From the Detroit Free Press, a combination feature and restaurant review of the K.C. Cafe in Pontiac, Michigan, a lunchtime restaurant staffed by 12 cognitively impaired young adults with autism, Down syndrome and other learning challenges.

Special education teacher Harriett Silverman (left, center) set it up with the goal of teaching the students skills that will help them land and keep real jobs.

The food is praised as healthy, delicious and reasonably priced, and health inspectors are impressed by the crew’s use of proper food-handling techniques. “I’m so proud of our kids and what they can do,” Silverman says. “I just wish more places would take a chance and give them jobs.”

Fulfilling lives possible for people with Down syndrome, with proper care

‘We just want these kids to be valued and respected’

The Lexington [Kentucky] Herald-Leader carries a profile of Julia Steinman, a teenager with Down Syndrome, that launches into a deeper exploration of what new parents of children born with Down Syndrome need to know.

Julia’s family and other parents of people with Down syndrome want doctors to speak about the condition more positively. They say from experience that early intervention and a nurturing environment are helping many people with Down syndrome to graduate from high school and go on to live satisfying, productive lives.

Studies by Dr. Brian Skotko, a pediatrician at Children’s Hospital Boston and Boston Medical Center, have shown that women whose fetuses or children are diagnosed with Down syndrome often receive inaccurate, incomplete and insensitive information. “Obstetricians simply do not know what the most up-to-date portrait of Down syndrome is,” said Skotko.

Brighter Tomorrows, an interactive educational tool for doctors, aims to change that. It asks doctors to congratulate parents on the birth of their child. It tells them to point out the physical characteristics their child has, how it might point to Down syndrome, and to refer patients to parent groups and other resources.

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For World Autism Awareness Day, an essay that attempts to help readers understand the complexities of loving a young adult with profound special needs.

Writing for a Seattle Post-Intelligencer blog, Janice Williams says she doesn’t need the smiling children featured on CNN to explain autism to her. Her 27-year-old son “Todd” has autism, along with medical issues and challenging behaviors. He lives in a nursing home — and knowing that he is well cared for there allows Williams to sleep at night.

Williams offers encouragement to young parents who may be fearful about their child’s future.

It can get better. Sometimes it gets worse before it gets better, but overall, I’ve found the aging process to help. Some things do pass away with time. New challenges arise, but you’ll be stronger and more experienced, so they will not feel as hard as the challenges at the beginning …

… Today, I salute the parents who love the children who are different. Who don’t fit in. Who never will fit in.

Years ago I made a promise to my child “There is a place for you in this world, and I will help you find it.” I renew that promise every day, with each small loving step I can find it in myself to take — steps made possible by the love and support of everyone in my family. Together, we have found a happy life for ourselves and this unique child. We dreamed new dreams, and who’s to say our dreams are not worthwhile?

Op-ed by Linda H. Davis in the Washington Post in honor of World Autism Awareness Day. Davis’ 21-year-old son Randy has autism.

While greater media attention on autism is certainly welcome, virtually all coverage of autism in recent years has focused on a cure or on the education of young autistic children. You would think that, like children in a fairy tale, autistic children never grow up. Yet parents are getting old, tired and ill caring for their adult children. And they are doing it while state and federal budgets, already lean, are getting perilously thinner. How is society going to pay for the permanent care of millions of our citizens? What kind of lives are we going to give them? How are we going to support their families, many of whom care for their children into adulthood as they themselves wear down?

… Though many Americans are familiar with the 1997 Individuals With Disabilities Education Act, which mandates a free and appropriate education until age 22 for children who have disabilities, few seem to know or care that there is no similar legal mandate for them after age 22. As states struggle to serve their most vulnerable citizens while dealing with budget cuts at all levels, the number of Americans with disabilities swells.

… It’s the big picture — who will love and care for Randy after his father and I are gone — that keeps me up at night.

From the Associated Press in the Washington Post:

For some students with disabilities, the end of high school can mark an abrupt end to support services that have helped them since early childhood. Advocates say young adults with disabilities face waiting lists and tight funding for needed services, impeding their ability to lead independent lives after they leave school.

Among the problems cited: schools that focus on academics at the expense of independent living skills; lack of coordination between schools and service providers, and a lack of student-centered planning. “It can feel like sinking into an abyss,” said one parent.

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.

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