The Southern Shopper Article

South Central ASD family support group is up and running

By Donald McLeod for Southern ShopperOnline

The South Central ASD family support group is now up and running. You are invited to join them the first Tuesday evening of each month. They meet at 7:30 p.m. at the Boundary Trails Health Centre meeting room and welcome you to attend and share the challenges and triumphs of living with Autism Spectrum Disorders. You can also check out their blog for updates and for the location and time of tele-health sessions. The blog site is at southcentralasd.blogspot.com. Their email address is southcentralasd@yahoo.ca. You may also contact Dianne at 822-4587 or Celeste at 331-3357.

The mission is to support, improve and enhance the lives of ASD children and their families in the Pembina Valley and surrounding areas. the goals are to prioritize information sharing, education and proactively support each other. Educating and involving our communities in the lives of people living with ASD is also one of the groups goals. You are invited to be a part of making families living with ASD thrive in our communities.

Cases of ASD increased dramatically in the 1990s and early 2000. One in every 91 people are born with some type of ASD. You can read more about this on the blog. Autism Spectrum Disorders are a neurological developmental disorder. Autism forms the core difficulties with communication, learning and behavior problems. Asperger Syndrome is closest to autism in signs and likely causes. Unlike classic autism, Asperger Syndrome people have no significant delay in language development.

Pervasive development disorder not otherwise specified PDD-NOS diagnosed when criteria not met for a more specific disorder such as Autism or Aspergers. Some sources include Rett Syndrome and childhood disintegrative disorder which share several signs with autism but may have unrelated causes. Some sources combine ASD with these two conditions into pervasive developmental disorders.

To view other articles in The Southern Shopper, click here.