| Aug 07, 2007 |
| 1. I will be giving another presentation on "TRICARE and Other Benefits for
Military Parents of Children with Autism and Other Cognitive Disabilities" and on autism and safety. It is on Wednesday, 8 August from 1830-2130 sponsored by the Fort Myer and Fort Belvoir Exceptional Family Member Programs at the Army Family Team Building, 9651 Gunston Road, Building 1153. Childcare will be offered on-site from the Belvoir CDC starting at 1815, but reservations are required. Supper will also be provided. For reservations or more info, please contact Marcia O'Connor, Fort Myer EFMP Manager at (703) 696-8467/3510, DSN 426-8467/3510, or by email at marcia.a.oconnor@us.army.mil. Limited room is still available! 2. Special Education Roundtable on Wednesday, 8 August. The Arc of Northern Virginia in collaboration with PEATC (Parent Educational Advocacy Training Center) will hold an Educational Roundtable on June 6, 2007 at PEATC's new offices. The address is 100 N. Washington St., Falls Church, VA from 7:30 - 9:00 p.m. Bring questions regarding education and schools for our facilitated open forum where parents and guardians may ask questions about special education issues. Please RSVP by June 4th to info@thearcofnova.org or 703-532-3214 Ext. 115. 3. Opportunity to receive FREE training: "Your AD/HD Child" - this Saturday, 8 August. There are still a few seats left in this upcoming workshop. If this information would be of interest to you, please register by this Wednesday by noon. Anyone with a child who has been diagnosed with AD/HD or ADD will walk away from this free training with helpful tips and useful resources that will help you and your child. I have received training from the two presenters and I promise you, even if you think that you know all there is to know about AD/HD or ADD.....you will learn something new. CHADD - Children and Adults with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder & PEATC - Parent Educational Advocacy Training Center present the following workshop on "Your AD/HD Child: An Overview on Identification and Supports" on this Saturday, August 11th 10:00 AM to 12:00 NOON at the PEATC's Fall Church Office, 100 N. Washington St., Suite 234, Falls Church, VA 22046. This workshop provides an overview of what AD/HD is and how parents can seek help for their child in school and in the community. Co-presenters from CHADD will provide advocacy and support strategies. Register for this free workshop by calling Jocelyn at 703-536-3023 or send an email to partners@peatc.org. The deadline to register is this Wednesday, August 8th. 4. FCPS workshop on "Setting up Success: How to Help Your Child with Autism Prepare for the School Year" will be presented by Dr. Ron Leaf, PhD, Autism Partnership on Wednesday, August 15, 2007 from 7:00-8:30 PM, Dunn Loring Administrative Center, Assembly Room , 2334 Gallows Rd., Dunn Loring, VA 22027. To download flier and registration form go to http://www.fcps.edu/ss/ABA. 5. Parents Of Autistic Children of Northern Virginia (POAC-NoVA) Information and Support Group Meeting on Saturday, 18 August from 1 to 4:30 pm with preschool through secondary schools special education staff from Fairfax County Public Schools to discuss your options for your student with autism. This meeting will be in the downstairs meeting room of the Dolley Madison Library, 1244 Oak Ridge Avenue, McLean, VA 22101. Go to http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/library/branches/dm/direct.htm for directions. We hope to see you at this meeting for a discussion on enhanced autism programs within FCPS for the upcoming school year. 6. Sponsored by The Arc of Virginia, Family Involvement Project, Parent to Parent of Virginia and The Federation of Families! Listening Post! Refreshments and a prize raffle! Monday Aug. 20th at the North Park Library, 8508 Franconia Road, Richmond VA 23227-1213. We are parents of children who have intellectual disabilities, children with Mental Health issues or substance abuse issues and we want to hear from other parents like us! What concerns do you have about your child's inclusion in the community and the services they receive? Come and share your story! If you are unable to attend please contact me with your thoughts at dholloway@arcfip.org or call 888-604-2677 x103. Feel free to share this information! Debra Holloway - The Arc of Virginia - Family Involvement Project Manager - (Member of the Child and Family Advisory Committee). 7. ASA Northern Virginia Chapter and Walk for Autism-Virginia Team up to Benefit Local Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders. The Autism Society of America Northern Virginia Chapter (ASA-NV) is pleased to announce a new partnership with Walk for Autism Virginia (Walk). ASA-NV will host the 3rd annual Walk for Autism Virginia on Saturday, October 13th, 2007, at the Prince William County Fairgrounds in Manassas, Virginia. The Autism Walk, Resource Fair and Family Fun Event will help raise awareness about the increasing frequency of autism and fund educational scholarships for children in the Northern Virginia area. Registration will begin at 10 a.m., with the walk beginning at 11 a.m. There is no registration fee, and all walkers will receive an autism awareness bracelet. The 2007 5K Walk/Fun Run will include a resource fair, D.J., moon bounce, face painting, silent auction, tasty treats, and plenty of kids' activities. Various local and national companies will exhibit at the resource fair to provide information about products and services available to families with ASD children. Full information about the Walk for Autism Virginia is at http://www.walkforautismva.org. For walk registration information, contact info@walkforautismva.org. For information about corporate sponsorships and exhibiting at the 2007 Walk, contact Christine Hoch at executivedirector@asanv.org. 8. Infant & Toddler Connection of Fairfax-Falls Church will once again be hosting a training session for the Arc of Virginia's Family Involvement Project. The Parent Partner Volunteer Training is for parents/caregivers who are willing to provide one-to-one support to other families through the telephone matching program. The training will be held at our office in the City of Fairfax on Wednesday, September 12 from 9:30-11:30am with free childcare provided. RSVP's are required. For more info, contact Andrea Adelmann, Family Resource Coordinator, Infant & Toddler Connection of Fairfax-Falls Church at 703-246-5351 or andrea.adelmann@fairfaxcounty.gov. 9. First report from the IAN Research Project is at http://www.iancommunity.org/cs/ian_research_reports/ian_research_report_july _2007#Gender_Ratio. 10. "Bridging the biochemistry of Down syndrome to that seen in autism: Implications for the understanding of autism in the general population" dated May 2007 is at www.autismone.com/uploads/Laurette%20Janak%20AO%202007%20presentation%20DS%2 0Autism%20Updated.ppt. 11. Developing Standards-based IEPs. This module prepares you to participate in Individual Education Program (IEP) meetings and IEP development at http://www.updc.org/academymodules/ocada605_acn1/1.html. Lessons cover: IEP Fundamentals, Initiating IEPs, Developing the Heart of IEPs, Completing IEPs, and assuring a Free, Appropriate Public Education (FAPE). A dual focus is maintained on developing both legally correct and educationally useful IEPs. 12. The SDI (Specially Designed Instruction) Manual and Glossary are now available on the web. This is a teachers tool for specially designed instruction at http://www.fcps.net/sped/SDI.pdf. 13. Chase Education OneŽ K-12 Education private student loans are available to parents and other adult relatives or friends of children who attend participating non-public elementary and secondary schools-private, religious, preparatory, military or special education-nationwide. More info is at http://www.educationone.com/chase-student-loans/k-12-parents.htm. 14. Highlights of a GAO Forum: "Modernizing Federal Disability Policy" at http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-07-934SP. 15. The Summer 2007 edition of the Special Interest Group newsletter on autism is at http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~joshmil/newsletter_summer_2007.pdf. 16. "Unsafe levels of Bisphenol A found in humans, scientists say" dated 8 January 2007 by Ahmed ElAmin from Food Quality News.com at http://www.foodqualitynews.com/news/ng.asp?n=78679-bpa-cans-chemical. "Human exposure to food packaging chemical Bisphenol A (BPA) is higher than levels found to have caused cancer in laboratory animals, according to new scientific studies. In addition a group of 38 scientists associated with BPA have issued a consensus statement saying that they are particularly concerned about the use of concern is the use of BPA in food and beverage plastic storage and heating containers and to line metal cans conclusions are based on a collection of new studies and reviews of the chemical due to be published in the journal Reproductive Toxicology. The findings and statement will add to the body of research on the toxin and fuel growing consumer concerns. The resulting consumer and regulatory fallout from the health scare could force processors to seek safer packaging alternatives. Three of the scientists are due to discuss their conclusions tomorrow in a conference call with the press in an event hosted by the journal Reproductive Health, which is hosting the press event. BPA is an additive widely used in plastic packaging and the resin linings of food cans. It is also used in dental filling. Other published studies have found that the chemical migrates in small amounts into food and beverages from packaging containing the substance. The new studies broaden scientific concerns about potential adverse health effects of very low levels of BPA exposure, especially during early development, according to a spokesperson for the US National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. In previous statements the Can Manufacturers Institute, with members manufacturing about 80 per cent of cans produced in the US, has said there is no scientific basis for concern that exposure to trace levels of BPA will cause human harm, even in children. Three of the new reviews focus on the extensive studies already done on animals, and examine outcomes, including early stage breast and prostate cancer, decreased sperm counts and early puberty in mice and rats, at exposure levels comparable to those experienced by most Americans. "Unfortunately, there are very few epidemiological studies of human effects of BPA to determine how well this extensive animal data will translate to human diseases and dysfunctions," according to a statement from the spokesperson organising the conference. One review reports that BPA is present in many forms in the daily lives of Americans. The common exposure sources are the linings of food cans and some plastic containers, including some popular water and baby bottles. The journal will also publish simultaneously a new study claiming that BPA is functionally similar to diethylstilbestrol (DES), a synthetic estrogen banned long ago for use by pregnant women. DES was banned after studies implicated the chemical in causing reproductive tract problems. The experimental animal study, done by a team led by Retha Newbold, claims to be the first to link developmental exposure to bisphenol A to diseases such as uterine fibroids, precancerous changes in the reproductive tract, and to cystic ovaries. The conference call will involve Jerrold Heindel, a scientist with the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, his colleague Retha Newbold, and Frederick vom Saal, a scientist with the department of reproductive biology and neurobiology at the University of Missouri-Columbia. About six billion pounds of BPA are used annually to make resins and polycarbonate plastic. Previous studies have linked BPA with increases in abnormal penile and urethra development in males, early sexual maturation in females, an increase in neurobehavioral problems such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism, an increase in childhood and adult obesity and type 2 diabetes, a regional decrease in sperm count, and an increase in hormonally mediated cancers, such as prostate and breast cancers." 17. "Sister's Keeper- Jeff and Molly Daly were separated as children when she was sent to an institution. Now, they're making up for lost time" by Cathy Free from the March 2006 edition of the Reader's Digest at http://www.rd.com/content/sisters-keeper----the-reunion-between-a-man-and-hi s-long-lost-sister. ""Where's Molly?" Jeff Daly asked his parents one gray spring afternoon in 1957. The six-year-old Jeff stood staring at the empty chair where his little sister usually sat. After a brief silence, Jeff's father answered, "Molly's not here anymore, but she's fine. It's nothing for you to worry about. Forget it and eat your supper." Over the next several months, when Jeff persisted in asking, "Where's Molly?" he was sent to his room. "She lives somewhere else now and she's happy," his mother firmly told him. "You're not to talk about this anymore." Jeff eventually stopped asking about Molly, but deep down never forgot her. Nearly five decades later, on January 21, 2004 -- three months after his mother died of cancer and less than a day after his father died of heart failure -- Jeff came across his dad's wallet at his parents' home. Inside, he found a small laminated card printed with the name "Molly Jo Daly" and a Social Security number. "My parents had told me to block her out of my mind," says Daly, now 54. "I assumed the card meant nothing." But Jeff's wife, Cindy, insisted that it was an important clue to Molly's whereabouts. "This is your chance to find her," she said. That afternoon, Cindy and Jeff searched for more clues in Jack Daly's house. In a crawlspace by the water heater, they found a cabinet crammed with old files. Tucked in the back was a folder labeled "Molly." Inside were a few records of Jeff's sister's life at the Fairview Hospital and Training Center in Salem, Oregon, where Molly had been taken nine days before her third birthday. The institution had closed in 2000, but the Dalys found in the file a slip of paper listing phone numbers for three Oregon group homes for the developmentally disabled. Cindy quickly picked up the phone and dialed. The first two numbers led nowhere. But on the third call, to a home in Hillsboro, Oregon, she excitedly hollered for Jeff to get on the line. "Do you know Molly Jo Daly?" Cindy had asked the staffer who answered. There had been a long silence, then a male voice quietly said, "She's sitting right across from me." For about three decades, beginning in the 1950s, there were thousands of "Mollys" growing up across the United States in state-funded institutions for the mildly to severely developmentally disabled. Although such institutions are becoming scarce, about 325,000 intellectually disabled adults -- many sent away as children -- are now living in small group homes or community residences. Those in their 40s and 50s in particular may have no knowledge that they have relatives of any kind, says University of Minnesota professor Charlie Lakin, who has studied demographics of the developmentally disabled. And now, with parents of these children dying without revealing any details, family contact may be cut off forever. ..." 18. "Parents Fighting to Decline Services" dated 14 March 2006 from the Special Education Law blog at http://specialedlaw.blogs.com/home/2006/03/parents_may_wai.html. "The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled in a very strange case that parents may decline IDEA services. In Fitzgerald v. Camdenton R-III School District [ Download Fitzgerald waiver case.pdf the school district determined that a child needed a case study evaluation on the belief that the child required special education services. The parents expressly declined services, refused consent, began home- schooling the child and privately provided special education services. Remarkably, the school district sued to compel consent. The due process hearing officer and the district court ordered that the evaluation should go forward as soon as possible. The parents appealed to the 8th Circuit which ruled: "Congress intends that a district may not force an evaluation under the circumstances in this case. Where a home-schooled child's parents refuse consent, privately educate the child and expressly waive all benefits under IDEA, an evaluation would have no purpose." Given the number of cases where parents spend years pursing their child's school for a case study evaluation to be repeatedly turned away, it is truly amazing the extraordinary lengths this school district went to compel consent. It is unclear from the decision exactly how the school district intended to enforce the evaluation. The child was not in school so how could they gain access to the child ? Even if they could compel the evaluation, the child was not attending school so how were they going to compel services; really quite curious. The larger issue is the degree to which schools will pursue matters even when it makes no sense, as the 8th Circuit finally concluded. Imagine how much the parents spent to defend against this district's unwanted overtures. The lesson from Fitzgerald is that schools can and often are in rabidly automatic mode. Another prime example and equally strange is driver's education Chicago Public Schools have forced all students, even students who are blind or otherwise unable to drive, to take driver's education. What is going on here ? School personnel and systems do not allow for questioning of the obvious. Blind children do not benefit from driver's education, and home-schooled children will not benefit from an evaluation that will lead to services that have been refused. If it is even possible, parents need to be prepared for the bizarre." 19. "Read Your IEP Backwards" dated 15 March 2006 from the Special Education Law blog at http://specialedlaw.blogs.com/home/2006/03/read_your_iep_b.html. "As any avid reader of the sports section of a tabloid-style newspaper knows, the way to read the paper is to start at the back and work forwards. IEPs should be given similar back to front attention. The items that are in the back of the IEP are typically the following, which often get overlooked or short shrift: * Transition planning * Assistive technology * ESY * Behavioral planning * Accommodation and modifications Time runs out and these important parts of the IEP are not adequately addressed; so the related concept to reading the IEP from the back to front is too use the clock wisely. Most IEP meetings are alloted a certain amount of time, typically no more than two hours and then as time runs down the "team" will pronounce that we have to finish up, and that leaves these items with scant attention that they vitally deserve. Transition planning is perhaps the single most important part of the IEP and most transition plans are cursory fill in the blank exercises in "getting it done now to finish the meeting." I firmly believe that education is an ends in itself. I was a history major in college; a major with limited real life utility but all about the love of learning. While learning for its own sake is important, a child with an IEP needs to emerge with a concrete plan of what lies ahead after public school with concrete steps on how to reach those goals. IDEA 2004 in a very contradictory way addresses transition planning. It permits districts to start transition planning at 16 instead of 14 (bad idea) and mandates that transition plans have measurable goals and plan for achieving outcomes (great idea). Unfortunately too many districts pick up on the later starting age and fail to implement the reinvigorated substantive portion of the law. I recently came across a wonderful book tools, checklists, and insights to implement. The book is called The Transition Handbook: Strategies High School Teachers Use That Work by Hughes and Carter. As a parent, I would (and have) buy this book and nudge the school people to adopt some of the suggestions. I would even buy one for your favorite case manager, as this may increase the chances of getting good innovative transition planning. ...:" 20. "Engaging Parents in Education: Lessons From Five Parental Information And Resource Centers" dated June 2007 in a press release form the US Department of Education at http://www.ed.gov/admins/comm/parents/parentinvolve/index.html. "U.S. Assistant Deputy Secretary Morgan Brown today announced the release of a new publication, Engaging Parents in Education, at the 2007 National Parental Information and Resource Center Conference in Baltimore, Md. Brown discussed the importance of informing parents and students of their education options under No Child Left Behind and engaging parents in decisions about their children's education. "Thanks to No Child Left Behind, schools are now required to provide parents with the information and options they need to ensure their children receive the high-quality education they deserve," Secretary Spellings said. "Resources like this show how increasing parental involvement is key to improving student achievement." The guide profiles five Parental Information and Resource Centers (PIRCs) that are representative of how PIRCs and their partnering organizations can successfully increase parental involvement in education. The centers emphasize the power of strong parent-educator partnerships to improve schools and raise students' academic achievement. This guide is part of the Department's Innovations in Education series. Other publications in this series will be released later this fall and cover topics such as online courses, charter school authorizing and K-8 charter schools." 21. "US finds neglected Iraqi orphans- Two dozen boys have been found starved and neglected at a government-run orphanage for special needs children in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad" dated 19 June 2007 from BBC.com News (UK) at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6769077.stm. "The children were discovered last week by a US military advisory team that was out on patrol with Iraqi soldiers. The emaciated boys, some near death, were left naked and covered in their own excrement on concrete floors, images broadcast by CBS News showed. The US soldiers found fully stacked kitchen shelves and new clothes nearby. The boys had been kept in the shocking conditions for more than a month despite the orphanage having been staffed, the troops said. Staff unconcerned. The 24 orphans were first spotted during a daytime patrol in central Baghdad by the US 82nd Airborne Division. "They saw multiple bodies laying on the floor of the facility," Staff Sgt Mitchell Gibson told CBS News. "They thought they were all dead, so they threw a basketball [to] try and get some attention," he added. "And actually one of the kids lifted up their head, tilted it over and just looked and then went back down." Another member of the patrol, Lt Stephen Duperre, said he had found the discovery devastating. "The kids were tied up, naked, covered in their own waste, faeces" Lt Duperre said the soldiers found three members of staff cooking for themselves when they entered the orphanage. Inside was a kitchen full of food and a storeroom stocked with piles of brand-new clothing. The soldiers believed it was being sold to local markets instead of giving it to the disabled children. The orphanage's caretaker, who had a well-kept office, and two women employees have since disappeared. However, two security guards have been arrested on the orders of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki. The boys have since been transferred to another orphanage in the city and have begun to recover." 22. "Labeled: The Students Behind NCLB's 'Disabilities' Designation" dated 19 July 2007 by Erin Dillon from Education Sector at http://www.educationsector.org/analysis/analysis_show.htm?doc_id=509392. "It's not hard to find news reports about the federal No Child Left Behind Act claiming that the law is requiring teachers to give standardized tests to severely disabled students.1 These stories frequently portray all special education students as having the same severe disabilities and bolster calls for changes to NCLB's accountability provisions for special education students. But the majority of special education students are not severely handicapped. With special services and accommodations, they are able to perform at grade level. As part of its accountability requirements, NCLB calls for schools to separate test-score data by student subgroup-categories of students that include major racial groups, low-income students, English language learners, and students with disabilities. This prevents schools, school districts, or states from letting high overall student achievement hide low achievement among certain groups of students. NCLB defines the students-with-disabilities subgroup as all students served under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). As Chart 1 shows, this is a broad definition and includes students with a wide range of disabilities. Nearly half of the students served under IDEA are classified as having "specific learning disabilities." This classification, often referred to as "learning disabled," or LD, is vaguely defined under IDEA as "an imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or to do mathematical calculations," and it is often described as a discrepancy between a student's intelligence level and his or her performance in the classroom.2 The LD diagnosis is intended to provide students with the supports they need to reach grade-level standards. Similarly, students with disabilities that fall into the categories of "emotional disturbance," "speech or language impairments," and "other health impairments" (which includes attention deficit disorder or ADD) can be expected to overcome or compensate for the disability with appropriate services.3 Over 80 percent of students enrolled in special education fall into these four categories. These categories also are among those with the largest increases in student diagnoses over the years. Chart 2 shows the rise in students with disabilities as a proportion of the total student population and the change in the prevalence of disability types. ..." 23. "Rain woman" dated 27 July 2007 by Helen Barlow from The Sydney Morning Herald (Australia) at http://www.smh.com.au/news/film/rain-woman/2007/07/25/1185339081567.html. "It has been a decade since Sigourney Weaver appeared in her final incarnation as Ellen Ripley in Alien: Resurrection. During that suspenseful series, the tall, composed actress displayed natural authority as she battled hordes of aliens. That self-assuredness came in handy with her portrayal of high-functioning autistic Linda in Snow Cake. Not since Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man has a character with autism been so endearing. In fact, can we remember another Hollywood film about the subject? "I don't think there has been," says Weaver, who researched intensely for the role. "If anything, I think there's an avoidance of the issue. Rain Man was 20 years ago. One of the things that I've heard constantly from people on the autism spectrum is they're so tired of people referring to Rain Man - as if one movie would define the disorder for decades to come. "As good as that movie was I think people have so many misconceptions. You see someone with autism and you see all that physical behaviour but you don't realise that on their own terms some of them can be as high functioning as you or I." Weaver was determined to make Linda funny. "I'm much more comfortable in comedy," she says, "but what I've come to discover is that like life, a good script is both funny and dramatic. You don't have to be serious about the movie, it's OK to laugh. There are so many things that are funny in the script and it's certainly funny when you're with someone with autism." The snow of the title refers to that wonderful white stuff Linda rolls around in at home in her small Canadian town. She has a wild and woolly young adult daughter who appreciates her mother's eccentricities and we meet her just before she is killed in a car crash with a man who has picked her up hitchhiking. That man, played by Alan Rickman, has his own set of troubles. He feels compelled to visit Linda to tell her what happened - only she seems hardly upset at the news and invites him to stay. She has a new playmate. Weaver was invited to be in the film by Rickman, her co-star in the underrated Galaxy Quest. She says she doesn't think she was an "obvious choice" but Rickman's backing gave her confidence. Weaver is married to theatre director Jim Simpson, who is six years her junior, and they have a 17-year-old daughter, Charlotte, who is a constant consideration as to the jobs she accepts. For a long while she would only work in New York and she greatly enjoyed her recent stint as Babe Paley in Infamous. However, there will be no more Alien for the actress. "You know, they wanted to do parts four and five together like The Lord of the Rings, but I didn't want to do that ... Of course, then they did Alien v. Predator, which sort of killed the whole thing.'' 24. "Enough is never enough when serving special needs" dated 29 July 2007 by Frank Pangelinan from the Guam Pacific Daily News at http://www.guampdn.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070729/OPINION02/7072903 22/1014/OPINION. "Are we doing enough? Not only for individuals with mental illness, but for all special education and 504 students? Are we doing enough? All of us employed to provide services for individuals with disabilities? Are we doing enough? Whether in the public or private sector, for-profit or nonprofit organizations? For this special population, enough is never enough. As a matter of fact, we only provide services and opportunities for two-thirds of the life cycle of an individual with a disability. From birth, and up to their 22nd birthday, the opportunity for educational services is available with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. The IDEA amendment of December 2004 mandated the Guam Public School System's Division of Special Education to develop and implement a transition plan for all SPED students 16 and above. The exact words are used in the definition of Transition Services in the DIA and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and its 1998 amendment: "transition services" means a "coordinated set of activities for a student, designed within an outcome-oriented process, that promotes movement from school to post-school activities, including postsecondary education, vocational training, integrated employment (including supported employment), continuing and adult education, adult services, independent living, or community participation. The coordinated set of activities shall be based upon the individual student's needs, taking into account the student's preferences and interests, and shall include instruction, community experiences, the development of employment and other post-school adult living objectives, and, when appropriate, acquisition of daily living skills and functional vocational evaluation." This is the first life cycle of an individual with a disability. Are we doing enough? The second life cycle of an individual with a disability is the "employment" opportunity. This is where the Department of Integrated Services for Individuals with Disabilities, Division of Vocational Rehabilitation comes to play: The Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and its amendments mandated the Department of Vocational Rehabilitation to have a linkage agreement with the then Department of Education, Division of Special Education, and now the Guam Public School System's Division of Special Education. This linkage agreement is for vocational rehabilitation counselors to participate in an Individualized Education Program and to participate in the development of a transition plan for all Special Education students as stated above. All Special Education students exiting the school system must be referred to the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation. Vocational Rehabilitation services are for all individuals with disabilities who have a physical or mental impairment that constitutes or results in a substantial impediment to employment. In order to be determined "ineligible" for VR services, the VR counselor must have clear convincing evidence that the individual with a disability will not benefit from VR services to obtain or maintain employment. Are we doing enough? So now that this individual with a disability has been educated and is now gainfully employed, where and how can this individual exercise his or her rights to live independently? Are we doing enough?" 25. "Many question timing of Norfolk special education plan" dated 30 July 2007 by AMY JETER from The Virginian-Pilot at http://content.hamptonroads.com/story.cfm?story=129367&ran=206103. "School Board members and parents are questioning the timing of a plan to reshuffle about 300 elementary students with disabilities to different classes or schools. The change will move more special education students to regular classrooms. It is intended to help the school division raise test scores, meet new state standards, and even out the number of students with disabilities among Norfolk's elementary schools. Administrators decided in April to implement the plan this fall, but some people disagree with that time line. "It's ill-conceived," said Ginny Bobby, whose 7-year-old daughter, Lilly, has autism and might need to switch classes or schools. "They're not preparing the children and the families." Board member Stephen Tonelson, a professor of early childhood and special education at Old Dominion University, worried that the plan might not give schools enough time to adjust to the change, including making sure there are enough staff members in the schools to meet special needs, such as speech therapy. "I'm not sure that we didn't pull the trigger a little quickly on this one," Tonelson said. After hearing about the plan this month, School Board members scheduled a two-hour work session for Tuesday to discuss it more. The meeting will begin at 5 p.m. on the 12th floor of the School Administration Building. The federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act requires that students with special needs spend as much time as possible with their peers in a regular classroom. In Norfolk's elementary schools, many students with disabilities typically have been grouped together in classes headed by a special education teacher and an assistant. T he children often traveled out of their attendance zone for these classes, and had to change schools after a few years because of space considerations. The new plan calls for transferring about 118 students from self-contained classes in 13 schools back to their home schools, said Joan Anderson, senior director of special education services. The change would affect some students with learning disabilities, developmental delays, autism, and orthopedic or mild cognitive impairments. It will not pose an extra cost to the school division, Anderson said. "Our goal is to always give kids the opportunity to be academically and behaviorally successful in general education," Anderson said. Up to 200 other students who are considered "trainable mentally disabled" or who have autism, multiple disabilities or disabilities that are severe or emotional will continue to be in classes away from the general population, Anderson said. Several of the classes would be moved to different schools, however. "They need to be in an elementary K-5 (school), the same one, and know they will not be moved," said Mary Beers, principal of Crossroads Elementary and a member of the committee that worked on the plan. A proposal to integrate Norfolk elementary special education students had been in the works for years. It has taken on more urgency in recent months, after the Virginia Department of Education published new benchmarks for special education students in order to comply with new federal regulations. One goal states that 14 percent or fewer of special education students should spend most of their time outside a regular classroom. In Norfolk, that number was 27 percent in 2005-06 - the highest percentage among South Hampton Roads school divisions. The overall academic performances of Norfolk's special education students also missed state targets. In Norfolk, 55 percent of special education students were proficient in English/reading, and 46 percent were proficient in math. The Virginia Department of Education's benchmarks are 69 percent in English/reading and 67 percent in math - targets that no local school divisions met. Norfolk officials think students with disabilities will learn more if general education teachers handle as much of their instruction as possible, with assistance from special education teachers when needed. Elementary principals also said they would like to change the uneven distribution of special education classes. That distribution meant that some administrators were required to handle more of the additional responsibilities associated with special education classes. Also, if a high number of special education students post low scores on the Standards of Learning tests, they can drag down pass rates used to determine a school's state accreditation status. Muriel Hecht, a parent who chairs the school division's Special Education Advisory Council, said she generally supports the school division's plan, but is worried that families are learning about the change just weeks before school starts. "They will be going cold turkey to a new school and a completely different type of learning environment with many more children in the classroom," Hecht said. "The transition would be much smoother if teachers had time to prepare their students during the school year and gradually transition them into their new classrooms." ..." 26. "'No Child' Needs to Expand Beyond Tests, Chair Says" dated 31 July 2007 by Amit Paley from The Washington Post at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/30/AR2007073001 711.html?hpid=sec-education. "The House education committee chairman called yesterday for "serious changes" to the No Child Left Behind law, including new ways to measure school progress, in a proposal some Republicans fear could jeopardize efforts to renew the law this year. Rep. George Miller the chairman, said the five-year-old law, a cornerstone of President Bush "The American people have a very strong sense that No Child Left Behind is not fair, it is not flexible and it is not funded. And they are not wrong," Miller, who helped write the law, said in a speech at the National Press Club Representatives making serious changes to it." Miller said he expects that the House will vote in September on legislation to renew the law, which requires students to be tested in reading and math in grades 3 through 8 and once in high school. Schools that fail to make adequate yearly progress on those tests face possible sanctions. But Miller said yesterday that schools should be able to include measures besides the reading and math tests in determining progress, such as graduation rates or the number of students passing Advanced Placement exams. "Many Americans do not believe that the success of our students or of our schools can be measured by one test administered on one day, and I agree with them," he said. Some civil rights groups have expressed concern that such changes could weaken the law. "In our experience, institutions that are held accountable for too many things are, in the end, accountable for nothing," several groups that back the law, such as the Citizens' Commission for Civil Rights and the Education Trust, wrote in a recent letter to Miller. Ross Wiener, vice president for program and policy at Education Trust, a group that promotes improving education for disadvantaged students, applauded a reference in Miller's speech to the importance of making sure every student is proficient in reading and math. But he said many supporters of the law are concerned about using new criteria to measure progress. "The devil is definitely in the details in this case," he said. Teacher unions, a powerful force in Democratic politics, strongly support the use of so-called multiple measures, but they are expected to oppose another Miller proposal: paying teachers based in part on how their students perform. No Child Left Behind has come under attack from conservatives, who see the law as a federal intrusion into public schools, and from liberals, who believe it focuses too much on standardized tests. So far, the law has kept the support of leading Democrats and Republicans in Congress. But Rep. Howard P. "Buck" McKeon (Calif. ), the ranking Republican on the House education committee, said yesterday that some of Miller's proposals could "be a fatal blow to the reauthorization process." Republican aides said he is particularly troubled by multiple measures and is pushing for more options for taxpayer-financed private tutoring. "Any attempts to weaken the law will be met with stiff resistance from House Republicans," McKeon said in a statement, expressing concern that "some of the Democrat proposals will undermine transparency for parents and the ability to hold schools accountable for student performance." 27. "Online high schools are niche some kids need: Diverse student bodies evolve as Web paves way to earning a diploma" dated 31 July 2007 from the Pioneer Press at http://www.twincities.com/localnews/ci_6496225?nclick_check=1. "Kevin Johnson remembers the fourth grade painfully well. It was the year educators finally diagnosed the communication chasm that separated him from other children: He is a genius. "That was his worst year emotionally," recalls his mom, Holly. "He didn't mix well with the other students. Kids picked on him because he had a different vocabulary and spoke differently." Now 15, the math whiz from Farmington has a host of friends he met through his online high school, MTS Minnesota Connections Academy, and he's working at a pace more suitable to his talents. Last year, he finished a college-level honors calculus class. Kevin is one of a growing number of high school students earning their diplomas online. Enrollment numbers for Minnesota's 20 online schools were unavailable from the Minnesota Department of Education on Friday, but some of the most established schools report skyrocketing growth. BlueSky Charter School, Minnesota's first all online school, finished the 2005-06 school year with 155 students, said Tom Ellis, director and principal. It finished its most recent school year with 600. Minnesota Connections Academy ended last year with 400 students and expects to start the fall with 500 students. Interest has spread largely through word of mouth, or in the case of the millennial generation, through text messaging, MySpace and blogs, online school officials said. "They live in virtual worlds," said Stephanie Hoffman, lead teacher at Minnesota." 28. "Institutionalizing people with disabilities" dated 1 August 2007 by Kay Olson on the CNN.com blog at http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH/blogs/paging.dr.gupta/2007/08/institutionalizing-p eople-with.html. "My personal thought on what happened 40+ years ago is that it was a tragedy for whole families and has undoubtedly had a lasting impact on how we view developmentally disabled people today. That is, we're still living with the legacy of those folks being segregated, made invisible, and devalued. It has impacted how we view developmental disability and the way we think of difference - we have all been taught implicitly by this history that people who are intellectually or developmentally different do not belong among us because they're dangerous, completely incompetent and lack any ability to contribute to society. And those beliefs are not true. One example of the historical legacy: The institutionalization of developmentally disabled people in the 1950s and '60s happened before Roe v. Wade and the legalization of abortion, and while I absolutely support full choice in reproductive issues for women, I do believe that the very high rates of abortion of fetuses with known developmental disabilities has some connection to our social history of what has been considered the potential and worth of certain people. Instead of doctors of decades ago telling families who have just had a baby with a disability that they should institutionalize the child, some doctors now are providing the option of never having that child at all. And we don't have much of a modern legacy of integration of developmentally disabled people into our culture to balance those messages with, to make the choices a woman and her family make about these pregnancies complete choices about potential. Because of this history of institutionalization, fear and stigma are a bigger part of that choice than they might otherwise be if acceptance and providing community resources and integration were a bigger part of our social history instead. And, you know, diagnosing developmental differences is one thing - tricky by itself - but determining how differences affect potential is even trickier. The very act of deciding a person has limited potential can limit their opportunities. I know a few people whose abilities were radically underestimated because of developmental diagnoses, and I've read of or conversed online with dozens of other disabled people whose lives have been seriously affected by judgments - faulty judgments - about their worth and ability. Overall, I do think things are somewhat better now because institutionalization and abandonment of disabled children aren't considered the obvious solutions for families. And communities are actively struggling with the education of disabled children in public schools, which is a complicated issue but is, I think, much better than silence, shame and automatic segregation. The daily difficulties that come from raising (or being) a developmentally disabled person and finding the resources and necessary support aren't an aspect of the disability experience I'm intimate with, but my perception is that while things have improved there is still a long way to go. I think the main thing that nondisabled people don't necessarily know or understand is that developmentally disabled people are not this separate category of human beings. People tend to think, "We can do things. They cannot." And there's no line like that dividing all of us. There are shades of ability, varying talents that surface in surprising places. This is true for physical disabilities as well. Most of us, in the course of our lives, discover we have abilities or affinities for some things and lack talent elsewhere, so this idea that a certain class of people lack value or the ability to contribute inevitably underestimates and wastes a lot of human potential." 29. "Getting organized is serious business for students with attention deficit disorder" dated 1 August 2007 by Shamim Ashraf from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette at http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07213/805808-298.stm. "It's back to school soon for one creative, quick and highly verbal 10-year-old. The trouble is, he rarely gets A's on his report cards. His parents and teachers are frustrated that such a bright kid is so sloppy, careless and irresponsible. At times they wonder if he is just bored with it all. The same dilemma once perplexed another mother, Pam, who was concerned about her son Tim, now 13. "My son was having so much trouble paying attention at school and struggling in many areas despite being a really bright kid," said Pam, 40, a marketing consultant. She asked that their last name not be used for privacy reasons. It was only after learning that the two boys have attention deficit disorder that their parents and teachers could begin to help them. Without expert support, the start of a new school year is daunting. "School is a nightmare. I start to dread it," Pam said, but she added that parents can meet with teachers in August and make a plan for services and accommodations that the children are eligible for. Her son, going into the eighth grade at South Fayette Middle School, will be getting organized and prepared, she said, complete with color-coded notebooks. Middle school marks a time of increasing demand for independence and organizational skills along with higher academic demands -- a challenge for any child, but particularly so for children with ADD. Many people know that loved ones have chronic inattention, impulsivity or distractibility, and may think they will grow out of it. But the condition affects between 3 and 7 percent of school-age children and between 2 and 4 percent of adults and lasts a person's whole life. Adding to its effects is a lack of awareness and understanding, and misconceptions. ADD is linked to inborn differences in the parts of the brain that control paying attention, which appear to involve the neurotransmitting chemicals dopamine and norepinephrine, according to the Pittsburgh ADD expert Dr. Craig B. Liden, 60, who has treated more than 9,000 patients with ADD. People with ADD are less alert and are frequently fidgety, often make careless mistakes and do or say inappropriate things, have difficulty focusing their attention, thinking clearly and organizing and expressing themselves as they are more easily distracted, have difficulty staying focused on a project or an activity for sustained period, and fail to check themselves or critically evaluate their behavior. Knowing that her son never fit the standard hyperactivity trait, Pam was always so perplexed when she would read about hyperactivity in available materials, which she found to be "so one-dimensional." When Dr. Liden, then serving as pediatric resident in training at Children's Hospital Medical Center in Boston more than 30 years ago, was deliberately looking for reading materials on ADD, he also did not find any standard reference book. It was only "superficially described" in his textbooks. The difficulty he himself faced made him undertake a mission to produce good resources and work out a method for proper diagnosis, treatment and personal understanding of ADD. ..." 30. "The incompletion rule" dated 2 August 2007 from the San Francisco Chronicle at http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/08/02/EDC3RB8A61.DT L. "JOSHUA LEONARD, executive director of an East Bay nonprofit agency that serves foster children, has filed a lawsuit alleging that California discriminates against foster children with disabilities. The current "completion rule" states that foster children who have not completed high school by the age of 18, but have a strong possibility of doing so by the age of 19, may continue receiving foster-care benefits until they are 19. But children who school administrators do not believe have a strong possibility of graduating by the age of 19 - and this includes many, if not most, children who suffer from mental disabilities and are receiving special education - do not benefit from the completion rule. They lose their benefits, including their housing, at age 18. Leonard's agency works with foster children ages 15-19 who live in group homes. All of the children his agency serves have mental disabilities. His agency was spending lots of time trying to help these children prepare for life on their own - and noticing how difficult it was for them. It's difficult for all foster children who emancipate at the age of 18 to find housing and a means of supporting themselves, but it's even more difficult for those who have mental disabilities - and no clear way to finish their education, even their education from high school. It seems clear to us that the state should honor federal disability laws and allow these young people to receive foster-care benefits until the age of 19. There is a strong possibility that the lawsuit will succeed - in a previous case, Fry vs. Saenz, a California appeals court held that the school completion rule in another state social service program violated federal law. But it's a crying shame that child advocates have to go to court over this at all. What's really needed is a change that would allow foster children to receive services - housing assistance, at the very least - until they are at least 21. California already has such a law, sort of. According to law, the court may retain jurisdiction over a foster child until she reaches the age of 21 - the problem is, there's no funding for these special circumstances. Children remain wards of the court with no support. Our Legislature needs to respond to this ridiculous discrepancy." 31. "Major Medical Announcement to be Delivered at International Autism Conference- Study On Autistic Children Show Significant Clinical Improvements" dated 2 August 2007 in a press release from US Autism & Asperger Association, Inc. at http://www.usautism.org/USAAA_Newsletter/usaaa_newsletter_special_edition_ne ws_release_080207.htm. "US Autism & Asperger Association, Inc. (USAAA) holds its annual International Autism and Asperger Conference in Denver, Colorado, August 8-11, 2007. Today, USAAA announced that a major medical announcement will be presented at the conference regarding a study on autistic children that showed significant clinical improvements in many core areas including language, socialization, cognitive awareness, and decreased irritability. This intervention has been used with clinical success in several other chronic neurological conditions including cerebral palsy, fetal alcohol syndrome, closed head injury, and stroke. "This is an incredible opportunity for parents, caregivers, and professionals to attend one of the most comprehensive autism conferences in the world," explained L.P. Kaplan, PhD, USAAA Founder and Executive Director. "Attendees will receive information that will empower them to help their children, family, patients, friends, and others touched by autism. They will meet with the physicians who are treating more autism patients than anyone else in the world, and will learn from educators who are providing interventions that have successfully improved our children, and in many cases they have recovered." Some of the world's most renowned leading autism experts will present new interventions and new research in both education and medicine. The conference is co-hosted by Autism Society of Boulder County (ASBC) and will be held at the Hyatt Regency Tech Center - Denver. Theresa Wrangham, ASBC's Founder added, "We are thrilled to present such significant findings to the world. It is very exciting to host USAAA in Colorado and bring cutting edge information from leaders in biomedical and behavioral treatments of autism to our community." Dr. Temple Grandin, Dr. Arthur Krigsman, Dr. Mark Geier, David Geier and Shannon Kenitz will be featured speakers. Other notable speakers include Dr. Jeff Bradstreet, Dr. Michael Uszler, Dr. Boyd Haley, Dr. Woody McGinnis, Dr. James Neubrander, Dr. Valerie Paradiz, Dr. Phillip DeMio, Dr. Dan Rossignol, Dr. Dietrich Klinghardt, Dr. Lauren Underwood, Stan Kurtz, Raun Kaufman, Dr. Jerry Kartzinel, Dr. William Shaw, Dr. Steven Gutstein, Dr. Doreen Granpeesheh, Valerie Herskowitz, MA-CCC-SLP, Dr. Brenda Smith Myles, author Stephen Shore, Dr. Kenneth Stoller, Dr. Patrick Rydell, Marlo Payne Rice, Patricia Lemer, Lori Knowles, Dr. Devin Houston, Judy Converse, MPH, RD,LD, and Randy Chapman. Dr. Kaplan says, "What is so exciting today is that we have new research, interventions and tools that improve the function and well-being of our children that didn't exist just a few years ago. After 3 ˝ days, attendees will go home armed with tools of practical protocols, valuable hope, and new resources for support. I can't emphasize enough the magnitude of this conference." All workshops and presentations are CME and ASHA accredited for professionals. There are 70 companies exhibiting new and innovative products at the conference. For those who cannot attend the conference in Denver, USAAA WebTVLive will broadcast the conference live via the Internet." 32. "When Worry Hijacks The Brain" dated 2 August 2007 by JEFFREY KLUGER http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1649303-1,00.html. "Even the most stable brain operates just a millimeter from madness. In such a finely tuned cognitive engine, only a small part must start to sputter before the whole machine comes crashing down. When that happens, reason and function come undone, rarely as dramatically as in the neurochemical storm that is obsessive-compulsive disorder. Say you leave work at 6 p.m. for what should be a 12-minute drive home. Say just as you're pulling onto the street, a child on a bicycle crosses in front of you. A few feet later, you feel the thump of a pothole. But what if it wasn't a pothole? Suppose you hit the child. You look in your rearview mirror, and all is clear, but can you be sure? So you circle back around the block. Still clear--except for a lumpy bag of leaves on the curb. But is it a bag or a child? So you circle once more. Four hours later, you finally arrive home, mutter something to your spouse about a late meeting and go to bed spent and ashamed. Tomorrow you'll do it all over again. Devoting an entire evening to a 12-minute drive is not the only way to know you've got obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). You know it when you shrink from the sight of a kitchen knife, worried that you'll inexplicably snatch it up and hurt yourself or a family member. You know it when leaving the house consumes hours of your day because the pillows on your bed must be placed just right. You know it when you can't leave the house at all for fear of a vast and vague contamination that you can't even name. We all think we know what OCD is, and most of the time we're all wrong. It's the nervous guy from Monk; it's cranky Jack Nicholson in As Good As It Gets. In the end, though, things usually work out for them. They even get the girl, who sees them as a kind of adorable emotional fixer-upper. But OCD isn't adorable. About 7 million adults, teens and children in the U.S. are now thought to have it in one form or another, and their pain is far worse than you probably know. What's more, since one family member disabled by the disorder can destabilize an entire household, a single diagnosed case can mean several collateral victims. Worse, OCD is a condition that often masquerades as other things. It is routinely labeled depression, bipolar disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism, even schizophrenia. Victims often conceal their problem for years, ensuring that no diagnosis--right or wrong--can begin to be made. With the twin obstacles of secrecy and mislabeling, the average lag time between the onset of the disorder and a proper diagnosis is now a shocking nine years, according to surveys of doctors conducted by the Obsessive Compulsive Foundation, a 21-year-old organization with headquarters in New Haven, Conn. It takes an average of eight additional years before effective treatment is prescribed. If the disorder strikes a young person, as it often does, that can mean an entire childhood lost to illness. "OCD has had a slow research start," says Gerald Nestadt, co-director of the OCD clinic at Johns Hopkins University. "It's behind schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, autism and ADHD." But all that is changing. A burst of new genetics studies is turning up insights into the causes of the disorder. Scanning technologies are pinpointing the parts of the brain that trigger the symptoms. New treatments are being developed. And refinements of old treatments, like talk and behavioral therapy, are proving more effective than ever. "Everyone has intrusive thoughts, but most people consider them meaningless and can move on with their lives," says psychologist Sabine Wilhelm, associate professor at the Harvard Medical School and director of the OCD clinic at Massachusetts General Hospital. "For people with OCD, the thoughts become their lives. We can give those lives back to them." ..." 33. "Forced Out by Autism" dated 2 August 2007 by Melissa Medalie at http://www.whptv.com/mostpopular/story.aspx?content_id=69880db0-2b89-4ee1-bc 9b-6dec2f668e3d. "A mother who moved her family to York to start a new life is in danger of losing the home she loves. Shelly Spann's 9-year-old son Reggie has autism. He can't speak and when he wants to get his point across he usually screams. The loud noises have a lot of neighbors in the Monarch Mills Condominium complex on North Hartley street in York complaining. They say the screams can be heard through the entire building at all hours of the night. "Sometimes it's up to 2 hours at a time, it's quite intense," said neighbor John Weyant. Last month Shelly received a letter from her landlord threatening eviction because of her son's screaming. The letter reads, "We sympathize with your situation with your son however, it is unfair to the other property owners. If this situation cannot be managed within 30 days, it is our deep regret that we have to terminate your lease." "I do feel like we're threatened, I am afraid, that's why I'm trying to get help. We love this place why should we have to move?" said Spann. The woman who runs York's Human Relations Commission says evicting someone based on disability is illegal under the Fair Housing Act. "When people suggest that this is inconvenient for them my question then is where do people with disabilities live?" said Stephanie Seaton, Executive Director. The Commission is now helping Shelly Spann file a formal complaint, and she doesn't plan on leaving her home anytime soon." 34. "NIH Funds New Program to Investigate Causes and Treatment of Autism" dated 2 August 2007 in a press release from the National Institutes of Health at http://www.nih.gov/news/pr/aug2007/nichd-02.htm. "The National Institutes of Health will intensify its efforts to find the causes of autism and identify new treatments for the disorder, through a new research program. The Autism Centers of Excellence (ACE) program represents a consolidation of two existing programs, the Studies to Advance Autism Research and Treatment (STAART) and Collaborative Programs of Excellence in Autism (CPEA) programs into a single research effort. "The consolidation was needed to capitalize on the gains made by the NIH research effort in autism," said Elias Zerhouni, M.D., Director of the National Institutes of Health. NIH autism program officials hope to expand on earlier discoveries made by research previously supported by NIH. The NIH Institutes providing funding and expertise for the effort are the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the National Institute of Deafness and other Communication Disorders, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, the National Institute of Mental Health and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. Autism is a complex brain disorder involving communication and social difficulties as well as repetitive behavior or narrow interests. Autism is often be grouped with similar disorders, all of which may be referred to collectively as autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The underlying causes of ASD are unclear. Currently, there is no cure for the disorders and treatments are limited. The ACE program will encompass research centers and research networks. The research centers will foster collaborations between teams of specialists, who share the same facility so that they can address a particular research problem in depth. For example, specialists in brain imaging might collaborate with behavior researchers to determine if a particular behavior is associated with a difference in brain structure. They might also consult with a team of genetics experts to find a hereditary basis for their observations. ACE networks consist of researchers at many facilities in locations throughout the country, all of whom work on a single research question. Because networks encompass multiple sites, they can recruit large numbers of volunteers with a particular disorder. Initially, five centers and one network will receive funding in 2007 to study ASD. Funding for a second set of ACE research programs will be announced in 2008. All ACE award recipients will contribute their data to the National Database for Autism Research (NDAR). Housed at NIH, NDAR is a Web-based tool that autism researchers around the world can use to collect and share information on autism. ..." 35. "'LAST COMIC STANDING' WINNER JOSH BLUE TURNS CEREBRAL PALSY INTO A PLUS LAUGHTER OPENING DOORS FOR DISABLED" dated 2 August 2007 MICHAEL ZITZ from The Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star at http://www.fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2007/082007/08022007/304875. "It's hard to get past the fact that the last comic standing was leaning on cerebral palsy. It's tough to get past that only because he uses so powerfully as an asset what some consider a handicap. Stand-up comic Josh Blue, who will appear at Lisner Auditorium in Washington on Saturday, does do jokes that don't have to do with his cerebral palsy. But it would be silly for Blue, who won last year's "Last Comic Standing" competition, to try to break out of the mold nature created for him and blend into the comedy-club woodwork. Especially since he's accomplishing what seems like a nearly impossible feat these days--making redeeming social value hysterically funny. "No matter what I talk about, it comes from the point of view of someone with cerebral palsy," the likable Blue, whom some will recognize from semi-regular gigs on Comedy Central's "Mind of Mencia," told The Free Lance-Star last week. "I can't get away from that point of view. I've tried [doing stand-up] from a large black woman's point of view, but that doesn't work." One bit involves Blue rhetorically asking the crowd what else he might do for a living if he weren't doing stand-up. A traffic cop? With the pantomiming techniques of a Charlie Chaplin, Blue shows what someone with cerebral palsy directing drivers would be like, and the audience dissolves into laughter. The ice is not merely broken, but shattered in a million tiny pieces. By being comfortable in his own skin, being able to make fun of himself, he breaks down the walls of discomfort--and sometimes prejudice--that those who don't know a disabled person may feel. He said he engages in "reverse teasing" to make audiences realize how silly pre-conceptions about the handicapped can be. "People talk slow to me because I have a disability, and I talk even slower back to them to make fun of them," he said. "Whether you know it or not, when you leave my show, you have a different understanding of what it is to have a disability. I think I'm helping other disabled people." After he won NBC's "Last Comic Standing," he began getting 400 e-mails a day from the disabled and their families, thanking him. "There's sort of a stigma that goes with disability, and I'm up there trying to break that down," Blue said. He has taken the lemons life gave him and turned them into lemonade in the best possible sense. ..." 36. "Lead scare prompts toy stores to clear shelves" dated 3 August 2007 from North Jersey.comat http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjczN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk1JmZnYmV sN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk3MTc3MTk4JnlyaXJ5N2Y3MTdmN3ZxZWVFRXl5Mg==. "Wayne-based Toys "R" Us and other retailers said Thursday that they pulled 83 Mattel products from their shelves after the manufacturer disclosed that the toys may contain dangerous amounts of lead paint. The recall involves nearly 1 million plastic preschool toys made by a Chinese vendor and sold since May in the United States under Mattel's Fisher-Price brand. The toys feature popular "Sesame Street" and Nickelodeon characters, such as Elmo, Big Bird and Dora the Explorer. "All items were taken off the shelves by the end of last week," said Kathleen Waugh, a Toys "R" Us spokeswoman. The chain carried about 30 of the 83 items on the recall list, Waugh said. Target reported that it carried about a third of the recalled products in its stores, all of which were pulled. A spokeswoman for Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the nation's largest retailer, said the toys had been removed from store shelves and that it had placed an "electronic block" on its cash registers to prevent any accidental sales of the recalled products. Mattel reported that more than 300,000 tainted toys were sold in the United States before the recall was announced. The company urged parents who find any of the recalled products in their homes to take them away from their children. Those parents should contact Mattel by phone at 800-916-4498 or online at service.mattel.com to arrange a return in exchange for a replacement voucher. After stories about contaminated toothpaste, poisoned pet food and faulty tires, the latest recall of Chinese-made products had anxious parents rummaging through toy chests searching for tainted products. It also has toy companies going through their inventory to see if their products are harmless. And it has China, again, insisting that its products are safe. Under current U.S. regulations, children's products found to contain more than 0.06 percent lead are subject to a recall. For parents, replacing the tainted toys with ones they believe are safe could pose a problem: 80 percent of all toys are made in China. "It seems like everything's from China, but if I could find a similar toy that was American made, I would definitely buy it even if it cost more," said Allen Mayne of Columbus, Ohio, who was shopping at a local Toys "R" Us for his 9-year-old daughter. "I think it would be in everyone's best interests to look for American-made products, stuff you can feel confident about, stuff that's just not the cheapest junk that you can get," he said. With discounters like Wal-Mart waging price wars, there has been pressure on toy companies to cut costs by producing cheaper toys in China. With exceptions like Mattel, which estimates that about 50 percent of its production in China is made in company-owned plants, many toy companies turn to contract factories, a cheaper alternative. Thursday's toy recall follows the June recall by RC2 Corp. of 1.5 million wooden railroad toys and set parts from its Thomas & Friends Wooden Railway product line because of lead paint. Those toys were also made in China. Industry experts are worried there will be more toy recalls to come, and fear parents will be more skeptical when buying holiday toys, even avoiding Chinese products altogether. "Everyone is concerned that this could really undermine the traditional toy business if consumers think that the toys are unsafe," said Chris Byrne, a New York-based toy consultant. Mattel, considered by experts as a role model in how to do business in China, remained in crisis control Thursday. The company contends the recall was "fast-tracked," allowing it to quarantine two-thirds of the toys before they even made it to stores. Still, executives are trying to find out how this situation happened. "There is an extreme sense of urgency," said David Allmark, general manager of Fisher-Price. Jim Walter, senior vice president of worldwide quality control for Mattel, is heading to China to meet with vendors." NOTE: A full list of the products is at http://www.service.mattel.com/us/recall/39054CPSC.pdf. 37. "Getting Sarcastic With Kids" dated 3 August 2007 from Science Daily.com at http://www.dentalplans.com/articles/22549/. "Melanie Glenwright's research is really fascinating. No, really. Melanie Glenwright, psychology, is exploring sarcasm and irony, and children's ability to grasp these important aspects of everyday communication. Or, to be more precise, children's inability. (Credit: Image courtesy of University of Manitoba) Glenwright, department of psychology, is exploring sarcasm and irony, and children's ability to grasp these important aspects of everyday communication. Or, to be more precise, children's inability. "Sarcasm is something that we don't 'get' until a certain point in our childhood stage of development, late in our primary years," says Glenwright. Glenwright, who has spent six years making sarcastic comments around kids, has found that children tend to be literal thinkers and their ability to perceive and process sarcasm is developed over time. Of course, Glenwright doesn't stand around the schoolyard trying to elicit laughs with her sarcastic wit. Her research is conducted using puppets who employ sarcasm in conversation with each other while children, aged 6 to 10, observe. Kids are then asked about the meaning and intent behind the puppets' words. "Kids detect sarcasm at about age 6, but don't begin to see the intended humour until around age 10," she explains. But Glenwright's work doesn't stop at pinpointing which ages can identify sarcasm. Her research, much of which is done in collaboration with University of Calgary colleague Penny Pexman, sets out to answer specific questions, such as: Why do children have difficulty seeing the humour intended in sarcasm? And, what cognitive mechanisms and social experiences are necessary for children to understand sarcasm? Although adults don't think twice about why they are laughing at a sarcastic quip made by a character in a popular sitcom such as Friends, Glenwright says that the process by which we interpret and respond to sarcasm is actually quite complex. It works something like this: when we encounter sarcasm we first process the literal meaning of the words being spoken, then we suppress an urge to respond to that literal meaning, then we look for the true intent of the words based on facial expressions, intonation and familiarity with the person speaking the words. At that point, we've recognized sarcasm and can respond accordingly, often with laughter or an icy stare. Kids, on the other hand, are left wondering what the joke is. "Younger kids think slapstick is funny, and plays on words. But not sarcasm," says Glenwright, adding that kids often perceive sarcasm to be mean-spirited. Glenwright's current research involves children aged 11 and 12. Since puppets would surely induce sarcastic jibes by the older kids, Glenwright instead shows clips from youth-oriented television programs such as Hannah Montana and asks her subjects to comment on the use of sarcasm in humour. Glenwright will also explore how children of different cultures and children with autism respond to sarcasm. Glenwright says her research could be a boon to educators, as it helps shed light on the origins of teasing, which can turn into bullying at later stages of child development. "Healthy classroom discussions about sarcasm could be beneficial for kids," she says." 38. "U.S. breast-feeding rates rise to record high" dated 3 August 2007 by Will Dunham from Reuters at http://www.reutershealth.com/archive/2007/08/03/eline/links/20070803elin007. html. "The percentage of U.S. mothers who breast-feed their babies has reached the highest level on record amid mounting evidence that it provides many health benefits to the child, U.S. officials said on Thursday. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said 74 percent of American women who gave birth in 2004 breast-fed their babies for at least some period of time, continuing an upward trend since the early 1990s. "We've made quite a bit of progress," CDC epidemiologist Dr. Celeste Philip, lead author of a CDC report on breast-feeding, said in a telephone interview. Breast-feeding rates just about reached the government's target of 75 percent, the report showed. But many women did not stick exclusively to breast-feeding in the first months after birth as recommended by experts, turning instead to baby formula, the report showed. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that women who do not have health problems exclusively breast-feed their infants for at least the first six months, with breast-feeding continuing at least through the first year as other foods are introduced. The CDC backs these recommendations, Philip said. The CDC report found that among infants born in 2004, the rate of exclusive breast-feeding through the first three months after birth was 31 percent, shy of the government's goal of 60 percent, and through six months was 11 percent, below the government target of 25 percent. The report detailed racial and socioeconomic disparities among women who provide their babies exclusively breast milk in these first months, with black, teen-age, rural, less-educated, lower-income and unmarried mothers less likely to do so. PROGRESS SINCE THE 1970s. Philip said she hoped the new statistics will prompt doctors to renew efforts to persuade mothers to breast-feed their babies. She said the CDC is working with hospitals to encourage support of breast-feeding in the days after birth. The 2004 breast-feeding rate of 74 percent was the highest since such statistics were first kept for U.S. women in the 1950s, Philip said. The lowest rate on record was in 1971, when only 25 percent of mothers breast-fed their infants amid major cultural shifts occurring in the country. By 1982, the rate had jumped to 62 percent. But it declined again through the 1980s and slumped to 52 percent in 1990 before increasing to 71 percent in 2000 and continuing to rise into this decade, the CDC said. The CDC noted that breast-feeding is associated with decreased risk for many diseases and conditions, including ear infections, respiratory tract infections, sudden infant death syndrome, obesity, eczema and diarrhea. It also is associated with health benefits to women, CDC said, including decreased risk for the most common form of diabetes, ovarian cancer and breast cancer. "Something I think a lot of people may not realize is that there are benefits to the mother as well as the child," Philip said." 39. "Reading skill may reduce effects of lead exposure" dated 3 August 2007 from Reuters at http://www.reutershealth.com/archive/2007/08/03/eline/links/20070803elin033. html. "People who read at a 12th grade level or higher experience less impairment in their thinking ability following lead exposure than people who read at a lower level, new research suggests. According to the report, a person's reading level is a measure of their "cognitive reserve," an indicator of how well the brain is able to function while sustaining various forms of damage. The concept of cognitive reserve first came from studies on Alzheimer's disease, but it has since been applied to brain dysfunction from a number of other causes, including stroke, HIV infection, Parkinson's disease, and multiple sclerosis. By contrast, relative little research has looked at the impact cognitive reserve might have on the damage caused by exposure to a heavy metal like lead. In the new study, which appears in the journal Neurology, thinking ability, movement ability, and lifetime lead exposure were assessed in 112 lead smelt workers in New Brunswick, Canada. The subjects were divided into high and low cognitive-reserve groups based on whether their reading ability was at the 12th grade level or below. Even though the groups had similar lead exposure, thinking impairments were more pronounced in workers with low reading ability. By contrast, the effect of lead on movement speed was comparable in both groups, lead author Dr. Margit L. Bleecker, from the Center for Occupational and Environmental Neurology in Baltimore, commented in a statement. Further studies are needed to better understand how increased cognitive reserve, as assessed by reading ability, may protect against lead-induced brain dysfunction, the report indicates. SOURCE: Neurology, July 31, 2007." 40. "Six groups nationwide receive federal grants" dated 4 August 2007 by Cheryl Clark from the San Diego Union-Tribune at http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20070804-9999-1m4autism.html. "A pioneering autism researcher at UCSD and several scientific colleagues will receive about $11 million in federal funds over the next five years to create a major research effort to find a root cause of the disorder, the university announced yesterday. Autism is a heartbreaking condition in which children slowly sink into isolation, sometimes with repetitive and anti-social behaviors. Autistic youths have difficulty communicating, following conversations or understanding various concepts. Emotional outbursts may occur without provocation. The incidence of autism has been rising, from about four or five cases per 10,000 infants in the 1980s to 67 per 10,000 today. The increase in cases is a mystery, although some researchers believe children formerly termed mentally retarded, or who were said to have a range of other developmental disorders, are now being diagnosed as having "autism spectrum disorder." The spectrum includes Asperger's syndrome, Fragile X and Rett syndrome. Others think a combination of genetics and environmental factors is to blame. Some family members have postulated that mercury in certain vaccines may trigger the condition, although researchers have discounted that theory. Money from the National Institutes of Health will help launch a designated Autism Center of Excellence, which will join with other five other centers across the country to explore autism's cause. The focus in San Diego will be on early development of autistic children, as well as the genetic footprint of the disorder's earliest stage. During their routine 12-month, "well baby" checkup, about 15,000 infants - who seem to be developing normally - will be screened for the program by about 100 participating pediatricians around the county. In this portion of the study, designed by Karen Pierce of the University of California San Diego's Department of Neurosciences, parents will be asked to answer an extensive questionnaire. The form asks whether the children are developing normally, or whether they seem distanced, have poor eye contact, don't laugh, have low response to their parents' voices, poor language skills - some telltale signs in autism. These symptoms can begin in subtle ways long before the child deteriorates enough to be diagnosed and even before the family suspects autism. Autism is not usually diagnosed until age 2 or 3. If a significant number of the answers are yes, the children will undergo testing for physiological or neural abnormalities, including DNA sequences that might be linked to autism. About 70 of the 15,000 children are expected to eventually be diagnosed with autism, according to statistics, and will be followed for several years. "No one has ever attempted to do this before," said Eric Courchesne, a UCSD neurosciences professor. Several years ago he discovered that children with autism have brains that grow as large as 1.5 times those of normal children by age 1. "Such abnormal brain growth very likely triggers autistic behavior in infants and toddlers," he said. ..." 41. "Center's abuses didn't deter DHS" dated 5 August 2007 by Craig R. McCoy and John Sullivan from The Philadelphia Inquirer at http://www.philly.com/philly/hp/news_top/20070805_Centers_abuses_didnt_deter _DHS.html. "In March 2005, a man called the Philadelphia child-abuse hotline with a warning: His coworkers were using "improper and illegal" force against city youngsters sent to the Chad Youth Enhancement Center. In June 2005, a Philadelphia child-care investigator learned that a staffer at the Tennessee center had been fired after he allegedly slammed a boy to the floor so hard the child fouled himself. In September 2005, the city was told that a 14-year-old girl from Long Island, N.Y., had dropped dead of a heart attack after a confrontation with staff. While an investigation cleared Chad of blame in the death, New York and Tennessee stopped sending children to the residential treatment center. But Philadelphia, despite a drumbeat of warnings that children were being violently subdued and injured, continued to send emotionally troubled children to Chad. The city's Department of Human Services stuck with Chad even after a top DHS official concluded that "residents were being harshly and improperly restrained." Not until the June death of 17-year-old Philadelphian Omega Leach did the city finally lose faith. In a physical restraint gone wrong, Leach died after Chad staff pushed him face-down to the floor, apparently cutting off his air, investigators say. When done safely, restraints can calm youths who are out of control and prevent children from hurting themselves or others. But when they go wrong, these "holds" can be brutal. They can dislocate a shoulder, split a chin or snap an arm. In extreme cases, they can kill. On the day Leach died, Philadelphia had 44 children and teens in Chad, all under DHS oversight. The Philadelphians - some from abusive homes, others with arrest records - made up the biggest share of 85 residents who slept, attended school and got therapy at Chad. Since 2001, the city has sent scores of youngsters to the center, saying it has been forced to do so because no Pennsylvania facility would take them. It has paid Chad $6 million in the last three years. Arthur C. Evans Jr., the acting DHS commissioner, took command late last year after Mayor Street ousted its top official following an Inquirer investigation into a string of child deaths in Philadelphia. "A good facility should not rely on restraints," Evans said. "This is really unacceptable." Further, he said, his agency's oversight of Chad was also unacceptable. ..." 42. "Testing Testers, Finding Flaws" dated 5 August 2007 by Denise Caruso from The New York Times at http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/05/business/yourmoney/05frame.html?_r=3&ref=y ourmoney&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin. "SOME problems are particularly tough nuts to crack. From cancer to computer viruses, no matter how much time and money we spend, they seem to defy all attempts to solve them. Two computer science researchers at Keele University in England say they believe that more progress can be made by shifting our focus from the problems themselves to the people who strive to solve them. The researchers, Gordon Rugg and Joanne Hyde of Keele's Knowledge Modelling Group, have come up with a process they call Verifier that is designed to seek out mistakes in existing research on difficult problems. By applying the scientific method to knowledge itself, Verifier has proved adept at exposing gaps in logic that can result from expert biases and mistakes, gaps that can invisibly skew their research results. While Verifier promises to improve the odds of solving vexing intellectual puzzles, it may also help industries that rely on research to develop more effective products and treatment interventions. In principle, its developers say, the method can be used on any problem in business or academia because shortcomings in human reasoning are universal. Using Verifier, an analyst conducts a series of systematic queries to evaluate the knowledge gathered on a given problem. The queries are based on sophisticated concepts from several social sciences. They include an investigation of the norms that govern how experts reason and the "craft skills" they use to produce knowledge. Verifier also draws on extensive studies on human error, decision-making and related topics. Verifier's utility has already pushed Professor Rugg onto the international stage. Using an early incarnation of the method, he rocked the cryptography world in 2004 by detailing how the Voynich manuscript - a famous 15th-century codex, legendary for its indecipherable text - could be a hoax, even though several generations of cryptographers thought that it could not have been faked. Researchers at Keele are using Verifier to deconstruct and re-evaluate research on various longstanding problems, including autism, dyslexia and Alzheimer's disease. Verifier first explores whether all appropriate experts have weighed in on the topic. Experts often ignore or dismiss what happens beyond the edges of their fields, even when it is germane to their work. Verifier also examines the methods, specialized techniques and assumptions they use. While working on the Voynich codex, for example, Professor Rugg noticed that most previous researchers had used probability theory as a tool to test whether its textlike markings had been randomly generated. Syllables form words in a predictable manner, not randomly. When probability calculations revealed patterns in the "syllables" in the codex , according to Professor Rugg, the researchers concluded that it was not a hoax. But his observation that the laws of probability weren't created until the 17th century, long after the manuscript was produced, led him to a different tool: a simple sheet of perforated paper called the Cardan grille, invented in 1550 as a way to send a hidden message disguised in plain text. Using the grille, he was able to create gibberish that had the same patterns and characteristics as real language. Subsequent stages in Verifier explore how experts talk about what they know: the kinds of concepts they use, how they classify knowledge and how this influences their research. The method then examines what types of errors may be made in the context of each area of expertise and concludes by detailing what errors have been made. ..." 43. "Autistic Child's Parents Concerned Over 3-Hour School Time-Out" dated 5 August 2007 from KCCI8 News at http://www.kcci.com/education/13826532/detail.html. "Parents of an 8-year-old autistic girl, who attended a Waukee elementary school, want changes made in time-out policies after their daughter was shut in an empty room for three hours. Doug and Eva Loeffler said they were shocked after viewing a videotape of their daughter, Isabel, who had wet her pants and was struggling to obey the rules so she would be freed from isolation. Teachers watched Isabel continuously through a window during the December 2005 ordeal. They said she had been placed her in the room because she didn't want to complete a reading assignment. After seeing the videotape of their daughter in the time-out room, the Loefflers immediately pulled Isabel out of school and called a lawyer. An administrative law judge ruled in favor of the Loefflers earlier this year. However, since Doug Loeffler recently left his job as an investment consultant with Principal Financial Group and moved his family to California, Waukee is not bound to change the way it uses time-out rooms. This fall, Eva Loeffler will homeschool Isabel, now 10, and she'll go to school for short sessions. The Waukee district and the Heartland Area Education Agency, which helped prepare the learning plan for Isabel, said they did nothing wrong and are appealing the decision. That ruling against the school sparked attention from advocates in the autism field who hope it will curb the use of seclusion and restraint." 44. "A Faith's Embrace Leaves No One on the Outside" dated 5 August 2007 by Joseph Berger from The New York Times at http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/05/nyregion/nyregionspecial2/05colwe.html?_r= 3&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1186335469-CSVPsTT1EnoE6/SZhS8Yig&oref=slogin &oref=slogin. "JEWISH mothers fret about that spotlight moment when their child is called to the Torah for the first time, but few have the sorts of worries that Jackie Saril had before her daughter, Jami, was bat mitzvahed. Jami is autistic, which means she lacks a whole quiver of intellectual and social skills and might create some awkward moments by whining or jumping up and down on the bimah, the stage where the Torah is read. "I was worried about her having a meltdown, refusing to get on stage, to stay on the stage, to get off the stage," Ms. Saril said. "Jami wore leggings because she doesn't understand how to cross your legs when you sit with a dress. She wore flat shoes so she could climb the bimah without tripping." Ms. Saril wanted her daughter to follow the blessings with a hand-shaped pointer, like other children do, but the pointer had a chain and Ms. Saril anticipated that Jami would fiddle with it instead of reciting her blessings. So she and Erik Contzius, the cantor at Temple Israel of New Rochelle, taped the chain to the pointer. She made sure to have Jami listen to a CD during parts of the service when she was not on stage. Music would calm her. While the synagogue normally schedules bar and bat mitzvahs outside the sluggish summer, Ms. Saril intentionally scheduled Jami's on July 21, two days after her 13th birthday, because she knew the audience would not be teeming with unfamiliar faces that might rattle her. "It was all about Jami having this wonderful milestone in life with the people who helped get her there," Ms. Saril said. Such milestones probably would not have been observed in any religion just a few generations ago. Children with autism and Down syndrome were often institutionalized, hidden from the daily ebb and flow. "It was a shanda and nobody spoke about it," said Ms. Saril, using the Yiddish word for shame. Now such children are raised at home and communities are bringing them into the fold. At this reporter's synagogue, a teenager with Down syndrome is one of the Hebrew Torah readers. "These families wanted to be part of Jewish life, but they were either uncomfortable or Jewish life had shut them out," said Deena Spindler, director of community programs for Matan, the special-needs agency housed at the Jewish Community Center of Mid-Westchester. "Many families say, 'We come to synagogue and everyone looks at our child,' but Judaism teaches every person is important, and that demands embracing everybody." Ms. Saril, a product of an Orthodox yeshiva in Brooklyn, though Temple Israel is Reform, wanted her daughter to connect with Jewish traditions, even if she didn't quite understand what God meant - a hard concept for anybody. Matan taught Jami biblical stories and Jewish values and had her make Passover plates like other Hebrew school children. "I never wanted her to be the kid looking out the window while everyone else is playing," Ms. Saril said. Mr. Contzius, who has a son with a form of autism known as Asperger's syndrome, first proposed having a bat mitzvah for Jami. He taught her the blessings, and he and Ms. Saril worked out a minute-by-minute schedule (autistic children thrive on schedules). It read in part: "1. Cantor C calls me to the Beema. 2. I go up to the Beema. 3. I sit quietly and keep my feet still while the curtain opens. 4. I carry the Torah carefully to the podium." On a radiant day, Temple Israel's stained-glass sanctuary was lined with the people who had helped Jami reach this moment: her mother and stepfather; her 4-year-old sister, Dani; her stepbrother, Matt, 24; two sets of grandparents; four nannies, and therapists and educators from New Rochelle and from her current school, Devereux Millwood Learning Center in Millwood. Somewhat sadly, there were no friends Jami's age. "Jami doesn't have friends," Ms. Saril said. Jami spent the first half-hour listening to music from "Hannah Montana." When the ark was opened, she scampered up the stage without tripping and, with the cantor standing protectively alongside, carried the Torah to the podium. Announced by her Hebrew name as Chana Bracha bat Yocheved Devora, she read the same blessing every Jew reads, if perhaps not as clearly as some. Her mother chanted the Torah passage. Jami pronounced the second blessing and then recited her speech, reading headline-size words with a scanning device that allows her to focus one line at a time. The speech was just 10 sentences long, but every one was resonant. "Today is my bat mitzvah," it began. "Becoming a bat mitzvah means that I have to be a good person every day." It closed with a pledge that stirred more than a few tears: "I promise to be the best Jami I can be." After she finished, she skipped once around the stage and let out a soft whoop of pleasure. No one minded." 45. "Tenn. faults facility in teen's death- Regulators said a Chad Youth Enhancement Center staffer had provoked a confrontation with Philadelphian Omega Leach, 17. Chad vowed to improve training" dated 5 August 2007 by Craig R. McCoy and John Sullivan from The Philadelphia Inquirer at http://www.philly.com/philly/health_and_science/20070805_Tenn__faults_facili ty_in_teens_death.html. "Tennessee regulators have concluded that a center for troubled children needlessly provoked the confrontation that led to the death in June of a 17-year-old Philadelphia teen. The Chad Youth Enhancement Center in Ashland City "violated its own policy and procedures" in subduing Omega Leach, social-service regulators said. The state said a Chad staffer should have given Leach space to calm down June 2 when Leach had retreated to a dorm after a fight with another resident. Instead, the staffer, Randall D. Rae, 22, ordered Leach to leave the dorm, and Leach attacked him. The worker then forced Leach prone on the floor, face-down, and the teenager lost consciousness. Leach was pronounced dead the next day. Police say they think the hold cut off his air supply. In a response to the state, Chad officials did not directly address Leach's death, but said repeatedly that they would improve training of staff members and work to better teach them "verbal de-escalation." The confrontation began at 3:50 p.m. when Rae told Leach that residents weren't permitted in the dorm at that time of day. "His training should have told him this is not the time to approach this child," said Tracey Robinson-Coffee, head of licensing for the Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities. Leach leaped on Rae, trying to choke him. Rae grabbed Leach - a slender 5-foot-9 and 152 pounds - and pulled Leach's hands behind his back and put him on the floor. Rae did that even though Chad's policies allow such holds only when at least two staffers are present, regulators say. At some point, Rae turned his grip on Leach over to another aide, Milton G. Francis, 31. A Chad nurse arrived and placed a block under Leach's head to help him breathe. While police and the state medical examiner are investigating, no criminal charges have been filed, and the cause of death is pending. But state regulators have already faulted Chad and frozen all admissions there until at least October. Rae hung up on a reporter Friday. Francis did not respond to a letter requesting comment. In its July ruling, the state also faulted Chad over its training of Rae and other staffers. So far, according to documents obtained by The Inquirer, investigators have been provided with at least three estimates for how long the hold on Leach lasted. Nursing staff said it had lasted 13 minutes. Other Chad officials said 11 minutes. In a third document, the duration was put down as seven or eight minutes. The timing is significant. In a 2006 policy statement, Pennsylvania social-service officials said that "most deaths occur within the first six minutes of a restraint," and "that in most situations a restrictive procedure should not last longer than 10 minutes." ..." 46. "The Matrix Of Autism" dated 5 August 2007 in a press release from Association for Psychological Science at http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/08/070803151245.htm. "Autistic children are doubly stigmatized. On the one hand, they are often dismissed as "low functioning" or mentally retarded, especially if they have poor speaking skills as many do. Yet when autistics do show exceptional abilities--uncanny visual discrimination and memory for detail, for example--their flashes of brilliance are marginalized as aberrations, mere symptoms of their higher order cognitive deficit. They often earn a dubious promotion to "idiot savant." The theoretical justification for this view is that prototypical autistic skills are not true intelligence at all, but really just low-level perceptual abilities. Indeed, in this view autistics are missing the big picture because they are obsessed with the detail. But is this true? Are autistics really incapable of abstraction and integration and other high-level thinking? Surprisingly, given how pervasive this view of autism is, it has never been rigorously tested. But a team of scientists in Canada suspected that the tests themselves might be biased and decided to explore the idea in the lab. Led by psychologist Laurent Mottron of the University of Montreal, the team gave both autistic kids and normal kids two of the most popular IQ tests used in schools. The two tests are both highly regarded, but they are very different. The so-called WISC relies heavily on language, which is why the psychologists were suspicious of it. The other, known as the Raven's Progressive Matrices, is considered the preeminent test of what's called "fluid intelligence," that is, the ability to infer rules, to set and manage goals, to do high-level abstractions. Basically the test presents arrays of complicated patterns with one missing, and test takers are required to choose the one that would logically complete the series. The test demands a good memory, focused attention and other "executive skills," but--unlike the WISC--it doesn't require much language. The idea was that the autistic kids' true intelligence might shine through if they could bypass the language deficit. And that's exactly what happened. The difference between their scores on the WISC and the Raven's test was striking: For example, not a single autistic child scored in the "high intelligence" range of the WISC, yet fully a third did on the Raven's. Similarly, a third of the autistics had WISC scores in the mentally retarded range, whereas only one in 20 scored that low on the Raven's test. The normal kids had basically the same results on both tests. The scientists ran the same experiment with autistic and normal adults, with the same result. As they report in the August issue of Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, these findings speak not only to the level of autistic intelligence but to the nature of autistic intelligence. While it is probably true that autistics possess extraordinary perceptual skills, and that they use unique cognitive pathways for problem solving, their intelligence clearly goes far beyond rote memory and perception to include complex reasoning ability. That won't come as any surprise to Michelle Dawson, who is autistic. She is also a scientific collaborator on this study." 47. "Therapists get graphic results with virtual reality" dated 6 August 2007 by RITA GIORDANO from The Philadelphia Inquirer at http://www.miamiherald.com/business/technology/story/194249.html. "Ashawn Brewer powers his Formula One racer onto the track. He almost loses it on a fast curve but -- yes! -- he recovers with a hard swerve to left. Some wise guy throws a watermelon in his path and he outmaneuvers the mess, only to find a purple speedster blocking his lead. No problem; a butt to the fender, and Mr. Purple is out of there. Ashawn beams. "I like it when I run the other cars off the road," he says. Sharp driving for a 7-year-old -- and his wheelchair has nary a scratch on it. Ashawn does his racing at the Voorhees Pediatric Facility in Voorhees, N.J., for special needs children, one of a growing number of health, education and youth programs using virtual-reality games and programs to achieve a varied array of goals. On any given day, Ashawn and his friends at the pediatric center, most in wheelchairs, play soccer, volleyball, ride snowboards or collect treasure under the sea in the virtual world. They actually see themselves on the screen, as opposed to a generic character as in the popular Nintendo Wii. And because they need to move their bodies, not just a game controller, to play, what looks and feels like fun is actually physical therapy. "It's in a play setting, so it doesn't seem as tedious to them," said Frank DiBacco, a recreation therapist at Voorhees Pediatric. Interest in the therapeutic use of virtual reality is on the rise. After a lot of attention in the early 1990s, the excitement hit a lull, according to James Westwood, a program coordinator at the 15-year-old Medicine Meets Virtual Reality conference, an annual gathering of doctors, scientists and computer experts. But, he added, the interest is resurging with the development of actual products. "The serious games stuff is growing, and growing fast at our conferences," Westwood said. Much of the development is at universities, with systems too expensive to be available to clinical patients at the moment. But that, researchers say, likely will change over time. "It's certainly emerging as one of the new technologies of interest," said Judith Deutsch, director of the Research in Virtual Environments and Rehabilitation Sciences Lab of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. Some studies show promising results. Deutsch's lab helped develop the Rutgers Ankle Rehabilitation System in which stroke patients use their feet to navigate through one of two virtual worlds, an airscape and a seascape. "We find they try longer. They improved more," Deutsch said. "They actually walked faster than the group that didn't use the virtual reality." "I-C-Me," the commercially available virtual program used at Voorhees Pediatric and many other institutions, was developed by a Bensalem, Pa.-based company, VTree Inc. Chuck Bergen, company president, worked for the U.S. Navy as a software designer for 19 years. He made his first game, a roller-coaster simulator, to amuse himself and his colleagues. "It hit me if I was a child in a wheelchair, this would be phenomenal," said Bergen, who admits to playing his own games. Bergen also developed "City of Life Skills," a virtual program that allows patients to learn how to manage their way through a simulated cityscape before they tackle the real thing. I-C-Me, which also lets patients play musical instruments and pop magical balloons, has been used by disabled children and adults for therapy and rehabilitation, as well as by autistics to help them learn social inclusion. Cathy Adams, special education coordinator at the Philadelphia Academy Charter School, has found it useful with autistic students, as well as others. ..." 48. "Arlington Plans Housing for the Older Disabled- Facility Would Provide Assisted Living While Keeping Residents in Community" dated 6 August 2007 by Chris Jenkins from The Washington Post at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/05/AR2007080501 411.html. "For years, the Doyle sisters have done everything they can so their uncle Daniel, who has a mental disability, can live on his own. They have helped manage his finances, made sure he has taken his medications and rushed to his side when necessary, allowing him to keep his small subsidized apartment in Arlington County has started to creep into the minds of the women who care for him: What's next for the aging Seitz? "That's the real problem with someone with Danny's condition," said Christine Doyle of Vienna one of Seitz's nieces, who along with her family and several community organizations has helped Seitz. "He doesn't really need to be in a nursing home. But he needs structure and will need more in the coming years. So with that kind of situation, what are our options? We haven't really found any." Arlington officials say part of the answer lies in a new project that will turn a vacant assisted living home into several dozen affordable apartments for people who are independent enough to live in the community but in coming years will need more extensive care. The $6.5 million project will include 52 efficiency apartments, each with a private bathroom and some with small kitchens. Staffed seven days a week, the facility will have social workers and nurses available, along with other community programs. The apartments will be available to residents making about $20,000 a year or less. The county has identified about 100 Arlington residents 55 or older, including Seitz, who might be eligible to live in the facility. County officials and some advocates for the mentally ill and disabled said the facility addresses an issue that will affect an increasingly large slice of the population: how to house older adults who have mental infirmities as they live longer lives. According to a federal estimate released in 2005, 7 million people 65 and older have a psychiatric illness, a number that is expected to reach 15 million in the next 30 years. Additionally, there will be millions more older adults with such mental disabilities as cerebral palsy. Federal studies have found that people with such ailments receive lower-quality care and have higher mortality rates than those who don't. In some cases, state hospitals aren't equipped to care for those older than 65, and nursing homes can't provide proper support for those with a variety of mental disabilities and illnesses. "We're really trying to address a community of people that has emerging and often difficult societal needs," said Karen Dale, executive vice president of operations and strategic development for Volunteers of America, which will be managing the facility with the county. The Arlington facility is key for Northern Virginia been few places for those with serious mental illnesses and disabilities to live in their communities, leading many families in the region to send relatives to large institutions and group homes hundreds of miles away. "We are hoping to create a community where our aging seniors, who are often left without many options, can age in place near their families," said Odile Saddi, division chief for the Arlington department of aging and disability services. The facility is slated to open in 2009. Some question whether the narrowly focused facility achieves the goal of providing personalized, community-based care. With more than four dozen beds, the facility doesn't fit the definition of a small group home, which many advocates for the mentally ill and disabled say are more suitable for long-term care. And some would prefer an integrated development that included residents without disabilities. "I'm not sure this is any different than an institution," said Nancy Mercer, director of the Arc of Northern Virginia, an organization that advocates smaller community placements for the mentally disabled. "What I would be concerned about is whether a facility like this actually keeps those with disabilities segregated in a large facility but it's just in Arlington County and not someplace downstate." Arlington officials concede that the development doesn't qualify as the kind of small environment the state hopes to build in coming years. But they said it is a suitable alternative to nursing homes and other assisted living facilities. And with the high cost of land in Arlington, they had to adjust to the realities of the real estate market. "There certainly aren't a lot of funding options out there for this population," said County Board member Barbara A. Favola "We're talking about a home that provides affordable housing to a specific group of seniors who otherwise may have to go to larger institutions or stay on waiting lists. It's going to make a big difference in many people's lives." 49. "Services for People with Autism Spectrum Disorder" in a press release from Easter Seals at http://www.easterseals.com/site/PageServer?pagename=reus_autism_service. "Easter Seals programs across the country provide a wide variety of interventions that help individuals of all abilities, including those with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Easter Seals currently has a combination of services specifically targeting individuals with the diagnosis of ASD as well as other services that include individuals with ASD among their service recipients. Review a list of Easter Seals affiliates providing services near you. Children (Preschool) Learn about the early childhood services Easter Seals provides including our network of inclusive child care, early intervention and other social integration and play based programs. Services for School Aged Children and Youth partners with families and school systems to offer a wide variety of services for school aged children and youth. Services include Applied Behavior Analysis, social integration, outpatient therapy and school to work transition program. Services for Adults training, residential and social integration services Easter Seals provides independence options many adults with Autism never thought possible. Discover the array of services available to adults that facilitate participation in their community. Easter Seals is the leading non-profit provider of services for individuals with autism, developmental disabilities, physical disabilities and other special needs. For more than 85 years, we have been offering help and hope to children and adults living with disabilities, and to the families who love them. Through therapy, training, education and support services, Easter Seals creates life-changing solutions so that people with disabilities can live, learn, work and play." 50. "Parts, Wholes, and Context in Reading: A Triple Dissociation" by Denis G. Pelli and Katharine A. Tillman from New York University at http://www.plosone.org/article/fetchArticle.action?articleURI=info:doi/10.13 71/journal.pone.0000680. "Research in object recognition has tried to distinguish holistic recognition from recognition by parts. One can also guess an object from its context. Words are objects, and how we recognize them is the core question of reading research. Do fast readers rely most on letter-by-letter decoding (i.e., recognition by parts), whole word shape, or sentence context? We manipulated the text to selectively knock out each source of information while sparing the others. Surprisingly, the effects of the knockouts on reading rate reveal a triple dissociation. Each reading process always contributes the same number of words per minute, regardless of whether the other processes are operating. We take reading to be serial object recognition, where each word is an object. What are the roles of parts, wholes, and context in object recognition? After a hundred years of research into how people identify objects-discrete, nameable, visual stimuli-there seems to be a tentative consensus that the first step is independent feature detection and that the last step is categorization [1] <\l > -[5] <\l > . What happens in between is less clear. In particular, must the detected features be combined into individual "parts" that must in turn be combined before the object is identified, or is the whole object recognized in one fell swoop? [6] <\l > . Many papers on object recognition appeal to the Gestalt notion of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts, but have had only limited success in finding experimental paradigms that bear on that. Experiments using words and faces have found an advantage for identifying whole objects over isolated parts (letters and facial features), which has been taken as evidence for holistic processing, but the effects are not large enough to rule out a solely parts-based process [7] <\l > , [8] <\l > . Other attempts to distinguish holistic from by-parts processing have measured effects of occlusion, scrambling, viewpoint, expertise, inversion, mismatched and misaligned composites, and self-crowding [8] <\l > -[15] <\l > . Though every study presents data consistent with one process or the other, none of these tests, except scrambling and self-crowding, manages to rule out the alternative [see 16] <\l > . Past work has used qualitative tests to choose between holistic and by-parts processes. However, "the distinction between [holistic and by-parts] processing may be a continuum rather than a dichotomy" [17] <\l > . Some recognition tasks may benefit from both holistic and by-parts processes. If so, one might ask how much each process contributes. Information from the object's environment and the observer's prior knowledge can be used to recognize objects as well. We lump all task-relevant information other than the object itself into the catch-all "context". Here we introduce quantitative measures of the contribution of each recognition process: by-parts, holistic, and context. The question is: if parts, wholes, and context all play roles in object recognition, do the mental processes associated with them interact? Does impairing one process impair the others as well? Or, alternatively, if we remove one process, will the others continue working, unaffected? To explore this question, we turn to reading. We want to know how people quickly and effortlessly recognize an object when there are a vast number of possibilities. Ordinary reading demonstrates this amazing human skill. In studying object recognition, reading is one of the few cases where one knows the composition: letters are parts, words are wholes, and sentences provide context. Using reading, we can attempt to isolate and measure the contributions of parts, wholes, and context to the recognition of words as objects. ..." 51. "A Parent Seizes The Science, a Child's Seizures STOP" by Kent Heckenlively, Esq. from Rescue Post.com at http://www.rescuepost.com/rescue_post/2007/08/a-parent-seizes.html. "One of the more common accusations leveled against the community of parents who believe vaccines are at the heart of their children's neurological problems is that we don't value science. This was probably best expressed by the headline of an article in The New York Times from June 25, 2005 which declared, "On Autism's Cause, It's Parents vs. Research." According to the article, we parents have come to a belief that our children were harmed by vaccines and we're going to believe it in spite of any evidence to the contrary. I guess we're supposed to believe vaccines are safe because the Verstraeten study which showed an incidence rate of 20 autistics per 10,000 when the generally accepted number in this country is 66 per 10,000, and despite Thomas Verstraeten's own assertion that his study shows no association for or against vaccines causing neurological problems. Or do they mean we're supposed to find comfort in the Danish study, when they have a significantly different vaccination schedule, and an autism rate of 7 per 10,000? Let me be the first to say it. I'm the parent of an autistic child and I love science. I love it when Columbia researcher Dr. Mady Hornig creates an experiment where she subjects mice with differing genetic profiles to levels of thimerosal equal to the U.S. vaccination schedule and finds that the mice with a predisposition to autoimmune disorders develop symptoms similar to autism in response to the thimerosal. I love it when Harvard neurologist Dr. Martha Herbert finds that the brains of autistic children are not "wired differently", but appear inflamed, and that this inflammation is probably the result of a chronic disease or an external environmental source, such as heavy metals. I love it when Dr. Craig Newschaffer of Johns Hopkins University analyzes special education data from the United States and finds that the greatest increase in autism took place between 1987 and 1992, which matches the timing of the near-tripling of the vaccines and the mercury load placed on our children. But I have the greatest love for science that makes a difference for my child. It was with great interest I read the recent paper entitled, "Inhibition of p21-activated Kinase Rescues Symptoms of Fragile X Syndrome in Mice" by authors from MIT and the Howard Hughes Institute. I'm sure that one jumped right out at you, too. In Fragile X syndrome, the neurons of a child are not fully developed and these children have learning disorders and are often categorized as autistic. It is the leading "genetic" cause of autism. The scientists theorized that the genes of these children may be allowing the over-expression of a brain enzyme which is keeping the neurons in an immature state. By inhibiting this brain enzyme (p21-activated kinase, or PAK) the scientists wanted to see what effect this would have on learning and behavior. As reported by Dr. Susumu Tonegawa, a 1987 Nobel laureate, "Strikingly, PAK inhibition also restored electrical communication between neurons in the brains of the FXS mice, correcting their behavioral abnormalities." The mice got better. Some of them even appeared to be normal. How do you test mice to see if they're normal? Here's what they did. With normal mice you can play a tone, then thirty seconds later administer a mild electric shock to the cage. When the normal mice heard the tone again, they froze in place, a standard animal response. The fragile X mice never froze in place, no matter how many times the tone was played, and followed by the electric shock. After the experiment, they did. This worked even among the mice which were well into adulthood. ..." 52. "New Study Investigates Pesticide Use, Autism Link" in a press relase from Autism Speaks at http://www.autismspeaks.org/science/research/pesticide_use_autism.php. "A recent publication in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives reported a possible connection between pesticide exposure and autism in central California. The study used multiple databases to both identify candidate exposures and analyze the relationship between the exposure and Autism Spectrum Disorders, or ASD. These data sources include: 1) identification of ASD cases through the Department of Developmental Services database; 2) birth certificates which provided address at time of birth; 3) description of agricultural pesticide applications through the California Department of Pesticide Regulation; and 4) geographic information about the proximity of autism cases to pesticide applications using maps provided by the Department of Water Resources as well as other Geographic Information System software programs. By linking these four databases, the researchers estimated when pregnant women were exposed to pesticides, which ones, and how much (based on timing during pregnancy, amount applied, and residential proximity to application location). Using this information, they then were able to stratify women into different exposure categories and compared rates of autism between those children whose mothers were exposed to the highest levels during a period of time surrounding conception, to those who were not exposed or exposed to lower levels. The databases provided information on 465 cases of autism plus almost 7,000 matched controls, born between 1996-1998. Over 19 pesticide groups and 10 individual pesticides were examined, most of which produced no association with ASD. However, the researchers identified a significant association between autism and the highest exposure levels of two organochlorine pesticides called dicofol and endosulfan. Dicofol and endosulfan accounted for over 98% of the organochlorines applied during this time period. Of particular interest, the researchers were also able to identify a critical time window just prior to and after embryogenesis during which the association is statistically highest. While the findings are interesting, the researchers caution that they should not be over-interpreted, saying: "we want to draw the reader's attention to the small numbers of subjects classified as 'exposed' under our model that generated the largest magnitude of ASD risk" (n=29). The authors also stipulate that exposure to these pesticides was estimated based on residence at time of birth, which may be different than earlier during pregnancy, proximity to application but weather patterns may vary, and timing of application, and no individual levels were measured. Furthermore, these results do not demonstrate that organochlorine pesticide use is the cause of autism. These chemicals are not available for home use and the number of people exposed to these high levels is small. Use of these chemicals in agriculture has decreased during recent years and exposure is highly unlikely to be associated with the increase in children diagnosed with autism during this same time period. However, regardless of the limitations of this study, the availability and utility of these datasets provide a unique and exciting opportunity to study environmental factors which may give us clues to the causes of autism. Without these important datasets and continued improvement of the quality of the data by the state of California, these sorts of projects would not be possible. Further exploration is warranted, and special consideration with regards to organochlorine exposure should be given to women of reproductive age. The use of these datasets and the linking of information between different data sources represents an important technological advancement for identification of health risks from exposure to a variety of environmental toxicants in various areas of the United States and the world. View a report of this study that aired on CNN 53. "NIH Announces New Autism Grants" in a press relase from Autism Speaks at http://www.autismspeaks.org/inthenews/nih_grants.php. "On Thursday, August 2, the National Institutes of Health announced the awardees of a new funding mechanism to support autism research, called the Autism Centers for Excellence. The ACE awards will replace the Collaborative Program of Excellence in Autism (CPEA) and Studies to Advance Autism Research and Treatment (STAART) projects that have been in place since 1997. These new grants will allow the formation of both networks and centers. Networks consist of researchers who work at different facilities who are joining together to address a specific question, while centers bring specialists from different fields at the same location together to foster collaboration and better understand a particular aspect of the disorder. In order to make the research information useful to the entire community, these researchers will be utilizing the National Database for Autism Research, or NDAR to house information on clinical, genetic, and neurobiological endpoints. Awards announced for the 2007 cycle include those which focus on a broad range of topics including, but not limited to: treatment response, earlier and better identification, early intervention and potential new diagnostic tools. All of the awardees have been closely involved with Autism Speaks, either as members of a funded consortium, a member of the Scientific Advisory Board, or a recipient of an Autism Speaks grant. Early support of these projects or these researchers represents an important and unique unique contribution of Autism Speaks, and its predecessor organizations( Autism Coalition, Cure Autism Now, and National Alliance for Autism Research), in leveraging funding for larger scale projects, and Autism Speaks is proud to have been a part of the planning and early support of these studies. Read more about the ACE awards, who was funded for 2007 and what the projects will accomplish on the NIH site 54. "Raising Awareness in My Neighborhood" by Ellen Cicconi in a press relase from Autism Speaks at http://www.autismspeaks.org/community/ownwords/intheirownwords_raising_aware ness.php. "As a Walk Now for Autism co-chair and the mother to two sons on the spectrum (Henry, 5, autism and Gus, 3, PDD-NOS), I am dedicated to raising both money for research and awareness of autism in my community. This year I decided to focus more effort on awareness, and the simplest and most direct way that I could think of, was to put some home-made autism signs in my front yard. Starting in April, I had a sign out almost every day that either said "Autism Awareness" or had information about the Wheeling Walk Now for Autism. We live in a large development in southwestern PA, full of school-age kids, walkers, bikers, joggers, and our house sits at an intersection. Every car that stops at the stop sign has a view of our front yard, even the school buses stop directly in front of our house, so I was pretty sure that a number of our neighbors would see the signs. Not content with just yard signs, I then decided to step it up a notch and decorate our sons' wagon. I glued plastic puzzle pieces on the sides and used vinyl letters to spell out "Autism Speaks" on one side and "Walk With Us" across the back. Then my sons and I started taking walks (sometimes 2 or 3!) every day. I figured this was not only a way to raise awareness but also some good therapy for the boys. We made a point of saying hello to people we saw, waving, naming the sights, and so on. After the Wheeling Walk Now for Autism in June, I removed my yard signs but left the decorations on the wagon. And I noticed a wonderful and beautiful thing as my boys and I continued with our daily walks. It seemed that almost every time we walked around the neighborhood for the first few weeks after the Walk, someone would stop to ask me how it went, and we would have a conversation about autism and my boys. I was especially moved when the "big boys," a group of boys who range in age from about 10-14 and are often playing hockey or tossing a football at the end of the street, stopped what they were doing to come say hello. One of them told me that he has a cousin with autism who doesn't speak very well and gets angry sometimes. I said, "Yeah, Henry is like that, too, sometimes," but I really wanted to burst into tears and hug that kid! These boys always stop whatever they are doing when they see Henry and Gus, and they come over to say hello and have a little chat. So I guess I succeeded in raising awareness in my neighborhood, but I think something bigger happened, something I hadn't expected. I became aware of how kind and supportive my neighbors are and how lucky we are to have them." |
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