Mormon Bloggers

April is Autism Awareness month. April 2 was World Autism Awareness day.  I was not made aware of this until a friend of mine wrote about autism and her family on her blog.  One thing she was grateful for was that it was one of her youngest children who had autism, since there were more societal supports, than had it been one of her oldest children. There was a study done in 2006, about marriages and autism.  It is estimated that the divorce rate is 80 per cent among couples with autistic children.  The main stressor being that the couple does not reach out for support. Another stressor is, families are all about communication, husband to wife, parent to child, brother to sister, and so on.  Whereas autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are about miscommunication.  Not understanding social cues, problems in communication, and such.  These therefore affect the family’s mode of communication. Usually for the... Read the rest of this entry »

I came across a fantastic story about a high school senior who takes time out of his schedule everyday to help a family who is in need. Watching the video and reading about this story made me think about how important it is for us to teach our children to look towards others and do what we can to make a difference in the lives of others. Raising a generation of kids like the high school senior, Rudy, in this story will make for a very different world! Check out the story at the following link: http://abcnews.go.com/US/massachusetts-high-school-football-player-rudy-favard-big/story?id=12557335 and let us know what you think about this story? What do you think about Rudy and how can we help our kids have a similar attitude as they grow up? *****************************************************Enjoy what you just read? Subscribe to our posts or become a follower.  Read More →

                                             Autism’s First Child Donald Triplett  (click for link to video) by Linda Shaw  In 1943 Donald Triplett, of Forest Mississippi became the first child to be diagnosed with Austism. His parents chose to not only accept him as he was, but created a hometown environment of love and friendship that refused (even at age 77) to allow others to misinterpret or misrepresent him or his “oddity.”  The scientific study of psychology is relatively new. It was organized only as recently as 1879 in Europe (University of Leipzip) and 1883 in America (John Hopkins University). In more recent years psychologists have categorized children’s behavior with greater detail and labels such as Aspergers, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) Autism, Learning... Read the rest of this entry »

Early in the history of this blog, I showed some disdain for some of my reductionist biologist brethren who in their frenzy to tie religion to brain impulses ascribed the visions of Mohammed and Joseph Smith to epilepsy.  The desire to reduce the entire unseen world into mechanisms, impulses, and a pile of biological functions drives some science worshippers to distraction.  In the comments, I commented on how rare these seizures really are, and I stand by that comment.  As a child neurologist, I don’t run into spiritual seizures.  However, In fairness, any child who feels a profound oneness with God during his seizures, likely does not have the vocabulary to express the wonder of their experience.  I may just have patients who have this experience who cannot express it.       While the experience is rare, it is not unique.  There are many who have described these spiritual seizures.  Perhaps the most verbal and most eloquent description comes from the great Russian author... Read the rest of this entry »

I am having trouble staying silent on the current loud and rowdy health reform argument (I haven’t really seen much debate), then again, I haven’t been silent.  Here is a repost of my position, first published in February 2008, layed out as clearly as I can make it. ———————————————————————————————–      For over 20 years our country and its undying commitment to capitalism have tried desperately to slow mushrooming healthcare costs, and failed miserably. HMOs, Capitation, things that business was confident would succeed where those fiscally incompetent doctors failed, fell flat. Patients, it seems, did not tolerate their health and well-being treated as a business. I suppose business was part of the problem. After during WWII, with wages fixes and worker shortage, jobs starting... Read the rest of this entry »

   Witnessing a seizure is a very frightening experience.  Parents who witness seizures in children fear for their child’s life.  It is extremely traumatic.  Even now, as a trained professional, knowing all the steps I could ever need to take care of the problem, I will feel my heart rate climb with a knot in my stomach as adrenaline starts to flood my system to this day.       So it’s not surprising that in the past, seizures were thought to be caused by demonic possession.  Many an epileptic in the middle ages were treated with exorcism. Matthew 17:15- "Lord, have mercy on my son: for he is lunatick, and sore vexed: for ofttimes he afalleth into the fire, and oft into the water."     More recently, many in the scientific world have tried to paint religion itself as founded on epilepsy and a diseased mind, as the religious experience of everyone from Mohammed to Joseph Smith have been ascribed to an epileptic fit.   Unfortunately, the EEG was... Read the rest of this entry »

The BBC has an  Interesting Article on how the economic crisis is leading to an emotional crisis in many men in the face of trouble providing for their families.  The report on a survey that found men are twice as likely currently to report having suicidal thoughts, half as likely to discuss their trouble with friends or family, and while experience mental health problems in roughly equal numbers with women, they go untreated far more often. This is interesting to me for several reasons.  The suffering goes on largely in silence.  Men don’t use health care in general to the extent that women do and they absolutely don’t use mental health care to the same extent.  One could look at this as evidence that women in our society are oppressed, if it suited their purpose.  You could argue that men are healthier because they are more free from the trap of poverty and childcare.  You could also be dead wrong.  This is a perfect example of how using mental health statistics to... Read the rest of this entry »

The BBC has an  Interesting Article on how the economic crisis is leading to an emotional crisis in many men in the face of trouble providing for their families.  The report on a survey that found men are twice as likely currently to report having suicidal thoughts, half as likely to discuss their trouble with friends or family, and while experience mental health problems in roughly equal numbers with women, they go untreated far more often. This is interesting to me for several reasons.  The suffering goes on largely in silence.  Men don’t use health care in general to the extent that women do and they absolutely don’t use mental health care to the same extent.  One could look at this as evidence that women in our society are oppressed, if it suited their purpose.  You could argue that men are healthier because they are more free from the trap of poverty and childcare.  You could also be dead wrong.  This is a perfect example of how using mental health... Read the rest of this entry »