Chantal Sicile-Kira

Becoming a mom changes your life, and sometimes as a result you are propelled to change the world. Elaine Hall is one of those mothers who has made an impact in her community while raising her child.

Elaine Hall is a mom who rocks -- rocks and rolls, to be...

"Mother is a verb, not a noun," says an old proverb, and this month I'll be honoring a few mothers in my blog posts who are verbs personified: mothers who are making an impact in their communities while raising their children.

Today's honoree is Areva Martin, Esq., mother...

New figures have just been released by The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) just in time for Autism Awareness month: one in 88 children and one in 54 boys in the U.S. has an autism spectrum disorder. We'll be hearing about the need for services for...

Recently I discovered that my 23-year-old autistic son, Jeremy, has synesthesia. He sees numbers and letters in colors. He also sees people's names based on the color of their personality. Green represents calm, red represents anxiety. Last week I was his support person for a full day and...

On Dec. 8, a French judge in the Lille Regional Court in France must decide whether or not to ban a documentary by Sophie Robert, "The Wall: Psychoanalysis Put to the Test for Autism," that highlights the treatment -- psychoanalysis -- that families are offered in France when seeking help...

Recently one of my publishers sent me a book, Following Ezra: What One Father Learned About Gumby, Otters, Autism, and Love from His Extraordinary Son. Having just emerged from many months of researching and writing book number five on autism, I was not predisposed to read anything associated...

Dear Governor Brown,

Recently, I read a an article in Disability Scoop discussing a 50-state analysis from United Cerebral Palsy that compared services to the disabled offered across the country, giving preference to states where more individuals are served in the community as opposed to institutions.

California ranked...

Dear Governor Brown,

As I write this, both the Assembly and the Senate Budget Subcommittees on Health and Human Services are preparing for hearings on proposed cuts to Developmental Services.

When I voted for you in 1978, I was working at Fairview State Hospital and was preparing young adults with...

As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them. -- John Fitzgerald Kennedy

Ten days ago, I attended the National Autism Association's (NAA) annual conference in Florida and was thrilled to be able to spend a...

Today as we toured the local community college, my son (who is severely impacted by autism and has little verbal skills) turned to me and spelled out on his letter board, "Mom, you are nice to help my dreams come true."

How could I do any less than to help...

Recently I was invited to Paris to present at a prestigious international colloquium on autism and education, which was organized by the INS HEA, the French Ministry of Education's training institute for special education teachers. Seventeen years earlier, I had left France because in those days, children with autism did...

On Tuesday, May 11, The Horse Boy airs nationally 10pm EDT on the PBS series Independent Lens.

The Horse Boy is a film about a dad (Rupert Isaacson) and a mom (Kristin Neff ) who are trying to do what hundreds of thousands of families in America do...

Spring is here and with Spring comes April, and with April comes Autism Awareness month, a mixed blessing as far as I'm concerned. The advocate in me wants to get out there and increase the general public's knowledge base on this topic (thus my recent book 41 Things...

International Autism Awareness Day is on Friday, April 2nd and what better way to celebrate than by watching an HBO documentary about a family from Iceland that travels to the United Kingdom, Denmark, and many different states in the US to find ways to help their child with autism?

Producer...

Temple Grandin, a world-renowned designer of livestock handling facilities and a professor of animal science at Colorado State University, is arguably the world's most famous person with autism. Temple has written many books about autism, others about animals, and even more about both. Last week I called Temple (who wrote...

Dear Santa,

This year, I am not asking for a cure for breast cancer, or cures for world hunger, ignorance, the crappy world economy, homelessness, the negative aspects of autism, greediness, war, global warming, or any other crisis facing the world today.

This year, I am being purely selfish and...

Dear Arnie,

I hope you don't mind me calling you Arnie, but I feel like we have a lot in common. My family also immigrated from Europe to follow the American Dream, and a couple of years ago I had the pleasure of meeting one of your wife's relatives --...

This morning, the headline of my San Diego Union Tribune read: Case stirs military recruiting questions - Autistic man in brig, facing court-martial. I read this after helping my son - who is non-verbal and severely impacted by autism - get on his special education bus for the ride to...

When my parents moved to America from France in the early 1950's, maman was eight months pregnant. She left behind her large, boisterous and close-knit family in France and followed papa because he wanted to start a new life in the New World. In those days, French people didn't just...

Recently I traveled to Mexico (see Autism and Hope, South of the Border) and came back really sick, so sick that I visited my medical clinic three times in two weeks. Last Friday, I actually got to see my regular doctor, but that was before we knew the swine...