Care4autism

                                Leaving in a society, in an apartment complex, one cannot do away with your neighbours. When I say neighbors, I mean it in a very general manner of speaking, my next door neighbor, to my neighbors on my floor, to neighbors in my block to all of them in our housing society. Fortunately the first two categories of our neighbors have been very good to us, maybe even fantastic but  the 20% living in our complex have been giving me those minor pin pricks and probably some amusement when I recall these events. This is so with other parents, living in apartment complexes who also say the 80% are generally fine.                                  Recalling these events, one of my “neighbors” in the adjacent block, apolo...

Here are some of the recipes I tried this month  Guava smoothie: 1 Guava 1 Banana 1 cup orange juice 1tsp lemon juice 1Tbsp honey  2 Handful of ice.                                 Peel and slice the fruits in bite size chunks, add the juices and honey, put them in a blender and blend. Protein mix:                             Tried my hand at making a homemade protein mix for Ramam. I used finger millet, (500g approx), 50g ground nuts,   whole green gram, groundnuts, chick peas, roasted gram, 2-3 tablespoons of   horse gram ,black gram , boiled rice (250 g),3-4 small cardamom pods. I did not add almonds, as it may reduce the shelf life of the powder. Fry all ...

The ALFAA (Assisted Living for Autistic Adults) and the autism society of India together organized a day of fun and frolic for the autistic children at the ASHA (army) centre for developmental disabilities, commemorating the children’s day celebrations. More importantly, an update on the disability act, (RIGHTS OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES ACT 2010 – INCLUSION AND FULL PARTICIPATION) and census were also taken up and discussed at length. A new law for disabled persons is being chalked out and is likely to be formalized sometime early next year. A lot of thought has gone in to drafting the recommendations that have been sent forward to the Centre at Delhi. The purpose of today’s agenda was twofold, one primarily to educate the parents on the far reaching consequences of the law once it comes into effect; and secondly to encourage active participation of parents at least at the state level.                  ...

Back in my school days a simple question to a friend, “Why is there no class today” would be answered with a glib, prompt reply “because the sky is so high”. Now, what kind of answer would be that? I would have loved to wipe the smirk on my friend’s face that accompanies this rejoinder. It was considered cool then. So then, I must say my tryst with the “why” questions began quite early in life. It continues to bother me even now in the form of language building exercises for Ramam.                                The therapist would shoot off a question, how comfortable is he with the “WH” questions. I would give a vague answer, he is ok with what questions, not so ok with the where questions and an absolute no-no with the why questions. By now, I almost apologetic for the state that he is in. Recently a therapist asked me the mother of all...

                                    ASHA conducted it’s annual sports meet on the 23 rd of this month, on a Saturday afternoon. The canvas was large as usual. Be it the Ramayana for the annual day, or the sports day, the arrangements are elaborate. From the invocation, to one of the students inviting the gathering, to a ceremonial oath taking, to declaring the games open, to the March fast, drills, yoga demonstration……the works! I had a sense of déjà vu, as the events unfolded for the day. At no point did one feel this is an event organized for special kids. All the students wore a blue t-shirt with the ASHA logo printed on it. The staff also wore kurtis designed by the self help wing of ASHA . The motifs on the kurtis have been designed and block printed by the children.                     ...

                                             Autism charities in more than 40 countries are joining forces to launch a global campaign challenging the world’s 4.5 billion social media users to shutdown their networks just for one day on 1 November 2010.The million dollar question is can you get on for a day without being on twitter or face book. It is an initiative launched to raise funds and awareness for autism. You can make a donation to receive a CHAPP that signals your shutdown across the social networking sites.                                         In the words of Rachael Harris, a counselor and supporter “Electing to shutdown social communication mirrors autistic silence. ...

For those of you on the GFCF diet, millets are definitely a healthier way to go. Especially the health conscious, senior citizens vouch for the goodness of millets. It is a healthier option compared to rice and wheat. Some of them are Finger millet (ragi), little millet (sama in Kannada, koda bagar in Hindi),  jowar (sorghum), pearl millet (sajje in kannada, Bajra in hindi, kambu in Tamil), foxtail millet (tenai in Tamil, Navene in Kannada). The only so called hitch is all these flours is ,they  need to be mixed with hot water, as they do not have gluten as a binding agent. So, here some of the blogs that I came across while looking for millet recipes  http://millets.wordpress.com/  .                                This blog  http://thisissucksman.blogspot.com/2009/03/bajra-roti-simple-and-easy.html   shows you the way to make bajra rotis. Well illustrated with...