From the Boston Globe, Associated Press:

The attorney for 17-year-old John Odgren asked a judge to throw out a first-degree murder indictment against his client, arguing that a prosecutor had cut off a grand juror’s questioning about Odgren’s Asperger’s syndrome.

Odgren has been accused of using a 14-inch kitchen knife to fatally stab another student through the heart at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School in Massachusetts.

Attorney Jonathan Shapiro maintained that Odgren’s syndrome would make it impossible for him to have planning the killing. (Odgren at left, above, with Shapiro.)

Column by Richard J. Dalton Jr. in Newsday:

Adults with autism spectrum disorders are now achieving greater levels of independence than ever before, and with their increased autonomy come concerns about whether they can successfully manage their own financial affairs in a world they don’t completely understand.

Parents worry that these young people can be too naive and trusting to successfully engage in complex financial transactions, and that they may become easy targets for those seeking to take advantage of them. Parents are increasingly considering seeking legal guardianship for their adult children, which would give them the right to make medical or financial decisions on their adult child’s behalf.

(more…)

From the Seattle Times:

Emilia Murry Ramey and Jody John Ramey were introduced by a mutual friend when they were students and have been married since 2006.

The pair, who both have Asperger’s syndrome, have written a book that grew out of their own experiences: “Autistics’ Guide to Dating: A Book by Autistics, for Autistics and Those Who Love Them or Who Are in Love with Them.”

They emphasize communication and try to break down stereotypes.

“A lot of literature on autistics comes from the medical community that shows autistics as broken and in need of fixing,” Jody said. “We don’t talk about autism as a deficit at all. We talk about how to sell the positive traits of autism in a romance.”

See earlier post here.

Orwell, Einstein and Jefferson

From the [UK] Telegraph:

Many leading figures in the fields of science, politics and the arts have achieved success because they had autism, says Michael Fitzgerald, professor of psychiatry at Trinity College, Dublin. He cited Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, Thomas Jefferson, George Orwell and H. G. Wells as examples.

Fitgerald reached his conclusion after comparing the characteristics of about 1,600 people he has diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders with the known biographical details of famous people. He is co-author of the book Genius Genes: How Asperger Talents Changed the World.

Schuyler’s Monster: A Father’s Journey with His Wordless Daughter, by Robert Rummel-Hudson. Due out next week.

Rummel-Hudson’s daughter Schuyler was diagnosed at the age of 18 months with a rare neurological disorder that prevents her from being able to speak unassisted. This book chronicles his efforts to become the father his daughter needs. From the author’s “letter to readers”:

“… I wrote Schuyler’s Monster for the same reason that I have done just about anything of worth over the past seven years. Schuyler deserves a voice. She deserves to be heard, and the story of her fight against her invisible monster is the most inspiring one that I have known. That it has fallen to me to be the one to share it with you is the happiest accident of my life.

“This memoir exists in part so that you can know that such a little girl ever existed. When you read this book, it is my hope that perhaps, against all logic and in defiance of most parents’ secret desire for the “perfect” child, you might just envy my place in her world a little.”

______

Road Map to Holland: How I found my way through my son’s first two years with Down syndrome, by Jennifer Graf Groneberg. Due out in April. A nuanced and beautifully written account of one mother’s journey of discovery. From the book jacket:

“… a story of the love between a mother and her son — the child she didn’t know she wanted, the child she always needed.”

(more…)

Sports teams get kids with disabilities onto the ice

By Michael Winerip in the New York Times:

An unsentimental look at a day in the life of Brian Collins and his son Danny at an American Special Hockey Association game in Hicksville, NY. Danny,13, has Down syndrome and plays for the Long Island Blues. The association now has 50 teams, and many of the players have Down syndrome, autism, ADD, Tourette’s syndrome, Asperger’s and cerebral palsy.

“We look like no other hockey you’ve ever seen,” said Jon Schwartz, who is the national association vice president and coach of the New Jersey Daredevils.

Danny loves playing offensive hockey. He also loves routine, French fries, Coke, pepperoni, “High School Musical” (the CD) and “The Night Before Christmas” (the book).

(more…)

From New York Magazine, the New York Times:

Filmmaker Lizzie Gottlieb spent six years making “Today’s Man,” a documentary about her brother Nicky, who was diagnosed with Aspberger’s syndrome at the age of 20. Now 29, Nicky is depicted as highly intelligent but socially inappropriate, aware of his disability but unable to modulate its effects.

The film documents Nicky’s quest to hold a job, get an apartment and make friends. It also muses on what will happen to Nicky and Lizzie upon the death of their parents, former New Yorker editor in chief Robert Gottlieb and actress Maria Tucci.

(more…)