AUTISM News Articles March 5-7th 2008

Autism News Articles
March 5th – March 7th 2008
AFA Usually sends out weekly postings but due to the urgency of some messages, we are posting every few days.

Visit often
www.autismnewsarticles.blogspot.com

NOTE: AFA appreciates ALL feedback on this mailout DIRECTLY to autismafa@yahoo.ca
So far we have received nothing but positive responses from you
AFA thanks YOU our Autism Community for making the
mailing process a breeze!
To add a friend to our E-List, Email autismafa@yahoo.ca

From a listmate out in BC

I am working with FEAT BC and we had a nice rally over the weekend with a few hundred people. The room was packed full and we had to open all the emergency exits so people could watch from outside. Lots of news reporters and we got a good few minutes on a few television channels.
Here is the new blog: http://medicareforautismnow.blogspot.com/
I’ll be posting actual video coverage of the rally shortly. All of this is on www.youtube.com as well.
Drop a comment on the blog site!
Robert Sell
From Respiteservices.com Sudbury and Manitoulin areas, but I would imagine surveys like this are being sent across Ontario,

Hello,

We are currently attempting to obtain some feedback from both worker
and families on a provincial level regarding the use of
respiteservices.com.

If possible, could you please provide me with some brief information
about how you found out about respiteservices.com, how you became
connected and how the program has made it easier for you to connect with
services as well as workers?

Your responses would be greatly appreciated and will be used to help
improve the program.

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact
Stephanie Gilchrist at 705-566-3416 ext 2565 or by email
sgilchrist@ccnsudbury.on.ca.
You may also contact Tracy Roy at 705-566-3416 ext 2574 or by email
troy@ccnsudbury.on.ca.



From Nancy’s Email list

Tammy Starr will be hosting film crews from the ABC (American) show 20/20 this weekend and from the Canadian show W5 next week, each have requested to do a show about her daughter Carly Fleischmann, and her communication through computer skills. Carly has had the largest gains in the past year, she is now 13. Through intensive ABA, she has been able to learn this alterantive way to communication, she is no longer silenced by her inability to speak. They certainly have a lot to be proud of!!!

Tammy will be confirming the dates these stories will air soon, but it will be probably the third or last week of this month. Stay tuned!



-----------------------------------------


An interesting report on CBC today, about an online autism intervention resource being piloted in New Brunswick schools and Toronto schools. It is a tool recommended for parents of kids 2-7 while they are on the waitlist for professional intervention and for educators. Read about it at the following link:

Online autism therapy gets national recognition

http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2008/03/05/autism-pro.html



------------------------------

A listmate is going to Tribunal with the TDSB, they want to move their son from his home school and typical classroom and place him in an alternative program away from his home school, and also away from his younger brother who happens to also be on the spectrum. Lillian is inviting anyone who is interested in sitting in on the Tribunal process, or wants to support her during this process to come out.
Come to hear/learn/see what actually happens at an Ontario Special Education Tribunal Hearing
March 18
March 19
Toronto Westin Prince Hotel
900 York Mills rd
(North York Room)
9am-4pm
You can then hear where the TDSB WANTS TO PLACE OUR KIDS: “SEG ‘EM” (Segregate them/they say)
It is easier/faster/and where the Board feels they “belong”. The fight is not just with the Ministry who funds ABA, it is continuing in our schools, daily, as you all know, Min of Ed is also digging in their heels.

Regards,
Lillian Wagman



-----------------------------

And of course of grave concern for our children in schools, when budgets are considering cutting back on EA support:


Toronto Star

Cutting 230 assistants would save board $10M; Toronto reading program could also be dropped
Mar 05, 2008 04:30 AM
Kristin Rushowy
EDUCATION REPORTER
The Toronto public school board will tonight discuss cutting 230 education assistants in a bid to save $10 million.
Also on the chopping block are reading clinics, which serve about 250 students each year in Grades 2 to 6 – mostly in the old city of Toronto. One trustee calls the program a "miracle worker," but others say it doesn't serve enough students to justify the cost.
With most of the board's elementary classes at the provincially mandated 20 students or less, "what staff is saying is that with these much lower class sizes do we need EAs or could the money be spent on ESL teachers or child and youth workers?" said John Campbell, chair of the Toronto District School Board.
The board employs 707 education assistants who help out in regular programs in classrooms across the city.
Board staff has proposed their ranks be cut to 664 or 477. The lower number would save more than $10 million.
The cuts would not affect assistants working in special education.
"My ward council took the position years ago that they'd far rather have a few more children in a kindergarten classroom with two adults than 20 children with one adult," said trustee Irene Atkinson, who represents Parkdale-High Park.
"The early years are so important," she added. "I think we should be putting in every possible resource we can, not taking resources out."
As well, as the province moves to full-day learning for kindergarten students, the education assistants may be needed, she added.
Atkinson's ward is also home to several schools with the reading clinics, which provide struggling students with an hour a day of help for two years in 32 schools.
"Certainly it costs more, but the results are amazing," Atkinson said of the long-time program.
A less expensive program, called Reading Recovery, is available to Grade 1 students in 202 schools who get about half an hour a day of help for up to 20 weeks.
Campbell said the 19 full-time teachers devoted to the reading clinics could be redeployed to help out ESL students.
The two reading programs deliver "comparable" success, he added, although one retired teacher had figures showing the reading clinics head and shoulders above the Reading Recovery programs.
"This is a holdover that some trustees are unwilling to let go of," Campbell also said, adding the board is "not about to abandon children" who need reading help.
Members of the board's aquatic staff are also bracing for layoffs. There are more than 100 swim instructors; trustees are looking at keeping a minimum of 79.
"You can't keep all the pools open with a one-third reduction," said swim instructor Nancy Campbell, who works at Carleton Village Public School.
"It's unbelievable that with all the focus on children's health that they're thinking of doing this."

--------------------

And Toronto Sun's version:

Let the whining begin
The Toronto School Board meets tonight to discuss staffing. Get ready for a three-ring circus
By MOIRA MACDONALD
Tonight Toronto District School Board trustees are supposed to decide how many school staff -- and in what quantities -- they'll have next year. Think of it as "Prelude to a Budget."
But it depends on improvisation, because trustees won't know what kind of money they'll be getting for it until the end of the month (making wanton passage of things everyone knows there'll be no money for even easier), when provincial education grants are announced by month's end.
It gets even more complicated when you consider this is a teacher contract negotiation year. That means costs are going up and probably not just for salaries but for all the other perks that will inevitably go along with them.
The TDSB budget hovers around $2.3 billion. School-based staff make up the bulk at close to $1.6 billion. A 2% raise for a single year, while sounding modest, would add an extra $32 million, never mind the other raises unions would look for after that.
The province is taking a strong lead again on contract negotiations, with signs it is continuing on the path started by former education minister Gerard Kennedy. Kennedy carried on province-wide contract bargaining in everything but name in 2005.
AGREE ON A STANDARD
That's not necessarily bad. Despite the shoehorning Kennedy did to get the 2005 agreement, it did deliver on the Liberals' labour peace promise, which is no small thing. But school boards have been forced to live with the financial and contractual fallout. This time, TDSB Chair John Campbell says he'd like to see the province get agreement on a standard for how much time teachers have to supervise students outside the classroom. Regular readers of this space know supervision is a hot subject -- especially when it comes to student safety -- and some teachers are gearing up for major cuts to their supervision time.
So what will get TDSB trustees on their soap boxes tonight?
There will be cuts to elementary teachers, but only because there's a projected 2.5% fewer students next year. Deserving more attention is the proposed addition of nearly 65 more elementary level English as a second language teachers.
ESL money has been used as a slush fund for other things the province doesn't pay for, leaving a lot of needy students out to dry. Only about half of the money the province gives for ESL students is used for the purpose. But those extra ESL teachers will come at a cost of 19 teachers staffing "reading clinics" concentrated in the old city of Toronto and targeting struggling students in Grades 2 to 6 at a pricey $6,500 a pop. Get ready for fights at tonight's board table over geographic "equity" (so students across the city get the same reading help) and the usual hot air about provincial underfunding.
Teachers' assistants -- used in kindergarten and lower elementary classes -- are another sore spot. The province pays for 32 of them. But this year the board had 691 assistants -- believing, unlike other boards, the assistants are a matter of safety, even though most classes have been cut to 20 students or fewer. Trustees will have the option to cut 27 teaching assistants, or 214 of them -- a choice which will focus the assistants on the neediest schools and cut the board's perennial deficit.
With the Falconer school safety report still drying, there's an extra 26 school hall monitors also proposed.
There will be no changes to lunchroom assistants, even though the province gives no specific money for them. And the board still has swimming instructors on the books, even though technically the plug on the board's unfunded swimming pools has already been pulled.
If past history is an indication of future performance, then trustees' huffing and puffing tonight will be more about how much more to add, rather than take away. Which will put the board right back into its usual deficit position by late spring.

From another list

Autism payout reignites vaccine controversy
08 March 2008
From New Scientist Print Edition. Subscribe and get 4 free issues.
Jim Giles

JUST as the dispute over whether vaccines cause autism was
dying down at last, a US government decision has added fresh fuel to the
fire. Last week it emerged that the federal government is to compensate a
couple who say that the regular childhood vaccines, given to their baby
daughter in 2000, caused her to develop autism. Damages have not yet been
set, but could exceed $1 million.

Significantly, the government's decision says nothing about whether
vaccines cause autism. Instead, government lawyers concluded only that
vaccines aggravated a pre-existing cellular disorder in the child, causing
brain damage that included features of autism. Nonetheless,
anti-vaccination campaigners are claiming vindication. "It's official,"
wrote one autism blogger. "The sky has fallen. The fat lady has sung. Pigs
are flying."

Autism experts say it is unclear why compensation is being paid. Almost
5000 other families have lodged similar claims which are being considered
by the court, but decades of research have failed to find any link between
vaccines and autism and few experts thought that the government would pay
up.

Scientists say there is nothing in the medical history of the child in
question to change that thinking. "I'm stunned that they decided to
settle," says Jay Gargus, a paediatrician at the University of California,
Irvine. Exactly why the US government did so is still being debated, as
details of the decision have been sealed and the Department of Health and
Human Services won't comment.

Whatever the government's thinking, the worry is that the decision may
undermine public confidence in vaccines, which is just recovering after
recent scares over mercury and the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) shot.
On 29 February, for example, Republican presidential candidate John McCain
used a query on the case as a chance to question whether mercury in
vaccines could be linked to autism.

"A decision like this will definitely make parents more wary about
vaccines," says Jaime DeVille, a paediatrician at the University of
California, Los Angeles, and a member of the government's childhood
vaccines advisory committee.

According to internet newspaper The Huffington Post, which last week
published leaked details of the court case from November, the child
developed a fever after receiving scheduled vaccinations in 2000 for
haemophilus influenzae, chickenpox, polio, MMR, diphtheria, pertussis,
tetanus and polio, when she was 18 months old. Autism-like symptoms, such
as poor communication skills, followed. In 2001 physicians concluded that
the child, who has not been named, "demonstrated features of autistic
disorder".

It transpired that the child's mitochondria, the powerhouses that provide
cells with energy, were not working normally, and tests revealed a mutation
in a gene linked to mitochondrial function. After studying her medical
history, officials at the Department of Health and Human Services concluded
that the vaccines had "significantly aggravated an underlying mitochondrial
disorder, which predisposed her to deficits in energy metabolism", causing
brain damage with "features of autism spectrum disorder".

Proponents of a link between vaccines and autism have made much of the
mitochondrial disorder, in part because researchers have wondered for at
least a decade whether autism could be a mitochondrial disorder. Autism
runs in families and some of the genes thought to be involved play a role
in mitochondrial function. Biomarkers for mitochondrial dysfunction, such
as a build-up of lactic acid, are also elevated in some autistic children.
David Kirby, the journalist who revealed the decision, says that in an
"informal survey" of seven other children with cases pending all show signs
of mitochondrial problems, though he did not reveal how he got this
information.

Experts say these links do nothing to prove that autism originates in the
mitochondria. "It's not surprising that mitochondrial function is
abnormal," says Steven Novella, a neurologist at Yale University. "With
neurodegenerative disorders almost any marker of cell health will be worse
than in controls." Without more research, he adds, it is impossible to say
whether the mitochondrial problems are the cause of the disease or its
by-product (see "Can autism be a mitochondrial disease?"). Those who argue
otherwise, are "making multiple assumptions that are not established" ,
Novella warns.

Further complications stem from confusion over the role vaccines played in
the child's condition. Severe inflammatory reactions are a rare but
established side effect of vaccines, and they can damage the brain in many
different ways, some of which produce symptoms similar to those seen in
autism. The mitochondrial disorder might have prevented the child from
dealing with her inflammation, but it is also possible that the child's
mitochondrial problems caused the inflammation and that the vaccines she
received were irrelevant.

Other experts added that parents should not be dissuaded from getting their
children vaccinated just because of a court case. "What does this decision
mean?" says Paul Offit, a paediatrician at the Children's Hospital of
Philadelphia in Pennsylvania. "It doesn't mean anything. The question of
whether vaccines cause autism is a scientific one, not a legal one."

Numerous scientific studies have addressed the question, adds Offit, and
all concluded that there is no link. Government officials, including those
at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia, also
insisted the decision does nothing to change their thinking.

These caveats may, however, get lost as reaction to the decision evolves.
Kevin Conway of Conway, Homer & Chin-Caplan in Boston, whose firm
represents around 1200 autistic children with court cases pending, says he
will start getting his clients tested for mitochondrial dysfunction. And
Thomas Power, an attorney based in Portland, Oregon, says he would also
like to see full details of the case, as they could help his cases of
autistic children seeking compensation.

Focus on America - Delve into the science and technology questions facing
the USA in our special report.

Mental Health - Discover the latest research in our continuously updated
special report.


From a listmate

March 6, 2008 TIMES COLONIST (VICTORIA) PAGE: A3 / FRONT (CAPITAL & VAN. ISL.)
Group home had to close, operators say
NDP releases letter citing budget cuts
Lindsay Kines and Jeff Rud, Times Colonist
The operators of a Victoria group home for special-needs children say the B.C. government has forced them out of business, contrary to claims by Children's Minister Tom Christensen that it was a "mutual decision."
In a letter to parents and caregivers, Corner House director Joy Moncrieff and manager Val Harrison said government cut the home's budget so drastically "that we had no choice but to agree to a closure of the facility."
"It has been a fulfilling eight years for us at Corner House, getting to know so many wonderful children and their parents," Moncrieff and Harrison say in the letter, a copy of which was released yesterday by the NDP. "Writing this letter has been one of the hardest things we have had to do."
Parents who needed a break from caring for a child with complex needs were able to leave their son or daughter at Corner House for short periods of time. The group home, which served 19 clients, will close at the end of April.
Christensen told the media on Tuesday that the home's operators reached a "mutual decision" to end its $260,000-a-year contract with Community Living B.C., the government agency that services children and adults with developmental disabilities. He stuck by those comments yesterday despite the letter from Moncrieff and Harrison.
"I haven't seen any letter," he said. "I've been advised that CLBC had worked with Corner House."
But NDP children's critic Nicholas Simons ridiculed Christensen's version of events.
"You can't come to someone and say you've got a choice between the noose or the electric chair and then say that they've got a choice," he said. "The fact of the matter is government's cut funding to children needing services and their families."
Christensen said government can deliver the same respite service to four times as many families by shifting the money to a cheaper model. Families will now be able to have a caregiver come into their home, or let their child stay with the caregiver for a day or a weekend, he said
"I think, on balance, this is good news in that we're going to have more children and families in the Victoria area who now have access to respite," he said.
The families who use the Davie Street facility, however, say the decision is anything but good news for their children.
"It devastated my son," said Mary Japp, a single parent of two autistic children. "Because as a child with autism he struggles socially. And for one weekend every month, he could go to Corner House and he could just be a regular kid.
"Everybody there has a challenge and it's just normal to have a challenge, and so it wasn't something that made him feel like the odd man out. He finally felt like he had a place where he could just be himself. So he's losing that social connection which, for a child who's socially disadvantaged, that's a big blow.''
Annetta Orrick said she doesn't want a different type of service. Her 14-year-old daughter with autism, cerebral palsy and an intellectual disorder has been going to Corner House one weekend a month for seven years.
Orrick will now have to hire an individual caregiver for brief periods of respite, she said.
"It's very difficult to find people to do these small jobs," she said. "It's never their real job. It's something they're picking up. They're generally a student or it's something that they're doing for an extra bit of pocket money. So they do not look at it as a career or a professional service. It's glorified babysitting."
Orrick said it's also up to her to assess the reliability and qualifications of the caregiver. "There's no accountability," she said.
lkines@tc.canwest.com
jrud@tc.canwest.com

http://www.theobserver.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=932237

GALA for Autism

Gala aims to change perspective on autism
Posted 1 day ago
By SHAWN JEFFORDS
The Observer
Peter Frangis has plenty of potential.
He’s an ace with a computer, passionate about TV and has a voice that would make most disc jockeys envious.
The 26-year-old has loved new media since he was boy and he’s been able to pursue his dreams of working in radio. You might recognize his deep baritone behind the Weed Man radio ad campaign.
He gets a real charge out of the work.
But Frangis is also autistic. He has a mild form of the brain disorder, which affects communication and social interaction. He doesn’t want it to impact his career.
And he’s been fortunate with employers willing to take him on, said Cheryl Dart, of the Sarnia-Lambton Chapter of Autism Ontario.
But that isn’t the experience of most autistic individuals looking for work.
Employers often associate autism with outbursts and sometimes violent behaviour, which only those with severe cases of the disorder.
“People are very aware of the other end of the spectrum,” said Dart. “I’ve had a family come to me and say their high-functioning son wants to be a stock boy in a grocery store but every time the word autism comes out (employers) are scared away.”
The chapter hopes to change that perception at a March 15 gala with its theme, “See the Potential.” The plan is for high-functioning individuals, like Frangis, to tell their success stories.
Gerry Page, a program co-ordinator at Lambton College, helps students with learning challenges attend the school so they can break into the workforce. Frangis is a graduate of the program.
“A lot of these individuals were told they’d never make it in college,” he said. “In fact, they’re doing quite well.”
Page said that if employers would just give people with autism a chance they might be surprised.
“Once they see their potential it’s amazing what they can do and what they can contribute,” said Page. “Our greatest challenge is opening that door and dispelling the myths.”
As for Frangis, he’s looking for more clients.
“I hope to do more radio commercials in the weeks, months and years to come,” he said.
Tickets are still available for the the Autism Society gala on March 15. For more information call 519-332-0333.


From Nancy’s Email List

OAC has developed a survey to develop a database on the successes, concerns and struggles that our families in Ontario face. The info you provide will remain annonymous, however will be utilized when meeting with Ministers in discussion on the types of issues that people are really facing out there. Again, you remain annonymous, your personal info will never be shared with anyone, however the circumstancial information will be tallied so that discussions can include the real issues as specifically experienced. I hope that all of you will take a few minutes to help out all our children by sharing your situation(s). This is being done on an internet survery program called Survey Monkey.

Here is the link to the autism survey:


http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=Cv_2b_2fzrWYYiCMR33hKq0inw_3d_3d




And I have been asked to let everyone know that they have the option of receiving a free gift (flash cards) when they complete the survey!!!!!



----------------------------



From a Listmate

From BC, devastating budget cuts affect respite for many families in Victoria:
March 6, 2008 TIMES COLONIST (VICTORIA) PAGE: A3 / FRONT (CAPITAL & VAN. ISL.)
Group home had to close, operators say
NDP releases letter citing budget cuts
Lindsay Kines and Jeff Rud, Times Colonist
The operators of a Victoria group home for special-needs children say the B.C. government has forced them out of business, contrary to claims by Children's Minister Tom Christensen that it was a "mutual decision."
In a letter to parents and caregivers, Corner House director Joy Moncrieff and manager Val Harrison said government cut the home's budget so drastically "that we had no choice but to agree to a closure of the facility."
"It has been a fulfilling eight years for us at Corner House, getting to know so many wonderful children and their parents," Moncrieff and Harrison say in the letter, a copy of which was released yesterday by the NDP. "Writing this letter has been one of the hardest things we have had to do."
Parents who needed a break from caring for a child with complex needs were able to leave their son or daughter at Corner House for short periods of time. The group home, which served 19 clients, will close at the end of April.
Christensen told the media on Tuesday that the home's operators reached a "mutual decision" to end its $260,000-a-year contract with Community Living B.C., the government agency that services children and adults with developmental disabilities. He stuck by those comments yesterday despite the letter from Moncrieff and Harrison.
"I haven't seen any letter," he said. "I've been advised that CLBC had worked with Corner House."
But NDP children's critic Nicholas Simons ridiculed Christensen's version of events.
"You can't come to someone and say you've got a choice between the noose or the electric chair and then say that they've got a choice," he said. "The fact of the matter is government's cut funding to children needing services and their families."
Christensen said government can deliver the same respite service to four times as many families by shifting the money to a cheaper model. Families will now be able to have a caregiver come into their home, or let their child stay with the caregiver for a day or a weekend, he said
"I think, on balance, this is good news in that we're going to have more children and families in the Victoria area who now have access to respite," he said.
The families who use the Davie Street facility, however, say the decision is anything but good news for their children.
"It devastated my son," said Mary Japp, a single parent of two autistic children. "Because as a child with autism he struggles socially. And for one weekend every month, he could go to Corner House and he could just be a regular kid.
"Everybody there has a challenge and it's just normal to have a challenge, and so it wasn't something that made him feel like the odd man out. He finally felt like he had a place where he could just be himself. So he's losing that social connection which, for a child who's socially disadvantaged, that's a big blow.''
Annetta Orrick said she doesn't want a different type of service. Her 14-year-old daughter with autism, cerebral palsy and an intellectual disorder has been going to Corner House one weekend a month for seven years.
Orrick will now have to hire an individual caregiver for brief periods of respite, she said.
"It's very difficult to find people to do these small jobs," she said. "It's never their real job. It's something they're picking up. They're generally a student or it's something that they're doing for an extra bit of pocket money. So they do not look at it as a career or a professional service. It's glorified babysitting."
Orrick said it's also up to her to assess the reliability and qualifications of the caregiver. "There's no accountability," she said.
lkines@tc.canwest.com
jrud@tc.canwest.com

-------------------------------

On an awareness front:



Autism: The Musical
Published by James McNally on March 6, 2008 in Doc Soup, Documentaries and Film Festivals. Tags: autism, children.
Autism: The Musical (2007, Director: Tricia Regan): Winner of a slew of audience awards at recent festivals, Tricia Regan’s film sheds light on the mysterious world of the autistic child. Autism is now diagnosed in one child in every 150, and comparatively little research has been conducted into understanding it. Serendipitously, there is an interesting article in this month’s issue of Wired magazine, which postulates that instead of treating it as a disease to be cured, we should be trying to understand autism as just a different type of thinking. This documentary might actually help that process. We meet five different children, and their parents, who help us understand the challenges, but also the potential, of being autistic. At the centre of the film is Elaine Hall, mother of Neal and the creator of The Miracle Project, an organization dedicated to arts education for autistic kids. Elaine gathers a group of children each year with the goal of putting on a musical performance. She adopted her son Neal from Russia, and after he was diagnosed as autistic, her marriage broke up. Neal is perhaps the most affected by his condition, prone to tantrums and unable to speak. But Elaine is energetic and positive and at the first meeting, Regan’s camera pans around the room to encompass the curious kids, but more tellingly, the suspicious (and exhausted) faces of the parents.
The film follows a fairly standard chronological timeline, with titles informing us how close we are to opening night. Along the way, we take detours into each featured child’s story, along with the story of their parents. I found each one incredibly moving, and was pleasantly surprised at the complete transparency and gut-wrenching honesty of the parents. Lexi’s parents split up during the course of filming, and her mother’s brutally frank admissions broke my heart. And Adam’s parents, though still together, are having problems that his father admits are partly a result of his wife’s “monomania” in caring for Adam. I think that these people have had their idea of a perfect life turned so completely upside down by their children that they have no masks anymore. It was refreshing and heartbreaking at the same time. As in Lexi’s mom’s wish that Lexi die before she does. With the difficulty of finding schools and caregivers who understand autism, it seemed a reasonable position.
From the children there are several amazing moments of clarity, but the most piercing came from Wyatt, who wondered why all the kids at the Miracle Project were in “their own little worlds” before admitting that he too spent too much time in his own world, mostly because with no one around to talk to, he became lonely in the real one.
The director admitted in her Q&A that she was brought in to direct by the mother of Henry, one of the featured kids (and the only one to have Asperger’s Syndrome, a milder form of autism), who had envisioned making a film to reach out beyond the “autism community” in order to help people understand and to do something. Autism doesn’t attract the resources that childhood diseases like diabetes do, and dealing with it isn’t so straightforward. Like the deaf community, there is a growing “culture of autism” (represented by people like Amanda Baggs cited in the Wired article) who don’t think autism is a disease that needs a cure at all. On the other side are parents of children like the ones in this film, who just want some help. As the number of kids with autism grows, and they grow older and require more specialized care, the educational system will need to adapt. And so will the culture at large.
The finale is as big and emotional as we might expect. But since we’ve gotten to know the performers over the previous hour, we know the show is not going to be flawless. Instead, the creative anarchy that seems to be part and parcel of autism made the performance, and the entire film itself, that much more inspiring.

--------------------------


This is from a US source, but it's the first time I have seen this product, and thought some on the list may be interested in purchasing:



Brand new!
Autism/Nonverbal Communication & Safety Bracelets

Keeping your child safe just got a little easier!

"Nonverbal: May not respond to verbal commands" message on bracelet alerts emergency personnel to your child's special needs. Even verbal children may become stressed in an emergency and freeze.

The communication aspect of the bracelet encourages individuals to wear it everyday to convey basic needs:
Stop, help, eat, drink, quiet, help and more.

Available in child and adult sizes. Please indicate at checkout.

GLOWS IN THE DARK! For mor safety at night!

ORDER SAFETY BRACELET HERE!

Parents are encouraged to write the child's name and phone number on the inside of the bracelet.

Join Unlocking Autism in making the world a safer place for those with autism.


-----------------------------

And from the US, if you feel strongly about the vaccine issue, I am sure you will want to place your vote on the Larry King Live link :


You can have a say...please vote now!

go to this webpage for larry king live and vote ...

http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/larry.king.live





Larry King Live will have the following telecast this evening, sorry I am a bit late on sharing this, hopefully you can view or record it on a repeat or west coast airing:

Poling Family On Larry King Live Tonight, Thursday 3/6/08 9 p.m. CNN
Family Tells How Their Normally Developing Daughter Developed Autism From Vaccines
Dear A-CHAMP Subscribers:

You've seen the Atlanta Journal Constitution front page article and the Headline: "First
Autism-Vaccine Link: How Hannah Made History ."

You've seen the press conference broadcast live on CNN today.

Don't Miss Larry King Live! tonight 9 p.m. EST, CNN

To See and Hear the Poling family tell the story – how vaccines caused Hannah, their
beautiful and normally developing, daughter to develop autism.

Thank you.

The A-CHAMP Vaccine Injury Justice Team

"It's all about our kids..."



From a Listmate


________________________________________
U.S. House Passes Parity!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
March 5, 2008

Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act of 2007 (H.R.1424)

Statement by Randy Phelps, Ph.D.


Interim Executive Director for Professional Practice

American Psychological Association

For more than a decade, the American Psychological Association has been
working to put an end to insurance practices that discriminate against those
with mental health disorders.

Today passage of the Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity
Act of 2007 brings us closer to ensuring equal treatment for millions of
Americans with mental health and substance use disorders.

When federal parity legislation becomes law more than 113 million Americans
could benefit from greater access to treatment for mental health and
substance use disorders.

We call on congressional leaders to complete negotiations on a bill that
can pass both chambers. We cannot let 2008 pass us by without finally
enacting parity .

The American Psychological Association (APA), in Washington, DC, is the
largest scientific and professional organization representing psychology in
the United States and is the world's largest association of psychologists.
APA's membership includes more than 148,000 researchers, educators,
clinicians, consultants and students. Through its divisions in 54 subfields
of psychology and affiliations with 60 state, territorial and Canadian
provincial associations, APA works to advance psychology as a science, as a
profession and as a means of promoting human welfare.

Jeff Cook, J.D.
Director of Field & State Operations
American Psychological Association Practice Organization
750 First Street, NE
Washington, DC 20002
(202) 336-5875 (Office)
(202) 336-5797 (Fax)
jcook@apa.org (Email)
End of mailing