar, spices, and salt to a boil for 3 minutes, covered
• Add corn, peppers, onion, and celery but not the cranberries to brine mixture; return to boil
• Lower heat  and simmer, uncovered,  until vegetables are crisp tender, as few as 5 minutes for me, but your mileage may vary up to 10 to 15 minutes.
• Transfer  relish and brine into bow and cool, uncovered in the refrigerator, about 1 hour.
• Cover and chill at least 2 days for flavors to develop.  Alternatively you can transfer to a plastic freezer bag.

• Cranberry option: stir in cranberries about 1 hour before serving.