..in the first six years after high school 34.7 percent of youth with ASD had attended some college and 55.1 percent had paid employment.

When they looked at youth with ASD who had left high school in the past two years, they found that over 50 percent of them had not attended college or had paid employment.

Compared to other learning difficulties, ASD had the highest rates of unemployment.

I saw this great news segment on ABC the other night about this then-young-man, who fled warn-torn Yugoslavia for America, and who now at the age of 52, earned his degree from Columbia University.

Be sure to watch the video on the linked article.

It’s an amazing story of focus and putting one foot in front of another to achieve a goal and improve a life.

Gac Filipaj took a job as a janitor at Columbia so he could take advantage of 14 free credits per year, offered to full-time employees. He had tremendous challenges working full-time and learning the language (he took 7 years to gain English competence) before tackling his degree course work.

Amazing focus, resiliency and doing what’s necessary to achieve his goal.

[via Richard Wanderman]

The author is Dr. Allen Frances, a former chairman of the psychiatry department at Duke University School of Medicine, and the one who led the task force that produced D.S.M.-4. Dr. Allen fully recognizes the fabulous improvement through standardization the DSM has provided.

However he feels its time to give the group more guidance and oversight. According to him,

Many critics assume unfairly that D.S.M.-5 is shilling for drug companies. This is not true. The mistakes are rather the result of an intellectual conflict of interest; experts always overvalue their pet area and want to expand its purview, until the point that everyday problems come to be mislabeled as mental disorders. Arrogance, secretiveness, passive governance and administrative disorganization have also played a role.

This article repeats an oft-told story (for me anyways) about how race car champion Jackie Stewart,incredibly successful and bright, struggled significantly in school because of his dyslexia.

Mr. Stewart is not exactly “current” as far as celebrities and sportsmen go. However, his accomplishments, even those out of racing, including his consulting with tire manufacturers on aerodynamic design, is the stuff I love to hear about, especially when contrasted by his “slowness” with alphabetics/reading.

I once watched him try and recite the alphabet and even then, it wasn’t automatic..he kind of got lost at “l.”

The message of not giving up, and finding what you love to do never wears thin.

Rest in Peace Maurice Sendak. Nice piece about him, this morning on NPR. He opened up the world of children’s stories to the darker side of children’s imaginations.

But,

Even if Sendak’s main characters sometimes faced scary, even dangerous situations, they always returned home, safe, in the end.

His attitude is that his struggles with school have helped him to become a more sympathetic physician, and one who can relate to his patients’ struggles.

Moreover, his ability to work so much harder at reading, to reach his goal, is really impressive.

On a personal level, I’m very much in favor of people experimenting with nutritional support and intervention with a variety of physical and mental conditions. Professionally, I’m much more cautious about advising anyone else to try specific dietary changes to influence ADHD for example. Over the past five years, I’ve read a lot about the potential for fish oils to improve memory and concentration. There seems to be some decent evidence that warrants further research.

And, eating salmon and sardines a few times a week can’t hurt.

Saba anyone?

[via LDOnline]

How the iPhone has counter-intuitively been a blessing for people with vision impairments.

iPhone Revolutionizes Access for Blind

[via Kottke.org]

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As this article reminds us, the more kids have access to cool tools like iPads, Kindles and the like, and the more they can use embedded features that help them past momentary decoding hurdles, the more level the playing field.

One in five of the American students identified as having a learning disability will walk away from their education. That’s compared to a dropout rate of 8 percent in the general population.

Being understood and accepted is among the most basic of human needs. When “society” (read, schools) doesn’t get “it” (read, you), years of accumulated stress can tear at you and rob society of value. Dropping out of school at such high rates is a waste.

This NPR article reminds us of basic and common misconceptions that litter the pathways to a valued life.

Many people thrive in spite of learning disabilities. Their response to adversity drives them towards achievement, and the lessons learned along the way can teach those of us with more “even” learning profiles a thing or two.

But too much opportunity is lost as a result of being marginalized and misunderstood. Our adolescent treatment centers are filled with examples.