Sting of social rejection partly physical

By Louise Kinross Brain regions that light up in response to physical pain are similar to those processed during social rejection, according to a new paper that suggests that feeling ‘broken-hearted’ is not just a metaphor. In this month’s Current Directions in Psychological Science, Naomi Eisenberger, co-director of the Social Cognitive Neuroscience Lab at UCLA, surveys recent research that shows that social pain triggers neural...

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Should kids be asked to care for a disabled sib?

This is the author's note to Pillow: A sibling story, which was written by Sophia Isako Wong. Sophia has a 40-year-old brother with Down syndrome. She is an associate professor of philosophy at Long Island University in Brooklyn, New York. She writes about political and educational inclusion for people with cognitive disabilities and justice within family relationships. I wrote this story to illustrate how typical siblings may feel...

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Pillow: A sibling's story

This is a short story written by an adult sibling about the emotional bind siblings feel when they're burdened by excessive caregiving of a brother or sister with disability. We will follow the story this weekend with a note from the author about her personal experience and research. I hope this will spark a lively discussion. Pillow: A sibling's story Every time Sister packs for a trip, she takes along Pillow, a battered cushion...

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Friendship part 2

A week ago a blog of mine was picked up by the Huffington Post. It was about the lack of friends in my son Ben's life -- and research showing that isolation is a significant problem for our children, particularly in the teen years, when their social world shrinks instead of expanding. It's not a topic that anyone likes to talk about. Who wants to admit that their child has no friends? It really hit me a couple of years ago when I was programming...

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The upside of going downhill

  The upside of going downhill By Ijeoma Ross We happened upon skiing almost by accident. Four years ago we had a bad case of cabin fever. Canadian winters are hard with a child in a wheelchair. Going down south or on a cruise was too expensive. Cruising online we happened across Maine Handicapped Skiing (now Maine Adaptive Sports and Recreation) based at Sunday River Ski Resort. We couldn’t believe that our...

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CHOP apologizes to Rivera family

The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia apologized yesterday for the way it communicated with the Riveras, who said they were told daughter Amelia (above) was not eligible for a kidney transplant because of intellectual disability. Children's hospital apologizes to family of disabled girl for insensitive statem...

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A change of mind

This quote from No Ordinary Boy author Jennifer Johannesen (above with son Owen) sums up what I got last night from her BLOOM talk at Holland Bloorview. “Your own experience of your child can improve and blossom and grow in a way that is not attached to achieving anything.” Jennifer spoke about a shift in how she looked at Owen's disabilities: from that of high-achieving new mom who undertook her complex son's care like...

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No Ordinary Boy author launches BLOOM speaker series

No Ordinary Boy author Jennifer Johannesen launches the BLOOM speaker series tonight in the Family Resource Centre at Holland Bloorview! Tonight Jennifer talks about society’s expectations for constant improvement, how this plays into therapy for children with disabilities, and how families can be left shouldering more burden than they want or can handle. In the BLOOM clip above, she talks about her book as a whole. Thank you Jennif...

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My Child's Dream: To Have Friends

The Huffington Post is running this BLOOM post from last week: My Child's Dream: To Have Friends There is growing research showing kids with disabilities are largely friendless and that the older the kids get, the worse their isolation. The numbers are stark and I think would be cause for concern (from a health perspective) if they pertained to any other population of children. This blog has had close to 800 pageviews at BLOOM and seems to have...

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The kid writes

Ben was never able to write because of fine-motor problems. In the summer he began Kumon and now he can even sign car...

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All students deserve high standards, choice

It was a treat when Ben came home Tuesday night with a course catalogue for choosing his courses for Grade 10. He has to take math and science and history and English – what you’d expect as part of any education – but he also has some choice in non-academic courses like construction technology and drama. The courses are part of a well-thought out high-school curriculum designed by the Ontario Ministry of Education. The reason this was...

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'Normal:' It's not all it's cracked up to be

We ran a condensed version of this interview, but I'm sharing the full version that appears in the winter issue of BLOOM. I think it's a powerful message for families and professionals. Louise Dr. BJ Miller was a successful Princeton sophomore when he and his buddies decided, on a lark, to climb atop a parked commuter train; the lark turned dark when the train’s electric voltage arced to his metal wristwatch, resulting in the...

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Social world shrinks as disabled kids grow

Soon after our son Ben was born, a geneticist gave us the news that our baby had a greater than 50 per cent chance of having a rare genetic disorder. After listening to a vague description of potential bone and development problems, and clinging to the stat that 25 per cent of these kids were intellectually 'normal,' my husband asked, through silent tears: "But will he still be able to run and jump and play with his friends?" At...

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This and that

After trauma: Why me? An interesting response to a parent of a child with disability from Daniel Gottlieb, a quadriplegic after a near-fatal car accident and author of two books about his relationship with a grandson who has autism. Wonder dog: A golden retriever reaches a raging boy Disabilities can be workplace assets Outcry over disabled girl's transplant care renews eligibility debate in American Medical News from the American...

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Shoes till spring?

In what is being described as Toronto's 'non-winter,' the kid has yet to don his winter boots and we've hit February! Boots are always a challenge for Ben because he can't wear his orthotics in them and they don't have a lift to even out his unequal legs. So walking is precarious, particularly in icey and snowy conditions. We've only had 12 cm of snow since November -- far below the usual load of 56 cm we get -- and what...

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New autism definition makes sense, a clinician-scientist says

Media reports about changes to the definition of autism have led to fears that some children would no longer meet criteria to get services. An expert panel of the American Psychiatric Association is proposing a change as it prepares the fifth edition of its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) – the first major revision in 17 years. I interviewed Dr. Jessica Brian, a clinician-investigator in the Autism Research Centre...

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