As I was preparing for a parent conference, gathering information on autism and making copies to provide to the parents, I realized I was anxious. My stomach was in knots and I asked myself why I was nervous. It dawned on me that I was getting ready once again to tell parents that their child has autism. My Read more
Parenting
EDITORS’ NOTE: The following post first appeared in The Conversation. “Mr. and Mrs. Smith, we finally have an answer for you.” The couple, whose real names we are protecting for privacy, looked at me anxiously. I had been evaluating their young daughter, Sally, in my role as a medical geneticist at the Children’s Hospital at Montefiore in Read more
On the morning of January 7, 2022, I woke up to a winter wonderland. I usually welcome snow—but on that day it inspired worry, not wonder. I am a first-year developmental-behavioral pediatrics fellow at Einstein’s Rose F. Kennedy Children’s Evaluation and Rehabilitation Center (RFK-CERC), where 32 of our 5- to 11-year-old patients with autism and Read more
EDITORS’ NOTE: This post first appeared in Bronx Voice. A year ago, pre-COVID, my team of developmental pediatricians and other colleagues at the Rose F. Kennedy Children’s Evaluation & Rehabilitation Center at the Children’s Hospital at Montefiore, where we diagnose and treat children with autism and other developmental disabilities, participated in an international collaborative discussion Read more
At this moment, parents of school-age children are a focal point of the struggle in the United States against COVID-19. Debates over whether to open schools have now evolved into questions of how schools will function, technology challenges, income disparities, and what the health risks are for students, teachers, staff, and families. The entire situation Read more
Editors’ Note: In a recent Psychology Today post, Rahil Briggs, Psy.D., clinical professor, psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Einstein, describes issues surrounding the psycho-social needs of children from zero to three years old caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. She explains how the disease poses an outsized threat to the mental health of children in a key Read more
