News Archive
Pre-September 2001

Here are some of the recent abstracts that the FEAT Daily News has compiled in their online newsletter:
Behavioral Psychiatric Research Abstracts:
* Skinner's Analysis Of Verbal Behavior For ASD Children
* Early Interven. School Inclusion Targets For ASD Children
* Review of School Inclusion Strategies for Autistic Children
* Teaching Social Skills To People With Autism
* Judgments of Social Appropriateness By ASD Kids, Adolescents
* Siblings’ Relationships Of Children With Autism.
* Enhancing Social Skills of ASD Kids via Computer Instruction
* Overview Of Issues On Autism
* A Review Of Subtyping In Autism
If you do not subscribe to this excellent resource, now may be the time to do it. One of the best reasons is that it is FREE!

Office of Special Education Programs-Funded Report On Autism Available. The Office of Special Education Programs' Research To Practice Division funded the National Academy of Sciences to study educational interventions for young children with autism. The Report, Educating Children with Autism published by the National Academy Press, is available online.

New Diagnostic Survey
from The Miller Method: A Cognitive-Developmental Systems Approach for Children on the Autism Spectrum.

Arnold Miller, Ph.D. with Eileen Eller-Miller, M.A., CCC-SLP Language and Cognitive Development Center, Boston

New Foundation:
Children's Neurobiological Solutions Foundation (CNS), is a national, non-profit, 501(c)(3) organization, whose mission is to orchestrate cutting-edge, collaborative research with the goal of expediting the creation of effective treatments and therapies for children with neurodevelopmental abnormalities, birth injuries to the nervous system, and related neurological problems.
In addition, CNS strives to provide families and health care providers with user-friendly access to state-of-the-art information and education supporting their decision-making processes.

Article: School Leaders Urge Bipartisan Agreement on Education Reform, Increased Funding for Special Education.
Over the past week, congressional Democrats and Republicans have demonstrated an extraordinary spirit of bipartisanship. When Congress resumes work on one of the nation's highest domestic priorities-education-we believe this new bipartisan spirit can produce a bill that addresses the needs of all our schoolchildren, especially those with disabilities.

Article: Mother jumps 180ft to death with son. Woman worried her 11-year-old autistic boy might be taken into care is found below railway viaduct.

Autism Program Quality Indicators; A self-review and quality improvement guide for schools and programs serving students with autism spectrum disorders.
The University of the State of New York
New York State Education Department
Office of Vocational and Educational Services for Individuals with Disabilities

Special Services Keep Magic Kingdom Magical For Children with Disabilities and Their Families.
Editor's Note: Anyone who has been to Disney with autistic child, and who has been assisted through Disney's Special Services, knows what a great job they do!

The Citizen Scientists. United by the Net and emboldened by their numbers, parents of desperately ill children are funneling millions into research, building vast genetic databases, and rewriting the rules of the medical industry.

Vaccine Injury Alliance: An alliance of law firms and legal professionals who have committed to working together to help families seek compensation for vaccine-related injuries-both in the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program and in traditional Civil Litigation.

Article: Special-education funding can't meet growing demands

Autism Researcher Reports ‘Seismic Shift’ in NIH’s Autism Research Focus

Company Press Release: FDA Grants Repligen Fast Track Designation for Secretin to Treat Autism.

UC Davis M.I.N.D. Institute will kickoff its second annual benefit walk Saturday at 9 a.m. with the groundbreaking of the institute's new 136,000 square-foot facility.

Article: Five-year-old autistic boy John Meehan used to lie on the floor screaming. His behaviour meant he could not remain even at playschool. But thanks to the determination of his parents, this morning he steps into an ordinary classroom

Here is a recently posted "top-ten" list of favorite therapies from 102 respondents from one of the autism egroups. This is NOT scientific, but it is very interesting.
1. ABA (72) [57 included Natural Environment Training (NET)] - I did not separate Verbal Behavior from Lovaas
2. Speech Therapy (53)
3. OT/Sensory Integration (49)
4. GF/CF diet (42) -this also includes some who are just doing GF or CF
5. Supplements (40)
6. Exercise (18) -this includes swimming, taekwando, karate, etc)
7. Treating Yeast levels (16)
8. Chelation (mercury) (15)
9. PECS (13) AIT/Fast Forward (13) Floortime (13)
10. Physical Therapy (12)

Below are more therapies that were listed:
Psychotropics (9)
Music Therapy (8)
NAET (8)
Hippo therapy (8)
Social Stories (7)
TEACCH (5)
Secretin (5)
Homeopathy (4)
Computer software (4)
Faciliated Communication (3)
Enzymes (3)
DMG (3)
Incidental Teaching (3)

**please note that about 57 of the ABA responses included Natural Environment Training (NET) in their response.

Sign Language (2)
Neurofeedback (2)
Play dates (2)
Melatonin (2)
Son-Rise (2)
Immune boosters (1)
SSRI (1)
Feurerstein (1)
Vision Therapy (1)
Irlen Lenses (1)
IVIG (1)
Feingold Diet (1)
Developmental Therapy (1)
Sugar Free diet (1)
Cranial Osteopathy-Cranial Sacral Therapy (1)
Watsu Water Therapy (1)

The Women’s and Children’s Hospital, Adealide, South Australia has developed a unique management program to help autistic children, their parents and staff cope with this distressful behaviour when they need an anaesthetic for an operation.

Features of the program, published this week in the prestigious international journal Paediatric Anaesthesia include:

* Admission to a special quiet room just before theatre is scheduled. All admission details are processed in advance to facilitate this.
* Giving a sedative orally in the child’s favourite drink. This generally avoids having to restrain the child in any way. Parents are often asked to drink an identical but non-medicated drink.
* Avoidance of stress on waking by routinely giving intravenous fluids to the sleeping child rather than waiting to see if these are necessary after waking.
* Avoidance of the stress of possible post operative vomiting by routinely giving anti-vomiting medication to the sleeping child.
* Allowing the child to waken in the parent’s presence and plan for early return to their familiar home environment on the same day.
* When children are kept in hospital overnight they are accommodated away from other patients in a side room.

"Families with autistic children are significantly disadvantaged if hospital staff do not understand their special needs which is why our unique approach has been recognised as a major advance", Dr van der Walt added.

Focus on Safety:
6-year-old autistic Brooklyn Park boy drowns wednesday night in a pond near his house.

The results of this preliminary study suggest the existence of a pineal endocrine hypofunction in autistic children, whose pathophysiological significance needs to be thoroughly investigated in successive clinical studies.

Intensive, Early Education Said Best for Autism; Educators looking for effective programs for children with autism should lean toward intensive interventions that last at least 25 hours per week all year round, the authors of a recent federal report on autism education said Wednesday.

Article: Advanced Theory Of Mind In High-Functioning Adults With Autism.

Infants' gestures a clue to learning problems. (Reuters Health) Parents could be able to identify and head off potential learning problems in children by observing the way they use gestures as infants, according to psychologists.

Article: Vaccines: An Issue of Trust. Misinformation and Government Foot-Dragging are Fanning Fears. From Consumer Reports Online.

Article: Parents increasingly set standards for special education.

A primer: what special needs trust should do. Special-needs trusts are increasingly becoming a standard tool to secure the financial future of a child or adult with a disability.

Long-term concerns for parents of disabled children States grapple with how to care for growing numbers of adults with disabilities who can no longer live at home.

Article: Parents of autistic child pay high emotional cost

Article: Autistic teen's independent steps

Article: Parents fight for children they fear will be forgotten

The UC Davis M.I.N.D. Institute is presenting the inaugural Autism Summer Institute on August 8 - 9, 2001 at California State University, Sacramento. Focusing on autism spectrum disorders, the Summer Institute will bring together a wide array of professionals to address theoretical/conceptual, research and educational/treatment issues.

Using family linkage studies, a genome scan, and a mouse model, researchers have triangulated onto a gene implicated in at least some cases of autism. Called WNT2, the gene is part of a family of genes that influences brain development

Parents of autistic children in Quebec held a rally outside the home of an autistic man in St. Hubert separated from his family by court order.

Our Father's Day Salute!
And you think you have a challenging situation...Read about this family with THREE autistic kids.

Children as young as 2 should be routinely screened for autism, just as they are for vision and hearing problems, a national committee of experts recommended Wednesday.

Care Simply launches care Documentation Web-Site dedicated to parents and families and targets care givers of people with special needs.

Unlocking Autism is seeking state representatives to assist with the Open Your Eyes project and many other exciting awareness projects! We are looking for people who have time to commit to furthering our projects, as well as people who are dedicated and determined to make a difference in the autism community by increasing awareness. We are looking for people who are energetic with not only ideas to share, but the ability to carry them out. If you are interested in an application form, please write us at NANCALE@AOL.COM and put State Representative Application Request in the subject line! We will get one right out to you.

Mind the gap For the autist, obsessions are a way of life. Thank God the ones that fill my sons' time are (mostly) harmless Charlotte Moore Wednesday June 6, 2001 The Guardian

Need to know about an upcoming autism conference? try autismconferences.com

Talking in Pictures: How David Found His Voice

Dr. Vince Carbone has a new website; This site provides information about treatment for children with autism. Dr. Carbone is a specialist in the use of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) methods. He has refined and developed ABA programs for individualized treatment.

A World of Their Own. Autistic triplets create challenges for family and schoolteachers.

Autistic student makes grade. Tyler Rounds graduated from high school last week with a 3.0 grade point average. He was voted most likely to succeed by his peers and ended the year as captain of the swim team. His acceptance letter to college sits on his desk.

Hawaii Punished For Ignoring Children. In what may be a landmark decision, U.S. District Judge David Ezra ruled Wednesday that parents of special needs children may be entitled to millions of dollars in damages from the state for out-of-pocket money spent on their children, lost income and even emotional distress.

Family finds success with treatment for autistic son.

Interested in a unique way to get helpful information on autism into the hands of someone who might never read a book on the topic? Consider our wonderful "Food For Thought" cookbook! Interspersed among more than 400 palate-tempting recipes are over 175 short informational paragraphs about autism! A great gift idea for friends, grandparents, teachers and neighbors! Price - $18.00 + $2 S&H. mom@yahoo.com

The ARI Mercury Detoxification Consensus Position Paper may be downloaded free from the ARI web site.

Here is the American Academy of Pediatrics' (AAP) response to the vaccine/autism controversy involving the thimerosal preservative.

Online presentations from the Institute of Medicine's Immunization Safety Review Committee MMR and Autism meeting March 8, 2001.

Catherine Maurice is coming out with a new book to help parents whose children have finished with her first book. The title is Making a Difference-Behavioral Invervention for Autism, edited by Catherine Maurice, Gina Green, and Richard Foxx. It is being published by Pro-Ed for $36.00
512-451-3246 Phone
512-451-8542 Fax

Etiology of Autism (PowerPoint presentation)
by Marie Bristol-Power, Ph.D.
Special Assistant for Autism
Office of the Director
National Institute for Child Health & Human Development (NICHD)
The National Institutes of Health (NIH)
From the Institute of Medicine
Immunization Safety Review Committee
National Academy of Sciences
Washington, D.C.
March 8, 2001
Also see: The Longitudinal Cohort Study of Environmental Effects on Child Health and Development

MaineToday.com runs a two day series on autism including five articles. One of the five titled Parents of Autistics Survive on Sheer Strength features Sue Stuyvesant and her family.

Here is a collection of articles about the Congressional Autism Hearings in April:

Autism alarm sounded in D.C.

Lawmakers Dispute Accuracy and Fairness of New Vaccine Report

Recall of MMR Vaccine Urged Citing Autism Risk

The Vaccine Machine Is It a Follow-the-Money Operation by Nicholas Regush, ABC News.

Air Force Family Lives With Autism, Asks For Understanding. By Senior Airman Melanie Streeter 437th Airlift Wing Public Affairs.

Measles-Mumps-Rubella Vaccine and Autistic Spectrum Disorder: Report From the New Challenges in Childhood Immunizations Conference Convened in Oak Brook, Illinois, June 12-13, 2000.

The Pediatrician's Role in the Diagnosis and Management of Autistic Spectrum Disorder in Children

Great Plains Lab announces the third annual Reaching New Heights Conference. It will take place this year in Denver, Colorado at the Hyatt Tech Center. Our objective in developing this conference is to bring together the most important therapists, doctors, educators, biochemists, parents from the community of people that deal with Autism and and PDD.

On Tuesday, May 15, Senator Torrecelli of New Jersey may, if conditions are appropriate, offer an amendment to President Bush's tax bill requesting the tax credit for developmentally disabled children.

We are asking for the adoption of a refundable tax credit to offset a share of the un-reimbursed expenses families must often take on. These will include, among others: Behavioral therapy, speech, occupational therapy, auditory processing therapy, assistive communications, respite etc.

Get creative when you nurture your special-needs child. Talking to other parents, doctors and therapists can help you help your child to learn and develop to his fullest potential, reports Faith Chang of HealthAnswers in the conclusion of our special on Challenging Children.

Autism Today News Magazine Goes Live! Author and speaker Karen Leigh Simmons’ experiences with her 10 year old son Jonathan caused her to write a book called “Little Rainman.” Now she has launched an interactive online autism newsmagazine and community called Autism Today (www.autismtoday.com) which became live in May 2001. Autism Today’s approach is to combine stories, art, music and discussion from people with autism and their families along with information from leading medical and educational professionals in the field. The goal is to develop a grassroots online community, resource

In a new policy statement, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) offers guidance to pediatricians on recognizing the early symptoms of autism and helping direct its diagnosis and management.

Oxford University is to become the world's premier research centre into the causes and treatment of autism. An anonymous benefactor has given the university £4m to research the condition and find ways of combating it. The donation comes after recent research showed that autism, which affects one in 1,000 people, is far more common than previously thought.

Time Magazine highlights Clara Claiborne Park's new book Exiting Nirvana. The book received a very favorable review including these comments: "Together these two volumes constitute what may be the best-documented case history of an autist. Without doubt it is the most readable."

Research by a prominent neuroscientist at UIC is providing new clues to the molecular origins of schizophrenia, a devastating mental illness that afflicts nearly 2.5 million Americans. Erminio Costa, a member of the National Academy of Sciences and scientific director of UIC's Psychiatric Institute, is studying a chemical found in the brain called reelin. Reelin plays a role in correctly positioning and aligning neurons in the developing brain. It is also present in certain areas of the adult brain, including the cerebral cortex, the region responsible for higher mental functions like language and problem solving.

While the President has signed the new tax bill, the effort to add a tax credit for families of developmentally disabled children is alive and well! The tax credit bill will be introduced by Senator Torrecelli (D-NJ) and Congressman English (R-21st PA) next Wednesday, June 27. The Senate bill will be introduced at a press conference at 10:00am and the House bill will be introduced at a press conference at 2:00pm at the House triangle.
From CAN (Cure Autism Now)