The Autism News

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT

2009-04-23T08:56:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends,

I have been a part of this social network since July 2008 and already I have thousands of friends and followers - I think it really shows how eager people are to connect with others around the globe who are sharing a common experience, my experience is with autism. I have a grandson named Zackary who was diagnosed with low functioning autism from a young age. I wanted to use this website to stay connected with my family, my friends, and people who I have met that are affected by autism in their lives.

One day I sent out a question about autism and to my surprise I received a lot of replies, which I really appreciated! I was amazed at how many strangers wanted to help me find the solution to an issue I noticed in my Grandson, these strangers really touched my heart. A few weeks later I came across some very interesting world news about autism and posted it on my page, it also got a huge response. Not only were people interested in giving me their personal help, but they were hungry for new sources of information about the autism spectrum. From that point until now, I continue to be shocked at how quickly my circle of friends and followers has grown - in these few months I am almost half way to the limit of friends in FaceBook.

There was something very interesting about this phenomenal response in my social network. Everyday, through my web page, I receive two basic types of private messages. The first type of message relays stories of how parents are benefiting from information I provide on my web page. The second type of message is from people who cannot understand English very well, but they really want to understand what everyone else is chatting about. They need this information to help them deal with their personal challenges with the autism spectrum. Personally I don't like to leave people behind when I know they need help - I wasn't left behind when I posed my first question about autism, and I really needed the help too. Even though I am a computer programmer, and my company (People CD, Inc.) developed the first and only web browser designed specifically for use by children with autism (ZAC Browser), I still have many questions about living with autism in my family.

Once again, just as I was compelled to develop ZAC Browser, I was feeling like my computer skills could help others who's lives are touched by the autism spectrum. So, after a lot brainstorming I am extremely excited to announce the creation of The Autism News - the ideal place to find information, news, open discussions and build friendships with other parents in touch with autism. All of the information found on The Autism News website (www.theautismnews.com) is translatable into many languages to make it extremely user friendly to parents globally. Just like ZAC Browser, The Autism News, is a completely free service - and the registration process is simple and quick.

Big hugs to you all,
Sincerely,
John

Quick Q & A

- What is the benefit of The Autism News?

All the information in contained on The Autism News website is accessible to readers in as many as 40 different languages. This way more and more families will access the information, news and open discussions.

- How do I register to use The Autism News?

Registration is 100% FREE. You can register at: http://www.theautismnews.com/wp-login.php?action=register. Once you add your username and e-mail address you will receive your password by e-mail. It's that easy and will require only a few seconds of your time. This is our way of filtering spam

- How will the questions of the day and open discussions will be handled from now on?

We will send the information from Facebook, MySpace, and other social network, and you will reach the questions or open discussion on www.theautismnews.com. You will be able to send your comments to others when you are registered with The Autism News.

- Where do I submit questions, request help or open discussions ideas?

Visit: http://www.peoplecd.com/contact.php and select: The Autism News department. Add your name, e-mail address, question or open discussion in the message area and click send. We will send you an e-mail when your question is published in The Autism News.

This website will no longer submit new article - We are moving all our news to www.theautismnews.com -

Complaint filed against RNC after autistic teen jailed

2009-04-22T09:13:00.000-07:00

Dane Spurrell was taken into custody this weekend, after Royal Newfoundland Constabulary officers assumed he was drunk. (CBC)

By CBC News

The mother of an autistic teenager from Mount Pearl has filed a formal complaint against the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary, accusing the police of wrongfully jailing her son this weekend after mistaking symptoms of his autism for drunkenness.

Diane Spurrell discovered her son Dane, 18, had been put in the local lock-up Saturday night after she called 9-1-1 at 5 a.m. to report him missing.

Dane Spurrell said he was returning home from the video store in Mount Pearl when police approached him on a stretch of Topsail Rd. and told him to get onto the sidewalk.

Spurrell said he explained there was no sidewalk in that area, and soon after, the police asked to smell his breath.

"Because of the way that I am, they just assumed … I was drunk — [because of] the way that I was walking and speaking," he said.

Spurrell admits he resisted the police because he felt he hadn't done anything wrong.

Mother Diane Spurrell says she has been told the deputy chief of the RNC will visit her later this week. (CBC)

"They were like, 'Get in the car.' They were grabbing me and tossing me around and shaking me, and eventually, they got me down on the ground," he said.

Diane Spurrell said when she heard the details of the incident, she knew they had mistaken his autistic behavior for drunkenness.

"From what he told me, they just didn't listen to him at all," she said. "They didn't give him an opportunity to explain himself. They denied him the opportunity to phone me."

Diane Spurrell said she has been told that the RNC's deputy chief will visit her at home on Thursday.

An RNC spokesperson said the police are investigating the incident.

As for Dane, he said he is not traumatized by the misunderstanding or by his unexpected night in jail.

Source: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/newfoundlan...stic-jail.html

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Nobody gives you a manual: Experimentation key as Destin family grapples with autism

2009-04-22T05:02:00.000-07:00

By Jennifer Rich, Destin Log

When little Skylar Watson gets off of the school bus at her Indian Bayou home in the afternoon, she does what many six-year-olds do.

She gets a snack, plays in the back yard, watches Hannah Montana or plays with her special friend, Karen.

It has taken more than a year to reach this seemingly normal routine, since parents Ray and Tina Watson received the news early last year — news that Skylar has autism.

“It’s a lot of extra work,” Tina said. “It’s a whole lot of things that you can’t really imagine until you live through it.”

Autism is a brain development disorder that impairs social interaction and communication skills, and is characterized by repetitive behavior. Symptoms can be mild to severe, making it a spectrum disorder that one in 150 children are diagnosed with.

The diagnosis sounds gloomy, but the Watsons have mastered the old cliché of turning lemons into lemonade. Skylar’s autism has taught the family how to embrace healthy living.

“As a baby, she was a normal thriving infant,” Tina said, as she shuffled through Skylar’s baby photos.

Before the age of two, the couple noticed that Skylar did not seem to be processing what was said to her. They realized that the “terrible twos” were something more when Skylar was not expressing pain or fear, and her younger brother Kruz, now 5, began transcending her in development.

“She didn’t engage in toys,” Tina said. “She would just throw them.”

Skylar was 16-months-old when Ray and Tina really suspected something was not right. It occurred one afternoon when Skylar was not cooperating well with gym play at U.S. Gold Gymnastics and Cheerleading.

The pair began researching Skylar’s behavior and taking her to see doctors. It was still early for an autism diagnosis at the time, but their suspicions were confirmed just over a year ago.

As Ray and Tina have educated themselves about their daughter’s disorder, they have adopted the ideals of the DAN project, a protocol to “Defeat Autism Now” through biomedical factors.

DAN doctors preach that an autistic child’s environment plays a key role in how well he or she copes with the disorder.

The Watson’s have taken the beliefs to heart.

Ray has ripped out almost all of the carpet from their home, and furniture is mostly leather to rid the home of allergens. Tina ensures that

Skylar’s diet is completely organic and free of gluten and casein (wheat and dairy products), another tactic for coping with autism.

Skylar has also been receiving ABA, or applied behavioral analysis, sessions with a board certified behavior analyst, Karen Reid, three days a week since January.

“We work on language skills, potty training, behavioral difficulties and attention,” Karen said.

Karen uses toys called “reinforcements” and flash cards to help Skylar learn basic principles of speech and counting.

“They (behavior analysts) have the patience of saints,” said Myra Fowler, president of the Emerald Coast Autism Society. Fowler immersed herself in autism when her son was diagnosed and has since become acquainted with the Watsons through her organization that is hosting the Walk 4 Autism Awareness on Saturday in Niceville.

Much controversy exists on what causes autism. Many believe the cause is genetic and others say environmental factors play a role. The proper treatments get just as much scrutiny, but the Watsons have found that experimenting is necessary to find out what works.

“Nobody really knows the cause, and nobody really knows the cure,” Myra said.

Ray and Tina credit hyperbaric chamber treatments, where pressure is increased in an attempt to boost the amount of oxygen in the child’s brain, for the most dramatic change in Skylar’s progress.

The couple splurged on a Vitaeris 320 hyperbaric chamber that came with the whopping price tag of $23,000, but the couple said “we have seen a return on Skylar.”

They made the investment in January 2008 after making monthly trips to Miracle Mountain, a hyperbaric treatment facility in North Carolina. Ray said that treatments in a hyperbaric chamber can cost $300 an hour. They now do them at home for a fraction of the cost.

“It’s no miracle pill,” Tina said, stressing that early detection is the key.

However, her enthusiasm for the chamber’s effects is undeniable.

Tina said they are blessed to have the hyperbaric chamber, Karen and the support of other parents of autistic children.

“Nobody gives you a manual,” Fowler said.

Source: http://www.thedestinlog.com/news/yea...lays_gets.html

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Man Convicted of Hurting Boy with Autism During Exorcism

2009-04-21T17:25:00.000-07:00

By the Associated Press

A man who says he tried to cast demons from a 14-year-old autistic boy from southern Indiana has been convicted on charges that he injured the teen during the exorcism.

A Monroe County jury on Tuesday found 24-year-old Eddie Uyesugi guilty of felony charges of battery and criminal confinement.

Uyesugi testified during his trial that he genuinely was trying to help the Bloomington boy and punched him in the face and chest to restrain him during the 2007 ceremony.

He was a minister in training at Cherry Hill Christian Center in Bloomington, but its pastors testified that Uyesugi's actions were inappropriate. Testimony showed the boy's grandmother sought the exorcism for the teen, who sustained bruises and two black eyes.

Uyesugi faces prison terms of two to eight years on each count.

Source: http://www.wibc.com/news/Story.aspx?ID=1084698

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Guide dogs excel in new mission: autism

2009-04-21T06:56:00.000-07:00

By Brian J. Howard by LoHud

OSSINING - There were a few secrets being kept the day Tricia Zarro invited a guide-dog trainer to her home in January 2008 to talk about finding a canine companion for her son.

Zarro hadn't yet told her husband, Ernie, or their three children that the meeting was about getting a specially trained dog for Danny, 6, their youngest, whose condition was diagnosed as autism.

Meanwhile, the trainer Caroline McCabe-Sandler of the Yorktown-based Guiding Eyes for the Blind, didn't tell Zarro she had the perfect dog in mind.

After the meeting, as Zarro walked McCabe-Sandler to her car at the end of the driveway, she turned and made a heartfelt plea.

"I just want this dog to help my family heal," Zarro said.

That's when McCabe-Sandler confided in her about Shade, a 2-year-old black Labrador who had essentially flunked out of guide-dog training.

Yet "flunked" might be too harsh a word for a dog who displayed nearly every trait necessary for providing the assistance and companionship needed by those without sight.

She was just too tentative in situations that call for split decisions.

By any other measure, Shade, who joined the Zarro family March 28, 2008, is the perfect dog.

"I never even let Ernie or the kids in on this," Zarro said. "It was such a dream."

Heeling Autism, a fledgling Guiding Eyes program, has since placed six more autism-service dogs with families.

The dogs' purpose is to provide safety and therapeutic companionship to children with autism, a neurological disorder marked by delays in speech and social interaction.

Each dog's training costs roughly $45,000. As with the guide dogs that the nonprofit Guiding Eyes trains and places, its autism-service dogs are provided free, with the cost entirely offset by private grants and donations.

While autism-service dogs are becoming more prevalent, many organizations that provide them require families to pay $10,000 to $15,000.

From a therapeutic standpoint, the dog serves as a point of focus for autistic children, enabling them to maintain calm.

From a safety perspective, the dogs wear a service vest to which the child is tethered while in public places.

Zarro described seeing Danny and Shade walk through Manhattan, with her holding Shade's leash as Danny walked safely alongside.

The result is freedom for both parent and child.

Routine outings to stores or to the sports events of older sisters Madeline and Kylie are made more manageable and more enjoyable with Shade's help.

On family hikes, Danny no longer straggles or needs to be carried.

The Guiding Eyes program emphasizes the entire family's acceptance of a service dog, a key benefit, Ernie Zarro said.

Despite his worries, he said his daughters have become both protective and proud of Shade.

"You always think about Danny and the dog, but you don't think about how attached the girls would become," he said.

Shade sleeps in Danny's room, keeps a watchful eye on him around the house, and is there with him during doctor's visits and therapy.

On a recent afternoon, the 65-pound dog gamely hopped up on the family's backyard trampoline, looking unsure of her footing but determined to stay near Danny, who bounced spryly while belting out "Hound Dog."

Little about Danny suggests autism. He smiles, laughs and is quite verbal.

Much of his progress is attributable to his tightknit, adoring family and a constant whirlwind of therapies: speech, physical and occupational.

And then there's Shade, who is there for Danny, helping him reach his potential.

When Tricia Zarro wrote to Guiding Eyes about obtaining a dog who hadn't completed guide-dog training, Heeling Autism didn't yet exist.

A year and a half passed before she heard from McCabe-Sandler, who in the meantime had attended an Assistance Dogs International conference in Toronto in 2007.

There she heard a talk by Maureen Morin, the mother of one of the first children to receive a trained autism dog.

McCabe-Sandler said the idea just clicked.

Guiding Eyes was seeking ways to expand its community mission and to make the most of the training given to dogs who don't become guides.

"We had this incredible group of dogs that we could do more with," she said.

Mary Jo Jacobs' family was the last in the Heeling Autism's pilot program, which placed seven dogs in the greater New York area. Jacobs' son Andrew, 9, received Iota, a 3-year-old black Labrador, on Feb. 20.

"Andrew's getting so much affection," said Jacobs, a New Rochelle mother of four. "He's relating so much to the dog. He always wants to be with him, and he pulls him up close."

Like Danny, Andrew does not take his dog to school, though autism-service dogs merit the same full public access as guide dogs.

One of Iota's benefits to Andrew has been the way the dog fosters communication. Andrew eagerly shares an array of details and stories to others about his dog.

"For him to use the dog to talk about the dog so that he's got a conversation starter is a huge plus," Jacobs said. "Anything else is icing on the cake."

McCabe-Sandler has observed the change the dogs she trains make, not only on the children, but also on their families as a whole.

The best example is the way the dogs can simply make the children laugh.

"I'm a mom, and it's so easy to get my children to laugh," she said. "For those parents, it's not. So to see these spontaneous bursts of laughter, it's just magic to me."

Source: http://www.lohud.com/article/2009904210358

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Pupil with Asperger's syndrome rejected by school

2009-04-20T15:24:00.000-07:00

Alex Goodenough, who has Asperger's syndrome, with his mother, Joan, after winning a place at Cambridge University. Photograph: Graham Turner/Guardian

By Haroon Siddique - The Guardian

A teenager who was refused a place at his local school because he has Asperger's syndrome has won a conditional offer to study engineering at Cambridge.

Alex Goodenough, 17, taught himself at home from textbooks after Hertfordshire and Essex high school and science college (H&E) rejected his application to study there.

A special educational needs and disability tribunal ordered the school to apologise to Alex for treating him less favourably "for a reason related to his disability".

According to the National Autistic Society, children with Asperger's syndrome face "huge battles to get the education support that should be theirs by right, often at considerable emotional and financial expense".

More tribunal cases concern autism, of which Asperger's is a type, than any other type of special educational need.

The schoolboy said he used the school's refusal as motivation and achieved As in three maths subjects and some physics modules. Now he is at another school, studying for the practical physics exam, which he could not take while learning from home and is a condition of his offer from Trinity college, Cambridge.

He said: "Maybe my story at least shows people that even if institutions put this bar up and won't help you and give you an environment where you can be comfortable, at least with enough work and luck you can still do well." Jan Goodenough, Alex's mother, said: "If somebody causes damage to another human being in terms of injury or damaging their career there's compensation, but for special educational needs people there's nothing. It took an enormous amount of time and effort. The only reason I did it was I knew it was so wrong and I wanted justice."

Alex completed his first year of A-levels a year early at another school where his mother, now an educational consultant, was teaching at the time. But after she left the school she contacted H&E in June 2007 to enrol Alex there because the specialist science college was walking distance from their home in Bishop's Stortford.

Over several months she had contact with five different school officials.

H&E initially rejected the application on the basis that Goodenough could not guarantee Alex's "regular attendance", a result of his condition.

While the tribunal panel accepted that there were "misunderstandings" between Goodenough and the school initially, it found that H&E refused to send her an application form and on three separate occasions incorrectly told her the sixth form was full, which "may have been intended to discourage Ms Goodenough". It said Alex's education was "probably adversely affected".

Alex said he was denied social interaction through studying at home.

"If I am at school I have got people around me, if I am not allowed to attend I don't have that connection," he said.

Goodenough said: "When he was sitting at home after being rejected he went through a really bad time. It almost amounted to agoraphobia because he was missing out on social contact."

The school, closed for Easter, was unavailable for comment, but has written a letter of apology to Alex.

• This article was amended on Monday 20 April 2009 to remove the phrase "suffered from Asperger's" as the Guardian stylebook discourages the uses of such phrases in stories about disability.

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandsty...tion-cambridge

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Tug of War Over Costs to Educate the Autistic

2009-04-20T06:15:00.000-07:00

By AMANDA M. FAIRBANKS - The New York Times

The eight children, ages 5 to 11, who attend the Brooklyn Autism Center Academy need intensive individual instruction to cope with a neurological disorder that can make achieving academic progress slow and grueling.

During the course of the day, one teacher is paired with each child. After successfully completing a task, students are rewarded with a spoonful of vanilla pudding, time on a piano or a few minutes in a bouncy castle. The system repeats itself, interspersing work with small breaks.

“Every child with autism can learn,” said Jaime Nicklas, 32, the school’s educational director. “If they are not learning, it is our responsibility to change our teaching procedure, so they can make the progress they are capable of.”

But this type of focused instruction comes with a high price: The academy’s annual tuition is $85,000. The parents of one of the students, Ruby Kassimir, 5, the only girl in the school, took out a home equity line of credit on their home in Queens to help pay the tuition. “There just aren’t that many options available,” explained Ruby’s mother, Sue Laizik, a project coordinator at Columbia University.

As the number of autism diagnoses has risen, the extraordinary cost of educating the children has become a growing point of contention. In 2001, the city’s Department of Education listed 3,278 students with autism; by 2008, that figure had more than doubled to 6,877.

The public school system is required by law to provide an appropriate education for such children, even if it means paying for private school tuition if there is no public school option (although, as Ruby’s parents found, getting the school system to pay is not always easy).

“The crux of the matter is that we need to have a public debate about how much are we willing to invest in making individuals who are disabled, and sometimes profoundly disabled, have a meaningful level of membership in society,” said Gil Eyal, a sociologist at Columbia University who has done research on autism.

Of the more than 6,800 children with autism recorded by the city’s public schools, 4,200 are enrolled in special education classes with a small student-to-teacher to ratio, 285 students are part of a program where children with autism are taught alongside regular education students and 28 are in a charter school with a one-to-one ratio between teachers and students. That school, the New York Center for Autism Charter School, is the only public school in New York City offering intensive one-on-one instruction.

Other autistic students attend private schools from a list of those approved by the state, and their tuition, which ranges from $30,800 to $48,100, is paid by the city’s Education Department. Finally, if parents are dissatisfied with any of the options offered by the public schools, they can choose another private school, one not on the list, at their own expense and seek to have the cost reimbursed by the city.

For all special education students, the department paid $88.9 million for private school tuition last year, compared with $57.6 million in 2007. “Private school tuition claims are a growing burden for us,” said Michael Best, the Education Department’s general counsel.

Ms. Laizik, Ruby’s mother, entered her daughter in the lottery for the New York Center for Autism, and said she broke into tears when she learned that Ruby had not gotten one of the spots on the waiting list. “That’s when it really hit me, how hard it’s going to be,” Ms. Laizik said.

Three separate evaluations of Ruby, between the ages of 2 and 5, emphasized the need for one-to-one instruction.

So when she was not able to enroll Ruby in the public charter school, Ms. Laizik sent her to the private Brooklyn Autism Center Academy and filed a claim with the Education Department seeking tuition reimbursement.

After a hearing, a departmental judge ruled in March that Ruby’s parents were entitled to a 30 percent tuition reimbursement because the city had failed to offer Ruby appropriate placement. They are now appealing to the New York State Education Department’s Office of State Review for the remainder of the tuition.

For the parents of autistic and other special-needs children, springtime is usually when they hear back from the city’s Education Department about their claims for private school tuition reimbursement.

During the 2007-8 school year, there were 4,375 reimbursement hearing requests for special education students, 462 of them for children with autism.

“We are concerned that some parents see this as a way for us to pay for private school,” Mr. Best said. “It’s not supposed to be a vehicle to get private school tuition if there’s something appropriate available in the public schools.”

But parents of autistic children and their advocates argue that any hope for progress requires the kind of concentrated intervention that the public schools cannot always provide.

“The giant elephant in the room, if one in 150 children are being diagnosed with autism, is that they have the same life expectancy,” said Gary S. Mayerson, a lawyer who has represented more than 1,000 families, including Ruby’s, making claims for tuition reimbursement. “Either invest the money now for effective programming or find that your efforts are inadequate.

“At some point you may be staring at the prospect of an even more expensive residential placement — and the state will be footing the bill.”

Despite the onerous financial burden they are confronting, Ruby’s parents are pleased with their decision, having seen that their daughter has made significant progress since she started at the school in September.

Ultimately, the goal is for Ruby to be able to learn in a mainstream classroom.

“The thing that stays with me the most is what kind of life she will be able to have,” said Ruby’s father, Ron Kassimir, 51, an associate provost at the New School.

His wife, Ms. Laizik, added, “When you have a child like Ruby, you realize how much of a role you have to play in that outcome, how involved you have to be to affect that outcome — especially early on, when the stakes are so very high.”

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/19/ed.../19autism.html

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Mom shares glimpse into world of autism

2009-04-18T16:27:00.000-07:00

News brings life changes

By Jayne Boykin - The Duncan Banner

DUNCAN — Having a child diagnosed with autism is somewhat like a traveler who plans a fabulous vacation in Italy, only to hear the flight attendant say upon landing, “Welcome to Holland.”

Edee Girod, whose son, Rusty, is autistic, treasures a yellowed newspaper clipping she found years ago that expresses what many parents of autistic children feel:

“Holland? What do you mean, Holland? I signed up for Italy! I’m supposed to be in Italy. All my life, I’ve dreamed of going to Italy.

“But there’s been a change in the flight plan,” the flight attendant explains. “You’ve landed in Holland, and there you must stay. The important thing is they haven’t taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place full of pestilence, famine and disease. It’s just a different place.

“So you must go out and buy new guidebooks. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met ...

“And, for the rest of your life, you will say, ‘Yes, that’s where I was supposed to go. That’s what I had planned.’

“The pain of that will never, ever, ever go away, because the loss of that dream is a very significant loss.

“But if you spend your time mourning the fact that you didn’t get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things about Holland.”

When Rusty was about 3, Girod realized her son was falling behind other children his age. Although his motor skills seemed normal, and he liked to ride his bike like other children did, there was something not quite right. But she had no idea at the time of the voyage of tears and laughter upon which her family was embarking.

At a child study center in Oklahoma City, Rusty was diagnosed with a handful of conditions, including retardation and autism, and other terms unfamiliar to Girod at the time.

“There was nowhere to turn in those days. People didn’t talk about autism like they do now, and everything we did was breaking new ground. I found maybe three paragraphs on autism in a library book. We didn’t have the Internet back then, either. I thank God every day that we have been able to find the teachers and caregivers and other resources that have helped us with Rusty. Autism is a different world, slower-paced and really unique.

“God has blessed us with the ability to see the uniqueness of Rusty’s world and to live in it with him. Rusty has a lot to offer, but you have to get on his level. You cannot expect him to come out and meet you on your level,” his mother said. “Like the traveler who planned to go to Italy and wound up in Holland, no one plans to have an autistic child, but if we had spent time mourning the fact that he is different, we would have missed out on knowing the wonderful person that he truly is.”

Rusty attended school in Lawton his first year, then transferred to Duncan, where he completed 12 years of public schooling with teachers who provided the structured environment his condition requires. He enjoyed playing basketball and participated in Special Olympics for a number of years.

The middle child of Edee and Mike Girod’s three children, Rusty likes to be with his close-knit family — sister, Mika Savage, brother, Daimon Girod, and his six nieces and nephews, all of whom live nearby.

“He loves babies, and when we’re out in public and he hears a baby cry, he gets very concerned about it,” his mother said.

Rusty enjoys listening to music, and has a collection of favorite songs he listens to over and over again. He can sing most of his favorites from beginning to end, humming a bit when the words escape him, then picking up the lyrics again further along in the tune. He exhibits many of the traits of a savant, as portrayed in the film, “The Rain Man,” and can tell a visitor who hands him an unmarked cassette tape not only what the tape is, but what song is queued up to play next. If the tape is then placed in the cassette player, the designated song does, indeed, emanate from the player, just as Rusty predicted.

Autism is an ever-changing state. In his younger days, Rusty exhibited some compulsive behaviors that have now subsided, only to be replaced by others. Now 38, his needs are different from what they were when he was a child, but with autism, the needs of the person affected can change almost with the speed of light, and families and caregivers must be constantly in tune with those changes.

Rusty has a collection of well-loved stuffed animals and keepsakes, and decorates his world according to what seems right to him. He gets agitated when objects are moved or changed, even to dust them, Edee Girod said.

“He has a need for sameness. What he wants. He appears to live in isolation, but he loves to get out in the world, too. He loves to ride escalators and Ferris wheels, though with the back problems he has developed, he can’t do some of the things he likes to do any more,” she said.

Asked his favorite thing to do, Rusty said, “Ride Daddy’s boat!” with a big smile.

He also listed his favorite restaurants and what he liked to eat there. He can communicate his thoughts and wishes, but on his own terms. He can spell some words, including his name, but doesn’t like it when others spell words in front of him. Unlike many people with autism, who do not like being touched and who will not make eye contact with others, Rusty looks a visitor in the eye and extends his hand to shake.

“He speaks ‘Rusty.’ People who are around him for very long learn to speak fluent ‘Rusty.’ Even his brother’s friends who visit with him know how to speak on his level and he can communicate very well at times,” Girod said.

Other days are more difficult, and Rusty retreats into an inner world that no one else can fully experience. He laughs, he cries, he rocks to and fro in his chair and makes an assortment of noises and sound effects that have meaning only to him in that moment. It is those times that can try the patience of his family and his caregiver, Annette Bounds, who was featured in Part 2 of this series.

“God has blessed us with Annette. She is very graceful and forgiving of the things Rusty does sometimes. It truly has been our deep faith that has gotten us through the bad times and allowed us to see the uniqueness of Rusty’s world. It takes a lot of faith to keep going. If we didn’t have God in our lives, I don’t know what we would do,” Girod said.

She encourages any parent who suspects a child has a problem to speak to his or her family doctor as soon as possible. The doctor can then make referrals for further testing and treatment. If the child is then diagnosed with autism or a similar disability, she implores parents to reach out to others for the support and encouragement they will need.

“Autism is a lifelong thing, and the earlier the diagnosis, the better. Early intervention can help keep the whole person whole — not allow him to slip through the cracks — and can help the family through the difficult times. I would encourage any parent who would like to talk about autism to call me. We’ve been in insurance and real estate in Duncan for many years. People can find us easily, and I would be more than happy to share experiences with them,” Girod said.

Source: http://www.duncanbanner.com/local/lo...108164651.html

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Ten Things Every Child with Autism Wishes You Knew

2009-04-17T18:10:00.000-07:00

by Ellen Notbohm

from the book Ten Things Every Child with Autism Wishes You Knew (2005, Future Horizons, Inc.) Reprinted with permission of author

Some days it seems the only predictable thing about it is the unpredictability. The only consistent attribute -- the inconsistency. There is little argument on any level but that autism is baffling, even to those who spend their lives around it. The child who lives with autism may look “normal” but his behavior can be perplexing and downright difficult.

Autism was once thought an “incurable” disorder, but that notion is crumbling in the face knowledge and understanding that is increasing even as you read this. Every day, individuals with autism are showing us that they can overcome, compensate for and otherwise manage many of autism’s most challenging characteristics. Equipping those around our children with simple understanding of autism’s most basic elements has a tremendous impact on their ability to journey towards productive, independent adulthood.

Autism is an extremely complex disorder but for purposes of this one article, we can distill its myriad characteristics into four fundamental areas: sensory processing challenges, speech/language delays and impairments, the elusive social interaction skills and whole child/self-esteem issues. And though these four elements may be common to many children, keep front-of-mind the fact that autism is a spectrum disorder: no two (or ten or twenty) children with autism will be completely alike. Every child will be at a different point on the spectrum. And, just as importantly – every parent, teacher and caregiver will be at a different point on the spectrum. Child or adult, each will have a unique set of needs.

Here are ten things every child with autism wishes you knew:

1. I am first and foremost a child. My autism is only one aspect of my total character. It does not define me as a person. Are you a person with thoughts, feelings and many talents, or are you just fat (overweight), myopic (wear glasses) or klutzy (uncoordinated, not good at sports)? Those may be things that I see first when I meet you, but they are not necessarily what you are all about.
As an adult, you have some control over how you define yourself. If you want to single out a single characteristic, you can make that known. As a child, I am still unfolding. Neither you nor I yet know what I may be capable of. Defining me by one characteristic runs the danger of setting up an expectation that may be too low. And if I get a sense that you don’t think I “can do it,” my natural response will be: Why try?

2. My sensory perceptions are disordered. Sensory integration may be the most difficult aspect of autism to understand, but it is arguably the most critical. It his means that the ordinary sights, sounds, smells, tastes and touches of everyday that you may not even notice can be downright painful for me. The very environment in which I have to live often seems hostile. I may appear withdrawn or belligerent to you but I am really just trying to defend myself. Here is why a “simple” trip to the grocery store may be hell for me:

My hearing may be hyper-acute. Dozens of people are talking at once. The loudspeaker booms today’s special. Musak whines from the sound system. Cash registers beep and cough, a coffee grinder is chugging. The meat cutter screeches, babies wail, carts creak, the fluorescent lighting hums. My brain can’t filter all the input and I’m in overload!

My sense of smell may be highly sensitive. The fish at the meat counter isn’t quite fresh, the guy standing next to us hasn’t showered today, the deli is handing out sausage samples, the baby in line ahead of us has a poopy diaper, they’re mopping up pickles on aisle 3 with ammonia….I can’t sort it all out. I am dangerously nauseated.

Because I am visually oriented (see more on this below), this may be my first sense to become overstimulated. The fluorescent light is not only too bright, it buzzes and hums. The room seems to pulsate and it hurts my eyes. The pulsating light bounces off everything and distorts what I am seeing -- the space seems to be constantly changing. There’s glare from windows, too many items for me to be able to focus (I may compensate with "tunnel vision"), moving fans on the ceiling, so many bodies in constant motion. All this affects my vestibular and proprioceptive senses, and now I can’t even tell where my body is in space.

3. Please remember to distinguish between won’t (I choose not to) and can’t (I am not able to).
Receptive and expressive language and vocabulary can be major challenges for me. It isn’t that I don’t listen to instructions. It’s that I can’t understand you. When you call to me from across the room, this is what I hear: “*&^%$#@, Billy. #$%^*&^%$&*………” Instead, come speak directly to me in plain words: “Please put your book in your desk, Billy. It’s time to go to lunch.” This tells me what you want me to do and what is going to happen next. Now it is much easier for me to comply.

4. I am a concrete thinker. This means I interpret language very literally. It’s very confusing for me when you say, “Hold your horses, cowboy!” when what you really mean is “Please stop running.” Don’t tell me something is a “piece of cake” when there is no dessert in sight and what you really mean is “this will be easy for you to do.” When you say “Jamie really burned up the track,” I see a kid playing with matches. Please just tell me “Jamie ran very fast.”

Idioms, puns, nuances, double entendres, inference, metaphors, allusions and sarcasm are lost on me.

5. Please be patient with my limited vocabulary. It’s hard for me to tell you what I need when I don’t know the words to describe my feelings. I may be hungry, frustrated, frightened or confused but right now those words are beyond my ability to express. Be alert for body language, withdrawal, agitation or other signs that something is wrong.

Or, there’s a flip side to this: I may sound like a “little professor” or movie star, rattling off words or whole scripts well beyond my developmental age. These are messages I have memorized from the world around me to compensate for my language deficits because I know I am expected to respond when spoken to. They may come from books, TV, the speech of other people. It is called “echolalia.” I don’t necessarily understand the context or the terminology I’m using. I just know that it gets me off the hook for coming up with a reply.

6. Because language is so difficult for me, I am very visually oriented. Please show me how to do something rather than just telling me. And please be prepared to show me many times. Lots of consistent repetition helps me learn.

A visual schedule is extremely helpful as I move through my day. Like your day-timer, it relieves me of the stress of having to remember what comes next, makes for smooth transition between activities, helps me manage my time and meet your expectations.

I won’t lose the need for a visual schedule as I get older, but my “level of representation” may change. Before I can read, I need a visual schedule with photographs or simple drawings. As I get older, a combination of words and pictures may work, and later still, just words.

7. Please focus and build on what I can do rather than what I can’t do. Like any other human, I can’t learn in an environment where I’m constantly made to feel that I’m not good enough and that I need “fixing.” Trying anything new when I am almost sure to be met with criticism, however “constructive,” becomes something to be avoided. Look for my strengths and you will find them. There is more than one “right” way to do most things.

8. Please help me with social interactions. It may look like I don’t want to play with the other kids on the playground, but sometimes it’s just that I simply do not know how to start a conversation or enter a play situation. If you can encourage other children to invite me to join them at kickball or shooting baskets, it may be that I’m delighted to be included.

I do best in structured play activities that have a clear beginning and end. I don’t know how to “read” facial expressions, body language or the emotions of others, so I appreciate ongoing coaching in proper social responses. For example, if I laugh when Emily falls off the slide, it’s not that I think it’s funny. It’s that I don’t know the proper response. Teach me to say “Are you OK?”

9. Try to identify what triggers my meltdowns. Meltdowns, blow-ups, tantrums or whatever you want to call them are even more horrid for me than they are for you. They occur because one or more of my senses has gone into overload. If you can figure out why my meltdowns occur, they can be prevented. Keep a log noting times, settings, people, activities. A pattern may emerge.

Try to remember that all behavior is a form of communication. It tells you, when my words cannot, how I perceive something that is happening in my environment.

Parents, keep in mind as well: persistent behavior may have an underlying medical cause. Food allergies and sensitivities, sleep disorders and gastrointestinal problems can all have profound effects on behavior.

10. Love me unconditionally. Banish thoughts like, “If he would just……” and “Why can’t she…..” You did not fulfill every last expectation your parents had for you and you wouldn’t like being constantly reminded of it. I did not choose to have autism. But remember that it is happening to me, not you. Without your support, my chances of successful, self-reliant adulthood are slim. With your support and guidance, the possibilities are broader than you might think. I promise you – I am worth it.

And finally, three words: Patience. Patience. Patience. Work to view my autism as a different ability rather than a disability. Look past what you may see as limitations and see the gifts autism has given me. It may be true that I’m not good at eye contact or conversation, but have you noticed that I don’t lie, cheat at games, tattle on my classmates or pass judgment on other people? Also true that I probably won’t be the next Michael Jordan. But with my attention to fine detail and capacity for extraordinary focus, I might be the next Einstein. Or Mozart. Or Van Gogh.

They may have had autism too.

The answer to Alzheimer’s, the enigma of extraterrestrial life -- what future achievements from today’s children with autism, children like me, lie ahead?

All that I might become won’t happen without you as my foundation. Be my advocate, be my friend, and we’ll see just how far I can go.

____________________________________________

© 2005 Ellen Notbohm

Please contact the author for permission to reproduce in any way, including re-posting on the Internet.

Ellen Notbohm is author of Ten Things Every Child with Autism Wishes You Knew, Ten Things Your Student with Autism Wishes You Knew, and The Autism Trail Guide: Postcards from the Road Less Traveled, all ForeWord Book of the Year finalists. She is also co-author of the award-winning 1001 Great Ideas for Teaching and Raising Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders, a columnist for Autism Asperger’s Digest and Children’s Voice, and a contributor to numerous publications and websites around the world. To contact Ellen or explore her work, please visit www.ellennotbohm.com.

Melatonin may help autistic children sleep

2009-04-17T07:47:00.000-07:00

By United Press International

SACRAMENTO, April 16 (UPI) -- U.S. researchers suggest melatonin may help children with autism or Fragile X syndrome sleep.

The study, published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, linked melatonin treatment to lengthening mean sleep duration by a mean of 21 minutes, decreasing sleep-onset latency -- the length of time it takes to fall asleep -- by 28 minutes and shortening sleep onset by 42 minutes.

Study senior author Beth Goodlin-Jones of the M.I.N.D Institute at the University of California Davis Health System in Sacramento suggests treatment with over-the-counter melatonin supplements might help alleviate some of the stress that parents of special-needs children experience.

Sleep problems, she says, are reported in up to 89 percent of children with autism and 77 percent of children with Fragile X syndrome -- the most common form of inherited mental impairment ranging from learning problems to mental retardation.

"Sleep onset problems at the beginning of the night are very troublesome for children and their families," Goodlin-Jones says in a statement. "Sometimes children may take one to two hours to fall asleep and often they disrupt the household during this time."

The study included information from 12 children who met diagnostic criteria for autism or Fragile X syndrome or both between the ages of 2- 15. Sleep quality and quantity were measured both objectively and subjectively. Participants were given two weeks' supply of either melatonin or a placebo.

Source: http://www.upi.com/Health_News/2009/...3031239918127/

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A showing that suits kids with autism in Chicago

2009-04-17T07:44:00.000-07:00

By Julie Deardorff | Chicago Tribune reporter

Movie theaters can be frightening—even painful—places for children with autism and sensory disorders. They're loud, dark and often crowded; a bad combination when you perceive everything as bigger, brighter and louder.

But Saturday's showing of "Hannah Montana The Movie" at several Chicago area theaters will be different. The lights will slightly be turned up, the sound lowered and the "silence is golden" policy will be cast aside, thanks to a partnership between theater companies and autism-related organizations.

"The transition [when a movie starts] is scary enough to send your kid running out of the show and straight into the street," said Dena Seidenfuss of the Elmhurst-based Special Education Resources Group, which has partnered with Classic Cinemas for a showing at the York Theater.

During these "sensory-friendly" films, standing, shouting, singing, walking and moving is encouraged. Most autistic kids have an extreme need for movement, which makes it hard for them to sit for the full length of a movie. "Many also have impulse-control issues and problems knowing what's socially appropriate, so they might shout out in excitement or express themselves in unusual ways," said Christi O'Neal of Georgia, whose 7-year-old son Eric has autism and a sensory integration disorder.

But movies can be enjoyable if the setting is right. "Unlike birthday parties, movies don't have as much demand for social interaction and not quite as much unpredictability," said O'Neal. "Having seen the current 'hot' film can be really helpful to them in a social setting so they have something in common to talk about with the neurotypical kids."

In addition to the Classic Cinemas showing, AMC Entertainment also hosting "Sensory Friendly Films" at three Chicago-area theaters. AMC has also partnered with the Autism Society of America to help create jobs for those on the autism spectrum.

All shows are on Saturday.

•York Theater, 150 N. York St., Elmhurst, 9:30 a.m.

•AMC Northbrook Court 14, 1525 Lake Cook Rd., Northbrook, 10 a.m.

•AMC South Barrington, 175 Studio Drive, South Barrington, 10 a.m.

•AMC Cantera, 28250 Diehl Rd., Warrenville, 10 a.m.

Source: http://www.chicagotribune.com/featur...,7504750.story

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Asperger's victim viciously assaulted

2009-04-16T17:10:00.000-07:00

By Rochdale Online

A man with Asperger Syndrome was left with a fractured arm after a vicious and unprovoked assault in Rochdale.

The attack happened outside the Wellfield Surgery at the junction of Woodbine Street and Oldham Road, where the victim was knocked to ground by a punch to the face and then kicked repeatedly in the head while he lay helpless on the ground.

The 44-year-old victim had just been to the Costcutters convenience store at about 7pm on Wednesday 25 March when the offender ran up behind him and launched the unprovoked assault.

A brave civilian chased the offender down Oldham Road onto Crawford Street but they could not catch him.

The offender is described as Asian, between 18 and 25 years old, about 5ft 6in to 5ft 8in tall and of average build. He was wearing a black hooded jacket, baggy dark blue jeans with a white logo on one pocket and trainers.

The victim suffered a large cut over his left eye and dislocated shoulder and fractured his arm in three places.

Police in Rochdale are now appealing to anyone who has information to come forward. Detectives are keen to speak to a woman who may have been waiting at the bus stop on Oldham Road at the time of the attack or a man using a telephone kiosk outside the Lloyds Pharmacy to come forward.

Detective Constable Amie Darnell, based at Rochdale CID, said: "This was an appalling, violent and totally unprovoked assault on a man who was minding his own business. The sheer level of violence this man resorted to was absolutely disgraceful and it would appear he made no effort to steal anything - it was just an act of mindless violence.

"I would urge anyone who has information to come forward and speak to us so we can find this man and give the victim, who suffered nasty injuries, some peace of mind after his horrific ordeal."

Anyone with information should call Rochdale CID on 0161 856 8443 or the independent charity Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.

Source: http://www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news...usly-assaulted

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Have bike - and Asperger's - will travel to show bullies he's no idiot

2009-04-15T17:45:00.000-07:00

By Brisbane Times

A 15-year-old Brisbane boy with Asperger's syndrome who disappeared for two weeks and rode his bike more than 950 kilometres to Sydney did it to prove to "bullies'' he wasn't an idiot, his mother says.

During his six-day, dawn-to-dusk haul down the east coast, Ethan Johnson slept at truck stops, under bridges and ate at fast-food restaurants.

All the while, online, thousands of people joined a support group hoping for his safe return, and assuring him he was a great person who needn't prove anything to anyone.

Ethan's mother, Tammy Johnson, was unaware of his exact location during the two weeks, and kept putting a small amount of money into his keycard account each day so he could eat.

Despite this, when Ms Johnson was finally re-united with her son after police found him at Merrylands train station on Good Friday, she found he'd shed substantial weight.

"He is safe, has lost about 20kg and is skin and bone. I'll have to feed him up again,'' Ms Johnson said, on an internet appeal site she set up after Ethan went missing.

Ethan disappeared on the morning of March 30, and was last seen on CCTV footage at Robina train station on the Gold Coast about 9.20am.

Fears for his safety were raised after he failed to turn up to classes at Runcorn State High School, and did not contact any family or friends.

As it turned out, he was pedalling to prove a point.

"He rode his bicycle to Sydney for no better reason than to see if he could,'' Ms Johnson wrote the internet site.

"He wanted to prove to some bullies [and everyone else] that he's not an idiot.

"And he isn't - he actually planned the whole trip himself - which is so very far outside his comfort zone.''

Another motivation for Ethan was that he hadn't seen enough of the city during a school excursion when he was 12, Ms Johnson said.

"Because we had the CCTV footage, we knew he was safe and the fact that he kept using his keycard as he went along we knew where to find him when he hit Sydney,'' she said.

"We kept putting a little bit in his account each day so he could buy food but not too much so he couldn't get too far.

"We got him on the morning he took the last bit of money from his account.''

Ms Johnson said she gave Ethan a big cuddle and he started crying when she was re-united with him.

He had planned to ride even further when he was tracked down by police.

"He got a bit disappointed because he was found a bit quicker than he thought he would be. He didn't get too explore too far,'' Ms Johnson said.

"He had ventured into the heart of the city but there were too many people so he left the city area - he doesn't like crowded areas.''

However he has told his mother it was good to be back home and he would not do it again.

Although Ethan is now back with family, Ms Johnson has decided not to remove the internet appeal site - on Facebook - to show him how many people cared for him.

More than 9000 people signed up to the site, and most posted warm, motivational messages aimed at instilling Ethan with self-confidence.

"Ethan, we love and appreciate you, mate. Can't wait to see you back at school,'' wrote one person, Chris Godde.

Another, Kate Metzdorf, wrote: "Being bullied can make you feel pretty sad and lonely, but if you didn't know before and least you now know that you have lots of family and friends who think you are pretty cool, so don't ever let anyone let you think that they are better than you, because they are not.''

Asperger's syndrome is a autism-related disorder that inhibits a person's ability to interact socially.

Source: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/nati...0415-a6rj.html

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News reader shares autism battle

2009-04-15T09:13:00.000-07:00

By BBC News

Channel 4 news reader Alex Thomson has had a three-year struggle to get educational care for his autistic son.

A health trust was forced to apologise to him for changing the boy's diagnosis after bowing to pressure from the education authority.

He told BBC 5 live's Victoria Derbyshire show he thought parents across the UK had experienced the same problems.

In 2006 a paediatrician at the Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust in Essex diagnosed Alex Thomson and his partner Sarah Spiller's son Henry, then aged six, with Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD).

Henry had already been issued a statement of special needs - a legal document guaranteeing him extra support at school.

The family then asked their local authority (LEA) to re-assess Henry to find out what additional help at school he might need.

The LEA refused, and Mr Thomson says that they were told that the paediatrician had withdrawn her initial diagnosis of autism.

Mr Thomson said: "Lo and behold, it appeared that our child had been cured of autism, and that's when we began to think something very strange was going on."

Henry's diagnosis of autism was subsequently backed up by other medical specialists his parents consulted, and Mr Thomson and Ms Spiller complained to the General Medical Council.

During an official inquiry by the Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust, the family say they received a letter from the hospital's chief executive saying the paediatrician admitted she had felt compelled to downgrade the diagnosis of autism after pressure from local educational officials.

Apology

"They (local education officials) were going behind our backs to change a diagnosis," said Mr Thomson.

"Now that struck us as something incredibly serious, and the reason we're going public is we suspect this is happening the length and the breadth of the country."

He went on to say that it was important to "make a noise... if only so that people out there can think, yeah, I'm not alone in this".

The hospital trust said it had apologised to the family .

In a statement, the trust said: "We can confirm that we have reviewed our procedures in the light of national guidelines and the need to continue to develop the best possible local practices."

The Healthcare Commission, which also investigated the matter, said it did not accept there was collusion when it came to professionals withdrawing Henry's diagnosis.

Mr Thomson said: "If you've got a doctor who is under pressure, behind your back, from education officials who are not medical people, putting pressure on a doctor to change a diagnosis, I say that's collusion."

And his partner Sarah Spiller added: "The Healthcare Commission said ... that there was uncertainty in the multi-agency team about how and why a diagnosis of autism is made, and I think that uncertainty is also a cause for alarm."

'Learning commitment'

Mr Thomson said the system had made him angry, and that the "clear conflict of interest" he believed existed had got education officials and paediatricians into "a mess".

He called for an independent body to be set up, as he felt his case had proved the system was open to abuse.

Essex County Council said it had requested a copy of the report from the Princess Alexandra Hospital Trust, but was yet to receive the document. The council maintained that it could not comment on the findings until then.

It said: "The council is committed to providing the very best learning opportunities for every child in Essex.

"Any decisions regarding a child's education, therefore, are made not on the basis of cost, but on the needs of the child."

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7998645.stm

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A Gallop Toward Hope: One Family’s Adventure in Fighting Autism

2009-04-15T02:46:00.000-07:00

By MOTOKO RICH - The New York Times

When Rupert Isaacson decided to take his autistic son, Rowan, on a trip to Mongolia to ride horses and seek the help of shamans two years ago, he had a gut instinct that the adventure would have a healing effect on the boy. Mr. Isaacson’s instinct was rewarded after the trip, when some of Rowan’s worst behavioralissues, including wild temper tantrums, all but disappeared.

Now the publisher of Mr. Isaacson’s book about the journey, “The Horse Boy,” has a similar instinct about the market potential of his story, and is hoping for its own happy ending.

Little, Brown & Company, which released “The Horse Boy” on Tuesday, has a lot riding on its success: the publisher paid more than $1 million in an advance to Mr. Isaacson before he and his family had even taken their Mongolian trip.

Michael Pietsch, publisher of Little, Brown, said booksellers had already placed orders high enough to justify a first printing of 150,000 copies.

“It just touched so many points of interest — helping to heal an autistic child, traveling under difficult circumstances,” Mr. Pietsch said. “Most of all, I felt this was a story entirely driven by the chances you’ll take for love, and I felt, who’s not going to want to read this story when they hear the outlines of it?”

“The Horse Boy” traces Rowan’s early difficulties with “demonic” tantrums, speech delays and incontinence. The only thing that seemed to help, Mr. Isaacson discovered, was riding horses. On horseback Rowan was calm, gave verbal directives and expressed joy.

Then Mr. Isaacson, who had previously written about the Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert in southern Africa and witnessed several shamanic ceremonies, took his son to a convention of traditional healers. For a few days Rowan improved.

Mr. Isaacson, a travel writer, wondered where he could combine horses and shamanic healing, and landed upon Mongolia. After some intensive Google searching and heated discussion with his wife, Kristin Neff, an associate professor of human development and culture at the University of Texas, the family decided to make the journey. A young filmmaker agreed to record the trip.

Mr. Isaacson also decided to pitch a book about the journey. His 37-page proposal outlined an itinerary and his hopes for Rowan’s healing.

Mr. Pietsch said that it was rare for the publisher to take on what he described as “prospective adventures.”

“Our usual response is, ‘Go have the adventure, and then we’ll decide,’ ” Mr. Pietsch said. In this case he determined “that regardless of the outcome in Mongolia, we thought he would write a very moving and interesting and dramatic book.”

During the auction of the book two years ago, Elizabeth Sheinkman, Mr. Isaacson’s agent in London, stoked interest by linking to a YouTube video of Mr. Isaacson and Rowan on horseback. Ms. Sheinkman went on to sell the book in Britain and 16 other countries.

In a telephone interview from his home near Austin, Tex., Mr. Isaacson said he wrote the kind of book he wanted to read when Rowan’s condition was first diagnosed, showing that even families with autistic children could lead a life of adventure. “I knew if somebody had put out a story like this when I was first facing the diagnosis,” Mr. Isaacson said, “I would have been to a large degree reassured.”

“The Horse Boy” follows the family’s four-week trek through Mongolia, riding on horseback or in a van with leopard-skin seats, meeting with shamans along the way. Mr. Isaacson candidly expressed misgivings about the difficult journey, recounting setbacks when Rowan, who was 5 at the time, exploded in tantrums or refused to get on a horse.

Much of the trip was captured on film by Michel Orion Scott, whose documentary about the experience, “Over the Hills and Far Away,” will be released in September. Mr. Isaacson paid for most of the production costs.

Mr. Isaacson has optioned feature film rights for “The Horse Boy” to Mark Ordesky, an executive producer of the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, and Ileen Maisel, an executive producer of the “Golden Compass.” Mr. Isaacson is writing the screenplay.

In writing about Rowan’s experiences, Mr. Isaacson is careful to avoid the word “cure,” but writes of an amazing “recovery” and “healing.” That has some prospective readers wary. Sharon Fennell, a mother of three in Belfast, Northern Ireland, whose 8-year-old son is autistic, said she had read newspaper excerpts and reviews in Britain, where the book came out last month.

She questioned whether Rowan’s progress could be attributed to what happened in Mongolia or to just typical changes that all children go through. “To make this story more engaging, it has to be portrayed as something miraculous and fantastical, because ordinary, everyday, slow-plodding progress does not read so well,” Ms. Fennell said.

Doctors who have worked with autistic patients say a child can make big leaps in development, and that stories like Mr. Isaacson’s can provide inspiration to families.

“I think we’ve all seen these alternative or augmentative therapies that have done wonders for given children,” said Dr. Sarah Spence, a pediatric neurologist specializing in autism at the National Institute of Mental Health.

But others warn that such examples are not tested by science. Dr. Paul A. Offit, chief of infectious diseases at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and author of “Autism’s False Prophets,” said anecdotal examples of recovery like that in “The Horse Boy” could give parents “false hope” and lead them to spend thousands of dollars trying to replicate an experience without any scientific proof that it would help.

Mr. Isaacson said that he and his wife had used part of his book advance to start a ranch where other autistic children could ride horses. But he added that the approach he chronicled in “The Horse Boy” was tailored to Rowan’s personality.

“The book isn’t really saying that shamanism cures autism or horses cure autism; it’s saying we found a way,” said Mr. Isaacson, who took Rowan, now 7, to Namibia last year to meet again with shamans. “You don’t have to get on a plane and go to Mongolia. It’s just that our particular story was that.”

Mr. Pietsch of Little, Brown said he hoped “The Horse Boy” would find a broader audience. In a brochure sent to booksellers, the book is described as combining “the adventure and optimism of ‘Three Cups of Tea’ with the powerful connection between man and animal that readers loved in ‘Marley and Me.’ ”

Booksellers have responded strongly to the marketing campaign, which included DVDs, YouTube trailers and lunches with Mr. Isaacson. “We feel that it’s really got the best-seller potential,” said Bob Wietrak, a vice president for merchandising at Barnes & Noble.

Janet Bailey, the buyer for Barbara’s Bookstores, an independent chain mostly in the Chicago area, said she had committed to the title “very aggressively” even though she had not read it. She was particularly taken with the book’s cover, which shows Rowan and Mr. Isaacson in a triumphant moment on the back of a horse on the Mongolian steppe. “It’s inspiring and uplifting and it’s about horses,” she added.

To promote the book, the Autism Society of America, an advocacy group, will send representatives to Mr. Isaacson’s readings in several cities.

Mr. Isaacson is already working on a new proposal for a book tentatively titled “The Gifts of Autism.” Mr. Isaacson said that Rowan himself had started to write. “The next film and the next book will probably have a lot of input from Rowan in it,” Mr. Isaacson said.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/15/books/15horse.html

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4-year-old boy with autism left on bus; driver charged

2009-04-14T17:20:00.000-07:00

By Sarah Schulte - ABC7 News

A suburban school bus driver has been charged after she allegedly left a 4-year-old boy with autism on a bus for an hour while she went shopping.

The driver is now charged with endangering the life of a child.

Marc Martin and Lisa Zago-Martin are driving their son to and from school rather than allow the 4-year-old autistic child to go on a school after he was left on a school bus for more than an hour last week.

Minutes after he was supposed to be at Thomas Jefferson School, 8200 W. Greendale Ave. in Niles. Lisa got a phone call that he was missing.

"The nightmare phone call we all dread. I was horrified, shaking," said Lisa.

"My secretary said it was the first time in 15 years she'd ever heard me scream," said Marc.

Almost an hour later, Marc was found safe inside the unattended bus in Glenview. Police say the 60-year-old driver was shopping inside this party store. She has been charged with child endangerment.

Each bus is equipped with an alarm that can only be deactivated by walking to the back and turning it off. They said the alarm was working but what wasn't working was the two-way radio and the driver wasn't answering her cell phone.

"To us it's unconscionable that a school bus could have no working radio system," said Marc.

The bus only had eight seats and the family has a hard time believing the driver didn't know Marc was on the bus.

"Marc's very verbal. I know she knew he was on that bus," said Lisa.

Knight was immediately fired from the bus company for violating procedures. The company said Knight had worked for them for the past five years and was an excellent driver until last week.

The Martins are going to be pushing for stronger state laws that make it mandatory for buses to be equipped with two-way working radios, and video system.

Source: http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?sec...cal&id=6761227

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Savant skills may be widespread in people with autism

2009-04-14T06:07:00.000-07:00

Daniel Paul Tammet is a British high-functioning autistic savant gifted with a facility for mathematical and natural language learning.

By Celeste Biever - New Scientist

Savant-like skills, such as astounding memory, perfect pitch or the ability to multiply very high numbers together, may be much more common among people with autism than previously thought.

A new study of about 100 adults with autism shows that one third have skills that stand out, both in comparison with their other abilities and with the skills of the general population. Previous studies put the prevalence of savantism in autistic people as around 1 in 10.

"People often focus on the things people with autism can't do," says Patricia Howlin of the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College in London, who led the study. "One of the things our study illustrates is that these are people who do have special skills but they are not being used."

The notion of the savant – someone who has a skill that is exceptional both compared to the general population and to that person's other skills – has long captured the imagination of cognitive scientists and the general public alike. But despite this fascination, the connection between autism and savantism remains mysterious.

Some studies indicate that there are more savants within the autistic population than among the general population and among the populations of people with other mental difficulties. Putting an exact figure on the prevalence of such special skills among people with autism, however, has proved difficult.

Outstanding skills

In an attempt to quantify this, Howlin's team looked at two different measures of exceptional ability in a group of people with autism – all now adults – who the team have been studying periodically since they were first diagnosed between 1950 and 1985. They found that 39 met criteria for either what they call a "savant skill" or an "exceptional cognitive skill".

To identify savant skills, the researchers sent the parents of the autistic adults a questionnaire asking them to identify and describe, using specific examples, any outstanding skills and talents that were present "at a level that would be unusual even for normal people".

Of almost 100 parents who replied, about half (45) claimed that their child had a special skill. But only 24 of the hundred met the researchers' tough criteria for what constitutes a savant skill: both exceptional in terms of population norms and above the individual's overall level of ability.

Relying on parents' anecdotal reports of skills could be risky. However, Francesca Happe, also at the Institute of Psychiatry but not involved in the study, says that the team's criteria were "pretty strict": "They didn't count anything that could conceivably be considered a normal skill. I don't think the parental reports are inflated."

Searching for savants

Among those skills considered at the savant level were: being able to name the elevation of both the sun and the moon at any time of day, on any specified date; being able to name the day of the week for any date in the distant past or future (a fairly common savant ability known as calendrical calculation); perfect pitch; and the ability to say, from a single chord, which piece of music it came from.

To identify exceptional cognitive ability, Howlin's team also examined the volunteers' scores on standard intelligence tests consisting of a range of subtests aimed at different aspects of IQ, such as arithmetic, spatial and motor skills and memory span. They found that 23 had an ability on at least one of these subtests that was well above the general population's average score on that subtest.

Eight of these 23 had also been identified as a mathematical or calendrical savant according to the first criteria, and the team concludes that overall 28.5% – or almost one third – of their volunteers had either a savant skill or an exceptional cognitive ability.

"I think it is a surprisingly high number, but believable," says Happe. She says that the study opens a window into the mind of a child with autism and recommends using these isolated, exceptional abilities as a way to motivate people with autism to learn other skills – such as social or communication ones – that might not come as easily.

One in ten?

Darold Treffert, a psychiatrist based in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin who studies savants, says that he sticks by an earlier estimate of the prevalence of savantism as being one in ten among people with autism. This is based on previous studies and backed up by his own observations.

He says this is partly because he is mistrustful of parental reports, and partly because he does not think that the peak ability in the intelligence subtests qualifies someone as a savant. "Some autistic savants do well on IQ subtests, but not all autistic persons who do well on IQ subtests are savant."

But he says the study is interesting, because it underscores the failings of IQ tests to measure overall intelligence.

"We are all made up of a series of intelligences, especially the savant, and IQ measures one component," he says. "Savants starkly challenge our definition of 'intelligence' and require us to look for ways to measure other 'intelligences'."

"We need a more reliable definition of savant syndrome, and a more reliable definition of intelligence," he adds.

Source: http://www.newscientist.com/article/...th-autism.html

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Teaching Teenagers With Autism How to Make Friends

2009-04-13T14:41:00.000-07:00

Picture by Seattle Times

By Nancy Shute - U.S.News & World Report LP

Teenage social life can be frustrating in the best of circumstances, and it's even harder for teenagers with autism, who report feeling lonelier and having poorer-quality friendships than their typically developing classmates. But social skills can be learned, according to researchers at the University of California-Los Angeles. They have created a new class that lets autistic teenagers practice key social skills, from asking someone to get together to brushing off teasing with a "That's so lame."

Social skills classes are common for young children with autism, because problems with social interactions and communications are a hallmark of the disorder. However, there is little help for teenagers and young adults, despite the fact that teenage life is all about communicating with peers. "Because autism research is in its infancy, we're just starting to set these things up," says Elizabeth Laugeson, a clinical instructor of psychiatry at UCLA who also is associate director of the UCLA Parenting and Children's Friendship Program. She and her colleagues created a series of twelve 90-minute classes, taught weekly, in which high-functioning teenagers with autism spectrum disorders work on practical social skills. They include how to pick the peer group that's right for them (jocks, nerds, gamers); how to join and leave a conversation; how to host a get-together; how to handle bullying and teasing; and how to change a bad reputation.

Parents of the teenagers take separate classes in which they learn how to support their child's social efforts and help with "homework." At the end of 12 weeks, 33 teenagers ages 13 to 17 who participated in a study group were having more peer interactions outside of school and had increased the number of get-togethers they hosted. Their parents reported a significant increase in the children's social skills, and both parents and children reported better friendships, compared with a control group of teens who did not attend the classes.

"We could literally see a dramatic improvement in these kids' behavior," says Laugeson. "A lot of our kids came into the program with virtually no social contact outside of school. We saw a dramatic increase in the amount of get-togethers with friends. They weren't so socially isolated anymore." That research is published in the April Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. A second study, which is tracking whether teenagers maintained the improved social skills three months after classes ended, has just been completed. It found that the kids continued to have more get-togethers, including invitations to others' homes.

The Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills, or PEERS, isn't yet available outside UCLA, although Laugeson's group has adapted it for schools, where it will be tested starting this fall. A training manual for mental health professionals is also in the works, and Laugeson hopes there will be a do-it-yourself book for parents in the near future.

Although social skills classes for autistic teens might be hard to find, my colleague Meghan Johnson recently wrote about summer camps that teach social skills for teenagers with ADHD and other special needs. Advocacy groups are pushing hard for more real-world skills training for teenagers with autism. And here's the story of Joe Steffy, a 23-year-old with autism and Down syndrome who runs a popcorn business with the help of his family and employees.

Source: http://health.usnews.com/blogs/on-pa...e-friends.html

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Eliminate Gluten: Why Go Gluten Free?

2009-04-13T06:22:00.000-07:00

By Cheryl Heppard - Detroit Holistic Health Examiner

My eleven year old daughter has slight allergies and consequently, often gets congested. As a health counselor, I have had many clients who have dramatically improved their health and conditions by modifying their diet to exclude dairy and gluten. Most of us have some type of inflammatory response to both. We determined early on that my oldest daughter is very sensitive to dairy. Recently, we convinced her to try a gluten free diet as well. I already cook a primarily gluten free menu, using brown rice pasta rather than pasta made with refined white flours, and using brown rice, quinoa, lentils and beans liberally as side dishes.

Here is a little more information on how to transition to a gluten free diet.

Who Should Avoid Gluten?

Gluten allergies have become very common and the number of people who are allergic are expected to keep rising. Those who are severely allergic to gluten are known as "celiacs". Some people get severe skin rashes from gluten allergies. Everybody seems to have some kind of an inflammatory response to gluten, and the gluten free diet has become very popular as many health conditions improve once gluten is cut out of the diet, such as arthritis, autism, ADHD, allergies, etc.

What Is Gluten?

Gluten is the protein part of wheat, spelt, rye, barley, most oats, and other related grains. Gluten intolerance is the inability to digest or break down gluten. This condition can range from a mild sensitivity to full blown celiac disease. The skin disorder called dermatitis herpetiformis, which causes a chronic itchy rash of bumps and blisters, is also linked to gluten allergies. The gluten-free diet must be strictly followed by sufferers of celiac disease and dermatitis herpetiformis.

Around ½% of the world's population is Celiac. This means ~1 in 200 people. Some people are not celiac, but have intolerance to gluten. Some studies show gluten intolerance to be around 30 times more prevalent than celiac disease. Up to 15% of people or 1 in 7 are gluten sensitive and suffer the same symptoms. These are people who test negative or inconclusive for celiac disease. They are known as Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitive (NCGS). Symptoms include gastro-intestinal issues, headaches, mouth ulcers, weight gain or weight loss, poor immunity to disease, and skin problems like dermatitis and eczema.

According to some celiac specialist researchers, everyone has some reaction to gluten, but non-celiacs recover more quickly. Many people report feeling better on a gluten free diet. Many studies have found that a gluten free diet significantly decreases allergy symptoms among children. Some medical practitioners believe that gluten-free diets benefit other conditions as well, such as irritable bowel syndrome, ADD/ADHD, autism, multiple sclerosis, cystic fibrosis, thyroid disease and other autoimmune disorders.

Sticking to a gluten-free diet is not easy. Grains are used in many foods, especially processed foods, which everyone should avoid despite gluten intolerances. It is often difficult to determine by an ingredient’s name what may be in it, so it is easy to eat gluten despite the best of intentions. Gluten is used in unexpected ways, so be wary of the following: stabilizing agents or thickeners in foods, over-the-counter or prescription medications, vitamins, cosmetics such as lipstick, and also many lip balms, and even communtion wafers may contain gluten.

Michigan Resources

When I work with clients who have recently become diagnosed as being celiac, have candida, or must avoid gluten for allergies, I recommend visiting the gluten free store in Chesterfield Township, called Celiac Specialties. There also is a new restaurant in Sterling Heights which is completely gluten safe, called GF Cucina.

Whole Foods and Trader Joe's also carry a good selection of gluten free products.

Source: http://www.examiner.com/x-7948-Detroit-Holistic-Health-Examiner~y2009m4d12-Going-Gluten-Free

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Autism screening tops Obama's medical to-do list

2009-04-12T17:28:00.000-07:00

By Nancy Shute U.S. News & World Report

Autism is the only disorder or disease mentioned explicitly in Obama's 24-point agenda on Whitehouse.gov . Heart disease and cancer don't get the call. Neither does diabetes, or other chronic diseases.

But there are four hefty bullet points addressing autism. Obama called for:

1. Increased funding for research, treatment, screenings, public awareness and support services for autism spectrum disorders.

2. "Life-long services" for people with autism spectrum disorders, as children and as adults. Many parents struggle to find and pay for screening and treatments for their children, but there is even less coverage and capacity for adults with autism-based impairments.

3. More funding for the 2006 Combating Autism Act, as well as improving state and federal autism programs.

4. Universal screening for all infants for autism disorders, as well as re-screening for all 2-year-olds. This is the biggie; children are currently screened only if parents or pediatricians voice a concern, so too many children aren't diagnosed until they enter elementary school. The earlier treatment starts, the more effective it is, and a national screening program would help reduce the number of kids falling through the cracks. It would also be a huge undertaking, at a time when both government and privately insured health care is foundering.

That second bullet point would be a huge help for families who are struggling to provide care. In a recent survey, 52 percent of parents of children with autism said their family finances were drained by treatment and care, compared to 13 percent of typical families.

The 2006 Combating Autism act promised almost $1 billion over five years for autism research and development, but Congress hadn't appropriated $200 million per year, even before the economy hit the skids. The Obama manifesto gives a big fat hint that for autism, at least, the hard times cited in the new president's inaugural address won't mean big cuts in funding.

Still, universal screening for autism will be a huge challenge. There's no blood test that can be used to diagnose autism, as there is for hereditary diseases like galactosemia and sickle cell, which are screened for using a heel stick while a newborn is still in the hospital. With autism, parents and doctors instead need to observe a child and look for delays in language, social interactions, and gross motor skills.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that pediatricians screen children during well-baby visits at 9 months, 18 months, and 24 or 30 months. But many doctors don't get around to doing those screens, and until very recently the recommended tests weren't sensitive enough to pick up mild autism spectrum disorders. Early screening for autism is a terrific idea. Making it happen will be a tall order, even for the can-do Obama team.

Source: http://www.kfor.com/lifestyle/health...0,187822.story

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Challenges of autism also yield big rewards

2009-04-11T07:14:00.000-07:00

By The Buffalo News

I will always remember that day. It was late August and summer weather was still trying to hang on. It was sunny and mild but very windy. I blamed the wind for the chill I was feeling; but in hindsight, it probably was not the wind that was making me shiver.

My husband and I drove in complete silence the entire 30 minutes it took to get from our home to the University at Buffalo Center for Children and Families. Both of us were lost in our own thoughts about what lay ahead.

We were going to hear from the experts what we already knew in our hearts to be true. They were the four words we most dreaded: “Your son has autism.” They were spoken to us seven years ago.

Our lives were forever changed that day. At first I spent a lot of time trying to make deals with

God, like “please take this autism from my child and I’ll do anything you ask.”

But change, in and of itself, does not have to be a bad thing. It is how we embrace it, how we move forward from it, that makes our lives better or worse because of it.

The challenges we face raising a child with autism are great. However, if we spend too much time thinking about those challenges, they can become overwhelming. And if we don’t embrace the challenges, we will miss out on all the rewards.

The rewards are some of the most amazing experiences I have had in my life. Whether it is when Ryan is doing his homework and smiles at me because he knows he got the answer correct, or the first time I took him to the playground and he played appropriately on the swings and slides. No longer did he just sit on the ground throwing the wood chips about.

For me, the biggest reward has been watching his relationship with his siblings blossom. It is very difficult for an autistic child to develop social skills. Ryan is fortunate to have a brother and two sisters who each, in their own unique way, have helped him grow into the silly, lovable young boy he is today. They have taught him important skills he never could have learned in a classroom. I know they, in turn, have learned much about the importance of patience, tolerance and acceptance.

Because of Ryan, I am a firm believer that God gives us our children for a reason. It is not just because of what we, as parents, can teach our children; it is also what we, as adults, can learn from them. Ryan has pushed me in so many ways to be a better person.

There is a saying, “God only gives us as much as we can handle.” It reminds me how strong Ryan’s soul must be to have taken on the challenges this life has handed him. His obstacles are far greater than any I have ever faced. It is because of Ryan I find strength and courage to rise above my own personal fears.

What started as a day that felt as though our whole world was crashing down around us has turned into a journey that has blessed us with many rewards.

This is for all the families out there who have recently, or will very soon, receive the same devastating news my family received seven years ago. Always keep your heart and mind open to what your child may be trying to teach you, and cherish the rewards you will find in your child’s successes. This is also for Ryan, who is our hero every single day.

Source: http://www.buffalonews.com/149/story/636592.html

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Autism spectrum can be difficult for some to see

2009-04-11T06:55:00.000-07:00

By Julie Deardorff

April is National Autism Awareness Month. According to the Autism Society of America, autism is a complex developmental disability affects a person's ability to communicate and interact with others.1.5 million Americans are living with the effects of autism spectrum disorder and the prevalence of autism has risen to 1 in every 150 American children.

A Florida kindergarten teacher recently asked her pupils to vote on whether a 5-year-old boy should be removed from the classroom. The misbehaving child, who was in the process of being tested for autism, was ousted by a 14-2 count; he spent the day in the nurse's office.

In Minnesota, meanwhile, a mother was ticketed for ignoring a restraining order and bringing her 13-year-old autistic son to church. Church officials charged that the 6-foot, 225-pound boy was "disruptive" and his "erratic" behavior threatened the safety of others.

"We've seen the light at the end of the tunnel," is the expression some autism communities now use to describe the growing and aging autistic population. "And it's a train."

By all accounts, autism prevalence has risen dramatically. In the 1970s the neurological disorder affected an estimated 1 in 10,000 children. Today, at least 1 in 150 children - who will one day be adults - have landed on the spectrum.

Society isn't prepared to handle the increased demand for special needs. But as these types of cases show, affected children are looking to be part of the mainstream. Parents are insisting on it.

It's an understandable desire; we all want our children to have an equal opportunity in life. For example, Karen Race, the Minnesota mother, knows that some people might fear or misunderstand her son Adam, who cuts an imposing figure for a 13-year-old, is severely autistic and has limited verbal skills. But she rejected the church's suggestion that he view mass through a video feed in the church basement."There are lots of places I won't take my son if he's a distraction, such as a school play or concert," said Race. "But we're talking about mass, the source and summit of Christian life. (Excluding him) ushers in all the ways that autistic individuals are hurt and left out by society."

Children with milder forms of autism, meanwhile, such as Asperger's, often can function in a regular classroom to everyone's benefit, as long as teachers, bus drivers, aides and support staff recognize their brains are wired a little differently than "neurotypical" children. Higher-functioning autistic children are not mentally handicapped; in fact, they are often very bright.

It's easy to see how a child with autism or Asperger's could frustrate a teacher with limited or no knowledge of the disorder. Problems inevitably arise when autistic behavior is misinterpreted as willful disobedience, something that a child - or parent - can control, which may have been what happened in Florida.

Before the teacher, Wendy Portillo, held the vote, she had the boy's classmates tell him what they didn't like about his behavior, which included throwing crayons and kicking the tables while lying on the floor. Portillo told police that she believed that if the boy heard from his classmates _ rather than adults _ how his actions affected them, the lesson would finally sink in.

Autistic children vary widely in terms of intelligence and behavior. They may have difficulty relating to others, miss social cues, have trouble forming relationships and suffer from sensory overload. The very nature of the disorder makes it hard for them to understand how others feel.

This doesn't excuse unruly behavior that disrupts the class. Everyone loses when children are forced into inappropriate situations. But a little familiarity with autism might make a teacher think twice before using negative peer pressure to cruelly shame a 5-year-old in front of his classmates.

Source: http://www.wreg.com/health/sns-healt...0,115383.story

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Sole autism helper made redundant

2009-04-10T18:45:00.000-07:00

By CHARLES ANDERSON - The Nelson Mail

The entire New Zealand regional staff of autism information officers has been made redundant, including Nelson-based Felicity Jordan, who offers advice to 300 families from Kaikoura to Haast.

Ms Jordan was told on Thursday along with 11 other officers from around the country that the organisation she works for was undergoing restructuring.

She was told she would have to reapply for a new position and, if successful, her hours would be cut from 20 hours a week to five hours.

"I am absolutely shocked," said Ms Jordan. "This will create a huge gap. Five hours is not enough to cater to the community."

Ms Jordan works for a government-funded organisation called Altogether Autism, a national information and advisory service for people with autism and their families.

Altogether Autism is run by Parent to Parent New Zealand and the Life Unlimited trust, which last year signed a memorandum of understanding to work collaboratively because resources were so scarce.

Parent to Parent New Zealand chief executive Anne Wilkinson said they had been concerned for some time about "a strategic issue of financial sustainability".

"We see this model as sustainable for our organisation. I would hope the level of service would not change under the restructuring."

Altogether Autism is a not-for-profit organisation but received funding from the Ministry of Health which had been "totally involved with the restructure every step of the way".

Ms Jordan said the restructure was "completely out of tune with the needs of the community".

Nelson woman Sharon Bryce, who has a child with autism, said relationships were vital for helping those suffering from the disorder.

"Any time resources are pulled out it's never a good look, it's never helpful, how can it be?" she said. "Families are left to cast around to make new connections and to find others that they feel comfortable with. It's all about relationships."

Ms Jordan was at Nayland College on Thursday to oversee a mufti day to raise awareness of autism.

Students and support staff drew smiley faces around the school library to show their support for those students at the school who were affected.

According to Autism New Zealand, one person in 100 has autism or Asperger's syndrome, which means about 40,000 New Zealanders are affected.

Nayland College support co-ordinator Kerry Budge said that without Ms Jordan the school "would be lost".

Nayland College has two dozen students with autism, and Ms Budge said Altogether Autism had been instrumental in helping the school set up a model to help cater to those students.

Source: http://www.stuff.co.nz/nelson-mail/n...ade-redundant/

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Easter, Passover, homeschool, autism

2009-04-10T09:12:00.001-07:00

By Lisa Jo Rudy - Autism & Parenting Examiner

This year, our son Tom decided we should celebrate Passover.

Between my husband and I, we grew up Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Unitarian, agnostic and atheist. This time of year, traditionally, we celebrate just about everything - the Spring Equinox, the Passover Seder, Easter... we eat Kosher one day, and bake a ham the next.

Sometimes, that's just great. Othertimes, not so much - especially as we're attempting to provide our kids with some understanding of faiths and traditions, and help them to feel like they're a part of something bigger than ourselves.

Having a child with autism makes this even tougher. Since we're not part of a religious community, the idea of asking a well-meaning Unitarian volunteer Sunday School teacher to engage my child - knowing full well that it will be a challenge - seems rather unfair (not to mention a lot of hard work).

Yet Tom has always really enjoyed any kind of religious tradition. He's the kid who loves stained glass, organs, and candles... gladly sits quietly through church services.... and when he was in a Jewish preschool, actually enjoyed wearing a yamulka (skull cap) and saying a Hebrew prayer over snack. He memorized the Passover prayers, and has always gotten a real pleasure out of having Passover at our friends' home.

When Tom decided he wanted to celebrate Passover, I figured it was a good thing. And being the one who comes from at least a partly Jewish heritage, I decided it was up to me to figure out how to incorporate the experience into homeschool.

I found directions for making a clay seder plate, and we made it together (Tom painted it). We borrowed a book about Passover and he read it with his Dad during the school day. I found an online children's haggadah, and printed it. We made a list of all the things we needed for the ceremony, went to the store and bought them together. Tom put everything on the seder plate - the egg, the bone, the greens, the bitter herbs, the shredded apples with honey - and when I thought we were all ready, it was Tom who remembered we needed salt water to represent the tears of the Israelite slaves.

Then, we sat down to dinner. But somehow, after al that preparation, no one was all that excited about actually going through the process of the ceremony. Tom, who'd remembered the salt water and the bitter herbs, couldn't remember Moses' name. Sara, who really doesn't care for ceremonies at all, asked for the peanut butter as I was reading about the parting of the Red Sea.

Finally, in frustration, I threw down the book and told everyone to just eat dinner. I was surprised at how upset they became. I had wanted to pick up on what Tom seemed to be asking for - a special traditional event - and perhaps shouldn't have been surprised when what he really wanted was just the trappings, not the experience itself.

Some people feel that kids with autism have a special connection to all things spiritual. And perhaps, given his love of the traditions, sights, smells and sounds of religious experiences, Tom really does. But I'm not quite sure how to capture that - or how to go beyond just the sensory to something a little deeper.

Source: http://www.examiner.com/x-2007-Autis...eschool-autism

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Greenwich man accused of violent stabbing barred from seeing son

2009-04-10T07:44:00.000-07:00

By Debra Friedman - Greenwich Time

A 61-year-old town man accused of stabbing his estranged wife nine times with a screwdriver was barred Thursday from seeing the couple's 18-year-old son, who sat just inches away from his mother as the violent attack occurred, prosecutors said.

Michael Parrotta, of 26 Byram Terrace Drive, appeared in state Superior Court in Stamford on Thursday, where a judge signed a restraining order requiring that Parrotta stay at least 100 yards away from his son and refrain from contacting him.

The order was issued after prosecutors stated their concern for the son's safety if Parrotta posts his $1.5 million bond. The son is autistic and doesn't speak, according to officials.

It's the second restraining order against Parrotta since the alleged attack. On Tuesday, the court imposed an updated restraining order barring Parrotta from contacting his wife, officials said.

Senior Assistant State's Attorney James Bernardi told the judge that Parrotta's parental rights should be revoked after such a violent crime was committed in the presence of his child.

"He (the son) was present at the time the defendant stabbed his mother nine times. He observed it. I think to enter this order would be both legal and appropriate," said Bernardi. "I'm afraid if contact is allowed between the (son) and the defendant, the whereabouts of his mother will leak out."

Parrotta stabbed his wife in the chest and abdomen with a sharpened screwdriver on the night of April 2 as she sat in her car, police said. His wife, who lives separately from Parrotta, had arrived to pick up their son when her husband leaned in through the car window and began stabbing her, puncturing her lung and sending her to the hospital for a week.

Parrotta is charged with criminal attempt at homicide, first-degree assault, first-degree reckless endangerment, breach of peace, violation of a protective order and carrying a dangerous weapon.

He was later charged with another count of violating a restraining order and criminal possession of a firearm after police found a rifle following a search of the home.

Parrotta's wife has since been released from Stamford Hospital, officials said, but Bernardi said she may be attempting to relocate and felt Parrotta should not be in communication with her or their son because he might attempt to find them.

Parrotta's attorney, Philip Russell of Greenwich, said that Parrotta should not be restricted from seeing his son, whom he cared for five days a week. Russell said that because of the son's disorder, he would not be able to communicate to his father where his mother was staying.

Comerford also scheduled a hearing for Thursday on Parrotta's $1.5 million bond.

Under current conditions of his potential release, Parrotta will be confined to house arrest wearing an electronic monitoring bracelet.

Russell said it was too soon to tell whether Parrotta would be able to post bond next week, noting that the issue is complicated by the couple's pending divorce. The divorce involves the couple's assets and properties, which Parrotta would use to post bond, Russell said.

Source: http://www.greenwichtime.com/ci_12110107

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Mother of an autistic college professor reaches out to other parents

2009-04-09T21:17:00.000-07:00

Eustacia Cutler sat at a piano, practicing Bach. Her daughter, Temple Grandin, was on the floor lost in her own world. Lost inside her 2½-year-old mind. Temple couldn’t talk and refused to communicate. She started humming, crumpling a newspaper. Squeezing. Shredding. Tossing. Staring blankly as the pieces floated to the ground. Jagged fragments. Isolated and alone. Mental debris. Destined for the trash can. Cutler stopped playing, trying to get her daughter to engage, trying to get some love. That was the hardest part of having an autistic child, not feeling a shred of love, not feeling like a mother.

By: Jeff Seidel

DETROIT — Eustacia Cutler sat at a piano, practicing Bach. Her daughter, Temple Grandin, was on the floor lost in her own world. Lost inside her 2½-year-old mind.

Temple couldn’t talk and refused to communicate. She started humming, crumpling a newspaper. Squeezing. Shredding. Tossing. Staring blankly as the pieces floated to the ground. Jagged fragments. Isolated and alone. Mental debris. Destined for the trash can.

Cutler stopped playing, trying to get her daughter to engage, trying to get some love. That was the hardest part of having an autistic child, not feeling a shred of love, not feeling like a mother.

“See the bright colors?” she said to her daughter.

Temple sat there, unable to climb out from behind those numb, baby blue eyes.

Frustrated and afraid, unsure what to do, Cutler started playing again. And Temple started humming.

Back in the late 1940s, when Temple was a child, her doctor called it infant schizophrenia. It was a rare disorder, affecting one in 10,000 children. Many were sent to an institution, locked up, discarded.

Today, the same thing is called autism. It affects 1 in 150 children. It’s more common in boys, affecting 1 in 94.

Through love and determination, not to mention the help of some amazing teachers, Cutler pulled her child out from behind those baby blue eyes. “I was going to pull her to me,” Cutler said. “I was going to pull her into the world with me.”

And Temple grew up to be a remarkable success story — the poster child for autistic achievement.

“Temple Grandin has been known for years in the autism community,” said Dr. Colleen Allen, the director of the Henry Ford Center for Autism and Developmental Disabilities in Detroit. “She is an example of a person who can go through this life with this kind of disability and really make it.”

But it was Temple’s mother who was behind the scenes, gently pulling her into this world.

Sharing her struggle

Cutler is 82 and lives on New York’s Upper West Side. She travels around the country, giving 12 to 15 speeches every year to families with autistic children.

She will come to the Detroit area and be the keynote speaker at an autism workshop next month.

In her speeches — Cutler calls them lectures — she tells families how her daughter grew up. Temple didn’t speak until she was nearly 5 but she entered a small country school, where she received individual instruction. “Temple was mainstreamed at 5,” Cutler says. “But we didn’t call it that back then.”

Cutler tells the families how Temple graduated from high school and college, earning a bachelor’s degree from Franklin Pierce College, a master’s degree from Arizona State University and a doctorate in animal science from the University of Illinois.

She tells the families how her daughter is a professor now at Colorado State University.

She tells the families how Temple became a media darling, appearing on television programs, including “20/20” and NBC’s “Today” show. She has been featured in several publications, including People magazine, the New York Times and Time magazine.

She tells the families how her daughter has found peace. She has found herself, found a place in this world.

“Temple is a smart girl who has overcome a severe disability,” Cutler says. “What I think is important for people to understand is we are not going to cure autism. What we can do is help our children be fulfilled.”

Most of all, she gives the families hope.

Cutler finishes her story and then she waits. Sometimes, she goes to the ladies room and washes her hands slowly. Deliberately. Stalling. Waiting for the approach.

In the quiet, after the crowds have left, they come up to her - parents from the present, asking for advice from a mother who has already gone through the hell.

“They would come up to me privately and tell me, ‘Your story is my story,’” Cutler said.

‘Mothers were breaking down’

As scientists and researchers debate the cause of autism — Is it genetics? Vaccinations? Pollution? A combination of everything? What? — there is a profound struggle inside the families with an autistic child.

More often than not, it rips apart marriages. Eighty-six percent of the marriages with an autistic child end in divorce, according to Allen.

“Most of these children are raised by single mothers,” Cutler said. “In a sense, I was a single mother.”

Like so many others, Cutler’s marriage ended in divorce. She waited until after her husband’s death to write her best-selling book, “A Thorn in My Pocket” (Future Horizons, $24.95).

“I struggled through a marriage where Temple’s father wanted her institutionalized and I wouldn’t,” Cutler said. “Therefore, he went to work to try to prove I was crazy. In those days, in the ‘50s, he could have succeeded. There was a tremendous feeling against mothers in those days. What people didn’t realize was mothers were breaking down.”

So she tries to give the parents some inspiration.

“I try to give them an emotional compass,” Cutler said. “With that compass, I try to give a simple guideline for what they can expect out of an autistic child.”

Cutler said that autistic children will struggle with concepts and context. They struggle to make social connections. And it is important for parents of an autistic child to explain to others that autistic children do not always make eye contact.

“It is hard for these children to look at somebody in the eye,” Cutler said. “They don’t understand what we are getting from each other. They are not being shifty-eyed. Once you understand that, you can deal with it.”

But most of all, she tries to give the parents a simple message: Never give up hope.

“Hope is different than control. It’s not Hallmark cards - oh, it’s all going to be all right. It’s really a bet. You check out the odds, and you place your bet. That’s how I describe hope. And I bet on Temple’s growth.”

Inspiration and advice

Eustacia Cutler has words of wisdom for parents who are raising a child with autism. But parents of any child can heed her advice:

“What do you want for your children? For them to be fulfilled as they would like to be fulfilled. Not your idea or my idea of fulfillment, but theirs.”

“Never give up hope. They will find their way.”

“Your child will be who your child will be, and you will come to terms with it.”

“The more our children are educated, the more they will join the workforce, and be able to manage for themselves, all their lives.”

Early diagnosis

Dr. Colleen Allen, the director of the Henry Ford Center for Autism and Developmental Disabilities, said it is important to identify children who have autism early in life.

“Pediatricians are supposed to be administering an autism tool beginning at 18 months of age,” Allen said of testing for the disorder. “If a child fails that, they should be referred” to a specialist.

The majority of children affected by autism are boys.

“It’s one in 94 males,” Allen said. “Even in my own caseload, it’s a majority of males when we look at the kids coming into the autism clinic every week.”

According to the Autism Society of America, some of the early warning signs are:

• Lack of or delay in speaking.

• Repetitive use of language and/or motor mannerisms (e.g., hand-flapping, twirling objects).

• Little or no eye contact.

• Lack of interest in peer relationships.

• Lack of spontaneous or make-believe play.

• Persistent fixation on parts of objects.

Source: http://www.grandforksherald.com/even...cle/id/114241/

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Autistic teen at center of school furor on behavior

2009-04-08T04:37:00.000-07:00

By Barbara O’Brien - The Buffalo News

ALLEGANY — The story of an autistic high school student forcibly restrained by school officials attracted national attention last year when the New York Times reported about his parents’ complaints.

Eight months later, outrage still is evident in this Cattaraugus County community, only now it belongs to the parents of the student’s classmates. They say their children are put at risk because school administrators refuse to protect them from the autistic teenager.

These parents have formed a group, taken out ads in the local newspaper urging attendance at School Board meetings and attended board meetings in the last three months to express their concerns. They say they are not targeting one student in particular or specialneeds students in general.

But when one student yells, runs down the hall and engages in behavior that can be viewed as violent or bizarre, they say that it interferes with their children’s ability to learn. And the district, they contend, is not doing enough to protect the other students.

“I’m putting you all on notice right now: If anything happens to my daughter in this school system, or any other child for that matter, because of your inaction on these matters, I’m going to hold all of you legally responsible,” parent David Nolan told the Allegany-Limestone School Board.

Court case is factor

The father of the 16-year-old youth whose story garnered national attention last year said the parents are less concerned about safety than they are about getting his son out of the school. The father and other parents asked that The Buffalo News not use the student’s name out of fear that he would be further stigmatized.

“This group has disseminated false information,” the father said. “What they are doing is very disruptive and hurtful to my child.”

“We’re in the middle of a tough situation as a district and as a community,” School Superintendent Diane Munro said. “Student safety is No. 1. We just have a difference, apparently, about what constitutes safety.”

The difference has shattered the calm in the rural school district, which is awaiting a federal court ruling on a challenge to the restraints placed on the autistic student when he was in sixth grade.

The student, now about 6 feet tall, is in his second year in high school and rides the bus to the high school, which has an enrollment of about 450. Some classmates have said they are frightened by his loud outbursts and other behavior. And their parents wonder whether the school is treating him lightly in view of the court case.

Parents say their children have reported seeing the student running down the halls, acting inappropriately in a bathroom of the middle school, glaring at a younger student and saying he didn’t like her, and asking who the popular students are, which they view as an attempt to target students.

While the behavior might be unnerving, it is not unusual for a person with autism, said the student’s father. His son sometimes is loud and disruptive, he said, and the teenager also has made lists since he was a child.

Photos add to discord

“Absolutely, he’s different,” the father said. “Look at him, he’s different. Listen to him talk. That doesn’t mean he shouldn’t be in that setting.”

He maintains that his son is not a danger to others, and he denies rumors that the youth has killed animals. He has two pet cats, the father said.

“We all feel sorry for this child. It’s not his fault,” said one of the parents concerned about safety. “As a parent, I would want to do everything in my power to see that my child got a good education, which is not happening.”

Is it a case of intolerance? Or are the behaviors identified by parents warning signs that the school is ignoring?

The school superintendent will not discuss the particulars of any student, and parents have avoided naming students when they have talked with the School Board. The superintendent has met privately with concerned parents and has said publicly she is confident that students are safe in Allegany- Limestone schools.

Still, some parents disagree.

Discord is evident at board meetings, and parents called local police after the father took photographs of them when they addressed the board.

The father said he took the photos because he wanted to know who was making the statements, and he said the parent group has knowingly spread false information.

“The behavior of this parent group is elevating and feeding disruptive behavior,” he said.

Students with disabilities were excluded from fully participating in school for years. Placing such students in the regular classroom, or the least restrictive environment, not only is the goal of the inclusion movement, it is federal law.

‘Equal access’ at issue

“It’s really about access to the general education curriculum. There can’t be equal access in a segregated environment,” said Michelle A. Hickman, assistant professor in exceptional education at Buffalo State College.

But there is a difference between physical inclusion, she said, and meaningful participation. Special-needs students require the proper support services to successfully integrate into the classroom.

Parent Marcia Wymer told the board at a recent meeting that she has written two letters about the safety issue, as well as talked with school officials. She said she was told that her information was not fully accurate and that she was promoting fear in her children.

“We do not feel that the school has been candid about proactive measures being taken to assure the safety of our children. We have been told that there is constant adult supervision taking place to keep our children safe,” Wymer told the School Board.

But if this were true, she said, her daughter would not have been scared about a comment made about her, and her son would not have been asked who the “popular” students are.

‘Watching very closely’

Not all students are afraid. One senior told the School Board he has no problem with the student.

“Though he has had certain interactions that could be considered outbursts of his condition, he has not struck me as dangerous. Not once have I feared for my safety,” Daniel Jaremco said. “He is a talented individual and deserves the right to a fair and just representation in the school and a fair and just education.”

Munro maintains that the schools are safe. “We are watching very closely, and we are taking every step available to us for student safety,” she said.

The father of the specialneeds child said the district’s close monitoring of his son in the last several months has provoked some disruptive behavior. He was doing so poorly late last year that his parents took him out of school in December, and he was tutored at home. He has gradually started returning to classes, the father said.

“I am in agreement it was disruptive. That’s why we took him out,” he said, but he insisted, “Who has he endangered?”

Students feel threatened, some parents say. They said that the district dealt swiftly and decisively with students who brought a BB gun to school but that it has not done the same with special-needs students.

Inappropriate behavior can be punished, Hickman said, but it won’t do any good if the person does not have an appropriate behavior to take its place. Children with Asperger’s syndrome, a form of autism, who have difficulty communicating, may use inappropriate behavior as a communicative tool, she said.

But certain behavior can’t be ignored. “If there is a danger to other students,” she said, “you can’t overlook that just because the student has a disability.”

Which leaves the school with the dilemma of how to balance the needs and rights of all students.

“That’s the question of the day,” Munro said. “Whether or not we’re successful is a matter of perspective.”

Source: http://www.buffalonews.com/home/story/632188.html

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Autism discussion must focus on education, early intervention

2009-04-08T04:34:00.000-07:00

By Karyl Caplan

As we celebrate National Autism Awareness Month in April, we must recognize the critical role that education plays in the growth and development of people with autism. Although investment in research is still essential to find a cause of and, it is hoped, a cure for this increasingly prevalent disorder, we need to direct the focus - and greater resources - toward educational programs to help people with autism continue to lead full and productive lives.

Autism is a complex neurological condition that typically appears during the first three years of life and affects a person's ability to communicate and interact with others. It is part of a group of disorders known as autism spectrum disorders. According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the prevalence of autism has risen to 1 in 150, affecting about 1.5 million Americans and making it more common than pediatric cancer, diabetes and AIDS combined. Of the approximately 4 million babies born every year, 24,000 of them will eventually be identified as having autism.

Autism can usually be diagnosed by age 3, although new research has advanced the age of diagnosis to as early as 6 months. Currently there are no effective means to prevent autism, no foolproof treatments and no cure. Studies have shown, however - and our experience at ARC's Prime Time For Kids Early Learning Center has borne out - that early intervention has a dramatic impact on reducing the symptoms of autism.

Although parents may have concerns about labeling a toddler as having autism, the earlier the diagnosis is made, the earlier interventions may begin. Intervention - as early as possible up to age 3 - in an appropriate educational setting yields significant improvements for many children with autism by the time they enter kindergarten, often decreasing the need for intensive supports. Effective programs focus on developing communication, social and cognitive skills.

A teaching method called applied behavior analysis (ABA) has been very successful in mitigating behaviors associated with autism and increasing communication, learning and appropriate social behavior. It is based on the premise that appropriate behavior - including speech, academics and life skills - can be taught using scientific principles involving reinforcement.

In particular, an ABA technique known as verbal behavior has proved especially effective in improving communication proficiency. Using this strategy, instructors introduce the child to language through the use of sign language. The child then learns to articulate and use sign language concurrently, and eventually discontinues signing while maintaining articulation skills.

Our instructors have employed this method for the majority of their learners. We also provide training for parents of children with autism so that families may apply these successful techniques at home. In addition to building communication skills, the program trains parents to help their children develop life skills such as playing with siblings, making the right food choices, appropriate behavior in public settings, and other real-life situations outside the classroom.

Although great strides have been made in treating children with autism, the challenges of educating these individuals remains formidable. The Autism Society of America estimates that the lifetime cost of caring for a child with autism ranges from $3.5 million to $5 million, and that this country faces almost $90 billion annually in costs for autism, encompassing research, educational spending, insurance costs, therapeutic services and other expenses.

Much has been written in the mainstream press of a purported link between early immunizations and higher rates of autism. Symptoms of autism are first noted by parents as their child begins having speech delays after age 1. The vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella is initially given to children at 12 to 15 months. Since this is also an age when autism commonly manifests itself, it is not surprising that autism follows immunization in some cases.

Although the debate over the role that vaccines play in causing autism has intensified, researchers have not found a definitive link between the two. As researchers continue to seek answers about possible causes of this complex disorder, we should not overlook the singular importance of education in the life of a child with autism. As the spotlight shines on autism awareness this month, we must renew our focus on providing the highest quality educational programs so that people with autism can continue to make a positive contribution to our community. They deserve no less.

The writer is executive director of ARC of Rockland.

Source: http://lohud.com/article/20090408/OP...1076/OPINION01

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Autistic Man Talks About Hitting Baby - Video included -

2009-04-07T17:37:00.001-07:00

By Alana Rocha (WICHITA, Kan.) - KWCH TV

Watch the video

We talked to the mom of a six month old who was hit by a man at Wal-Mart. Crystal Shunatona says the man left a bruise on the back of her baby's head.

She tells us she was told the man is autistic and doesn't like children.

Tonight we hear from that man. Bruce Jones, B.J., tells us he needs help and hopes she can now get it for him.

He says he knows he hit the baby but can't explain why.

"I hit the baby's head. It was an accident," B.J. said.

The 28 year old was in a south Wichita Wal-Mart Friday night with his mom, Sharon, when he saw a six month old baby.

"You don't like when baby's cry?" we asked B.J. He says, "Yes, it was an accident. Don't worry about it."

We talked to the baby's mom, Crystal Shunatona. She's concerned about B.J. hurting someone else.

She says he walked up and hit her son on the back of the head leaving a bruise.

"I don't want him in jail. I just want him off the streets so he doesn't do it to someone else - for his own safety," Crystal said.

B.J.'s mom, Sharon says "I lost sight of him then I saw a little baby. I was worried about my son. I was worried about the baby, especially the baby being as small as it was."

"I was afraid he may have hurt the baby a lot worse cause he is exceptionally strong," Sharon said.

The baby is expected to be okay.

Sharon admits she doesn't have complete control of her son when in public and that he's harmed a child before.

"What am I supposed to do? Lock him up? Shoot him? I would just like society to tell me what to do," she said.

Sharon says B.J. enjoyed going to Wal-Mart. The pair has not been back since Friday. And she now goes to stores where kids are less likely to go.

"I make him stay right next to me. Not to go off and do his thing in the other part of the stores," Sharon said.

Sharon says B.J. didn't get much professional help or guidance growing up, but she's willing to ask for some now. So he can continue enjoying getting out.

Connie Coulter works with the autistic at Heartspring in Wichita. She says, "A lot of these kids that are now adults, didn't get the early intervention and because of that you have instances like you saw at Wal-Mart the other day."

Heartspring works with children and adults with autism and other developmental disabilities.

Source:http://www.kwch.com/Global/story.asp...av=menu486_2_2

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Autistic toddlers aren't interested in biological movement

2009-04-07T15:57:00.000-07:00

Researchers show that the lack of interest in biological movement is already present in toddlers with autism.

By Chris Lee

Autism can be a debilitating condition that has serious consequences for both those suffering from it and their families. What really distinguishes autism spectrum disorder (ASD) from other problems is the way that those with the disorder interact socially. Social issues, apart from being one of its symptoms, also make those with ASD more challenging to interact with.

One notable example of social interaction deficits involves the ability to recognize "biological movement." It turns out that, from a very young age, most people can distinguish movements associated with living things. But autistic people have difficulty distinguishing biological movement from the random movements of nonliving objects, a property they don't share with those suffering from other behavioral disorders. As a result, their attentive gaze seems to randomly focus on things. Now, with a little bit of luck, researchers have discovered a clue as to the attentional cues that attract autistic people.

To try and explore if this behavior was present in pre-lingual toddlers with autism, researchers put together a set of movies that used biological movements, but skipped the biology. These animations showed points of light playing games like pat-a-cake, complete with a soundtrack. In control animations, the same movies were played backwards but with the soundtrack still playing forwards. This had the effect of making the motion appear non-biological.

The authors played these movies to three groups of two year olds and tracked their attention by monitoring the direction of their gaze. One group was considered to be developmentally normal, while a second control group was developmentally delayed but not autistic. These two groups paid considerably more attention to the biological videos, while a third group, which consisted of children diagnosed with autism, had attention that was distributed randomly.

That finding is important in itself, but in analyzing the data, the researchers discovered an outlier. One particular autistic child paid far more attention to one particular biological movement video—in fact, she spent 90 percent of her time watching the pat-a-cake move. Upon closer analysis, all the autistic children paid significantly more attention to pat-a-cake.

The researchers decided that there must be something special about that particular set of actions. Inspecting their animations, they noticed that the pat-a-cake video had a very high correlation between the movement of the points of light and the soundtrack—specifically, the hands of the figure clapping together at the same time as the clapping noise.

The researchers then proceeded to analyze the rest of their animations for correlations between the animated figure's movement and the soundtrack. They then used this information to re-analyze the gaze statistics of the three groups of toddlers. They found that the synchronization made very little difference to the two control groups—biological movement was still heavily favored. The autistic group, however, showed a strong preference for watching highly correlated animations.

This preference for correlations between senses may go some way towards explaining why autistic people seem to prefer to watch a speaker's mouth rather than their eyes. It also shows that the biological movement deficit is already present in two year olds with autism.

There is also a danger of over-interpreting the data though. For instance, my first thought was that this research could be used to provide an early diagnosis of autism, allowing for an earlier transition to appropriate care regimes. But, on reflection, I doubt that this would work, because early childhood development does not proceed on a fixed schedule, making it very easy to use one particular facet of autism to misdiagnose large numbers of children.

Nevertheless, there is potential that this particular deficit—the inability to recognize biological movement—may explain a wide range of behaviors and, perhaps, be linked to the development of particular neural circuits. This might be used in the future to explain how genetic factors come together with environmental factors to cause ASD.

Source: http://arstechnica.com/science/news/...l-movement.ars

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Why Fever Helps Autism: A New Theory

2009-04-07T02:37:00.000-07:00

By Jeffrey Kluger

The autism wars go on and on, and the debates go round and round. Is the number of afflicted kids climbing or are we just overdiagnosing the condition? If mercury in vaccines isn't the culprit (the metal has been removed from nearly all of them), then it must be environmental toxins. But if that's so, why aren't we all showing symptoms?

Too often, what's lost in all the finger-pointing over what's to blame for the problem is the salient question of how to fix it. A paper just published in the journal Brain Research Reviews is taking a stab at that, suggesting a brand-new strategy — one that focuses on a very particular part of the brain. (See pictures from inside a school for autistic students.)

The brain region that drew the attention of the authors is known as the locus coeruleus, a small knot of neurons located in the brain stem. Not a lot of high-order processing goes on so deep in the brain's basement, but the locus coeruleus does govern the release of the neurotransmitter noradrenaline, which is critical in triggering arousal or alarm, as in the famed fight-or-flight response. Arousal also plays a role in our ability to pay attention — you can't deal with the lion trying to eat you, after all, if you don't focus on it first. And attention, in turn, plays a critical role in such complex functions as responding to environmental cues and smoothly switching our concentration from one task to another. Those are abilities kids with autism lack. (Read a TIME cover story about autism and vaccines.)

Certainly, many other parts of the brain govern concentration and attention, but the locus coeruleus does one other thing, too: it regulates fever. Generations of parents of autistic kids have reported that when their child runs a fever, the symptoms of autism seem to abate. When the fever goes down, the symptoms return. In 2007, a paper in the journal Pediatrics reported on that phenomenon and confirmed that, yes, the parents' observations are right. What no one had done before, at least not formally, was tie it to the locus coeruleus — that is until Drs. Dominick Purpura and Mark Mehler of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine published the idea this week.

"It wasn't an experiment, it was more of a eureka moment," says Purpura. "We came to the conclusion that there could only be one system that would both ameliorate the effects of autism and govern fever."

It's not often that a mere flash of insight — as opposed to a formal, controlled study — commands much space in a medical journal, and Purpura and Mehler readily concede that a good deal of empiricism will have to be applied to their theory before it can become anything more than that. Still, they're convinced that the idea deserves attention. If the locus coeruleus is indeed malfunctioning in autism, the problem could involve hundreds or even thousands of genes. The researchers are careful to avoid the shooting war over what damaged those genes, suggesting that environment and toxic chemicals — but not vaccines — may have a role. They also, tellingly, think stress is involved.

Stress is thought to have a significant impact on the ability of the locus coeruleus to regulate noradrenaline properly, and Mehler and Purpura cite an improbable 2008 study published in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders showing that mothers who lived through a hurricane during their pregnancy — particularly at the mid-gestational point — had a greater likelihood of giving birth to an autistic child than other women. "What would be involved here would be the mother's level of [the stress hormone] cortisol," says Purpura. "Between fetus and mother, the placenta acts as a very good barrier for maternal cortisol, except when the stress is extreme."

In theory, that blast of stress chemistry could alter the development of the fetal locus coeruleus, though Purpura is quick to point out that the study showing how cortisol can make it though the placenta was conducted in animals, not humans. Nonetheless, one day after their article in Brain Research Reviews was published, the journal Psychoneuroendocrinology published another study, linking cortisol imbalance to Asperger syndrome, a condition along the autism spectrum.

The question is, How can any of this be used to help autistic kids? Nobody recommends inducing fevers to kick-start the locus coeruleus, since that could lead to all manner of side effects and other ills. Instead, Mehler and Purpura believe the likeliest answer is in medications that target noradrenaline brain receptors. "First, we should look at the signaling pathways in the region of the brain involved," Purpura says. "Then we could look at treating the receptor sites with some kind of pharmacotherapy." For once, the step that's missing from that proposal is the one that involves shouting about what's to blame.

Source: http://www.time.com/time/health/arti...889436,00.html

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A Roller Coaster to Acceptance of a Son’s Autism

2009-04-07T02:22:00.000-07:00

HIS OWN WAY Jonah Lehmann, 25, who has autism, with the manager of his group home, Darlene Manuta.

By ANNIE LUBLINER LEHMANN

When my husband and I were told that our son Jonah’s autism was “untreatable,” we made up our minds to prove the experts wrong.

That was 22 years ago.

We were young and energetic, and the developmental gap between 3-year-old Jonah and his peers, while obvious, was not glaring.

With no other children to care for at the time, we made helping Jonah the focus of our lives. Every exchange would become a lesson, every experience a tutorial.

Jonah cared most about food (and still does), so I’d go to the grocery store with a list and an agenda, hoping to use that passion to teach him essential concepts. I would follow his gaze and point out colors (red apple) and shapes (round cookie).

When he turned away from such lessons, despite our most animated efforts, we tried everything else we could think of. Nothing was too difficult or too expensive. We gave him vitamins and restricted his diet. We introduced communication boards and arranged sensory integration therapy. We had him wear headphones to normalize his hearing and tried other snake-oil treatments no thinking person would consider.

But each hope was followed by disappointment. We might as well have been chasing butterflies with a torn net.

By the time Jonah reached his teens, we were worn out and frustrated, not very far from where we’d started. We faced the specter of hopelessness and a plethora of unanswerable questions.

How different was Jonah from other children with autism? Would he have been better off had we not tried all that we did? Or would getting off the interventional roller coaster mean that we had given up?

Though we had been desperately trying to teach him, we had to concede that Jonah was no student. What we wanted him to do had little to do with what he did. If he didn’t want to do something, he would drop to the ground and refuse to budge.

So we decided to back off and began taking cues from him.

We did the same activities as in the past, but without a checklist of goals. Until then, he had never been able to enjoy the sensory pleasures of his beloved food magazines without our subjecting him to a monologue about what he was looking at. Now he was finally free to enjoy things for their own sake.

Not long ago, I came across a basement copy of “Cinderella.” It reminded me of a time when he was 5, when I last tried to read it to him. Well, not read, exactly; Jonah has always had a low tolerance for traditional reading, and stories must be sung or recited rhythmically.

As I sang “Cinderella,” he rolled on the floor, seemingly oblivious to the story. Still, I clung to the idea that I might be able to engage him, so I left a sentence for him to complete.

“The clock struck 12,” I sang off key, “and Cinderella ran down the palace steps, leaving behind a glass ... .”

He continued rolling while I waited to hear him say “slipper.”

At last he finished the sentence for me. “Of milk,” he said.

I smiled, and I’m smiling still. For Jonah had made a student of his teacher. I would never again be able to read or think of “Cinderella” without seeing a tumbler of milk on the palace steps.

Jonah turned 25 last fall, and when I look at him I can’t help wondering if the past years weren’t some heaven-directed scheme meant to humble us and teach us the value of acceptance. Understanding that we couldn’t change him had changed us.

His future, for the most part, is set — in a nearby home with a caring staff — and I am grateful that he has some of the same things I want for my other two children: love, safety, physical comfort and access to favorite activities.

He remains a man of very few words. But though it took us years, we have finally learned that there was something to hear in his silence.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/07/health/07case.html

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Autism and Me (video) - Autism Awareness Month

2009-04-06T16:33:00.000-07:00

Rory Hoy takes us on a journey through his world and explains autism along the way.

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Growing up with Asperger's: Mother recalls welcoming beautiful baby boy

2009-04-06T06:36:00.001-07:00

Brandon and his mom Melissa Wise as a toddler.

By Erin Pustay
GateHouse News Service

In the pictures that are nestled snugly beneath the protective film, the words shout silently up at her. She hears them now.

Back then, when she was the one behind the camera snapping away and capturing the memories, Melissa didn’t know how to interpret the thousands of words each of her photos was worth.

“I look back now and see that all the signs (of my son’s autism) were there,” Melissa said, excitement in her voice as she flipped wildly through the album pages. “I didn’t know it then. But now, even in the last 10 years, there is so much more awareness from the doctors and in society.”

Melissa peeled a photo from the sticky album page and handed it across the sofa. It was a picture of her son Brandon, now 10, who has been diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome. At the time the photo was taken, the little boy was only 2 or 3. He was kneeling in a chair next to a long folding table, playing with some Christmas candy someone had given him. Focused, he was lining each one of the red and green candies in a perfect little row.

One by one, Melissa pulled pictures off the page and passed them down the couch. In each one, Brandon was focused intently on playing with a toy. If not playing, he was looking out a window or up to the ceiling or sky.

“Oh my gosh,” Melissa said. “Look at this.”

The photo in her hand showed Brandon, likely about a year old, lying on his tummy on the floor, wearing only a diaper and staring at the television.

“I have never seen babies sit and stare at the TV like he did,” Melissa said, adding that he would never get bored with a program or get fussy, looking for something else to do. He would just sit there – mesmerized – watching.

It’s impossible, from the photo, to tell what Brandon is watching, but Melissa knows right away. It was “Bear in the Big Blue House.”

He was obsessed with Bear.

“When it was over, he would freak out,” Melissa remembered. “I’d have to rewind the tape and I would sing the songs to him when I did. That was the only way to calm him down.

“And he was always taking his clothes off,” Melissa said, remembering how her son would tug off his socks and shirts and pants and run around the house wearing only his Huggies.

Yes, all the signs were there.

Growing, learning

Brandon is Melissa and Jason Wise’s oldest son.

The Wises – as with all first-time parents – learned as they went along. They had nothing to compare Brandon’s behavior with. Nothing about anything he did raised red flags.

A year after Brandon was born, Melissa and Jason had their hands full with twins – daughter Gwen and son Logan. Two years later, the family welcomed another daughter, Josie, into the fold.

With four little ones running around the house, life buzzed right by them, and any peculiarities in Brandon’s behavior – from the quirks to the strokes of genius – didn’t alarm Melissa or Jason.

“He didn’t really talk until he was 4 years old, and when he started talking he started reading, too,” Melissa said. “He was really good with directions and maps. He could memorize things. He would look at maps and be able to follow them.”

It was Brandon’s preschool teacher who noticed all those peculiar little things for what they were.

“I remember he had to have the same seat every day. He refused to take his bookbag off and he used to run on the very tips of his toes,” Melissa recalled.

They were little things the teacher noticed, but they were tell-tale. They were signs that Brandon may have some kind of developmental disorder, such as obsessive compulsive disorder or even autism.

After months of testing and referrals to different doctors and specialists, Melissa and Jason had their answer. Brandon was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome.

“My biggest concern,” Melissa said, “was that he would be labeled as a behavior child. … I researched all kinds of stuff right away and was able to figure out how to help him (in school).”

The things she discovered were things she should have seen all along.

Reading the signs

Aultman pediatrician Dr. Mike McCabe said that Asperger’s manifests itself in a number of ways.

“Children with Asperger’s are extremely sensitive to tactile stimulation,” McCabe said. “Taste, smell, touch – they are more aware of the sensations. And how can you focus on something when you are feeling and hearing everything around you?”

Brandon is especially sensitive to touch – the feeling of something against his skin or even the texture of foods in his mouth. Seeing the pictures of Brandon in his diapers reminds Melissa that acts of defiance – like throwing his clothes to the floor in a fuss – were his way of reliving the uncomfortable sensation of the itchy, uncomfortable fabric against his skin.

Children with Asperger’s syndrome, like those with obsessive compulsive disorder, need structure, order and routine.

“They become obsessed with something,” McCabe said, “sometimes it’s patterns, other times it’s toys or even ritualistic behaviors.”

Those candies Brandon lined up on the table during the Christmas party were a subtle sign. The fits he would throw from his car seat when they drove the “back way” to grandma’s house were another. His obsessions with “Bear in the Big Blue House” and later “Thomas the Tank Engine” were proof of the disorder.

Today, Brandon’s obsession is video games.

Combined with how long it took him to verbally communicate, the way he would look away from the camera or not make eye contact when people talked to him, Melissa slowly began to see that the signs of Asperger's were there all along.

It took a while for Melissa to come to the understanding she has today. While Brandon may have “eccentricities,” he is not, by any means, held back by his disorder. In fact, when given the right tools for success, Brandon can and will soar to amazing heights.

“Some people think about autism as ‘there is something wrong with my child,’” Melissa said. “Brandon is, by all accounts, a healthy, happy normal child. He just sees the world a little differently.”

All the Wise family had to do was adjust.

Source: http://www.uticaod.com/lifestyles/x1...tiful-baby-boy

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Socializing gets easier for people with autism, Asperger's

2009-04-06T06:18:00.001-07:00

By CHELSI MOY of the Missoulian

Molly Black's laugh is contagious, rumbling up from the diaphragm. But it comes from the heart.

The 22-year-old loves the TV series “Gilmore Girls,” cookie dough ice cream and Broadway musicals, specifically “Chicago.”

Her heart lies in the hotel business, and she dreams of one day climbing her way to the top - from the laundry room at the Holiday Inn in Missoula where she works.

Then there's Barclay Nickel, a 23-year-old who, when he's not power lifting, enjoys learning how to conduct music.

Chris Cragwick, 21, not only has an amazing gift of memory, he has written a science fiction novel that he intends to self-publish.

While these individuals are all very different, they share a common bond. All are autistic or have Asperger's Syndrome. To some extent, their accomplishments and interests may go unnoticed by people outside their immediate social circles - a result of the impaired social interaction and communication that characterize both conditions - but they are celebrated here: at the Neuro-Networking Club.

Twice a month, young adults who live with autism or Asperger's get together at Treva Bittinger's home in the University District to watch movies, play games, eat pizza, and most of all, to laugh. It's a place where friendship is not taken for granted. Everyone is welcome. Everyone is included. And no one is judged.

The Neuro-Networking Club formed 11 months ago thanks to the establishment of another relatively new group: the University of Montana Psychology Club.

Bittinger - whose 28-year-old son Ben is autistic - is president of the UM Psychology Club and was instrumental in helping to establish a club for young adults with autism and Asperger's. She knew firsthand the need for the group.

For Ben, growing up in Corvallis wasn't always easy, especially for a kid who lost his hair at age 8 because of stress. Little was known about autism back then, Bittinger said. Still, Ben always had friends. He got along with the other kids in his class, was included in classroom projects, and even went to prom, Bittinger said.

“The best part of school for him was the friends that he made,” she said. “It's what motivated him to go to school.”

After high school, Ben, like many young adults with autism and Asperger's, watched friends leave for college or move away. Ben, however, can't leave the house unsupervised, not even to walk across the street.

Living in the country was not an ideal situation for making new friends, so the Bittinger family moved to Missoula. For two hours a day, twice a day, Bittinger would pay college students to stop by the house and hang out with Ben. And while a couple of the students now drop by just because they enjoy Ben's company, “he can't call them at any hour and ask that they come over,” she said. “Everyone likes to have friends they can just hang out with.”

Autism makes it difficult to read social messages, said Suzanne Sterrett, program coordinator for the Child Development Center. Metaphors, similes and, to some extent, slang are often misinterpreted by people with autism and Asperger's, who don't pick up on social nuances.

Even facial expressions are tricky, she said. For these reasons, it's difficult for a person with autism or Asperger's to easily make new and lasting friendships.

When kids with autism attend public school, they are constantly interacting with their peers. The school system provides parents with resources if they feel their child needs more support or social interaction. They can ask the school to include their child in more activities.

After graduation, those resources no longer exist.

“A parent can't go to their employer and say it's time for you to include my child in after-work social outings,” Sterrett said.

That's where the Neuro-Networking Club comes in.

On Wednesday, Ben was so eager to have fellow Neuro-Networking Club member Nickel sleep over, he began peppering him with questions only a minute after he walked through the door.

“Barclay, do you want to spend the night Saturday?” he asked.

“Barclay, what about Friday? Do you want to spend the night Friday?”

His persistence paid off. “We'll have to see,” Barclay finally replied, hesitant to agree to something before looking at his calendar.

Through word-of-mouth and by Bittinger calling parents of young adults with autism or Asperger's Syndrome, the club was formed.

They go to Splash Mountain. They have barbecues and picnics in the park.

Laura Olsonoski, a 21-year-old rugby player from Minnesota, is a member of the UM Psychology Club and helps organize the Neuro-Networking Club's field trips.

The psychology student's interaction with these young adults has inspired Olsonoski to focus her graduate studies in the area of autism and Asperger's.

“People have a very different idea of what actually goes on,” she said. “People think noncommunicative and violent. They think of it as baby-sitting, but it's not. It's fun.”

The Neuro-Networking Club is just one of two primary missions of the UM Psychology Club. The other is working with residents at J's House, an assisted living facility in Missoula for people diagnosed with severe mental illness.

This coming weekend, on April 11, the UM Psychology Club is sponsoring a Spring Hullabaloo, an event to raise awareness about autism. It's free and open to the public and will include an art auction, face painting and carnival games.

Bittinger hopes to spread the word about the Neuro-Networking Club and encourage more to participate. If enough come together, the group can act as a single voice for people with autism and Asperger's, said Sterrett, the Child Development Center coordinator.

They can help speak for those who cannot, she said. “It'll empower them.”

Source: http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2...al/znews09.txt

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Autism recovery story stirs hope, frustration

2009-04-06T05:47:00.001-07:00

By Sharisa Lewis - Dallas Special Needs Kids Examiner

When moms report recovering their children from autism, it provides a mixture of hope and discouragement for other parents who haven't had the same success.

A local Dallas mom is releasing a book about her journey to recover her son from autism called 'Raindrops on Roman.'

Roman's mom, Elizabeth Scott, quit her job when her son was diagnosed with autism and created her own treatment plan. She has an elementary school teacher background and used her experience to teach her son 10 hours a day. She taught him language, interaction and behavior with a "skills and drills" approach.

Her story offers hope to many parents pushing to recover their own children from autism.

But, it also offers discouragement. Not all children are alike on the autism spectrum, so each one may respond differently to treatments and therapies.

Also, how many other autism parents already have the elementary teacher training? And not many have the resources to quit a job or focus 10 hours a day on one child.

Yet, there are bits of information in every recovery story that can benefit other kids with autism.

Jenny McCarthy has also been a strong advocate for parents of autism children. She recovered her son for autism and also has a new book out on her son's treatment.

While we can learn from every recovery story, there has to be caution that there is not one solution for all children with autism. We can all gather bits of info from each of these authors, but it doesn't mean it is the fix-all for every child with autism.

Source: http://www.examiner.com/x-2795-Dalla...pe-frustration

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Does Autism exist? I say NO because it is brain damage!

2009-04-05T22:06:00.000-07:00

By Cynthia A. Janak

As many of my readers know I have been focusing my attention on the HPV vaccine, Gardasil, manufactured in the United States by Merck Pharmaceutical Co. A similar vaccine, Cervarix is manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline and administered throughout Europe. I am a member of the most active Gardasil board on the Internet called "Let's Talk About Gardasil." It is because of interactions with the Gardasil Moms and Gardasil Girls that I have been able to come to this conclusion. Let me explain how and why.

I have spent hours on the phone with many of Gardasil moms. On one occasion a mom called and asked me to speak to her daughter because she was having a very bad day. This young woman is in pain every day but on this day was experiencing pain that was so intense that she had gotten to the point where she could not stand it anymore. She had told her mom that she wished God would take her already. Of course I told this distraught mother that I would be honored to speak with her daughter.

During the conversation I shared with this young woman how she has been an inspiration to her family, church and the other people on the Gardasil board. I spoke to her about what she will be able to accomplish in the future when she gets better. I also promised her that some day we will visit the White House and maybe even talk to the President. That made her chuckle and she said, "I would like that," in a quiet voice because her pain magnified all sound.

She then asked me "why did this have to happen?" It was then that I knew the answer and I told her that "the Gardasil Girls have given the silent faces of Autism a Voice for the first time in history. These children have not mastered speech so when they become autistic they cannot tell their moms they have a headache or that their stomach hurts or they cannot feel their legs or tingling in their legs."

It was at this point that all my research into Gardasil took on a new meaning, a new purpose and a new goal. My goal was to prove that autism does not exist. I wanted to prove by using the voices of the Gardasil girls that Autism is only brain damage because of excessive body burden of aluminum in vaccines.

I spent 10 to 14 hours a day over a period of many weeks researching everything I could to see if the information on vaccinations, aluminum and other heavy metals trackbacked to support this theory. I read personal stories of parents of autistic children and compared them with the stories of the Gardasil girls. I read hundreds of VAERS (Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System) reports. I read articles about brain damage, reports about aluminum toxicity and all kinds of studies on these topics. I even went so far as to calculate potential toxicity from aluminum prevalent in the environment in combination with the toxic aluminum load found in single and/or multiple vaccines administered at the same time.

After I did all of this I sat back and looked at everything that I had researched with the documents, spreadsheets and graphs that I created during the process. The connection was there. Looking at the numbers and the side effects side by side, one could notice the direct relationship between the two — the higher the dose of aluminum — the more the severe the side effect.

I presented my findings to my colleague, women's health advocate and broadcast journalist Leslie Botha. Intrigued by the data, Botha suggested that I expose my findings on her radio show on KRFC FM , a community radio station in Fort Collins, CO, audio streamed at www.krfcfm.org , 6:00PM Mountain Time. I proposed that the February 16 show be titled "Gardasil Girls Give the Silent Faces of Autism a Voice." Prior to the show, I alerted the Gardasil and autism communities through various organizations, Internet boards and chat rooms to make them aware of the upcoming radio interview and topic.

At my suggestion, during the first 15 minutes, Botha quickly interviewed five girls from around the country who were injured by what they believe to be the Gardasil vaccination. They stated their name, age, side effects and briefly spoke about how this vaccine changed their lives. It was amazing and distressing to hear all five girls describe the same symptoms that all appeared within a short time frame after receiving the injection.

Botha then interviewed the father of an 18 year old who became autistic at 2 ½ years old after a round of childhood vaccinations. Throughout this segment listeners could hear the uncontrollable and constant squawking sounds the man-child was making in the background as his father shared his story.

After that segment, I introduced my theory: what both the Gardasil girls and this "autistic" man-child were experiencing were adverse reactions due to the aluminum used in the vaccines and it was causing brain injury.

Now I was faced with the task of backing up my theory. I used data from the VAERS reports. I was able to describe the amounts of aluminum infants are exposed to and compared those adverse events with the data reported from the Gardasil vaccine. I referred to personal stories from the autism community and compared them to the stories from the Gardasil girls. I also used excerpts from peer reviewed articles and reports from the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) on the safety standard set for aluminum exposure. Interesting to note, that each vaccine fits within the EPA standards for aluminum but when multiple vaccines are administered at the same time, the exposure levels supersede those limits. Add to that unknown amounts of aluminum in an individual's environment (household products, deodorants etc.) and the potential exposure levels exceed EPA standards. I do want to make note here that the EPA standard of 0.85mg applies to an adult vaccine and infant vaccine.

By the conclusion of the show I was able to ascertain that autism was a medical condition from vaccine-related brain damage and that SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) the term used for infant death by "unknown causes" was the same as the autopsy reports of the Gardasil girls who passed from "unknown causes" shortly after receiving the Gardasil vaccine.

This is important to state before some scientist creates terminology for the 'unknown medical condition' the Gardasil girls experience in an effort to cover up what we now know is brain damage. For far too long, the parents of autistic children who related their baby's neurological damage to the childhood immunizations were told that they were wrong. The medical community told parents that their children have a condition known as "Autism" and totally unrelated to vaccinations. We must not let this happen to the Gardasil girls.

The reason I am sharing all this is because of the April 3 Larry King Live show on CNN titled "No Scientific Link Between Autism and Vaccinations." Botha was the first to call and alert me that the topic of the show was about childhood vaccinations and autism. I am going to have to admit that I do not watch much television but I now know that many Gardasil moms do. I received phone calls from a few of them to tell me to turn on the show because a comment was made that the Gardasil vaccine will be pulled from the market shortly. After that we were all on the phone calling Gardasil moms around the country to let them know about the comment and the interview. Unfortunately by that time I missed a substantial part of the show, but I was able to record the replay.

I called several of my moms and gave them the news. One mom was almost in tears at the news about Gardasil. She said, "This is wonderful soon no more girls will be hurt." This was a great day.

You have no idea how happy this show made me. I felt as if I had just won a 30 million dollar lottery or something.

I listened to Jenny and Jim talk about Evan and how they brought him back. I was happy to hear them say on the air that they were not anti-vaccine but safe vaccine advocates just like me. It just warmed my heart but the comment that made me jump up and down in my seat was and I quote; "HANDLEY: Larry, we know with conviction that vaccines cause brain injury, it's on the Health and Human Services Web site. We're looking for something that's caused this epidemic. It went from one in 10,000 in the 1970s to less than one in 100 today in many states. "

My heart was just singing at this point and then further in the interview this was said, "HANLEY: The AAP doesn't listen at all, Larry. They never look at recovered children. They never look at recovered children. They rubber stamp every vaccine on the schedule. Dr. Fisher never answered why so few countries have picked up varicella, flu, rotavirus. Meantime, AAP rubber stamps every vaccine, like Gardasil, which is damaging teenage girls right now, which will likely be pulled from the market very soon. There is the AAP rubber stamp on that vaccine."

Listening to that statement brought to mind the girls and moms on the board and that there are only two thoughts they express. One getting their daughters treatment that works and stopping other girls from getting the vaccine because of the pain and suffering they are going through. I almost cried because of all the young girls and young women that can be saved. And I mean saved because if you have not experienced the sadness and pain that these moms and daughters go through daily, you cannot say that getting the shot is better than cervical cancer.

What gets me is that cervical cancer is preventable with early detection via pap tests. It is my belief that we need to focus on detection and prevention instead of putting genetically engineered vaccines into the bodies of young girls and women. As Dr. Harper said that we do not know what the long term side effects are yet and mandating this vaccine is nothing more than an experiment.

I want to bring up another point that was made on the show by "Dr. Bernadine Healey, former president of the American Red Cross. " I think one has to listen to the families of these children. I have always believed, you listen to the patients and the patients will teach. I think there are many legitimate concerns that families have. And I honestly believe that the focus that we have on autism today and the embarrassing recognition that we know so little about it, in terms of what causes it, in terms of how to treat it, in terms of whether it's dynamic, whether it's structural, I think that says that we have neglected this disease for all too long in the face of this growing epidemic.

"We have got to focus on it and we have got to listen to families. And I think that environmental triggers in the context of a genetic predisposition make a lot of sense. But we don't have the foggiest notion of what those environmental triggers are. Vaccines might be one of those components. Let's respect that and let's investigate it. And I don't think it's been fully investigated."

The families of the Gardasil Girls have been ridiculed by doctors; they have been told that their daughter's conditions are all in their head. Some doctors have even put girls in a psych ward. This inability of doctors in their listening skills is not only about autism but it is about Gardasil as well. I have heard stories from moms that would make you cry or angry because of the condescending attitude they have received from medical professionals.

I loved how Healey described this growing epidemic. If you look at Gardasil you will see the epidemic is not only the autism community. In the UK it was reported that 1,500 girls experienced an adverse event to Cervarix in the first 6 months since it was introduced to the market. This HPV vaccine contains 0.5mg aluminum. In the United States there are now over 15,000 adverse accounts of girls affected by Gardasil (with an estimated 1% of the population reporting). Gardasil contains 0.225mg aluminum and L-Histidine which is an amino acid. (I am presently looking at the possibility of molecular mimicry to this amino acid is part of the cause of the side effects.) These HPV vaccines are causing an epidemic around the world similar to childhood immunizations and autism. It is all brain damage and it is all vaccine related in my opinion.

Healey goes on to state that she does not know what those environmental triggers are. I thought I was going to fall out of my seat. This is not rocket science people. I found what could be the environmental triggers. Look at the amount of aluminum in our diet, our water, our vaccines, etc. You will see the trigger. It is as plain as the nose on your face. At least that is my opinion. Sorry, I get rather passionate about all this.

The next quote gave me pause because this is a subject that I have researched extensively and that is the approval document from the FDA on Gardasil. Check this out.

FISHER: We hardly rubber stamp any vaccine. The American Academy of Pediatrics listens very closely before a vaccine is recommended for use. It goes through extensive trials. It goes through extensive information. All of that information is reviewed very quickly. It's both efficacy and safety information.

There's never a rubber stamp. We work very closely before, while the vaccine is being tested to see if it works, it is safe? And only if it's been determined to be safe and effective is it recommended for use. It's not a rubber stamp.

In the official documents to the FDA on Gardasil there is a section in the initial approval document and the close-out document dated September 12, 2008 that has the heading "New Medical Conditions." I guess a vaccine is safe even when over 50 % of the participants had a new medical condition when the first document was presented. I also guess it is safe when 73.3% of the participants acquired a new medical condition in the first year per the close out document of 2008. It must be their opinion that the adverse events when compared between the vaccine and an alum or carrier solution are fine when the numbers are close. It must be safe then.

To me the lay person ¾ of the participants having a new medical condition means that ¾ of the vaccinees in the population will have a new medical condition. This is not rocket science. This could mean millions of young girls and women will have a new medical condition after receiving the Gardasil vaccination.

What is wrong with this picture? This does not make any logical sense to me. What about you?

Source: http://www.renewamerica.us/columns/janak/090405

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__________________

Resources available for families dealing with autism

2009-04-05T21:52:00.000-07:00

By ANDREA CALCANO CRUZ
News Chief correspondent

Published: Sunday, April 5, 2009 at 4:01 a.m.

Dubbed a "puzzling" disorder, the growing occurrence of children diagnosed with a form of autism, a lifelong developmental disability, presents challenges not only for the children on the spectrum, but their families as well. With early intervention, support and awareness, those challenges can be minimized and those with autism can lead fuller lives.

In Polk County, resources exist to help families cope with and learn more about how to help their autistic children. April is National Autism Awareness Month, and with incidences of children diagnosed on the rise, a few local families opened up to share their experiences of living with the developmental disorder.

Cory's story

"Cory is very happy and funny - he asks if he can be a little boy again," said Cory's mother, Dawn Van Meter. Preferring the term "differently-abled" to describe her son's challenges of living with autism, Van Meter said it's difficult for Cory, 16, to understand he is growing into a man and cannot be boy again.

Residents of Winter Haven, Van Meter and her husband, John, first began to suspect something was amiss with Cory's development after his first set of shots at the age of two months. All of a sudden, the infant, once alert and holding his head up, could no longer fully lift his head.

"(His head) stayed cockeyed for at least six weeks to eight weeks," Van Meter said, "but then he kind of came around, he could lift his head again." Her concern dismissed by the doctors as a crick in the neck, Van Meter said she believed them; being a new mother, she had nothing with which to compare the situation.

After the cockeyed head corrected itself, Cory developed fairly typically, Van Meter said, and his milestones seem to be fine. He walked when he was 12 to 13 months and began babbling on time.

"He said 'Mamma' and that was pretty much it until around 18 months or so. It just went to gibberish and it seemed like he was making more sounds, but they were all guttural," Van Meter said. She said again the doctors assured her that boys develop slower than girls and she shouldn't worry.

"Then we had our daughter and Cory was about 30 months, and just before he turned 3, she was already saying (Dada)," Van Meter said.

"And I was like, 'Well, hang on, he's almost 3 and he's never said that,' and I knew something was not right, but I couldn't pinpoint it," she said.

So, she began researching and reading anything she could get her hands on.

"I guess about that time I looked into Child Find, which is a service through Polk County," Van Meter said.

An early intervention program, Child Find assists with children who have special needs who are currently not in school.

Through Child Find, Van Meter was able to find a proper Exceptional Education and Student Services (ESE) program for Cory. She also was able to make the connection with the Center for Autism and Related Disabilities (CARD) through the University of South Florida, where she took Cory for testing.

"And they came up with PDPNOS, which stands for pervasive developmental disorder, not otherwise specified," Van Meter said. "That falls under the umbrella of autism, and (it was) at this point that I figured it was autism."

"He was only 3," she continued. "At this point, they were not using the 'A word' - it's developmental - you don't want to put that (label of autism) on a kid until 6 years of age when they should have grown out of something or developed further."

By that time, Cory was enrolled into a pre-kindergarten VE - varying exceptionality - program at Dundee Elementary School, Van Meter said. Cory was with other children with issues such as Down syndrome, cerebral palsy or sensory issues like deafness. The pre-k teacher reported that Cory was not interacting with the other children and preferred to stay by himself.

"We even had taken him to testing with his ears because there were times when I would call his name and he wouldn't turn around," Van Meter said. His hearing was fine and genetic testing ruled out other maladies such as Fragile X syndrome, an inherited mental impairment. It was around this time that Van Meter read a book called "What to Do About Your Brain Injured Child" by Glenn Doman.

"It went into talking about the brain and all the developmental stages of the typical child," she said. They attended a weeklong course associated with the book in Philadelphia that taught about brain development and different therapies to hopefully reconnect some synapses in the brain that might be missing. The Van Meters saw the course as their best option for then-4-year-old Cory.

Now a board member of the Central Florida Autism Institute (CFAII.org) in Lakeland, Van Meter has since changed her approach from "fixing" Cory to helping him reach his highest potential, whatever that may be. After the course, the parents took Cory out of school and began an intensive program with him that included trying a gluten- and casein-free diet, breathing treatments, vitamin supplements, flash cards and relearning basic steps such as creeping on his hands and knees and crawling on his belly.

"It was like starting over," Van Meter said. "We did this six days a week, 10 to 12 hours a day for about two and half years - we had tons of volunteers."

"We started out crawling on the belly a couple feet, to 200 meters a day on the belly, to going a thousand meters a day creeping and crawling," she said. Van Meter did the exercises with her son. Together they crept, belly-crawled, and patterned religiously in the hopes of helping Cory's brain to make the connections he seemed to be missing.

"It was very intensive, but we feel it helped him," Van Meter said. "He was progressing, so in our minds it was working."

Van Meter is quick to stress she is not anti-vaccine, although she does have a belief of "educate before you vaccinate." The Van Meters may never really know what caused Cory's autism; however, they believe the vaccines may have triggered a predisposition for autism.

"And I don't believe in the (shot) schedule that we have," she said. "I believe that we get them too soon, too many at one time. If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn't do it before they were 2 years old. I would separate (the shots) out. I would not do combination shots."

Van Meter said parents have more control than they realize over the (shot) schedule their children receive. Working with her doctor, she tailored the schedule to her liking and had waivers signed when necessary, citing a familial predisposition to autism.

Van Meter's daughter, Connor, 14, just received the shots most children receive at the age 5, but Van Meter made sure the mercury additive, thimerosal, was removed from the combination shot. Connor is not autistic.

When Cory was 7 years old, he learned how to form the "d" sound and said "Dada" for the first time. He also began to echo people's speech, which is natural in speech development.

Van Meter said she put Cory back in a classroom when she noticed he would become upset when his sister, Connor, was dropped off at school, and he even tried to say her name - a sign Van Meter took to mean that Cory was noticing there were people in the world and was maybe ready for school again.

Now is a sophomore at Lake Region High School in Eagle Lake, Cory is in a self-contained classroom with other children who are also "differently-abled." However, Cory soon will take computer and reading courses with students who do not have autism.

A story of Hope

With all different sorts of paths to go down, parents of autistic children have choices to help their children reach their highest potential.

Winter Haven resident Kathy Lamond, whose daughter, Hope, is autistic, said no longer do families have to search in the dark for answers and support.

With incidences of autism in boys being four times greater than in girls, Hope's autism is a rarity. In fact, Lamond, who insists a diagnosis of autism isn't the end of the world, said she's never met another parent with an autistic daughter. The Lamonds put Hope in a regular classroom at an early age.

Now an 11-year-old, fifth-grade student at Elbert Elementary School, Hope is described by her mother as a "quirky" child. With an older and younger sibling, Lamond said her three daughters are just like any other set of sisters; they play, fight and annoy each other. But the road to get Hope to the functioning level where she is today has been a long one.

When Hope was 6 to 8 months old, Lamond said she and her husband noticed their daughter wasn't babbling like they knew she should be.

"I started to get concerned, and the pediatricians kept telling us 'Don't worry,'" Lamond said. "But at 12 months, we put our foot down."

Lamond called Van Meter, who directed Hope's parents to Florida's Early Steps program, an early intervention program that provides services and diagnoses for children who exhibit a considerable developmental delay.

"Initially, they said it was a significant speech delay and significant sensory integration problems," Lamond said. "But once she got to age 3, they started to say it was autism."

Lamond is no stranger to autism; she has a 40-year-old brother who is autistic and blind.

Lamond said she never dreamed she would have an autistic child.

"Back then, you didn't think there was a hereditary link," Lamond said. "But, obviously, something's going on there."

The Lamonds pursued treatment and when Hope was 15 months. She was receiving speech and occupational therapy that helped to make some headway in her development.

"The spectrum (of autism) is so wide," Lamond said. "You have kids that never learn to speak and those that are going to college - and going to school with regular children." The Lamonds plugged away at Hope's speech issues and initially she was we put in Achievement Academy, a school for children with special needs. However, with the advice of CARD and the family's developmental pediatrician, the Lamonds put Hope in school with "typical" children.

"I'm a big believer in mainstreaming children with autism because I watched my mother fight to try and get my brother mainstreamed, which never happened," she said.

Lamond found a school that would take both Hope and her older sister.

"Her speech just exploded; it really was the right decision," Lamond said. "I wholeheartedly believe in inclusion, because they model themselves after their environment, and if you put them in a dysfunctional environment, they're going to pick up that dysfunctional behavior."

Although, it wasn't a perfect situation.

"After a year of that, to my dismay, they asked me where I was putting her next year, because although we had a lot of positive things, there were a lot of negative," she said. The negative were mostly behavioral issues due to Hope's ADHD symptoms, which Lamond said is perceived as purposeful behavior; however, she said children on the spectrum are oftentimes simply unable to control their behavior.

Hope eventually was moved to Elbert Elementary.

Lamond said that although many people fought Hope being included in a classroom with "regular" children, they stood firm and Elbert's administration has been very supportive. Lamond said she is very impressed by the occupational therapy the school system has provided her daughter.

Although Hope has been on the honor roll since day one, Lamond said Hope struggles academically because the classes move so fast.

Socially, Lamond said her daughter, who openly tells people she's autistic, has both on and off days.

"Some kids are OK with her and some kids shun her because she's different, but overall it's been a good experience for us," she said.

Lamond believes Hope's presence in the classroom is good for the other children.

"It teaches children compassion, and I think it's a good lesson toward helping them understand that people with disabilities can be productive and neat people," she said. At home, Lamond said they do not have any lower expectations for Hope.

"I have three girls and (Hope) has to start the laundry and make her bed just like the other two," Lamond said. "So, we've at least tried to hold her to the same standards because we want her to be independent. We aren't ruling anything out; we have a college fund for her, we want her to be able to live on her own if she wants to.

Currently, Lamond is working with Hope in a therapy called RDI - relationships development intervention. The theory behind RDI is that children with autism missed certain milestones as they've grown up and they can go back to remediate these milestones, such as better eye contact and picking up on social cues.

"There is no magic bullet. There is no one therapy that works and the child is all better," Lamond said. "Everything I've done has put a little piece of the puzzle back in place, to making her a little more whole. She's a wonderful child. I wouldn't ask for anything different."

Piecing it together

The Central Florida Autism Institute (CFAII) began in 1997 in response to the frustrations that families have had trying to access services for their autistic children. Terry Millican, one of the founders and now the executive director of CFAII, has an 18-year-old autistic son named Ian.

Millican said CFAII's emphasis has always been on intensive behavior-based therapy. A little more than two years ago, the institute was able to recruit an Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) provider, Andrea Holladay, from Miami. Using positive reinforcements to master skills, ABA therapy addresses social and language deficits, Millican said. An independent contractor working on a fee-for-service basis, Holladay goes into the homes of children with or working with them in CFAII's offices, located at 1525 S. Florida Ave., Suite 2, in Lakeland.

"ABA therapy is endorsed by the National Institute of Health and the surgeon general," Millican said. "It is the most effective intervention for individuals with autism. Even our CARD center in Tampa explored the most successful intervention for children with autism, and they recommended behavior-based intervention at an intense level at an early age."

Millican said "intense" is a subjective term; however, in all of her research, she said 20 to 40 hours a week is a good target to make a difference in behavior. She said CFAII has purchased the Fast Forward program, developed specifically for children with autism, and will offer it to families at a significantly reduced rate.

"We're trying as an organization to put our money into interventions that are outcome based and that have credible data to support them," she said. "There are a lot of interventions that don't."

Originally, Millican's son was diagnosed "severely autistic," and she and her husband were told Ian was "un-testable." At that time, she said, it was "before they had 90 percent of interventions that are available now." She said that was fortunate because her son was mainstreamed into regular classrooms right away, which helped him socially and otherwise. Ian is now a junior at Lake Gibson High School in Lakeland. Millican said he will graduate with a special diploma and most likely will stay in high school until the maximum age, 22.

In addition to numerous projects trying to increase autism awareness, one of Millican's main priorities as the executive director of CFAII has been to work with Polk County Public Schools to get a more consistent outcome-based approach in the schools. For example, she would like behavior specialists at every school where kids with autism are served. With very few ABA specialists in Central Florida, Millican said her program would like to see Holladay on the district's list of providers. She said the ratio of providers to children with needs is like comparing a drop of water to the ocean.

"We are dialoguing (with the Polk school district), and we do finally have some administrators who are interested in working with families," Millican said. "They're trying, which is more than I could say five years ago."

Another concern for the board of CFAII is working with employers on training initiatives to let them know that their children with autism are employable.

"Employment is dismal for most adults with disabilities, but especially adults with autism," Millican said. Project Search is a pilot program to help get real employment opportunities for individuals with disabilities. Together with her husband, Millican is working to help her own son, an artist, begin his own T-shirt screen-printing business.

"There is hope for people with autism," Millican said. "Anyone can get a job and work with the right training and support, and anyone can live in the community."

Source: http://www.newschief.com/article/200...zzle-of-autism

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World Autism Awareness Day Challenges Patient-Centered Care

2009-04-03T17:12:00.002-07:00

Trevor Johnson, 6-years-old

By Rick Johnson is senior online editor of HealthLeaders Media.

ASD. It stands for Autism Spectrum Disorder. And it's the "disorder" part that makes me cringe every time.

I don't like to think of my 6-year-old son as having a life-long medical disorder. He's smart, happy, silly, and very sweet. He was diagnosed with Asperger's (or high-functioning Autism) about two years ago.

Trevor has a mind for numbers and memorization that I envy. He loves science, complex machines, and Wheel of Fortune. But he struggles with routine human interactions and the rules of society that the rest of us have somehow mastered without much thought at all.

I'll never forget the day at Chuck E. Cheese's, when my then 2-year-old had a shocking tantrum because two other children were on the slide at the same time. This breaking of his carefully constructed rules was so severe that he didn't know how to cope. He stood there watching the other kids from a safe distance, covering his ears, and shrieking over and over: "Have to wait your turn! Have to wait your turn! Have to wait your turn!" Clueless and confused we tried to get him to calm down and play with other children before finally giving up and taking the pizza and cheese sticks to go.

Now my wife and I do everything we can to prepare our boy for life's seemingly simple challenges that remain at times frightening, overwhelming, or impossible to a child on the autism spectrum. It makes us manufacture contingencies for such mundane events as what to do if the school fire alarm rings or no one asks him to play at recess or the teacher accidently skips his turn or it's time for a visit to the pediatrician.

This list goes on and on, and new items that could invoke tears are added frequently. If everyday experiences are terrifying, just think of the anxiety that someone with an ASD must go through during a visit to the hospital.

Today is World Autism Awareness Day, and it reminds me that even those progressive healthcare organizations that have taken strides toward establishing a culture of patient-centered care might not have an environment that provides a quality interaction for their autistic patients.

And the number of people today with ASDs is jaw-dropping. There are up to 1.5 million Americans living with ASDs, and one in 150 children (or one in 94 boys) has an ASD, according to research by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"If you see enough patients, sooner or later you're going to see someone with autism," says Edward Carr, PhD, leading professor for the Department of Psychology at State University of New York at Stony Brook. Yesterday on the phone, I spoke with Carr, who is a featured expert for the Autism Society of America, about the common interactions people with ASDs have with the healthcare system.

People in your community might assume that care providers at the local hospital or medical group know how to interact effectively with autistic patients and their family members. In most cases, however, doctors and nurses are about as knowledgeable of ASDs as I was on that day four years ago at Chuck E. Cheese's when I was stunned and useless.

The surprising thing is the information and training that could help is available, says Carr. Researchers have made great advances at developing behavioral approaches for those with ASDs, but there just aren't enough healthcare providers trained to interact effectively with autistic patients.

In a "normal" hospital interaction, an autistic child won't likely be able to communicate effectively with the healthcare team, and the odds are pretty good that the new environment is going to increase the child's anxiety. Just imagine if an autistic boy needs to get rushed into the emergency room. Facing a new environment, surrounded by strange people, strange smells, and strange sounds. You couldn't blame him for acting out when the physician attempts to evaluate him, but too often the quick reaction is to sedate the autistic child to put the clinicians at ease, says Carr.

Just a little training in communicating effectively with ASD patients would go a long way toward giving them a real patient-centered interaction, says Carr. The good news is that the American Academy of Pediatrics has an online toolkit for clinicians: Caring for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders. And Carr says the Autism Society of America has begun offering physicians education tracks with CME credits at its annual conference.

The long-term solution would be to make sure that every clinician has training and experience in dealing with ASD patients, says Carr. But in the short-term, let's at least acknowledge that autistic people are a part of our community, and that perhaps our healthcare system isn't a welcoming place for them just yet.

Source: http://www.healthleadersmedia.com/co...re-Ideals.html

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ABA/Discrete Trial Training video - 9 min. 33 sec.

2009-04-03T17:12:00.001-07:00

Instructional Video: When we started ABA/DTI with our son, I had no idea what it was or how to do it. I thought I'd make this to help other families trying to find ways to help teach their children. Please enjoy watching my son learn. It was amazing to me to see how fast he started retaining information once we began ABA/DTI with him!

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Asperger Syndrome Tied to Low Cortisol Levels

2009-04-03T17:11:00.000-07:00

By Forbes

Finding could steer caregivers away from situations that would add to anxiety

THURSDAY, April 2 (HealthDay News) -- Low levels of a stress hormone may be responsible for the obsession with routine and dislike for new experiences common in children with a certain type of autism.

U.K. researchers found that children with Asperger syndrome (AS) do not experience the normal twofold increase of cortisol upon waking up. Levels of the hormone in their bodies do continue to decrease throughout the day, though, just as they do in those without the syndrome.

The body produces cortisol, among other hormones, in stressful situations. Cortisol increases blood pressure and blood sugar levels, among other duties, to signal the body's need to adapt to changes occurring around it. It's thought that the increase shortly after waking helps jump-start the brain for the day ahead, the researchers said.

People with Asperger syndrome notably have very repetitive or narrow patterns of thought and behavior, such as being obsessed with either a single object or topic. Though tending to become experts in this limited domain, they have otherwise very limited social skills, according to the study.

"Although these are early days, we think this difference in stress hormone levels could be really significant in explaining why children with AS are less able to react and cope with unexpected change," study co-leader Mark Brosnan, from the psychology department at the University of Bath, said in a news release issued by the school.

If these Asperger symptoms are caused primarily by stress, caregivers could learn to steer children away from situations that would add to anxiety, the researchers said.

"This study suggests that children with AS may not adjust normally to the challenge of a new environment on waking," study researcher David Jessop, from the University of Bristol, said in the news release. "This may affect the way they subsequently engage with the world around them."

The researchers, whose findings were published in the journal Psychoneuroendocrinology, will next study if this lack of cortisol upon waking also occurs in children with other types of autism.

Source: http://www.forbes.com/feeds/hscout/2...out625706.html

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Teenagers With Autism: Want a Job?

2009-04-03T04:13:00.000-07:00

New programs aim to keep kids with autism out of institutions

By Nancy Shute

Autism is growing up. The children diagnosed with the developmental disorder in the 1990s are now teenagers, and they and their parents are starting to wrestle with the question of how they will live as adults. "Unfortunately, I don't think we as a country are ready for that," says Peter Bell, executive vice president for programs and services at Autism Speaks, an advocacy group.

With the rate of autism cases rising from 1 in 2,500 15 years ago to 1 in 150 today, the number of families seeking to map out a secure future for a child with autism can only rise. "We really need to change the paradigm about what people with autism are capable of doing," say Bell, who is just starting to face that question himself. His 16-year-old son has autism and is a freshman in high school. "They generally have some great employable skills that haven't been held to the highest and best use."

Around the country, innovative programs are now offering young people with autism a vital choice-the chance to work, go to college, or even start a business, rather than go on disability and be consigned to a sheltered workshop. There's an economic incentive in this time of strained government budgets; a person with autism costs society about $3.2 million over his or her lifetime, including lost productivity and adult care. Each hour spent collecting a paycheck and not collecting disability lowers that cost. And the personal benefit is incalculable.

The biggest news is an approach called "supportive and customized employment," in which school systems and state vocational rehabilitation programs work together to help teenagers move into the workforce while still in high school. Counselors work with employers to figure out how to make aspects of a disability an asset. "A lot of your obsessive-compulsive behaviors are a real asset on the job," says Wendy Parent, a research associate professor and assistant director at the Kansas University Center for Developmental Disabilities. One young man who liked to push buttons and enjoyed the sound of swishing water, for instance, started a small business washing towels for hair salons. The goal is not to guilt-trip employers into taking special-needs workers but to show how they can be useful. "It's always framed in a business sense. We're not asking for charity. We're saying this person can work for you."

Other new options include:

* Employment First programs in Georgia and other states help shift the priorities of social service agencies so that the first step is to place people in a paid job in a regular workplace for as many hours a day as they can handle, rather than automatically placing young adults on disability when they age out of the school system at 18 or 21.

* Resource ownership, in which job-training funds and Social Security work incentives are used to buy tools or equipment that a disabled person will then use on the job. One young man bought a Bobcat that he used at a construction company; a young woman bought a commercial refrigerator that she used at a catering company. The equipment belongs to the individual, giving the company an incentive to keep them on the job.

* Starting a small business. Entrepreneurship may sound like an impossibly high leap for someone who can't speak. But it can work with the right support. Joe Steffy, 23, runs Poppin' Joe's Kettle Korn in Louisburg, Kan., with the help of his parents and five part-time employees. He has autism and Down syndrome and is nonverbal. Steffy got help establishing the business from the Social Security Administration's Pass Plan, which offers financial support in transitioning to work, as well as the state vocational rehabilitation office and council on developmental disabilities, which helped Joe buy the corn-popping equipment. In 2008, Poppin' Joe's had sales of more than $50,000. (Here's more on the story of Joe's business.) "Joe loves to work," says his father, Ray Steffy. "We see the quality of life he has and how he's become part of the community. That's priceless."

Advocates for supportive and customized employment say that in too many parts of the country, school and vocational counselors still suggest sheltered workshops as the only option. And the cooperation needed between families, employers, and social services agencies to make employment work can be tough to pull off. Wendy Parent helped one-high-school student work up a business plan to sell Kansas University souvenirs in a local coffee shop. The business and high school backed the plan, but the plan fell apart when Parent couldn't find a job coach for the girl. "You're going to find weaknesses in every community," she says. "But this is the time to experiment and try new things."

For more on how families can start planning a working future for children with autism, check out APSE (formerly the Association for Persons in Supported Employment) and its Network on Employment, which provides advocacy and education on supported employment, as well as the University of Montana's Rural Institute, which helps families find resources for supported employment. The Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Workplace Supports and Job Retention at Virginia Commonwealth University has pioneered research on creative ways to employ people with disabilities and is a gold mine of information on transitioning to work or college.

Source: http://health.usnews.com/articles/he...ant-a-job.html

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Jenny McCarthy Tackles Autism Head-On

2009-04-03T03:53:00.000-07:00

By CBS NEWS

Actress With Son Once Diagnosed With Austism Claims The Disease Can Be Prevented & Healed

CBS) Actress/autism activist Jenny McCarthy has already written two best-selling books, now she is advocating the controversial idea that autism can be prevented or healed in her latest book, "Healing and Preventing Autism: A Complete Guide".

In conjunction with World Autism Awareness Day, McCarthy and co-author Dr. Jerry Kartzinel shared their perspective on the often touchy subject with Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith.

Although the topic may draw the ire of some, McCarthy welcomes the challenge and hopes to create more dialogue about the issue.

McCarthy professes to be a true believer that autism can be healed and prevented.

"Without a doubt, I know that it can," she said. "I am witness to my own child being fully recovered from autism. He's 6 years old now -- he completely lost his diagnosis."

Kartzinel adopted a child and says that after the mumps, measles and rubella vaccine, his son developed symptoms.

"I did research. The child had a lot of diarrhea. So I was wondering 'I wonder if gluten, like Celiac's disease is causing this diarrhea,'" Kartzinel said. "Remove gluten, which is that elastic protein. And his diarrhea improved. I removed dairy and all of a sudden I had a child who was sleeping through the night. I started cod liver oil and all of a sudden I had a child making eye contact again."

Many parents out there with autistic children may be skeptical of these claims and may say that these suggestions have not worked.

"Definitely parents have said this has not worked. And I say to those people, 'You can't give up. The window is not closed,'" McCarthy said. "You have to constantly go back and see what the latest development is with autism treatment. And, you know, for some children, as Dr. Jerry sees, they're just -- they can't come out of it. But for some that can -- why would we stop the ones that can because it didn't work for another family?"

"How rigorous do you have to be if you're going to try and go down some of the guidelines that are in the book?" Smith asked.

"For women that want to get pregnant and are worried about autism, that's why we wrote about things you can do as a woman preparing her body for pregnancy to help prevent autism," she said.

With so many families out there struggling with autism, Smith wondered if these claims would give a false hope.

McCarthy doesn't think that false hope exists. "I think hope is hope," she said.

The actress pointed out that Kartzinel has witnessed firsthand the results from his 10-year-old son.

"He has witnessed children speaking for the first time at age 10," McCarthy said. "So it's very real. Like I said, it's not for everyone. But for some, and isn't that enough?"

Watch video: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4913094n

Source: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/...n4913043.shtml

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Autism parents' plea: Understand kids' meltdowns

2009-04-02T19:41:00.000-07:00

By Madison Park
CNN

(CNN) -- Heather Moores and her 4-year-old son, Julian, sat in a waiting room at a pediatrician's office.

Julian, who has autism, was goose-stepping and counting every coat hook on the wall aloud. He started roaring like a lion. Moores smiled at her son, then noticed the horrified looks on other people's faces.

"People do not understand," she said. "To them, as bizarre as his actions might look, for us, they're a blessing. For us, it means he's enjoying himself and happy. No one understands that. They just see an out-of-control child. They don't understand this is a good day, when there isn't screams upon screams."

On the second World Autism Awareness Day, the search for a cure continues, and major court decisions have helped sort out the theories connected to the mysterious developmental disorders. Public knowledge and acceptance of autism and the difficulties the families face may be growing, as some iReporters told CNN.

But that's little comfort to a parent whose child's behavior can range from quirky to violent.

Children with autism have unexplainable breakdowns -- their outbursts are often loud, aggressive and disturbing. Julian slams himself against the ground or wall while he screams, flailing his limbs. Julian's younger brother, Marcus, 3, squirms away from his parents and runs into the street to oncoming cars because he is fascinated by them. He also screams with such ferocity that his face turns purple and mucus bubbles from his nostrils. Their youngest brother, Aric, also has autism and just turned 1 year old. Photo gallery from iReporters about autism. »

Heather Moores remembers that the stares in the waiting room were full of contempt. Onlookers shook their head in disgust and glared, making her feel like the "world's worst mother." This happens every time they go out to the doctor's office, the barber shop or anywhere in public.

"You'll hear people talking, 'If it was my kid, he wouldn't behave like that. These parents don't know how to discipline their children. Why don't you shut that kid up?' said Alexandre Moores, Heather's husband. "It makes going out unpleasant. I don't know if you ever get used to it."

Autism spectrum disorders affect the ability to communicate and interact. Many with autism have repetitive movements like rocking or hand-flapping and become set in their daily routines. Anything unexpected -- even a sound -- can result in major meltdowns.

"The reason why toddlers have tantrums is they don't have verbal or cognitive skills yet," said Dr. Lisa Shulman, an associate clinical professor of pediatrics at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in Bronx, New York. "They have no control to navigate difficult situations using their social and communication skills. That inability to communicate can set off such behaviors in toddlers."

Their odd behavior draws unwanted attention. Marcus walks on his tiptoes and amuses himself by dumping liquid from sippy cups and containers. Julian counts everything aloud, over and over again.

"People are always staring and because the children don't show any type of physical abnormality, like someone with Down syndrome would show; people kind of assume that you're a bad parent," said Alexandre Moores

When the staring and critical comments become too overwhelming, Julian's mother tells the onlookers that the children have autism.

"You're in a situation you have to explain your kids, because you can't take the looks," she said. "It gets really, really hard. No one seems to understand where you're coming from." Read Moores' iReport submission.

To prepare for outings, parents should bring a favorite toy or plan ahead to reduce waiting time. But don't avoid going out, Shulman said.

Parents should have a pat answer to say to a nasty face maker, she said. "It should be something they feel comfortable with, about this invisible disorder. 'This is what autism looks like. My child has disability.' They're not obliged to engage in conversation. Make a statement that's heard and move on."

Moores said the most helpful thing the public can do is withhold the judgmental looks and reassure the parent with a smile when they encounter a child having a public meltdown. Critical comments are "very, very painful and very depressing," she said.

"Please try to understand parents of special children are going through living hell 24 hours a day," she said. "Even if you are confused and you don't know what to do, give that parent a reassuring smile. That's the absolute best thing you could do."

It's a familiar experience for Laura Shumaker who remembered the scorn of strangers whenever her son had a public meltdown. Autism was not well-known when her son, Matthew, now 22, was growing up.

"When I look back, there are people who judged me," she said. "There were just as many that were compassionate, who could see I was trying my best."

Four years ago, she and her son were flying home to Northern California from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At the airport, Matthew learned they would be flying on US Airways instead of their usual United Airlines.

This greatly distressed Matthew, who started hyperventilating.

Shumaker walked to the U.S. Airway ticket counter as Matthew rocked behind her nervously, mumbling, "United is friendly. US Air is not."

Under her breath, Shumaker whispered to the ticketing agent that Matthew had autism. Then in a louder voice, she said, "We'd just like to trade these in for United tickets," and winked.

The agent paused for a moment, glanced at Matthew and said: "Oh! Well, don't worry, because US Air and United are the same now...really. We merged. We're the same airline now."

Strangers in line chimed in. "That's right," said a man standing behind them in line. "And the skies are still friendly."

Hearing those reassurances, Matthew stopped hyperventilating and began breathing normally. Before leaving for the US Airways gate, Shumaker hugged the ticketing agent in gratitude. Read Shumaker's iReport submission.

"So many children are diagnosed, there is an awareness now," she said.

But it's still difficult to explain to others, Shumaker said, when Matthew comments at the supermarket that a person standing in front of them at the check-out line is too fat to buy ice cream.

Source: http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/03/31/irpt.autism/

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World Autism Day raises awareness, but what is the cause?

2009-04-02T19:30:00.001-07:00

BY Rosemary Black
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

It’s a devastating diagnosis for any parent to hear. And more parents than ever are learning that their child has autism: it now afflicts about 1 in 150 children, according to the Centers for Disease Control. It’s four times more prevalent in boys than in girls.

As World Autism Awareness Day - designated by the United Nations as Tuesday, April 2 - winds down, the spotlight is on why the disorder is on the increase, why the causes still elude researchers, and why early diagnosis is so important.

“We know autism is on the rise and we know there is a genetic predisposition,” says Dr. Cathy Pratt, board chairperson for the Autism Society of America (www.autism-society.org). “The controversy is over what is the trigger that actually causes it to occur. A lot of research is on what triggers it. I think that we will find that there are multiple causes. It’s not like a broken arm.”

A diagnosis of autism can be a parent’s greatest fear, says Dr. Pio Andreotti, Psy. D., a neuropsychologist at Long Island College Hospital. “Autism seems to strike without any warning,” he says. “A parent goes through a typical pregnancy and a typical delivery and then finds out two years later that their child is not who they thought she was. The parent’s world changes and they have to adapt to what those changes are.”

With no genetic testing or blood testing available, it can seem like a long wait to see if a child will be autistic or not. Early treatment makes a big difference, says Andreotti, and there are varying degrees of severity of autism.

Diagnosis focuses on a variety of behavioral characteristics in the child: challenges in the area of social skills, communication problems, and having a very focused interest or a fixation on certain objects - like ceiling fans or refrigerators, Pratt says.

A diagnosis of autism is typically made at around the age of two, although some researchers claim that they can detect symptoms in babies as young as 10 months, Andreotti says. “A child can have a very mild autistic syndrome and be fairly high functioning or can have profound autism.”

Risk factors that may increase the chances of having an autistic child include parental age. “The older the parents are at the time of conception, the more likely that the child will have autism,” says Andreotti. “If you already have a child with autism, you’re at a higher risk of having aother child with autism. And there’s also a high correlation between autism and seizure disorders.”

Fortunately, early intervention (before the age of three) can make a huge impact, Pratt says, and parents need support, too.

“Regardless of the cause of autism, what we have to remember is that these are very challenging children and that the parents can have an incredibly challenging time living with them,” Pratt says. “Clearly there is a real need for services.”

Source: http://www.nydailynews.com/lifestyle...ss_but_wh.html

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Judge upholds Alex Barton teacher's suspension, loss of tenure

2009-03-31T13:54:00.000-07:00

By Colleen Wixon

ST. LUCIE COUNTY — The teacher who orchestrated a vote to oust 5-year-old Alex Barton from his kindergarten classroom lost her appeal for reinstatement.

Administrative law judge Claude Arrington upheld the St. Lucie School Board’s decision to suspend Wendy Portillo for a year without pay and remove her tenure.

Schools Superintendent Michael Lannon, who testified at the hearing that he would not recommend she be allowed to teach in a district elementary school, said he had not yet read through the order and declined to comment.

Portillo’s attorney, David Walker of Stuart, also said he had no comment at this time.

The school district proved Portillo violated the state’s code of ethics for teachers and school board rules in the May 21 incident, in which she asked students to say whether Alex should be in the classroom while she tallied the votes on a board, Arrington said in his order.

The judge also sided with the district’s assertion that Portillo exposed Alex and the other students to "unnecessary embarrassment or disparagement" and used an inappropriate method of discipline, Arrington said in his order. She also failed to exercise the best professional judgment and failed to make a reasonable effort to protect Alex from harassment, he said.

Arrington said in his order that, except for last year’s incident, Portillo was a dedicated and excellent teacher over her 12-year career in St. Lucie County. Many of Morningside’s teachers and parents support her and her reputation remains intact despite the negative publicity of the voting incident, the judge wrote in the order.

"There can be little doubt that (Portillo) has been traumatized by the negative reactions to her misconduct. (Portillo) and her family have suffered economically as a result of her suspension," Arrington wrote in the order.

Wendy Portillo testifies in hearing (video): http://www.tcpalm.com/videos/detail/...ifies-hearing/

Wendy Portillo describes "vote-out" incident (video): http://www.tcpalm.com/videos/detail/...-out-incident/

Source: http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2009/mar/...spension-loss/

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Growing up with Asperger’s: 10-year-old adapting to his world

2009-03-31T04:00:00.001-07:00

By Erin Pustay - GateHouse News Service

Inside and out, Brandon’s world looks and feels different.

Whimsy doesn’t exist. It’s just facts, figures, rules and structure. Little things get to him: Changes in temperature, the sensation of the silverware on his tongue, the sounds of the furnace kicking on.

Many of the things that we barely notice, 10-year-old Perry Township resident Brandon Wise hears, feels and sees with incredible clarity.

His world is exactly like ours, except that he is more attuned to it, more engaged in it. His mind is always working – he can’t turn it off – even at night when he pulls the covers up over his head and tries to sleep.

“Everything is literally different for Brandon,” said his mother, Melissa Wise. “He perceives the world differently. Some of the things he talks about and does are different. He is eccentric.”

Eccentric is only part of the diagnosis. Brandon lives every day with Asperger’s syndrome – a form of autism.

Like Brandon, the syndrome is unique. Autism, though still highly misunderstood, is slowly being better defined through studies and research, according to Dr. Mike McCabe, a pediatrician with Aultman Hospital.

What has been discovered is that no form of autism is ever the same. Children and adults who live with autism vary in their abilities to function on sociological levels.

Asperger’s is considered “high-functioning” autism.

“When people think of autism they picture kids flapping their hands or rocking in the corner of the room,” McCabe said. “Asperger’s is a form of autism because it is a developmental disorder, but it separates itself because the amount of developmental delays or problems are less.”

In other words, McCabe said, children who are diagnosed with Asperger’s will grow and develop and communicate in ways that are only subtly different than other children their age. Asperger’s children are simply more socially awkward.

With age, those traits that make them more socially awkward – traits that have them breaking social paradigms and norms every day – will stand out more and more.

“They are not developmentally aware of the social norms,” McCabe said. “They have a desire – they want to be social – but they don’t always understand how to (act in social situations).”

For Brandon, those actions are subtle: Blurting out the answer without raising his hand. Interrupting a conversation to offer his input. Not making eye contact when talking with someone. Focusing on his hand-held video game system instead of talking with friends on the bus or before wrestling practice.

Dr. Melanie Mirande, a family practitioner in North Canton, is the Wise family’s doctor. She’s seen Brandon for regular checkups since he was a tot and has gotten to know all about those things that make him unique and “different.”

“He calls ’em like he sees ’em,” Mirande said. “Don’cha my man?”

Brandon nods.

In his world, there is no mincing words. He’ll tell you exactly what he thinks, even if it may be considered rude.

“Kids think he is weird … but they have gotten used to him,” Melissa said. “They know how to handle him and how to help him handle stuff so he doesn’t have a meltdown.”

That’s the other thing: The “meltdowns.” Brandon lives by rules, structure and routine. Straying from that routine, even in the slightest sense, throws his entire world off kilter.

“If people played a game incorrectly, he had a meltdown. We were at a friend’s house one night, and he spent 45 minutes reading the directions to the game,” Melissa recalled. “You know kids, they just wanted to play and they did. They made up their own rules. He took the game and walked out because they weren’t playing it correctly and that upset him.”

In time, though, with patience, guidance and therapy, Brandon has been able to better adapt to his world. That doesn’t mean that he isn’t still talking out of turn, offering his opinion, not making eye contact or having a meltdown when his routine is upset. It just means that he is slowly making progress.

And that isn’t easy for anyone. Especially a kid.

“Growing up,” Mirande said, “is hard enough without the added stigma of your problem.”

But Brandon is doing well in school and making friends and learning how to interact with others because he has a strong support system around him, she said.

“He does well because of Mom and Dad. They have him plugged in,” Mirande said. “He has a great family. Nobody treats him any differently and I think that’s the key.

“I wish I could lie to you. I wish I could sit here and tell you that medicine could solve all his problems or has answers to all of his questions,” Mirande said. “When you live with Asperger’s, it’s about getting through every day. Family and friends are key. … He’s got two fantastic parents who love him and support him and that is most important.”

Did Einstein have Asperger's?

Although there is no hard evidence to prove the diagnosis, some famous names have been connected to autism and Asperger’s syndrome.

Professor Michael Fitzgerald, of Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, published a book in 2004 titled “Autism and Creativity.” Through it he examines some of the world’s most-beloved historical figures who may also have shown signs of autism and/or Asperger’s Syndrome. Some of those historical figures include Socrates, Charles Darwin, Andy Warhol, Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, Lewis Carroll and W.B. Yeats.

'A dash of autism'

Asperger’s syndrome was discovered by pediatrician Hans Asperger in the 1940s. The syndrome was discovered as Asperger studied the awkward social behavior of boys who were otherwise “normal” in their development. Since that time, children with the syndrome have been described as having “a dash of autism.” Although the syndrome was discovered in the 1940s. it was not officially recognized as a disorder until 1994.

Symptoms of Asperger's

Asperger’s syndrome, a form of high-functioning autism, manifests itself in a number of ways in both children and adults. Symptoms of the syndrome include:

- Lacks a natural ability to pick up on social cues. Children with Asperger’s may not be able to read body language, start or maintain a conversation or may not understand how to take turns in a conversation.

- Routines mean everything. Changes to routines are not easily handled by the child.

- The child may appear to lack empathy.

- Changes in tone, speech, pitch or accent are not easily recognized. Children with Asperger’s may not understand sarcasm or emotion because the changes in speech are unrecognizable.

- The speaking style of the child may seem advanced for his or her age.

- Avoids eye contact or stares at others.

- Few things may become obsessions for the child. He or she may become extremely knowledgeable about a certain topic or item.

- Conversation is important to the child, but the conversations are one-sided. The child will engage in long-winded talks, usually about a single, favorite – but narrow – topic such as snakes, baseball statistics or weather patterns. Often, Asperger’s children verbalize internal thoughts, even if doing so may be considered “rude.”

- Delayed motor development is common. Children with Asperger’s have low muscle tone and often have trouble with simple tasks such as catching a ball, picking up a fork or even walking.

- Extreme sensitivity to noises, sounds and touch is common.

The Independent

Source: http://www.norwichbulletin.com/lifes...g-to-his-world

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Video helps officers better understand autism

2009-03-31T03:31:00.001-07:00

By Amanda Butterfield

SALT LAKE CITY -- A new video has just come out that every Salt Lake City police officer must watch. It's about autism.

Video Courtesy of KSL.com

According to the Autism Society of America, autism is the fastest growing developmental disability, affecting up to 1.5 million Americans. Those are facts the Salt Lake City Police Department could not ignore, so it co-produced a video to show its officers how to properly deal with someone with autism.

The video starts out with a scenario that was in the news just two weeks ago. A 20-year-old autistic man wandered from his home and was missing for the second time. The first time Justin Bailey went missing was last summer for three days. Bailey has the mental capacity of a 7-year-old.

It's cases like this that the Salt Lake City Police Department wants its officers to be ready for, and that's why it released a new public service announcement, in partnership with SaharaCares, about autism that is required for all to watch.

In the video, a doctor tells the viewer, "Autism is a developmental disorder that affects an individual's ability to communicate and interact."

Salt Lake City police Detective Dennis McGowan said, "Because of the prevalence of autism in the community, it's important for officers to recognize the signs of autism and not otherwise mistake those signs for aggression and non-compliance."

McGowan has watched the 25-minute video and says he's learned a lot about how to recognize an autistic individual. He said, "They sometimes don't establish eye contact. They look away. They can get scared, nervous, run away. Do you have a phone number? Have phone number, repetitive behavior or saying repeating things."

The video goes through several scenarios involving autistic individuals, young and old, explaining how to best deal with the situation.

But that's not all this video has taught Detective McGowan. He said the video taught him, "perhaps to be a little more sensitive and recognize the signs more quickly."

The video wasn't just made for law enforcement. You too can learn about autism. For more information, CLICK HERE.

Source: http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=6011576

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Autism teacher celebrates every gain

2009-03-30T15:30:00.001-07:00

By Judy Fortin
CNN Medical Correspondent

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- A group of seven preschoolers gathered at a small table in the center of a brightly lit classroom and started playing with plastic blocks.

Their teacher, 27-year-old Stefanie Waldrop, sat in the middle of the group. She periodically asked the students what they were making. Some were unable to speak, others were squirming in their tiny chairs; several interrupted the playtime to use the bathroom.

The children, ages 2 to 5, have one thing in common: They all have autism.

"We come in here in the morning not knowing what the day's going to hold," said Waldrop, who teaches at the Marcus Autism Center in Atlanta. "We have to be really flexible about the stuff we do in the classroom."

Waldrop, who's been on the job for five years, is one of three certified special education teachers in the Center's Early Intervention Program.

Along with a group of assistants, the teachers spend the seven-hour school day moving from classroom to playroom to playground with 22 students who fall somewhere along the autism spectrum.

The American Academy of Pediatrics describes the autism spectrum as "a group of brain-based disorders that affect a child's behavior, social and communication skills."

The students at the Marcus Center are grouped not by age, but by their level of function. Waldrop is paired with children who have never received educational intervention before and have no readiness skills to transition to a public school. VideoWatch more on teaching children with autism »

In addition to helping the students learn to communicate, it's Waldrop's job to teach some of the basics, such as "going to the bathroom, washing hands...putting on their own socks and shoes, sitting in a chair without jumping up, and making eye contact." iReport.com: Have attitudes changed towards autism? Tell us about your experience

The job can be physically and emotionally demanding with a high burnout rate, according to Dr. Catherine Trapani, director of the education program at the Marcus Autism Center.

Waldrop used to work with older children who were profoundly and cognitively disabled, some of whom had serious aggression and behavior problems, Trapani said. "Stefanie was hurt. She was beaten up in the process of delivering her lessons and still came to work," said Trapani.

It helps that Waldrop loves children, but the right teacher for this job also has to be "reflective, outgoing, serious and silly," Trapani said.

"When you have to do the same thing 5,000 times and you're still not getting the response that you're looking for, if you can't see the humor in that or if you can't have a lighthearted moment, then you're going to be a very unhappy person," she said.

Waldrop admitted there are times when she gets frustrated. "There are lots of days that are very stressful and some days we come in first thing in the morning and we're not quite sure how we're going to make it to 3 o'clock," she said. Visit CNNhealth.com, your connection for better living

It helps to have three assistants in the classroom. "We play off of each other and can tell when someone is starting to get stressed out," she said. At that point, Waldrop said, it is time to take a break outside the classroom.

Waldrop doesn't use a lesson plan; rather, the work is organized in units. This month she's trying to teach the alphabet.

Trapani asks all the teachers she employs to focus on achieving one primary goal: "To develop skills to get children out of this setting and into community-based settings."

Waldrop said she worries that, in general, the public doesn't set very high expectations for children with autism. "People don't expect the kids to be able to do certain things," she said. "But if you work with them, most of our kids do pretty much anything that you can put in front of them."

But, she conceded, even conquering the basic milestones can take time. "When our kids learn how to do things that most people think are really easy -- like washing your hands -- that's exciting," Waldrop said. "It might take months for them to get it, but when they finally do, it is really exciting."

"We have kids who come in that are not able to talk at all and now can hold simple conversations," she said. "Knowing that you'll get there eventually is really gratifying."

Source: http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/03/30/hm.autism.teacher/

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Autistic boy's arrest at school fuels debate on discipline for disabled

2009-03-30T04:27:00.001-07:00

By Christina E. Sanchez
THE TENNESSEAN

PORTLAND — Cindy Gaspard knew something was different about her son, Dylan, when he was 6 months old.

As an infant, he would line up toys in a row and throw a fit if the order was disrupted. He didn't like to be held. He couldn't speak until he was 3.

Dylan was diagnosed at age 7 with autism, a brain disorder that affects communication and social interaction. For Gaspard, the finding explained years of communication problems and outbursts, and helped her learn how to deal with many of his behaviors and to fight for services for her son.

She is fighting for him again.

Dylan, a sixth-grader enrolled in a special-needs program in Sumner County schools, was recently handcuffed, arrested and put in juvenile detention after an outburst in school. He was charged with two counts of assault for biting and scratching teachers.

"I disagree with court or jail as a placement for a mentally challenged child, when what he clearly needs is psychiatric treatment," Gaspard said of her 12-year-old son. "For Dylan, sitting in jail meant nothing to him. Treatment and assistance at a hospital will help him attain the skills he needs."

The case reflects an ongoing debate in Tennessee: How should school officials handle and defuse behavioral outbursts of developmentally disabled students at school?

Federal law prevents school officials from discussing students' cases, said district spokesman Jeremy Johnson.

But he said school district policy is that police will be called for children under certain circumstances, including when the child leaves school grounds, when the child's behavior cannot be controlled by teachers, and when a crime is committed.

"When a child is admitted to the therapeutic intervention program, parents are notified that we could have to call police," Johnson said.

Dylan, who has been in the hospital for a psychological evaluation since the episode on March 9, is not the first child with developmental disabilities to be arrested.

"Statewide, we have had several cases of children with disabilities being arrested and being taken to Juvenile Court for behaviors in school," said Sherry Wilds, staff attorney for the Tennessee Disability Law and Advocacy Center. "It's the answer a lot of systems have."

Seclusion boxes gone

Gaspard spoke out for her son in 2007 about seclusion boxes — small, dark rooms made of plywood where special-needs children were put to control behavior in Sumner County schools. She found out Dylan was put in one and helped bring their existence to public attention. The district has since removed the boxes.

A state law went into effect in January that is designed to prevent students from being subjected to unreasonable, unsafe or unwarranted discipline by prohibiting methods that include sitting on students as a restraint or putting them in a locked room. The Tennessee Board of Education will hold a public hearing April 30 on the rules for the restraint and isolation statute. April is also Autism Awareness Month.

Gaspard said Dylan had just been enrolled in the program at R.T. Fisher Alternative School in Gallatin a week before his arrest. He was placed there to better serve his educational needs.

But new situations and changes to routine can trigger his explosions, and school officials were aware of that because it is in his education plan. Methods that work best for him are taking him out of the situation or turning his attention to another activity, his mother said.

Boy had asthma attack

Gaspard said after her son was arrested she learned that Dylan was in the gym running laps, and he had an asthma attack. He was allowed to stop to use his inhaler. When the teacher tried to get him to start running again, Dylan got frustrated and ran out of the school, saying he was going to "get hit by a car."

She said teachers were able to get him back in the building, but when they were restraining him, he acted out further.

Police said Dylan bit one teacher and kicked and scratched two others.

"If the child is so out of control that the teachers can no longer handle him, we are going to have to respond," said Lt. Kate Novitsky, spokeswoman for the Gallatin Police Department. "If the child is biting, scratching and kicking, the child is going to have to be taken into custody."

Gaspard said restraining Dylan can backfire because, like many children with autism, he doesn't want to be touched. He banged his head against the table and had a bruise on his head the size of a golf ball.

Dylan was handcuffed, put in the police car and taken to juvenile detention. Police were not told he had autism.

Johnson, the Sumner County schools spokesman, said the district is not allowed under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act to release that information to police, "even in an emergency."

Wilds, the Tennessee Disability Law and Advocacy Center attorney, disputes that contention, saying laws don't typically apply in an emergency.

"If you are getting ready to throw a child in the back of a car and take them away, you would want to know please handle this child carefully, they can't communicate that well," she said.

Arrest stuns advocates

Wilds said public and private lawyers are not always trained to handle these cases to fight for the child in courts. A behavioral analysis should be done on many of these children before police or court become involved.

"That way you can have a behavior intervention program in place when something happens," she said.

Holly Lu Conant Rees, chairman of the Disability Coalition on Education, said she has a lot of questions about the episode, including what plans were in place to help Dylan before the situation escalated. She does not believe arresting him was the answer.

"I believe it's unconscionable to arrest a 12-year-old child for behaviors that were clearly manifestations of the child's disability," said Conant Rees, who advocates for children of disabilities.

As for Gaspard, she is trying to figure out what the next step for Dylan will be and how to help him.

"Dylan is a very loving, funny child, and people are drawn to him and his big smile," Gaspard said. "He is the light of my life, and it's hard when you feel you are always butting heads with someone to get your child help."

Source: http://www.tennessean.com/article/20...70/1006/NEWS01

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Cartoons 'could help spot autism'

2009-03-30T04:26:00.000-07:00

By BBC News

Watching how a toddler responds to animations could help diagnose autism, research has suggested.

Babies usually start paying attention to movement soon after birth, and pick up information from the cues they see but children with autism often do not.

A study, published in Nature, where two-year-olds were shown manipulated animations found those with autism focussed on movement linked to sound.

UK experts said a test of this kind could help pick up autism early.

In the Yale study, researchers created five versions of animated children's games such as 'peek-a-boo' and 'pat-a-cake' where points of light marked movement, each with sound.

On the other half of the screen, the same animation was presented upside down and in reverse, but with the same audio as the upright version.

Previous studies have shown that, normally, children's attention is drawn to such changes from around eight months old.

Twenty-one toddlers with autistic-spectrum disorders (ASD), 39 who were developing normally and 16 who had developmental problems but did not have autism were studied.

Both the toddlers who were developing normally and those with developmental problems showed a clear preference for looking at the upright animations. However the toddlers with ASD showed no preference and looked backwards and forwards between the two halves of the screen.

But when the toddlers were shown the 'pat-a-cake' animation - where the figure repeatedly and audibly claps his hands - those with ASD showed a marked preference for the upright animation, where the sounds were in time with the movement, choosing it 66% of the time.

The other children continued to prefer the upright version.

'Grabbing their attention'

Dr Ami Klin, of the Yale Child Study Center, who worked on the research, said: "Our results suggest that, in autism, genetic predispositions are exacerbated by atypical experience from a very early age, altering brain development.

"Attention to biological motion is a fundamental mechanism of social engagement, and in the future, we need to understand how this process is derailed in autism, starting still earlier, in the first weeks and months of life."

Thomas Insel, director of the National Institute of Mental Health - which helped fund the study, said: "For the first time, this study has pinpointed what grabs the attention of toddlers with ASDs.

"In addition to potential uses in screening for early diagnosis, this line of research holds promise for development of new therapies based on redirecting visual attention in children with these disorders."

A spokeswoman for the National Autistic Society said: "This is a really interesting study which suggests that children are on a different learning pathway from other children from a very early age.

"We warmly welcome all research which helps us further our understanding of autism, and how best to help and support those with the condition."

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7966770.stm

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Music Has Become a Part of Many Programs for Autistic Children

2009-03-29T04:30:00.001-07:00

Proponents say music can be a creative outlet for higher-functioning students, for others it can reduce anxiety.

At the Kennedy Krieger School in Montgomery, Md., Austin Hall, right, plays with music therapist Leanne Belasco, on guitar.

By SUSAN BIDDLE | THE WASHINGTON POST

When it's bath time for Janna Simpson, her mother sometimes throws together a tune. "Take a bath, take a bath, take a bath," Judy Simpson might chant, luring her daughter into the water.

Janna isn't a toddler, and her mother isn't simply singing along. Janna is a 15 year old with autism, a speech impairment and a seizure disorder. Music, Judy Simpson says, has been key to getting her to engage in such everyday activities as taking a bath; it's also an alternative to verbal instructions in helping her overcome social and behavioral problems.

Janna, who never developed normal speech, receives formal music therapy at West Virginia's Hedgesville Middle School, where she is enrolled in a classroom for students with autism. Her mother, a former music therapist who is director of government relations at the American Music Therapy Association, based in Silver Spring, Md., continues with that therapeutic approach at home.

"Latitude, longitude, looking through a microscope: Such skills are not important," Simpson explains. "She needs basic skills to live, such as brushing her teeth, taking a bath, the pragmatics of engaging with people. This is a difficult thing to teach."

Simpson's confidence in music therapy is based on her own experience and that of other parents of children with autism who are eager to find ways to increase their children's ability to function.

But exactly how and to what extent music therapy works is not well understood. Just over a year ago, a session titled "The Autism Agenda" at the American Music Therapy Association conference stressed the need for more research and for practice to be based on evidence.

Despite the limited data about its effectiveness, making music has become an integral part of many programs for children with autism. Leanne Belasco, a music therapist at the Kennedy Krieger School's Montgomery County, Md., campus, says music gives structure and a predictable rhythm to verbal directions. When Belasco strums her autoharp to her students, she sings encouraging, instructive lyrics such as, "I know I have what it takes; I am a good listener" and "Be flexible."

At the school, where all 37 full-time students are enrolled in music therapy, Belasco begins her 30- to 45-minute sessions by singing a refrain: "Hello, everybody, it's time for music today."

She wheels around the group seated in a horseshoe formation, addressing each student in song as she does so.

A 16 year old, who regularly wears headphones in class because of his auditory sensitivities, responds with apparent enjoyment, as does a younger boy, who strums the autoharp with seeming pleasure as he rocks back and forth in his chair.

Despite the benefits associated with music, there are special challenges for children with autism.

"Some students are sensitive to sirens and vacuums; some are sensitive to music, to specific instruments or the frequency of the instrument," says Linda Brandenburg, director of school autism services at Kennedy Krieger, which is based in Baltimore. The music therapist gradually eases students with such auditory sensitivities into the group.

For higher-functioning students on the autism spectrum, music can be a creative outlet in addition to helping regulate behavior, therapists say.

At Frost School in Rockville, Md., for children with emotional disorders including those on the autism spectrum, ninth-grader Donny Toker has enjoyed music from a young age and now composes jazz and rock pieces, which he has performed at family gatherings and at school.

His mother, Nancy Toker, says music helps him focus and relieves anxiety and frustration.

"When he is in a musical environment, he is able to interact with his peers, and his conversational skills are appropriate, " Toker says.

Catherine Lord, a professor of psychology at the University of Michigan specializing in autism research, says, "We know that music therapy treatment is associated with improvement, but we don't know what the cause of that improvement is."

Studies suggesting positive results for music therapy, she says, typically "don't control for what you need to control to find out what causes the change."

Students may improve because of factors such as the therapist's enthusiasm and attention rather than the music itself.

Lord notes that she would support the use of music therapy only if it could be shown that it helped to decrease problem behaviors and also if it was clearly determined that students with autism enjoyed the therapy.

Many people with autism lack forms of entertainment and relaxation, so providing effective behavioral treatment that is also pleasurable would be worthwhile, she says.

Source: http://www.theledger.com/article/200...istic-Children

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A Regular Guy Growing Up With Autism - Book -

2009-03-29T04:29:00.001-07:00

Every parent has dreams for their children, but when autism strikes, those dreams seem out of reach. Read Laura Shumaker inspiring story of raising her autistic son from a baby to young adulthood- The challenges, the rewards, the heartaches and the joy. Autism affects 1 in 150 children. You are not alone. Learn more about growing up with autism at http://www.laurashumaker.com

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Autism, Love, and Revolution

2009-03-29T04:28:00.000-07:00

by Amanda Copeland

Welcome to the journey of autism: the journey of my life as a mother, as a filmmaker. I once had a daughter who was perfectly formed, with a smoothly functioning nervous and immune system, and then autism became my life's journey. Autism, love, and now, revolution.

Lila was born in January of 2002, 11 pounds of beautiful bouncing baby. Somehow my doctors didn't realize how enormous she was while she was still in my belly, and I pushed for several futile hours before she was taken out by emergency c-section. She had a bubbly hematoma on her crown from the pushing, but her APGARS all rode high and she ate like a prize fighter despite what the nurses laughingly called my "white girl nipples". That first night in the hospital there was a full moon flooding our tiny room with brilliant sparkling light. I watched my baby sleeping peacefully on my chest and ignored the nurse's urgings to lay her down in the crib.

I was in awe. When my daughter let out her first cry in that operating room I experienced a spontaneous healing from every perceived let-down I had known from my parents. I realized in the passing of a moment who they had both been, and what limited tools they had possessed to do this mind-bogglingly important job of raising a child. From the moment she was conceived my daughter held supernatural powers of this type. She made love and forgiveness happen spontaneously. The miraculous was all around us.

When Lila was 4 months old and turning over on her belly, eyes alert, we moved into a darling little craftsman cottage in east Culver City. It had been built and painted in 1926. We and our two devoted dogs were pleased to settle in there and I set up my photography studio across the street at the Helms Bakery. As a single mother I worked 16 hours a day, but we made it, and I was simply besmirched with a love I had never known for this enchanting, gorgeous little girl who had blessed me with her coming.

At a year, Lila walked. Within a month she started speaking in both English and Spanish, the latter being the primary language I spoke to her from birth. Her body moved smoothly through space and she looked at faces and new experiences with wide curious eyes of love. Near the same time, she started to exhibit signs of a gastrointestinal disorder. Explosive and acidic diarrhea began to dominate our daily lives and her stomach distended like a famine victim's. The visit to the pediatrician revealed nothing. The rice and oats I was told to feed her did nothing to end the scourge of hot liquid running through her gut and ruining all her clothes, car seat, toys, whatever happened to be in the way.

At around 14-18 months Lila began a strange jumping and flapping that was almost endearing, and as it came on subtly, I took it as a developmental thing. Then, her words started disappearing. Again, gazing at her with rose colored lenses I assumed her unfoldment was taking its own twists and turns and I was too busy fretting over the intestinal mystery to go much further into investigating these quirky developments. Over and over again the pediatrician told me she was fine. At two and a half Lila joined in a local preschool program. At this moment, I realized something was awfully wrong with my child. The other toddlers screamed in agony when their parents dropped them off. Lila waddled to a corner and sifted sand. I would try to say goodbye to her, and she completely ignored me. I shared with other parents that I was concerned I'd formed no bond with my child.

On October 30, 2002 I had my first parent teacher conference at the preschool. I was wearing tiger-print dance pants and an oversized wool sweater, my hair up in a bun. I remember the dryness of my hands in the chill. The morning was cold and misty and the outline of the oak trees against the sunrise is still burned in my mind. Mine was the first meeting of the day. I walked into the school room and saw Lila's two teachers and the school's director arranged cross-legged on the floor with a box of tissue at the ready. I knew this could not bode well. The teachers looked at me gravely. I saw that one of them had a tear welling up her eye. Gently and shortly they told me they were not doctors but they had seen Lila's behaviors before in other toddlers who were soon diagnosed with autism. They likened my Lila to an older boy at the school who had pervasive autism, the son of a teacher I knew well. They advised me to see a developmental psychologist for a diagnosis. Autism.

This was the moment my life became the journey of autism -the moment my heart irrevocably broke. The instant when every hand flap, every spin, every liquid bowel movement, every lost word, snapped into sharp focus and I felt fully what had happened to my girl.

My mission now is to bring relief to the immense civil rights crisis at large in a world today beset with autism, in an epidemic that has steadily and sharply risen in numbers since its inception, and has never plateaued. As we journey on the road to prevention and liberal treatment of autism, in a battle to achieve unfettered access to treatment for every child born on the spectrum regardless of race, nationality or economic status, I journey with Lila. My daughter has undergone intensive bio-medical intervention over the past 5 years, and a battery of therapies that have monopolized thousands of hours of her young life. The work she has done has not been in vain.

The toxic house that provided the catastrophic load of lead that triggered Lila's autism also took the life of one of our dogs. For the hundreds of parents and grandparents along the way who have mortgaged their homes and given away jobs to undertake the struggle for their children's lives, we begin the journey of a million steps in a documentary film we are making, to make way for the tidal wave of children coming to us in autism. With "The Pilgrims: the journey to a new world for autism", we will explore the tragedies and triumphs of the journey thousands of families world-wide undertake when they learn of this devastating disorder visited on their children. This is where we meet revolution and entreat those who have an investment in their children to join us.

That morning in 2002 when the teachers set me on the road of autism and revolution, another miracle transpired. That word "autism", that irrevocable knowing that you are in possession of a child with untold difficulties ahead of them, brought my love for Lila to a place that transcends words and defies pedestrian knowing. This is the miracle of Lila, the biggest love that could ever be, the most gigantic love I can ever know.

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/amanda..._b_180065.html

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The monster inside my son

2009-03-29T04:27:00.000-07:00

For years I thought of his autism as beautiful and mysterious. But when he turned unspeakably violent, I had to question everything I knew.

by Ann Bauer

On Feb. 14 I awaken to this headline: "Professor Beaten to Death by Autistic Son."

I scan the story while standing, my coffee forgotten. Trudy Steuernagel, a faculty member in political science at Kent State, has been murdered and her 18-year-old son, Sky, has been arrested and charged with the crime, though he is profoundly disabled and can neither speak nor understand. Sky, who likes cartoons and chicken nuggets, apparently lost control and beat his mother into a coma. He was sitting in jail when she died.

This happens to be two days after my older son's 21st birthday, which we marked behind two sets of locked steel doors. I'm exhausted and hopeless and vaguely hung over because Andrew, who has autism, also has evolved from sweet, dreamy boy to something like a golem: bitter, rampaging, full of rage. It happened no matter how fiercely I loved him or how many therapies I employed.

Now, reading about this Ohio mother, there is a moment of slithering nausea and panic followed immediately by a sense of guilty relief.

I am not alone.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Andrew started life as a mostly typical child. But at 3 and a half he become remote and perseverative, sitting in a corner and staring at his own splayed hand. Eventually he was diagnosed with high-functioning autism, a label that seemed to explain everything from his calendar memory and social isolation to his normal IQ.

We got him into a good program and there was a brief, halcyon phase of near normalcy -- a time I long for still so ardently that I feel hungry for it at a cellular level -- from ages 12 to 17. Andrew aced algebra, became fluent in Spanish, played the cello in the school orchestra, and competed on weekends in tournament chess. I occasionally even referred to him as "cured."

But in the months before turning 18, Andrew grew depressed and bitter. Huge and hairy -- a young man who grows a beard by twilight -- he suddenly became as withdrawn as he'd been at 4. Many of his old symptoms returned: the rocking and "stimming" (e.g., blinking rapidly at lights), the compulsion to empty bottles of liquid soap. Sometimes he would freeze, like a statue. Classic catatonia, the experts told us. We tried a series of medications, but that only made him worse.

Once during this phase, he beat me. A neighbor heard me screaming and called 911. But I blamed this on the drugs. Despite everything, my son had always been gentle and sweet. This was no twisted adolescent squirrel killer who kept a pile of carcasses under his bed.

On the day he should have graduated from high school, Andrew was instead being treated in a psychiatric ward at the Mayo Clinic. But he seemed to improve, and we were hopeful. Upon release, he was placed in a series of behavioral health centers and group homes. This is where his real education began.

He'd quit progressing in school, but now my son soaked up new information like a toddler learning to talk. Every placement in a succeedingly tougher environment gave him new skills. He shoplifted like a pro, traded his belongings for sexual favors, and dined and dashed so often some local restaurants had his picture posted in their kitchen under the words, "Don't serve this man." I told myself at least he was thinking, making his own bad choices, experiencing adult consequences. A part of me was even proud.

But he'd also quit reading, conversing, learning people's names, or keeping track of the day of the week. He ate like some gnashing beast: stuffing food into his mouth until his cheeks bulged and food dribbled out onto his clothes. And after moving to the rural group home selected by a judge because it was miles from restaurants or businesses where he could steal, Andrew morphed again, the warty monster from a Grimm fairy tale, demolishing everything in his path.

His destruction was utterly senseless yet brilliantly thorough: He submerged his computer, stereo and iPod in water; threw puzzle pieces and Styrofoam cups into the toilet and flushed them, plugging the pipes literally dozens of times a week; and urinated on every square inch of his room: bed, walls, floor, closet, everything but the ceiling and that only because he had not (yet, I suspect) figured out how.

When I asked him why he did these things he would say, eyes narrow like a night creature, "I don't like being caged."

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Then came Sept. 2, last fall. This was to be Andrew's first day of his final year in public school. He hated school -- a so-called transition program -- because it was demeaning. Lessons about how to cross streets and take buses and punch time clocks. My son had completed pre-calculus; now he was being taught how to make correct change.

But there was nowhere else for him. He'd failed to hold the two jobs my husband and I had found for him; the private job coach we hired said Andrew was the most challenging client he'd ever worked with -- right before he quit. We were financially tapped out and the state would not pay for vocational training until Andrew turned 21. Transition school was the only choice.

I'd explained all this. But when I showed up at the group home that morning, he was drinking coffee and pacing and still not dressed. I went into his room, took some clothes from the closet, handed them to him. And hinting at what he was about to do only with a small sigh, as if to say, "I've had enough," my son picked me up and threw me across the room.

I had three broken ribs and a bit of damage to my liver that made my doctor fret. Still, who among us hasn't wanted to toss our mother across the room when she's nattering on and making cheerful sounds in the morning? I dismissed it as an aberration until a couple weeks later when Andrew decked his elderly tutor, knocking her onto a concrete sidewalk and breaking her hand. He went on to attack several staff members at the group home, grope the mentally handicapped young women who attended his transition program, and finally to accost his 14-year-old sister right in front of my eyes.

It was Christmas Day. I watched him enter the room and fix his gaze on my daughter. Then he rushed her, and I screamed. My husband -- two inches shorter and 50 pounds lighter -- somehow intercepted Andrew and knocked him to the ground. After he had been escorted from our family dinner in restraints, we sat at a table heaped with food growing cold, where my elderly parents wept and my daughter shook silently. I comforted them all and after that was done -- the meal reheated and people eating -- I drank every drop of alcohol in sight, even draining the half-full wine glass my mother always left. The next morning, through a headache of steel knives and bad music, I got on the phone.

I called the man who was supposed to be my son's psychiatrist to ask for an emergency appointment. Andrew was becoming dangerous, I told the nurse, and he was going to hurt someone. But the doctor was too busy; he was on vacation. There might be an opening in late January. No one else was available, no matter how many numbers I dialed.

Secretly, as if committing a sacrilege, I searched online using keywords such as "autism" and "violence" and "murder." What I found was confusing. There were roughly a dozen recent articles about heinous acts committed by people with autism and Asperger's syndrome, but each was followed by editorials and letters written by autism advocates vigorously denying a link. There were a few studies from the '80s and '90s, but the results -- when they showed a higher rate of violent crime among people with autism -- appeared to have been quieted or dismissed.

On the other hand there were, literally, thousands of heartwarming stories about autism. A couple of the most widely read were written by me. For years I had been telling my son's story, insisting that autism is beautiful, mysterious, perhaps even evolutionarily necessary. Denying that it can also be a wild, ravaging madness, a disease of the mind and soul. It was my trademark as an essayist, but also my profound belief.

Now, despite the constant calling and late-night research, I could not accept what was happening. I could not write about it; I could not speak of it. Not even my closest friends knew what was happening inside my life.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

My husband and I were on our way to an inauguration party the night Andrew finally came apart.

It was January, a week of cold so wicked I was dressed in long underwear and wool sweaters, scarves, a parka, and two sets of gloves. It took me a long time to scramble through all the layers when my cellphone rang. But missing the call was not an option. I'd already had four panicked messages from the group home that day: Andrew's violence was escalating. They were mandated by state law to stay inside because of the weather, and he was going stir crazy, terrorizing the house. No one knew what to do.

"Yes?" I answered.

"I'm so sorry," is how the voice on the other end began.

It was Andrew's counselor, calling to describe the situation. My son was in an ambulance circling the Twin Cities, sedated and strapped down to a bed. He'd been in there for a couple of hours and the medics just kept driving; they couldn't stop because all the psych wards were full.

"Yes," I croaked again. Other than this one low word, I'd been struck mute.

They'd had no choice but to call the police, the counselor said. After dinner -- which was served in the group home at 5 o'clock, leaving long hours to kill before bed -- Andrew made a pass at a young female staff member. Petite, blond, around his age. The girl rebuffed him, reminding him probably for the 8,000th time that day about the "no touching" rule. And then he went off.

My son reportedly leapt on her -- his 260-pound body surprisingly nimble -- one hand around her throat, choking her, and the other in her mouth, pressing down, cutting off her air two different ways. It took four men to pull him off and by this time the girl had passed out.

"Is she all right?" I asked. And this mattered for so many reasons: There was the basic human one, then the legal, also the fact that my own fate hung on the answer. While lying awake earlier that week, I'd made the decision that if my own child were to kill someone I, too, would have to die.

"She's bruised," he said, "and scared."

That's when I breathed. Nothing irreversibly evil had yet been done.

My husband wanted to turn around. But I was afraid that in the quiet of our home I might sit and think about my perfect, rosy-cheeked baby and actually go insane. So instead we went to the party and, as on Christmas, I drank as if it were a task I need to accomplish. Steadily, with steel. While my husband watched over me with his worried face, I hugged people and talked and tried to participate in a game the host had devised: Obama trivia. What movie did he take Michelle to see on their first date? Which brand of computer does he use? How big are his feet?

I failed to answer a single question and wondered why everyone around me seemed to know these things. Where had I been? Through my shimmering stupor, I surveyed the crowd of happy, shining faces. People were wearing buttons, T-shirts, even necklaces that spelled out "hope." This struck me as sinister and somewhat rude. Hope was bullshit. Hope was exactly what had been lost.

In the car on the way home, I asked my husband if I had fooled everyone at the party. Was I speaking normally? Did I at any point shout or cry or whimper? He assured me I had not. But for the few moments at the end when I'd looked as if I might collapse, I'd been pale but appropriate.

"I'm sure I'm the only one who knew," he said, shifting so the seat made its cold, leather groan and taking my hand.

I thanked him and leaned back, thinking dumbly that, of course, there was one thing he didn't know: I'd been secretly stockpiling the sleeping pills my doctor prescribes like Pez. I had about 80 saved up, which would probably be enough. The ambulance was still out there, driving through the dark night on frosted roads, holding my son inside. For now I could live. But the following morning I recounted my supply, just in case.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Back when Andrew was in junior high school, my mother had a friend whose adult son had only recently been diagnosed with autism. He'd been dysfunctional since childhood, failing at school, unable to make a friend or keep a decent job. At 35 he was still living at home, collecting carts at the local grocery store, and taking anticonvulsants (Tegretol was the unofficial treatment of that era for outbursts) to control the violent urges he'd been having for 15 years.

"You think he's better now," my mother's friend once said as we watched a young, laughing Andrew out the window, playing tag with his brother and sister in my parents' backyard. "But wait 'til he's older. Then you'll understand. "

I hated her and was furious that she wished for our downfall -- also that her dumb, psychopathic son had been given the same label as my beloved child. Autism had become oddly fashionable; my mother's friend was wealthy. Clearly she'd gone "diagnosis shopping." My son, I vowed, would be nothing like hers.

When Andrew finally landed at the county hospital, after 10 hours in the circling ambulance and another three in the E.R., I was still looking for a different answer. This wasn't autism. Surely he had a brain tumor, a seizure disorder, or a delusional condition such as schizophrenia. Maybe, on one of his crime sprees, he'd gotten ahold of some PCP.

But the psychiatrist assigned to my son said no. The MRI was clean; the EEG normal. The doctor's specialty happened to be schizophrenia, and he saw none of the signs. Street drugs would have left Andrew's body by now. This was isolation, frustration, hormonal surges, poor impulse control and hopelessness. It was adult autism, the psychiatrist told me: one awful direction it can take.

Monday, I went to see my son. He was in a bare white cell behind a steel door with a window, like Hannibal Lecter. The only thing missing was the mask. Two male nurses and Max, my 18-year-old linebacker son, walked with me into the room. Andrew was beached on a bed, his glasses the only thing on the shelf alongside. I touched his shoulder and woke him, taking his hands after he'd lifted himself to sit. "I'm here, sweetheart," I told him. "I want to help."

He looked at me with bug-eyed wonder and squeezed my hands, hard, "I might kill you," he said. That's when Max pushed his way between us and ordered me from the room. Sobbing, he wrestled his brother to the bed and held him there.

I spent Tuesday at a friend's house, as planned, in front of the TV, watching the Obamas walk and wave. Once, when someone asked why I was so quiet, I mentioned that one of my children was in the hospital, quite ill. She touched me and said something kind. I knew she was thinking of something like leukemia and I wanted to tell her I would hack off my right arm in return for something as simple as cancer. The flickering beauty of a sad, pure, too-early death sounds lovely. Instead I nodded, silent and dumb.

The one thing I held onto, through all of this, was the sudden appearance of this county psychiatrist: a small, bespectacled, Dustin Hoffman-ish fellow who’d spent years on a kibbutz before going to medical school in middle age. I found him magnetic, I trusted him. He became my talisman, my Obama, the only reason to hope. It wasn't that he had any magic solutions -- I've learned by now that no one does -- but he was openly upset, diagnosing Andrew simply as "someone in pain."

We sat in the doctor's lounge and he gave me a slice of banana bread to eat while he kneaded his forehead and read his notes. When he asked me what I wanted him to do, I told him: Whatever it takes to make my son stop. The threat of harm to my son's body was superseded by black stains on his soul. The doctor agreed, but he had made a list in ascending order of risk: Ativan, high-dose Prozac, Depakote, electroshock, Clozaril, Riluzole. A drug called Lupron.

I reached for my single semester of Latin. "Lupron? You want to take the werewolf out of him?"

"Exactly," said the Israeli. "But it's our last resort."

There were days spent in court, one swimming into the next, like a series of nightmares. Because my son was vulnerable, nothing could be done without a judge's order. Exhausted after this process, my husband and I went to Chicago and spent three days walking in icy sunlight, eating in no-name diners, going to sleep at 9 p.m. By the time we returned, Andrew had been given buckets full of dangerous, doping drugs and two sessions of ECT.

When we arrived at the hospital, he shuffled sleepily out of his now-unlocked room. We gave him money to order pizza (it turns out Domino's delivers to the psych ward), a sketchbook and pastels, two books. He could have nothing sharp, no cords. This ruled out a CD player, laptop, or ballpoint pen.

I asked tentatively if he remembered what he had done and suddenly he began to cry, tears running down his giant, furry face, jeweling his beard.

"Beware," he said through ragged breaths. "I'm bad now, I can feel it. I can't help the things I do."

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Whether there is a definitive link between autism and violence -- between Trudy Steuernagel's situation and mine -- I cannot say.

And even if it exists, the cause is not clear. Our adult son's behavior could be the outcome of living daily in a world where everything hurts and nothing makes sense. It could be the result (as some scientists have postulated) of excess testosterone on the autistic brain. It could simply be wild coincidence that I ran across this particular story during a time when I was looking for answers. Any of these is possible. I just don't know.

The chairman of Trudy Steuernagel's department rose at her memorial service to proclaim, "Autism doesn't equal violence." And this probably is mathematically correct: Autism does not always equal violence. But I do believe there may be a tragic, blameless relationship. Neither Sky nor Andrew means to be murderous -- of this I am sure -- but their circumstances, neurology, size and age combine to create the perfect storm.

It is warmer, finally. Outside my window ice is melting off skeletal trees. I sit in the pale morning light, drinking tepid coffee and reading about this woman whom I suspect I would have liked. A fellow academic and writer, Steuernagel, too, insisted on finding beauty in autism. Her legacy includes an editorial about Sky's loving nature and relevance, how he led her through life along "a trail of sparkles."

Mine, I decide, must be in part to break the silence about autism's darker side. We cannot solve this problem by hiding it, the way handicapped children themselves used to be tucked away in cellars. In order to help the young men who endure this rage, someone has to be willing to tell the truth.

So here it is.

Source: http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/200...ism/index.html

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Parents Defend Teacher Accused of Abusing Autistic Student

2009-03-25T08:34:00.001-07:00

by Roger Weeder

JACKSONVILLE, FL -- A Kernan Trail Elementary teacher accused of abusing an autistic child in her classroom has parents speaking out in support of Rhona Silver.

Silver was arrested last week, charged with child abuse. Police say the 30-year classroom teacher restrained a child, with his pants down, for three consecutive school days in a Rifton Chair. The chair is a toilet chair with restraints.

Tanya Tsoutsos is one parent who voiced her support for Silver. She says her daughter was in Silver's class at Kernan Trail.

"She's a sweet lady," said Tsoutsos.

"She's good with kids, she loves the kids, kids love her. She's personable, she comes to kids' birthday parties and special events we have."

In police reports, a teacher's aid and a student teacher in Silver's classroom said they witnessed what they called abuse.

Silver was removed from the classroom last October. She remains employed by the district in a non-teaching position while the investigation continues.

Source: http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/l...134551&catid=3

Previous news on the subject: http://www.helpcd.com/forum/showthread.php?t=451

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Amanda Peet v. Jenny McCarthy = vaccines v. autism?

2009-03-24T16:32:00.000-07:00

By Lisa Jo Rudy
Autism & Parenting Examiner

Amanda Peet and Jenny McCarthy are beautiful women with lots of money, great bodies, and terrific makeup artists. They're also spokewomen for what have become opposing "teams" in the autism wars.

Peet, according to an article in the Momlogic blog is once again speaking out in favor of fully vaccinating children. Here's a quote from Ms. Peet - which, to be honest, really does sound an awful lot like fighting words:

"Also, I hope parents understand that when they do not vaccinate their kids, they are able to make that choice only because most of us are vaccinating," says Peet. "We are creating a barricade around their un-vaccinated children and that is what keeps them safe. That's a fact."

Meanwhile, Jenny McCarthy has come out with yet a third book on vaccines and autism. This one, called Healing and Preventing Autism, certainly SOUNDS like a medical guide.... from what some (including me!) would consider an unlikely and unpromising source. Still, I haven't read the book yet, so can't make a definitive judgement (and really did find Louder Than Words a great read).

The sad thing to me is that the autism debate has come down to a star v. star popularity contest. Of course, there's much more to it. But much as anger over the economic crisis has focused, laserlike, on a group of wealthy AIG execs, anger over autism-related issues has focused on a debate between two actresses.

Sure, it's fun to watch the sparks fly. But if we need Amanda Peets to be the ultimate spokesmom for the war against infectious disease - or Jenny McCarthy to raise awareness that vaccines are not always harmless - something's awry.

Source: http://www.examiner.com/x-2007-Autis...cines-v-autism

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Half of Utahns with autism lead fulfilling lives, follow-up

2009-03-24T04:55:00.001-07:00

By ScienceMode

SALT LAKE CITY – Twenty years after first being assessed in a long-term autism study, 41 Utahns with the disorder had a higher social outcome than those in similar studies, University of Utah psychiatry researchers have reported in the Journal of Autism Research online.

Although the researchers can’t yet explain why the follow-up study showed the Utah group fared better overall in living independently, developing social relationships, and in some cases even showing higher IQs than 20 years ago, the results offer hope for many with a childhood diagnosis of autism, according to Megan A. Farley, Ph.D., the study’s first author and a research associate in the Department of Psychiatry at the U of U School of Medicine.

“This is an amazing group of people who, in many cases, did a lot more than their parents were told they would ever do,” Farley said of those who participated in the follow-up study. “This gives a lot of hope for younger people with autism and average-range IQs.”

Farley and her fellow researchers drew the follow-up study participants from an original group of 241 Utahns with autism who took part in a University of Utah and University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), study from 1984-1988. The average age of participants in the original study was 7, while the average age at the follow-up study was 32. Participants in the current study had an average childhood non-verbal IQ of at least 70.

For the follow-up study, the researchers assessed the participants’ overall social outcome by their ability to maintain paid employment, the existence of meaningful social relationships, and their degree of independence in daily life. From these criteria, an individual’s overall social outcome was assigned to one of five categories: very good, good, fair, poor, and very poor:

* Very good meant the person held paid employment without extra support to perform job duties, had important social relationships, and a high independence in daily life.

* Good indicated the individual had a generally high level of independence at work and in daily life, requiring some extra support, and also had a friendship or some acquaintances.

* Fair reflected the need for regular support at work or home, but the person did not have to live at a special residential facility. The participants in this category had acquaintances through special activities but no particular friends.

* Poor showed the need for a high level of support, such as a residential living facility and planned daily activities for people developmental disabilities. Those in this category had no friends outside their residential living arrangements.

* Very poor meant the individual required a high level of care in a hospital setting with no autonomy and had no friendships.

By these measures, the researchers found that 24 percent of the participants had a very good social outcome; 24 percent had a good outcome; 34 percent had a fair outcome; and 17 percent were rated in the poor social outcome category. No one’s social outcome fell into the very poor category.

About half of the 41 study participants were employed in full- or part-time competitive jobs. Six were living independently, including three who owned homes. Three were married with children, and one person also was newly engaged to be married. Eleven of the participants have driver licenses and the same number had a higher IQ than when assessed 20 years earlier.

“Adults with autism haven’t received the attention from researchers that children have, but the few studies that have been done on similar groups showed 15 percent to 30 percent having good outcomes, compared to the 50 percent in our study,” Farley said. “One early Canadian study showed similar results to ours, but other studies have had fewer people living and working independently as adults.”

Although, Farley doesn’t know why the Utah group fared better than those in other autism studies, she thinks it may be related to early intervention to help children with the disorder and strong social and family networks in Utah.

The most important factor in whether study participants had a better living outcome was their degree of independence in daily activities—being able to take care of themselves, hold employment, live on their own or at least semi-independently, and take part in meaningful social relationships, according to Farley. Although IQ significantly influences social outcome, daily independence plays an even greater role in determining how well people with autism function, the researchers said.

Although encouraging, the follow-up study results also show autism’s devastating toll. About half the participants could not live or work independently, and the majority lived with their parents, although many of them had a high level of independence in their daily activities. Social isolation is a serious problem as well—44 percent of the group has never dated. In addition, 60 percent of the study participants, even some of those who had achieved independent living and working, were prone to anxiety and mood disorders and worried about a social stigma attached to autism. The IQ of eight participants declined since they first were evaluated 20 years ago.

The 41 participants in the follow-up originally were identified through a statewide epidemiological survey between 1984 and 1988 conducted by the U of U and UCLA. The goal of that study was to identify every person born with autism between 1960 and 1984 and who lived in Utah during the four-year survey. The survey was one of the largest population-based autism studies in the world, meaning it tried to assess the whole population of Utahns with the disorder rather than a select group. By assessing participants from the original study, the follow-up gives a unique perspective on the long-term course of autism, according to Farley.

The long-term follow-up also will help researchers identify issues that affect the social outcomes of adults who were diagnosed with autism as children, providing information that can help determine services that will help these adults lead more fulfilling lives.

“Our current results have encouraged us to go further in following up the entire sample of 241 adults who were identified with autistic disorder in the 1980’s,” Farley said. “We now know that, with the help of the remaining adults and their families who are willing to give of their time and energy, we will be able to have a better understanding of the life course in autism. We’re excited now to contact all of the families who participated in the original study.”

Source: University of Utah Health Sciences

Source: http://sciencemode.com/2009/03/23/ha...p-study-shows/

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'Spider-Man' rescues autistic Thai boy

2009-03-24T04:54:00.000-07:00

by AFP

BANGKOK (AFP) — A Thai fireman turned superhero when he dressed up as comic-book character Spider-Man to coax a frightened eight-year-old from a balcony, police said Tuesday.

Teachers at a special needs school in Bangkok alerted authorities on Monday when an autistic pupil, scared of going to lessons, sat out on the third-floor ledge and refused to come inside, a police sergeant told AFP.

Despite teachers' efforts to beckon the boy inside, he refused to budge until his mother mentioned her son's love of superheroes, prompting fireman Sonchai Yoosabai to take a novel approach to the problem.

"My fireman rushed back to the fire station and took out his Spider-Man costume... The boy immediately ran into his arms with a smile," sergeant Virat Boonsadao said.

He said the fireman keeps the costume at work to liven up school fire drills.

Source: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp...jcI6x5ULZyySyA

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Parents push for changing how disabled are taught

2009-03-23T04:50:00.001-07:00

By Tiffany Lankes
Sarasota Herald-Tribune

Florida parents are pushing for a law that could dramatically change how teachers treat students with disabilities, banning techniques such as secluding children in isolated rooms, strapping them into chairs and spraying them with liquids.

The bill would require school districts to train teachers non-physical strategies for working with special needs students. It also would require teachers to file reports and notify a child's parents when restraints are used in emergency situations.

If the bill is passed, Florida would have one of the toughest laws in the country for regulating the treatment of the state's 376,000 students - about 14 percent - who qualify for special education.

"What we're talking about here is creating safety for teachers and children ," said Sylvia Smith, with Florida's Advocacy Center for Persons with Disabilities.

A similar proposal died last year after critics said it was vague and could restrict teachers too much. And this time around, the state is dealing with a severe budget shortage, also putting the future of the bill in doubt.

"Anything that is going to have a fiscal impact in this kind of year is going to be a problem," said Sen. Nancy Detert, R-Venice, chairwoman of the Senate Education Committee.

But supporters are pinning their hopes on a growing advocacy movement among parents, who say techniques referenced in the bill are dangerous. The movement gained steam after a former Venice Elementary teacher was found not guilty of abusing her profoundly disabled students, even after admitting to hitting them in the head with objects and strapping them in chairs to control their movement.

"There's just been too much going on," said Sharon Boyd, a Charlotte County parent who has been at the forefront of the push for the legislation. "We're done with it."

Hundreds of supporters plan to rally for the bill in Tallahassee on Developmental

Disabilities Awareness Day on Tuesday.

Florida's Department of Education has been trying for more than a year to implement its own rules, but each time it has brought a proposal to the table parents and advocates have said it is not strict enough.

Some of the techniques banned in the bill may seem surprising to people unfamiliar with special education classrooms, where teachers sometimes use unconventional strategies to teach students with extreme learning challenges and to control their behavior.

But the state does not have any policies or laws regulating what techniques teachers can use, even though there are rules for people who work with the disabled in health care settings.

The state allows school districts to decide, but most do not have specific written guidelines.

Parents and advocates say properly trained teachers can manage behavior without getting physical.

There is no way to know how widespread the use of restraints is in Florida classrooms.

Most school districts do not require teachers to record instances, or report them to anyone - including parents.

Some parents say they have no idea their children are being restrained until they come home with injuries.

"No one knows what goes on behind those doors," said Boyd, whose 9-year-old son has autism.

Even educators debate the legitimacy of restraints.

Administrators in Sarasota County say they do not allow teachers to use most of the techniques that would be outlawed in the bill.

"When I review the bill I didn't see it as an additional burden," said Sonia Figaredo-Alberts, who oversees Sarasota's special education services.

The Florida Education Association has not taken a position on the bill, but spokesman Mark Pudlow said the organization has a lot of concerns .

The bill has not yet been scheduled for a hearing before either of the Legislature's education committees, but Detert said her staff is conducting an analysis of its costs and its impact.

Advocates say that school districts already spend money on training and could redirect their resources.

They also say if teachers are using the correct techniques the need to use physical restraints, and file the accompanying paperwork, will be rare.

Source: http://www.gainesville.com/article/2...ed-are-taught-

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People With Autism Less Likely to Rely on Gut Instinct

2009-03-23T04:49:00.000-07:00

By News-Medical.Net

People with autism-related disorders are less likely to make irrational decisions, and are less influenced by gut instincts, according to research funded by the Wellcome Trust. The study adds to the growing body of research implicating altered emotional processing in autism.

Decision-making is a complex process, involving both intuition and analysis: analysis involves computation and more "rational" thought, but is slower; intuition, by contrast, is much faster, but less accurate, relying on heuristics, or "gut instincts".

Previous studies have shown that our response to a problem depends on how the problem is posed - the so called "framing effect". A surgeon who tells a patient that there is an 80% chance of surviving an operation is more likely to gain consent than one who tells the patient there is a 20% chance of dying, even though statistically these mean the same thing.

Now, in a study published today in the Journal of Neuroscience, researchers in Professor Ray Dolan's group at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging at UCL (University College London) have used the framing effect to study decision-making in people with autism spectrum disorders (ASD).

According to the National Autistic Society, these disorders affect up to one in a hundred people in the UK. They range from mild conditions, such as Asperger syndrome, through to highly disabling conditions, such as Rett syndrome. Symptoms - which vary widely in severity - include language problems, poor social interaction and rigid patterns of behaviour and thinking.

Participants in the study performed a task involving deciding whether or not to gamble with a sum of money. For example, they would be given £50 and be presented with two options: option A was to keep £20; option B was to gamble, with a 40% chance of keeping the full £50 and a 60% chance of losing everything. This version was known as the "gain frame".

At other times, the participants would be presented with the "loss frame", the only difference being that option A was phrased in terms of losing money. In other words, when given £50, option A was to lose £30 of their initial amount; option B was the same as above.

Despite option A being essentially the same in both gain and loss frames, the researchers found that the "control" participants - those without ASD - were more likely to gamble if the first option was to "lose" rather than "keep" money. For participants with ASD, this effect was much smaller, suggesting that this latter group was less susceptible to the framing effect - in other words, they were less likely to be guided by their emotions into making inconsistent or irrational choices.

"People with autism tended to be more consistent in their pattern of choices, their greater attention to detail perhaps helping them avoid being swayed by their emotions," says Dr Neil Harrison.

Although this attention to detail and a reduced influence of emotion during decision-making is beneficial in some situations, it may be a handicap in daily life, explains Dr Benedetto De Martino.

"During social interactions a lot of information must be processed simultaneously, making this a very complicated computational task for the brain," he says. "To solve these complex problems we rely on simplifying heuristics - gut instincts - rather than extensive logical reasoning. However, the price that we seem to pay for this ability is that sometimes irrelevant contextual information leads us to make inconsistent or illogical choices.

"Less reliance on gut instincts by people with autism may underlie their difficulties in social situations, but also enable them to avoid potentially irrelevant emotional information and make more consistent choices."

The study reinforces previous research suggesting that the key difference in how people with ASD make decisions may lie in the amygdala, an area of the brain critically involved in processing emotions. In a 2006 study published in the journal Science, Dr De Martino and colleagues showed that decision-making involves activity in the amygdala. In people with ASD, the amygdala has been shown to differ from that in the majority of people - not in size, but in the density of nerve cells.

Dr Harrison believes their research may play an important role in highlighting the strengths of people with ASD, rather that focusing on negative aspects of the disorder.

"Our research shows a positive strength in people with autism, more research focussing on abilities as well as disabilities of people with autism will enable us to gain a clearer understanding of this condition while simultaneously assisting people with autism in living rich and full lives."

Source: http://www.opposingviews.com/article...n-gut-instinct

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For an artist with autism, precision is all

2009-03-22T00:36:00.000-07:00

By Joan Anderman, Globe Staff | March 22, 2009

WILLIAMSTOWN - Much of what matters to Jessica Park can be found in a small room on the second floor of a rambling old house in this western Massachusetts college town. The walls of Park's bedroom, which doubles as her art studio, are covered with posters of rainbows, lightning, Las Vegas, and astronomical phenomena: the constellations, galaxies, the moon. Perfume bottles and body creams, dozens of them, are lined up on a dresser. Trays of paints fill the shelves next to Park's drawing table, which holds a sketch for the artist's current commission, a painting of the Taj Mahal.

In a couple of months the architectural jewel will be rendered in Park's signature style: each spire, minaret, balcony, and dome transformed with a meticulous hand and mysterious vision into a precise riot of color.

"I use acrylics. Sometimes come straight from the tube, but usually mix them up," Park says of her brilliant hues. "I like how they look!"

Park is autistic, and her room is a window on what she calls enthusiasms and others call obsessions. Her previous enthusiasms - the subjects of Park's early paintings - include radiators, dials, and heaters. In recent years, Park's artwork has been dominated by Victorian houses surrounded by weather anomalies and set against night skies made of "purplish black," her favorite color. The skies are invariably filled with stars, painstakingly depicted in their correct positions and dimensions.

It would be hard to overstate just how keenly, and to what powerful effect, Park's art is an extension of her autism. As a small child, largely uncommunicative, Park was fascinated by abstract shapes and color gradations. She is also a mathematics savant, able since she was young to create her own complex number systems. (It took a mathematician to recognize the seemingly random series Park wrote on a piece of paper when she was 12, which turned out to be the squares of the numbers from 51 to 100 arranged according to the number of powers of 2 they contain.) Order, as it is for many autistic people, became a driving force in Park's life.

And so it is in her artwork, a selection of which is now up at Endicott College in Beverly. The well-defined edges and controlled patterns of brick, stonework, clapboards, and shingles appeal to the 50-year-old artist, according to her mother, Clara Claiborne Park, a former English professor at Williams College and author of two highly-regarded books: 1967's "The Siege: A Family's Journey into the World of an Autistic Child" and 2001's "Exiting Nirvana: A Daughter's Life with Autism."

During a recent visit to the Park family's home, exchanges with Clara, who is in her late 80s and has speech difficulties, were limited. Jessica's sister Rachel, who imports Asian art and artifacts for sale online, facilitated an interview with Jessica. (Another sister, Katharine, is a history of science professor at Harvard.)

Conversation focused on the tasks that make up Park's days: working as a clerk in the mailroom at Williams College's Paresky Center (in 2007 it was officially christened the Jessica H. Park Mailroom), a job she's held for nearly 30 years; taking care of household chores in the home she shares with her mother and her father, David Park, a retired physics professor; and cooking.

"Spaghetti sauce. Fish chowder. Eggplant. Tuna noodle casserole. And chocolate cake," Jessica Park says, when asked about her favorite dishes to make. Unable to engage for long, she regularly jumps up from her chair to look at the Las Vegas photos she and her sister Rachel have collected, or check the WeatherBug on her computer, or bring more tea and cookies to the living room. And while the formerly mute child is now capable of some social interaction, Park suddenly becomes agitated - as she has all her life - when a visitor asks a question that begins with the word "what." No one knows why.

Park's art is displayed throughout the house, a patchwork of well-worn rooms and narrow hallways, as is an honorary doctor of fine arts degree she received in 2003 from the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. Her father says that Park's evolution as an artist has played an extraordinary part in forming his daughter's identity.

"There are so many things she can't do, and we've always tried to emphasize the importance of this thing that she does well and use it as a support for her ego, her sense of self, her sense of her own value," David Park says. "I don't know how Jessy's mind works. But I do think this has meaning for her."

Jessica Park works slowly. One of her large pieces, which can be up to 24 inches by 18 inches, will take several months to complete. Park receives around $2,500 for a commissioned painting, according to her brother Paul, a science-fiction novelist, and around half that if the client is a family friend or affiliated with the autistic community. Park is also represented by Pure Vision Arts, a New York exhibition space for artists with developmental disabilities.

"It's not exactly a living," says Paul Park, "but that's because my mother hasn't run it as a living. If Jessy is working and being productive, that's what's required. The selling part of it is big, but not because Jessy likes to spend money. Jessy likes numbers. And she likes them to go up, not down."

The earliest work included in the Endicott show is a childlike abstraction made when Jessica Park was 10. But as the show's catalog notes, even this simple painting is characterized by a striking degree of order and precision - no overlapping of colors, strong patterning, and decisive composition - that is the key mechanism by which Park relates to the world around her. Noted neurologist Dr. Oliver Sacks, who told her story in a 1998 documentary film for the BBC series "The Mind Traveller," wrote the foreword to both of Clara Park's books as well as the exhibit catalog.

"For Jessy, artwork is not a hobby or a pastime or even a profession or a vehicle for expressing herself to others," Sacks writes. "It is, for her, a crucial way of exploring the varieties of life, within the tight constraints of her methodical systems. It is a way of balancing her life."

Everyone around Park agrees that her artistic development made a dramatic, and perhaps life-changing, leap when she met schoolmates Anna and Diana Saldo at Mount Greylock Regional High School, which Park attended for nine years. Intrigued by this girl who would rock and scream uncontrollably in class but could also, by that time, really draw, the twin sisters (both talented artists who would later go into special education) took Park under their wing. They became, in Anna's words, like peer tutors, accompanying her to gym and art classes despite jeers and teasing from other kids, and they spent two summers living with the Park family on Block Island.

"We didn't have a lot in supplies, little watercolor sets and cast-off printer paper, but we did art lessons that also went into life skills," recalls Anna Saldo, who lives in Williamstown and has Park over for dinner every Monday night. "Initially we modeled what to do, and she would do the same. Jessy was very withdrawn and socially inept, but there was obviously raw talent there. It was nurtured and cultivated, and it bloomed."

Park's artwork may be the gripping subject of books, a film, and gallery exhibitions, yet the artist herself couldn't be less interested. She would rather talk about the difference between perfume and eau de toilette. Her brother Paul can't say whether she actually uses the lotions and potions that hold so much fascination these days. All he knows is that they spend hours at the mall looking at containers, and that for Park skin care isn't so different from numbers, or rainbows, or painting.

"It's an autistic person's paradise, 50 products at each counter. Is this one a.m. or p.m.? Before or after bath? Cream or powder? Everything has a category with tiny gradations, and because she's got a powerful intellect Jessy turns it into a system that she invests in. She's the same way with bathroom cleansers and appliances and vitamin pills," says Paul Park. "It's the way she does her art."

Source: http://www.boston.com/ae/theater_art...cision_is_all/

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Autistic murder defendant poses challenges in Ohio

2009-03-20T07:36:00.001-07:00

By THOMAS J. SHEERAN – 18 hours ago

KENT, Ohio (AP) — Sky Walker watches recordings of "The Price is Right" over and over again on a TV positioned just outside his jail cell, a calming ritual for the autistic teenager, who is prone to erratic behavior swings when his routine is changed.

He also gets his favorite barbecue potato chips, and visitors have been allowed to bring him McDonald's Happy Meals — an attempt to keep his environment as normal as it can be as he awaits a decision on whether he is competent to stand trial in his mother's fatal beating.

Walker, 18, is charged with murdering his long-doting mother, Gertrude Steuernagel, a professor at Kent State University who once wrote publicly about having to cope with her son's aggressive behavior. She was found unconscious in their kitchen Jan. 29 and died eight days later.

The case has posed special challenges to the justice system from the start; Walker had to wear a face mask at an initial court appearance to prevent him from spitting at deputies.

The case has also worried advocates, like Rory McLean, president of the Autism Society of Greater Cleveland, who fear that Walker's actions — he was found cowering in the basement when sheriff's deputies responded to the home — could be misinterpreted.

Walker, who has a court-appointed guardian, is due to be arraigned Friday on the murder charge but both sides agreed he did not have to appear in court. He is also charged with assaulting a deputy who investigated the beating. No pleas have yet been entered on his behalf.

To be deemed competent, a defendant would have to understand the charges against him and be able to help in his own defense.

Prosecutors and Walker's attorney declined to discuss the case. But Dr. Phillip Resnick, a psychiatrist who has worked in the Cleveland courts for decades, said interviewers would need to determine whether a defendant knew at the time of such a crime that killing was wrong.

Autism is a developmental disability that limits social interaction and communication skills, usually starting before age 3. Walker, for example, has trouble putting words together to express himself. A family friend said he uses words only in a way that his mother could easily interpret, such as saying "wheels on the bus" to indicate he was getting upset.

Those with the disorder can be easily upset by a different routine such as a new food item or schedule change. They might find the rub of clothing upsetting and often take comfort in repetitive behaviors, such as rocking back and forth. The gentle hum of a refrigerator might be maddeningly loud for the autistic.

As many as 30 percent of autistic children display some level of aggressive behavior, said Dr. Max Wiznitzer, who treats autistic children in Cleveland.

A 2005 study in the Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law reported on the cases of three autistic defendants charged with murder. Two were sent to prison mental health units; the third was acquitted.

But an autistic man was convicted in 2004 in San Diego of killing a 17-year-old, and a man with a form of autism got a life prison term in Charleston, S.C., for killing a family friend.

"Generally, there is no diagnosis which would make someone categorically not responsible," said Resnick, who has seen hundreds of mental competency claims although few involved autism.

For his video arraignment on the initial charges, Walker had to be taken from his holding cell, which is being used in place of a regular jail cell so deputies can keep a close watch on him. Seated in a restraint chair and with a cloth mask to prevent him from spitting at guards, he thrashed his head back and forth.

"That's probably because he got out of a routine we've been able to establish for him," said Sheriff's Maj. Dennis Missimi.

Family friend Molly Merryman said she never saw aggressive behavior from Walker during visits he and his mother made to her farm. The adults would make dinner, and Walker would pace a 120-foot circle for hours outdoors, she said.

But as Walker grew older, his behavior appeared to change. Steuernagel hinted at this in a campus newspaper article she wrote a year ago belittling complaints by colleagues on how busy they are.

"Busy? Try spending an evening sitting in a closet with your back to the door trying to hold it shut while your child kicks it in," she wrote.

Neighbor Donald Toth recalled talking to Steuernagel at curbside several years ago. Walker approached his mother and began pounding her with his fists. Steuernagel excused herself, grabbed her son and took him into the house, Toth said.

Steuernagel kept her cell phone handy and warned students she might have to leave class on short notice to check on her son, who attended high school. But, Merryman said, mother and son shared happy moments. They went to Disney World. They danced, taking turns leading. When he was younger, they went door to door on Halloween.

Still, Steuernagel yearned for a simple conversation with her son.

"I keep waiting for that day," she wrote in the Daily Kent Stater. "In the early days, right after his diagnosis, I was sure it would happen. Now, as Sky has celebrated his 17th birthday, I'm not so sure that will happen."

Source: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/...zLCtAD971AA5G4

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Why Autism Won't Look You in the Eye

2009-03-20T01:55:00.000-07:00

Natalia Kleinhans, PhD

by Seattlest

This is fascinating, and thanks to the Big Blog's Scott Sunde for bringing it up: UW researchers have discovered that people with autism have a more intense response to looking at faces than the average Joe. The more social impairment, in fact, the more intense the response to someone's face.

The UW Autism Center's Natalia Kleinhans says, "What we are seeing is hyperexcitability or overarousal of the amygdala, which suggests that neurons in the amygdala are firing more than expected."

The amygdala is a little almond-shaped whozit that is mostly known as your "fight or flight" response center, but it's actually much more than that. Its emotional tagging helps you make decisions, remember things, and identify faces. Without the right emotional response, face-recognition gets a little squirrely.

On the other hand, an overactive amygdala gives you a less detailed picture of the world; it makes you more reactive first, take stock later. If it hits medium-high and stays there every time you see someone's face, it'll make looking at them uncomfortable, like you're getting joy-buzzered each time you see them. (Outside of faces, this probably also relates to the autistic tantrum or freak-out.)

These relationships between an amygdala that won't calm down and bad social skills supports the theory that, when this hyperarousal occurs, a person misses out on important cues--facial expressions, gestures, tones of voice--to interpreting what's going on socially.

Kleinhans' research abstract is here, and it mentions something else worth noting: While the amygdala in autistic subjects didn't habituate (i.e., kept going, "Oh shit! A face!") nearly as quickly as other people's, "there were no group differences in overall fusiform habituation."

The scientists had included the fusiform gyrus in their study because it's theorized that people with autism don't make a great distinction between people and things, and even prefer things to people. The fusiform gyrus is implicated in our responding to pictures of faces differently that that of a car or blender, so they were curious if it was reacting differently. It wasn't.

To us, the amygdala's hyperarousal suggests the reverse of that theory--people with autism are not robots for whom a mom and a toaster are equally useful appliances, but people who are reacting too strongly at the sight of other people. We predict a lot more emphasis on habituation techniques as this information disseminates.

Source: http://seattlest.com/2009/03/19/why_...in_the_eye.php

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Teacher Charged with Abusing Autistic Elementary Student

2009-03-20T01:54:00.000-07:00

Rhona Silver

By: Ryan Duffy

JACKSONVILLE, FL -- A Duval County school teacher has been arrested on charges of abuse against an autistic elementary student.

55-year-old Rhona Silver was a teacher at Kernan Trail Elementary and was arrested Tuesday.

Police say last September she forced one student to sit on a "self contained toilet chair" in restraints with his pants down for the entire school day and only a short break for lunch.

And police say this continued for three to four days

Two teachers aids and an intern were also in the class of six autistic children at the time and told police Silver was the one that put the child in the chair.

"We take these things very seriously which is why when we immediately heard about the incident we removed her from the classroom while we did our investigation. So the school system takes this very seriously any sort of misuse of equipment," says Jill Johnson with Duval County Schools.

Silver was kept out of the classroom from the time the abuse was reported last year until her arrest.

The district does use the "Rifton Chairs" as they're called, but they are not supposed to be used as punishment.

Thursday parents picking up their children at Kernan Trail were stunned to hear one of the teachers had been arrested.

"Excellent school, both my kids go here, excellent school, never had any complaints and just very shocking to hear that," says parent Melissa Matthews.

Silver is a 30 year veteran teacher in Duval County Schools, she was both arrested and released on bail Tuesday.

Source: http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/l...134174&catid=3

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Why autistic people fail to recognize faces

2009-03-19T11:07:00.001-07:00

19 Mar 2009, 1506 hrs IST, ANI

WASHINGTON: An Indian-origin researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has shed some light on why autistic people fail to recognise faces as effectively as their normal counterparts, by studying why they often fail to recognise faces in photographic negatives.

Pawan Sinha, an associate professor of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, says that a person's eyes appear darker than the forehead and cheeks in nearly every normal lighting condition.

He believes that photo negatives are hard to recognize because they disrupt these very strong regularities around the eyes.

During a study, he and his colleagues asked subjects to identify photographs of famous people in not only positive and negative images, but also in a third type of image in which the celebrities' eyes were restored to their original levels of luminance, while the rest of the photo remained in negative.

Sinha says that the subjects had a much easier time recognizing such "contrast chimera" images, because the light/dark relationships between the eyes and surrounding areas were the same as they would be in a normal image.

He adds that similar contrast relationships can be found in other parts of the face also, primarily the mouth, but those relationships are not as consistent.

"The relationships around the eyes seem to be particularly significant," he says.

Sinha says that scientists studying face-perception skills in autistic children may find his observations interesting because such children are often reported to experience difficulties analysing facial information.

He points out that some studies have shown that those with autism tend to focus on the mouths rather than the eyes, which is why his study may help understand why such people have such difficulty recognizing faces.

The findings also suggest that neuronal responses in the brain may be based on these relationships between different parts of the face.

The team found that when they scanned the brains of people performing the recognition task, regions associated with facial processing were far more active when looking at the contrast chimeras than when looking at pure negatives.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/H...ow/4286642.cms

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How do you know your child with autism is learning?

2009-03-19T02:58:00.001-07:00

by Lisa Jo Rudy - Homeschooling Examiner

Schools use tests to determine what kids have learned. Tests, 99% of the time, are paper-and-pencil tools which require verbal skills both to process the questions and to spit out the answers.

Kids with autism, by nature, have a tougher-than-average time processing and expressing ideas verbally.

This doesn't mean they haven't learned anything! What it does mean is that standard testing tools are unlikely to tell parents or teachers what kids with autism really know.

In my homeschool, I use "capstone projects" to find out what Tom really knows about a subject. A capstone project is a presentation of any sort that puts together what the student has learned during a unit of study, and allows the student to show off his knowledge.

Often, the project is a diorama, a poster, or a painting. Once or twice (when we were studying leaves, for example), the project took the form of a collection of dried plants with labels. Tom's written stories as capstones, too, including his own "Just So Story" with illustrations.

There are some tremendous upsides to capstone projects. First, they provide us with something to work on together while we talk about and process what Tom's learned. Second, they're impressive - a wonderful creation to show off to friends and family. Third, artistic capstones can also double as exhibits at, for example, the local county fair - or at homeschool events such as science or geography fairs. That gives Tom the chance to show off his work in a "safe" setting, and to get practice in presenting his work and in taking credit for a job well done.

Source: http://www.examiner.com/x-2007-Homes...sm-is-learning

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Kamas family gets tracking device for son with autism

2009-03-19T01:17:00.003-07:00

By Annie Cutler

KAMAS, Utah (ABC 4 News) – There’s a solution to a frustrating, frightening, and costly problem. The problem is that 20 year old Justin Bailey of Kamas suffers from autism and keeps wandering away from home. It happened again this week. It's costing thousands in taxpayer dollars to search for him, plus the stress it puts on his family. Now the family and the police say it's time for Justin to have a tracking bracelet.

There was a sigh of relief when search and rescuers found Bailey just 500 yards from his house. Hi mom, Jennifer Bailey says, “He wasn't out of my sight for more than a couple minutes and he was gone.” But it's not the first time Bailey - who suffers from autism - has wandered from home. Summit County Sheriff Dave Edmunds says, “This is the second time he's gone missing in about 9 or 10 months so it seems reasonable that he could run again.”

After spending over $30,000 on search parties to find Bailey, Edmunds suggested a personal tracking device. He says, “If we can take a proactive measure and actually get a piece of technology that's going to find him rapidly, then clearly we're taking a proactive approach and saving the taxpayer's money.”

The Baileys agree but they're on a fixed income and can't afford $6,000 for the advanced technology. So ABC 4 took action and did some research. We came across Project Lifesaver through the National Autism Association. We called to see if it was an option for the Baileys. Wendy Fournier says it's a program that works for anyone who tends to wander, “Not only children with autism but other developmental disabilities. Children with down syndrome are on the program. The older population suffering from Alzheimer’s or dementia.”

Summit County Sheriffs would be trained on how to use the satellite equipment. Bailey will wear a light weight tracking bracelet. If he wanders again it will take just two trained personnel about 15 minutes to find him. Jennifer Bailey says, “It won't be quite so much of a worry if you turn your back on him for 90 seconds.”

Again, the program costs about $6,000. The National Autism Association has agreed to cover the cost for Summit County and the Baileys but will accept any help in donations. Here's where you can take action to help. They've set up a custom donation page just for Utah donors at http://www.nationalautismassociation...mitCountyFOUND.

Source: http://www.abc4.com/content/about_4/...Sf33F_EIA.cspx

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Single, jobless, and parenting a son with Aspergers - Video

2009-03-19T01:17:00.001-07:00

This is my son, Maxfield, who is eight years old and has Asperger’s Syndrome. It took five years to get his diagnosis. I am pretty sure my 14-year-old daughter, Jade, has it too – she’s being tested now.

I have no job, and no insurance, and I fight loneliness every day. I’m a single mother and have just started going to a food bank on the weekends. That was hard. Thankfully, I know there’s a light at the end of the tunnel: I’m in school now, studying digital gaming, and when I’m done, I hope I can get a good-paying job making video games for kids like Max.

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Bill would cover more autism therapies

2009-03-18T12:58:00.001-07:00

by Sebastian Montes | Staff Writer

Health care providers question ‘Applied Behavioral Analysis' treatment

Some changes no mother would miss.

The first that Maryam Muazu noticed was that her 2-year-old son had become more social. Not yet a month in, the cues were conspicuous when the 42-year-old would take Isma to their Montgomery Village home after his daily sessions at a preschool for autistic children.

"He used to ignore everybody, usually he'd just stand apart in the corner," she said Friday, picking Isma up from the Brookeville campus of Community Services for Autistic Adults and Children. "But then he started throwing himself into the fray. Now he initiates play."

Isma's older brother is also autistic. Muazu knew what small strides to look for, and she expects Isma to see the same kind of success. His brother is a student at Montgomery Village Middle School who is mainstreamed in three classes. And for both her children, she credits the progress to a one-on-one therapy called Applied Behavior Analysis.

But her eldest son's success bore a heavy toll on the family. Her husband's insurance did not cover the treatment. Insurance companies say that the treatment is not evidence-based, and that it is an educational, not medical, program. Muazu, who no longer has insurance, was told that the decades-old methods are experimental.

"In a year we spent I think $40,000," she said. Medicaid pays for Isma's treatment.

Long waits, increased costs

Maryland's Autism Waiver Program covers Medicaid-eligible families for a range of services and treatments, until the person turns 21. That leaves 2,700 people on a waiting list for the 900 slots.

"If you were to sign up now, you probably wouldn't see services until about 2014," said Ian Paregol, CSAAC's executive director. "So if you have a child that's diagnosed with autism at about 18 months, well, you missed really an important window. That kid is going to be 7, and the window, really, for a best outcome is that 2 to 6 range."

Thousands of families choose to pay for ABA therapy.

Those stories are what prompted Del. Kirill Reznik to try to force insurers to cover the costs. Paired with a companion bill in the state senate, Kirill (D-Dist. 39) of Germantown is pushing a bill that would require insurers, nonprofit health service plans and HMO's to cover ABA and other early intervention therapies, up to $50,000 per year.

"I've met parents who have mortgaged their homes and are facing foreclosure," he said. "I've met people who have gone into bankruptcy. And more and more people are beginning to really wonder whether they're going to stay in Maryland, or go somewhere like Pennsylvania, where it's covered."

If passed, Maryland would be the eighth state to do so.

Reznik and his fellow District 39 representatives — Sen. Nancy J. King and Dels. Saqib Ali and Charles E. Barkley — have authored or backed more than half of the two dozen autism-related bills introduced this year.

Only a few of the bills are expected to pass. But the spotlight they have shone and the platform they have given advocates has marked a change in the state's approach to one of the world's fastest growing and least understood conditions.

Already finding the axe is Reznik and King's attempt to make state health officials implement an "Adult Autism Care Training Program" that would standardize training and improve wages for caretakers. The bill's fiscal evaluation found that the program would cost the state $250,000 this year and $1.5 million the next. Reznik and King withdrew their bills last week.

Far more momentous is the effort make insurers cover ABA treatment. Autism advocates such as CSAAC, the Kennedy Krieger Institute and Autism Speaks! rallied behind the bills, as did 54 legislators who signed on in support. But with a projected hit to state coffers upwards of $10 million per year, its backers admit the outlook is bleak.

Opponents included Carefirst BlueCross BlueShield, Kaiser Permanente, Aetna, the Maryland Chamber of Commerce and the National Federation of Independent Business.

In a letter to the legislature, the chamber wrote that requiring ABA coverage would "add a significant and uncontrollable increase in the cost of health insurance paid by employers." The state's Department of Legislative Services calculates that requiring coverage will add between $36 and $83 per year per employee in group plans.

"It is not entirely clear what comprises the actual clinical or educational components of ABA," wrote William F. Casey, Carefirst BlueCross BlueShield's vice president of governmental affairs.

More than just fiscal pressures, Reznik concedes that it may be too soon in lawmakers' autism learning curve.

"If it doesn't pass, I'll bring it back next year, and the year after that, until it passes," he said.

Partial solace could come in a pair of bills that would create a state commission on autism. Among its priorities would be to issue, by December, a report on the impacts of forcing insurers to cover ABA therapy.

The hearing on the senate bill is set for Thursday.

This year's session has wrought many of the small increments needed for broader change, CSAAC's Paregol said.

"There's talk about autism now. Before, people would say, ‘Artism?' — they wouldn't necessarily know what it is. So I think it's getting there," he said. "I think that next year will be a very interesting year, because it's an election year. There's going to be a lot of promises made, and I hope there's going to be a lot of promises kept."

More than 50 organizations and businesses will be on had at a county-hosted fair an autism services, to be held 3-7 p.m. April 29 at the Universities at Shady Grove (Building II), 9630 Gudelsky Drive, Rockville. Admission and parking are free. For more information, or for help in attending, call 240-777-1216, 240-777-1217 (TTY) or 711 (Maryland Relay) by April 10.

Source: http://www.gazette.net/stories/03182...47_32471.shtml

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Court orders mental evaluation for autistic teen charged with murder

2009-03-18T11:50:00.001-07:00

by Tim Novotny KPIC News and KPIC.com Staff

COQUILLE, ORE - An 18-year-old Coos Bay man described as 'severely autistic' will undergo a mental evaluation to determine whether he understands the charges against him and can assist in his own defense.

Henry Levi Cozad appeared before a Coos County Judge on Monday. He faces a murder charge in what could be a complex case for the criminal justice system.

Cozad is accused of killing 59-year-old Linda Sue Foley, his father's girlfriend, in their Bunker Hill-area home last week.

An autopsy shows Foley died of internal bleeding as a result of severe blunt force trauma to the head, neck, chest and abdomen. It's believed to have been by hand only.

In court papers, Cozad, who appeared child-like and distracted throughout his video conference appearance in court, was described as having a history of violent outbursts.

Those outbursts included one prior adjudicated case as a juvenile, one that wasn't tried formally because of his mental condition, and a current case.

District Attorney Paul Frasier says "under the statute, if they are not competent to proceed, and never will be, then you're supposed to dismiss your case."

That is why lawyers on both sides agreed to a defense motion to have Cozad committed to the State Hospital for evaluation.

"This evaluation has to be done," Frasier said. "If the evaluation comes back that he's not competent to proceed, which I suspect it will say, then we would do an additional commitment back to the Hospital for them to treat him and so forth.

"However, they can send him back if they come back and say,'well he's not able, and will not be able, to aid and assist in his defense, and never will be."

Until a decision is rendered, which might not come until mid-April, the case is at a standstill.

There are a number of potential outcomes dependent on that decision, including civil action taken by the District Attorney's Office if the case has to be dismissed due to his mental state.

One last bit of business was able to be taken care of during this first court appearance, as Judge Martin Stone set bail at $1.5 million.

Source: http://www.kpic.com/news/local/41350522.html

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