Autistic Beaumont man missing for two weeks found safe - A Beaumont autistic man missing for two weeks is found safe tonight. 22-year-old Sammy Stewart made it all the way to Catalina Island from Beaumont on his own. Stewart approached a sheriff deputy on Catalina Island. He had been camping there for the past ten days. Stewart was first reported missing on November 10th after he told a neighbor he was going camping. We first brought you his story last week on NewsChannel 3.

Autistic man dies in police struggle / Des Plaines officers used stun gun twice - An autistic man who died after Des Plaines police shocked him twice with a stun gun over the weekend was not known to be violent, the director of the agency that ran the man's group home said Monday. Police fired a Taser at Hansel Cunningham, 30, after they arrived at the home Sunday afternoon after receiving a distress call from a caregiver who reported that Cunningham had severely bitten him on his hands and arms while he attempted to restrain the resident, officials said.

Bullying of autistic students 'ignored' - More than half of all students with autism are being bullied at school every week, but angry parents claim teachers are not doing enough to stamp it out. The shock finding follows interviews with 1700 families on school satisfaction levels. A report to be released today by the Parent Autism Education Committee shows 70 per cent of parents do not believe schools are taking enough action on bullying of students with disabilities. Frustrated parents have also complained some teachers do not accept disability and have accused individuals of behaving poorly towards their autistic sons and daughters.  Between 54 and 70 per cent of parents did not believe schools were doing enough to address their child's academic difficulties, communication, sensory needs, behavioural problems, physical wellbeing, mental health, bullying or social difficulties.

District: Autistic student’s education appropriate - Berthoud Elementary School teachers put together an appropriate educational plan for an autistic student, so the Thompson School District should not have to pay for his private schooling, the district’s attorney argued in a complaint filed in U.S. District Court. The district is challenging Jeff and Julie Perkins of Berthoud, who argue their son Luke, 11, needs to attend the Boston Higashi School to learn. They want the district to pay for Luke’s schooling under the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. A Colorado Department of Education hearing officer and a state administrative law judge both sided recently with the Perkinses. The school district appealed the decisions in U.S. District Court, filing a 12-page complaint earlier this month. The Perkinses have until Jan. 8 to respond to the complaint through their attorney. By Felicia Jordan

Ever wonder why you seem so different? - When I was a freshman in college, someone asked a friend of mine if I was autistic. Having almost no knowledge about what autism was other than a dim memory of a Rain Man- like character rocking in the corner and nonverbal, I was appalled. How could anyone possibly think I was like that? By Kate Goldfield

Families share 'autistic traits' / Relatives of people with autism may display autistic brain differences and behaviours despite not having the condition themselves, a study shows. New Scientist says the work could make it easier to spot families at risk of having an autistic child. - It could also help in the quest to find genetic and environmental triggers for the condition, experts hope. Autism is a disorder that makes it hard for the individual to relate socially and emotionally to others. / BBC News

Fun and games or addiction? - "...A growing problem. Video-game addiction is a widespread problem among adolescents and young adults, and it's ever-increasing, according to Dr. Maressa Hecht Orzack, clinical psychologist and director of the computer addiction study center at McLean Hospital, a Harvard Medical School affiliate in Massachusetts. After discovering she was becoming addicted to playing solitaire on her computer, Orzack started studying computer addiction and discovered it's like many other addictions. "There's one big thing that's different — in the 21st century, people need a computer. They have to face it every day," she said. And the addiction doesn't usually come by itself. It is common for addicts to also suffer from mood or anxiety disorders, including Attention Deficit Disorder, Attention Deficit Hypertension Disorder or an Autism Spectrum Disorder."  By Amie Thompson

In autism and related disorders, recognizing emotion is different than identity - In contrast to previous reports, for those with autism or Asperger's syndrome, recognizing facial expressions is separate from identifying familiar faces. Those who had an impaired ability to process facial identity were no different than those with normal facial identity ability, when it came to processing facial expression. Led by researchers in the U.S. and Canada, the study, published in Neurology, examined 26 adults diagnosed with either autism, Asperger's syndrome, social-emotional processing disorder, or both Asperger's and social-emotional processing disorder.

Investigate This - Oh goody. Patrick Fitzgerald, the special prosecutor who’s been investigating the supposed outing of a CIA operative, plans to present evidence to another federal grand jury. “The investigation is continuing,” Fitzgerald announced, just weeks after most assumed it -- almost two years old and counting -- had finally ended. This will be the second grand jury called to investigate whether or not Joe Wilson’s wife Valerie Plame was outed. In the long run, though, few Americans will care about -- or even be aware of -- the outcome of Fitzgerald’s probe (assuming it eventually ends). But as long as we’ve got a grand jury impaneled, let’s have it a sk some questions about something that actually affects countless American lives. Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). There are more questions than answers about autism. But unfortunately, it’s no longer unusual. In her new book about manners, author Lynne Truss writes that we’re living in “an age of social autism, in which people just can’t see the value of imagining their impact on others.”

It's a crude, rude world - Let's be good cosmopolitans and offer sociological explanations rather than moral judgments about students, The Washington Post reports, having sex during the day in high schools. Sociology discerns connections, and there may be one between the fact that teenagers are relaxing from academic rigors by enjoying sex in the school auditorium, and the fact that Americans in public soon will be able to watch pornography, and prime-time television programs such as "Desperate Housewives" -- and, for the high-minded, C-SPAN -- on their cell phones and video iPods. The connection is this: Many people have no notion of propriety when in the presence of other people, because they are not actually in the presence of other people, even when they are in public.  By George Will

Living With Autism - Finding out your child is autistic can be very traumatic because the disorder will likely change their life forever. It was just more than a year ago when Tucker Hawkey's parents got some news they never thought they'd hear. Tucker's mom Patti said, "When we heard the word autism we were terrified. When you think of the word autism you think of Rainman, that's what comes to my mind at first." His parents thought he had communication problems. But his grandmother noticed something very different. Shad Hawkey, Tucker's dad said, "My mom actually noticed something you know having four kids of her own and grandkids and it was hard for her to say something and she finally came to us and said something." Once Tucker was diagnosed, Shad and Patti felt they owed it to their son to learn all they could about autism.  They chose to adapt to Tucker's lifestyle, which changed theirs completely. By Kelli Grant

Music therapist hits all the right notes - When Kennedy School fifth-graders present their holiday music program next month, Cassie Wenger will be participating along with the rest of her classmates. Cassie has cerebral palsy. She doesn't talk or sing more than a word or two. She can't stand, walk or crawl. But the 12-year-old can move her hands, so that's how music therapist Jolene Nelson gets Cassie involved.

New Scientist - Issue 26 November 2005 - HOW LIFE SHAPES THE BRAINSCAPE
Our life experiences can profoundly change the structure and connectivity of the brain. Neuroscientists in the US found a thickening of certain brain regions in experienced meditators. While another study found that those who had experienced an early life trauma, such as divorce or neglect, had structural changes in the hippocampus – the area of the brain important for memory. On the flip side, if experiences can cause changes which trigger problems, experience could also treat it. A preliminary study has shown that for people with depression who had been through an early trauma, psychotherapy was far more effective than drug treatment. Pages 12-13

Psychologists glimpse biological imprint of childhood neglect - The absence of a loving caregiver in the earliest years of life could sway the normal activity of two hormones - vasopressin and oxytocin - that play an essential role in the ability to form healthy social bonds and emotional intimacy. Announced by psychologists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the new finding demonstrates for the first time that severe neglect and social isolation can directly affect a young child's neurobiology in ways that potentially influence emotional behaviors. The work is reported online in the Nov. 21, 2005 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "Questions about how children regulate emotions and form social bonds has not really made contact with recent advances in the neurosciences," says senior author Seth Pollak, a UW-Madison professor of psychology, psychiatry and pediatrics and researcher at the Waisman Center for Human Development. "But this work makes a link between complex emotional behaviors and the developing brain." By Seth Pollak

The World's Best Kept Secret - This is a story of hope. It's a sad story in parts but like all good stories it has a happy ending and happy endings are what I like. I shall call my son Tom - he was born in 1986, four days before Christmas; our village was cut off by snow for three days, I was tired beyond belief following a long labour and my little family sat down for their Christmas dinner at 7pm on Boxing Day. But life was lovely, perfect - I had the son I wanted. I held him in my arms and fell in love. But …… there's always a but ……. I knew there was something wrong. I couldn't say what it was - I tried very hard to pinpoint it; I was told it was my fault because I was a first time mum and very anxious; I was told to take up smoking by the health visitor to relieve the anxiety and would I like my son to be observed in hospital so experts could see what the problems were? By Mary King

Woman fights way through life to ring of victory - Life has not been easy for a Golden Valley woman. But now her decision to fight back may have opened doors she never knew existed. An evening in Heather Hutchins' Golden Valley home finds her and the kids enjoying a game of Trouble. Trouble is something that seemed to follow Heather all her life, "There's things that have been tough." Things like an absent mother growing up, leaving an abusive marriage and raising a daughter with autism and ADHD. She's always been a fighter, always looking for a way out to something better.

A Smartville man was sentenced Friday to 10 years in prison for molest - A Smartville man was sentenced Friday to 10 years in prison for sexually assaulting an autistic, 11-year-old boy Harry Earnest Scott, 64, of the 1800 block of Smartville Road, pleaded guilty last month to two counts of lewd acts with a child under 14. “Our son is very angry, Mr. Scott,” said Liz Rodriguez of the Yuba County Victim Witness program, who read a letter in court from the child's mother. The victim's family members said Scott took advantage of the boy's trust in him. “You will never be a part of my family,” the mother said in the letter. The victim's father, who appeared in Yuba County Judge James Curry's courtroom, also was angry and asked for the toughest sentence. “He can rot in hell,” he said of Scott. Scott said nothing. The boy was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome and Attention Deficit Disorder. Asperger's is a mild form of autism, characterized by social isolation and eccentric behavior in childhood, according to www.aspergers.com

Anxiety, stress impairs mental agility - Stressful situations interfere with mental agility, according to findings presented this week at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in Washington, DC. Dr David Beversdorf and colleagues at the Ohio State University in Columbus exposed volunteers to stressful situations, such as public speaking and watching a graphically violent and emotional movie. Compared with non-stressful tasks, such as watching a cartoon or reading aloud, the stressful situations impaired the subjects' ability to perform word association tasks and solve anagrams. By Karla Gale

Are we obsessed with sleep? - The search for a good night's sleep has become an obsession. New sleeping drugs have been developed, mattresses have been redesigned, and the number of sleep clinics in the United States has jumped from 300 in 1995 to 900 in 2005. And it's not just adults that suffer from this nighttime madness - teens, children and the elderly are sleep-deprived, too.

Autistic Man Dies After Police Use Taser Gun - An autopsy on an autistic man who died after police used a Taser gun in an attempt to subdue him did not reveal a cause of death, authorities said Monday. The man had just bitten his caregiver at a group home in Des Plaines. CBS 2's Mike Parker reports the Taser was just one way the officers tried to get the victim under control. Police around the country are now using Taser guns to subdue suspects with electric shocks. By Mike Parker

Autistics' problem 'reading' faces not related to identifying them ... - people with social developmental disorders like autism, the ability to recognize a face may not be related to how well they process facial expression as previously thought, a new study suggests. INDEPTH: Autism  People with autism, Asperger's syndrome and other social-emotional processing disorders have difficulty communicating and are akward at interacting with others. Social skills such as judging whether a listener is interested in a conversation may not develop properly.  Researchers in Canada and the U.S. studied whether the problems of "reading" facial expressions in those with the disorders was linked to problems interpreting emotions or assessing faces. By CBC News

Body found in SUV may be missing Ohio man - "...“We've been dating for seven years,” she said of her relationship with Drummond, with whom she has a 4-year-old autistic son. “We were going to start officially planning our wedding in January.” Det. Rick Thompson with the Columbus Police Department's missing persons unit, told The News-Dispatch Tuesday that his department has been working with LaPorte County officials since Monday."

Burton may be autistic - Tim Burton may have a form of autism, according to his longterm partner Helena Bonham Carter. Bonham Carter recently filmed a TV movie in which she plays the real life mother of four autistic children and during her research she recognised character traits the director shares with kids with Asperger's Syndrome - of which the main symptom is an above average intelligence but less developed social and communication skills. She explains: "Tim will kill me, but while making this drama I realised he actually has a bit off Asperger's in him. You start recognising the signs. By  WFMY News 2

Early Experience May Shape Our Sensory Perceptions / Our brain's ability to combine sensory information from a single event has been shown to speed our reactions, help us identify objects and heighten our awareness. - New research in animals suggests that it's unlikely that we're born with this ability. Instead, its development may depend on our sensory experiences during the early months of life. "The way in which this ability develops has profound implications for those who are born blind or deaf, or who suffer from disorders such as autism and dyslexia in which early sensory processes are altered," said Mark Wallace, PhD, a neuroscientist at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. "Knowing how these brain circuits mature may one day be used to tailor treatment strategies for those who have problems in basic sensory processes."

Impact of Gastrointestinal Dysfunction in Autistic Children - The Southwest Autism Research and Resource Center is one of twelve trial sites selected to participate in a research study to evaluate an investigational medication for treatment of persistent gastrointestinal (GI) dysfunction in autistic children. Up to fifty percent of children with autism experience persistent GI problems, ranging from mild to moderate degrees of inflammation in both the upper and lower intestinal tract.

It takes courage to tell mercury story - "...A story worth telling? About the time "AIDS in the Heartland" was appearing in the Pioneer Press, the number of children diagnosed with autism was one in 10,000. Today, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention pegs the number at one in 166. During that time, the number of immunizations on the childhood vaccination schedule more than doubled, raising the dosage of mercury, a known neurotoxin, far above federal safety standards. New York Times contributor David Kirby's book "Evidence of Harm," released in April, presented both sides of the thimerosal controversy in a documentary manner, allowing evidence (or absence of comment) to speak for itself. The resulting picture is that of knowledgeable parents and independent researchers challenging a stonewalled government and scientific establishment that relies on after-the-fact epidemiological studies, not before-the-fact safety data, to deny the autism link.

Lacking Gene, Mice Become Nearly Fearless - Mice are proverbially timid, but they become daredevils if they're missing a gene expressed mainly in the amygdala, researchers here say.  The gene -- known as stathmin -- is known to play a role in the internal construction of cells, according to Gleb Shumyatsky, Ph.D., a professor of genetics at Rutgers University here. But mice without it are less afraid than normal animals, both of things they instinctively fear and things they have learned to fear. By Michael Smith, MedPage Today Staff Writer.  Reviewed by Zalman S. Agus, MD; Emeritus Professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.

Mind your manners, please, they're key to civilization - ... With everyone chatting on cell phones when not floating in iPod-land, "this is an age of social autism, in which people just can't see the value of imagining ... By the Indianapolis Star

New Clinical Trial in Children with Autism Begins Enrollment - Hardy Healthcare Associates opens clinical trial site in Hingham to research a treatment for gastrointestinal problems in autistic children - Hardy Healthcare Associates has begun accepting candidates for a research study to evaluate an investigational medication for treatment of persistent gastrointestinal (GI) dysfunction in autistic children. Hardy Healthcare Associates is one of only 12 sites in the nation to be selected to participate in this medical study. The study aims to determine the impact on GI function through treatment as well as assess the effect of GI symptoms on physical or emotional behavior. By PRNewswire

Neuronal protein may lead to schizophrenia - Johns Hopkins scientists say a change in the function of a cerebral cortex protein may contribute to subtle neuronal defects observed in schizophrenia.  Such small changes in the brain's architecture have been thought to be contributing factors in the development of the disease. Now Akira Sawa and colleagues find in the absence of the DISC1 gene, or when the mutant form of DISC1 is present, normal movement of cells within the developing cerebral cortex is altered. / Science News

Psychologists glimpse biological imprint of childhood neglect - The absence of a loving caregiver in the earliest years of life could sway the normal activity of two hormones - vasopressin and oxytocin - that play an essential role in the ability to form healthy social bonds and emotional intimacy. Announced by psychologists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the new finding demonstrates for the first time that severe neglect and social isolation can directly affect a young child's neurobiology in ways that potentially influence emotional behaviors. The work is reported online in the Nov. 21, 2005 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "Questions about how children regulate emotions and form social bonds has not really made contact with recent advances in the neurosciences," says senior author Seth Pollak, a UW-Madison professor of psychology, psychiatry and pediatrics and researcher at the Waisman Center for Human Development. "But this work makes a link between complex emotional behaviors and the developing brain." / Release - University of Wisconsin-Madison

Punishing autistic boy riles mother - With one utterance toward a teacher, a 14-year-old autistic boy earned himself a three-day suspension, in accordance with the Ontario Safe Schools Act.  Kevin said something to the effect of, "If you don't leave me alone I am going to kill you," to his teacher, prompting public school staff to rule he had exhibited threatening behaviour.  But the boy's mom, Anita Acheson, knows better than to believe her son meant to harm the teacher. Kevin is very limited in his language abilities, so his outburst was basically his way of saying "Leave me alone," she said... By LAURA CZEKAJ

Study Puts a New Face on Autism - When people with autism look at a face, the brain area that responds to that information is activated in a way that's very similar to the brain activity of people without autism, new research shows. This finding comes as a surprise, since it's widely recognized that people with autism tend to avoid looking directly at other people's faces. The result also contradicts previous research that found that the face-processing area in the back of the brain is under-responsive in people with autism. By ABC News

Researchers Claim Vaccine Ingredient Causes Autism / Some In Medical Community Reject Thimerosal Theory - You may have never heard of Thimerosal, but if you or your children were vaccinated before 1999, chances are, it was injected into you. The mercury preservative has sparked a medical controversy because some people claim it may be responsible for an increase in autism, reported 5 On Your Side's Curtis Jackson.

Rise In Autism - A growing number of parents are being told their child has autism - a brain disorder that can affect a child's developing social and communication skills. But what researches haven't figured out yet is the reason behind such the sharp increase over the past 20 some years. In the mid 1980s an estimated 1 in 25 hundred people were diagnosed with autism. But today the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates as many as 1 in 166 kids have autism - that's 1.5 million children nationwide.

The Age of Autism: Flu shot flashpoint -  It's flu shot season, and that simple fact is sharply focusing the debate over a possible link between vaccines and autism. The reason: Most flu shots contain thimerosal, the mercury-based preservative that some suspect caused a huge rise in autism cases beginning in the 1990s. Federal health authorities say science has ruled that out. But to be on the safe side, the U.S. Public Health Service -- along with groups representing pediatricians and family doctors -- urged manufacturers in 1999 to phase thimerosal out of childhood vaccines as soon as possible. Most such vaccines are now thimerosal-free or contain trace amounts. An exception is the flu shot, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends for pregnant women and for infants 6 to 23 months old. The counter-argument: Why take a risk when thimerosal-free shots are also available and cost just three or four dollars more? The CDC has declined to express a preference for those shots on the theory that there wouldn't be enough to meet demand. By Dan Olmsted

The Right Fit - In the story of the elves and the shoemaker, the little sprites work all night long to produce neat rows of perfect shoes. Laura Crawford works her magic under the bright fluorescent lights of a Target department store. Beaded purple high heels, the right discarded a giant's step from the left, are whipped into place in the proper box, proper size, proper shelf. As fast as customers manage to mangle her work, she's a blur of efficiency that fixes the mess without pause. Until a co-worker approaches...  By Donna Koehn

Why People Hate Economics - "the separateness of these two mechanisms, one for understanding the physical world and one for understanding the social world, gives rise to a duality of experience. We experience the world of material things as separate from the world of goals and desires. ...We need our type M brains, but in moderation. Without a type M brain, one is socially underdeveloped. In extreme cases, someone with a weak type M brain will be described by Asperger's Syndrome or autism. On the other hand, as Bloom suggests, there are many cases in which we over-use our type M brains. For example, social psychologists have long noted the fundamental attribution error, in which we see people's actions as derived from their motives or dispositions when in fact the actions result from context. By Arnold Kling

Autism: Genetic Disorder Or Mercury Poisoning? - Autism is defined as a developmental disability that by age three will effect children's non-verbal and verbal communication.  But, the question that has yet to be answered is how these seemingly perfect children come down with such a debilitating disorder?  Dr. Sue Anderson said year’s population studies have shown it's in their genes. "There seems to be a genetic component. We know there are some families in which more than one child is affected or first degree relatives are affected," said Dr. Anderson, of the Kluge Children's Hospital. By Lindsay Puccio

Award-winning autistic writer, 13, expresses self in 1st book - A 13-year-old autistic teenager from Kimitsu, Chiba Prefecture, has written a book using a computer to communicate feelings he normally finds difficult to convey. "Don't laugh at me. Stop treating me like an outcast. Help me," Naoki Higashida wrote in his book, "Kono Chikyu ni Sunde Iru Boku no Nakamatachi e" (To My Friends Here on Earth). "We have the right to live on the Earth," he wrote in another section of the book. My son has a difficult time whenever he tries to put his thoughts into words," his 43-year-old mother said.  Naoki screams in a strange voice whenever he gets excited or experiences something out of the ordinary, according to his mother, who said the boy's thoughts were no different from those of other people.  Naoki began writing essays when he was 4 and was diagnosed with autism the following... By The Yomiuri Shimbun

In every boy there is a bit of 'idiot savant' -  didn't read Nick Hornby's Fever Pitch immediately it came out. I'm dimly aware, however, that it struck a chord with women. My closest female friend told me she'd found it to be a unique insight into the male psyche, before revealing, "I'd hate to be man. It must be awful." Fever Pitch portrays males as hopeless creatures, all of whom are somewhere on the autistic spectrum. At the risk of reinforcing unhelpful gender stereotypes (and all women are merely a complex network of obsessions with flowers, make-up and shopping), I find it helpful, as a teacher, to remember it's the rarest of birds that sorts its record collection into chronological within alphabetical. I'll spell this out carefully for those in the back row: b-o-y-s a-n-d g-i-r-l-s a-r-e d-i-f-f-e-r-e-n-t. By Philip Beadle / UK

Live Talk: Improving the Brain / Dr. Daniel Amen joined us for a Live Talk on what he’s learned about the brain and simple steps you can take to improve yours on Oct. 18. - We all know that skipping sleep, smoking cigarettes and snacking on sugary foods can be bad for our health. But clinical neuroscientist Dr. Daniel Amen warns they can also be bad for our brain. In his latest book, “Making a Good Brain Great” (Harmony), Amen explains how bad eating and exercise habits, sleep deprivation and stress can actually endanger or impede the brain’s ability to function. The good news? By making small changes—like replacing fatty foods with lean proteins and green leafy vegetables or finding ways to lower stress levels—you can actually make your brain perform better. During the past 14 years, Amen has performed sophisticated brain-imaging scans on thousands of patients to detect damage done from drugs or disorders, and to help pinpoint problems that can be treated not just with medication but with therapy and lifestyle changes. Join Amen at noon E.T., Tuesday, Oct. 18, for a Live Talk on what he’s learned about the brain and simple steps you can take to improve yours. - Newsweek

Social robots could help diagnose and treat autistic children - For the past four years, Brian Scassellati has been researching the uses of humanoid robots that can interact with people by natural social cues. Scassellati spoke last Friday on “Social Robots, Social Development and Social Disorders,” in which he demonstrated the uses of social robots when applied to autism diagnosis and therapy. Scassellati, a computer science professor at Yale, developed a social robot named Kismet. Kismet has a physical body and is autonomous. By Christine DeBriffault

Stress impairs mental ability: study - STRESSFUL situations interfere with mental agility, according to findings presented this week at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in Washington, DC. Dr David Beversdorf and colleagues at the Ohio State University in Columbus exposed volunteers to stressful situations, such as public speaking and watching a graphically violent and emotional movie. Compared with non-stressful tasks, such as watching a cartoon or reading aloud, the stressful situations impaired the subjects' ability to perform word association tasks and solve anagrams. However, responses to memory tests were not affected.

The Age of Autism: Showdown in Santa Fe - A pediatrician had an appointment Monday with the New Mexico Board of Pharmacy to deliver a blunt message: Its members need to warn state residents that the mercury in flu shots could be harmful to children -- or risk being remembered for failing to do their job. The request by Dr. Kenneth Stoller, an assistant clinical professor of pediatrics at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine, opens a new front in an escalating war over the use of a mercury-based preservative in medical products. He is medical director of the Hyperbaric Medical Center of New Mexico and uses hyperbaric oxygen to treat autism. Six states -- including heavyweights New York, California and Illinois -- have banned the preservative, called thimerosal, from vaccines intended for children and pregnant women. It has been voluntarily phased out of most childhood immunizations but remains in most flu shots. By Dan Olmsted

The Consumer Doctors Ponder Drugs for Sleepless Nights of ... - When is it a good idea for an adolescent to take a sleeping pill? There is reason to suppose the answer may be never. No prescription sleep aids are approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use in people under 18, largely because they have not been well studied in children. But children do take sleeping pills. In 2004, more than 180,000 people under age 20 in the United States - most of them 10 or older took sleep medications, according to estimates released last month by Medco Health Solutions, a large managed-care company.  By MARY DUENWALD

View  how the cortex forms, MIT - A leading neuroscientist at MIT and one from the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) report in the Nov. 4 special issue of Science dedicated to the brain that the controversy is over: The "protomap" and "protocortex" theories of brain development are dead. The cerebral cortex is a sheet of around 10 billion neurons divided into distinctly separate areas that process particular aspects of sensation, movement and cognition. To what extent are these areas predetermined by genes or shaped by the environment? The protomap and protocortex theories developed before 1990 claimed, respectively, that the task-specific regions of the cortex are spawned by a zone of "originator" cells; or that long nerve fibers from the thalamus, a large ovoid mass that relays information to the cortex from other brain regions, are activated by external stimuli to impose identity on the homogeneous blob.

Say it loud, autistic and proud  For many, it's a condition which evokes pity and even fear. But a campaigning group of activists is determined to change the way we view autism by dealing not with its many downsides, but by focusing on its positives. Jerome Burne reports

Asberger's Syndrome: Breaking Through Impenetrable Barriers - Some students linger long after they have disappeared from view. They are reminders of what could have been done had we just been able to reach them, had they only been able to take advice and understand that college was a serious business, beyond what was accepted and understood in high school. In the weeks after they walk away and land themselves on the front page of the college newspaper, you will wonder what you could have done had you been fully understood what they were fighting against to show up to class each day. / Christopher J. Stephens is an adjunct college English instructor for Northeastern University, Wentworth Institute of Technology, Western New England College, and Corinthian Colleges, Inc.

Autistic daughter's crisis provoked rude reactions - My family had an upsetting experience recently in a Waterville store. Our 3-year-old daughter has autism, a neurobiological disorder, and despite making remarkable progress over the past few months, had an unexpected "meltdown" while we were shopping. We do not knowingly place our child in situations that may overwhelm her. Our child is no "spoiled brat." Her limited communication and socialization skills can make her behave in ways that few people understand.

Book Spurs Widespread Community Discussion - The Unison Arts Center hides behind a Zen garden of formative limestone sculptures and slanting overhangs wreathed in shoots of ivy twine. This off-road seclusion is valued by many artistic retreats, as it allows for local literati to assemble in small numbers for circled talks of trade. While driving the two miles from town, I become increasingly surprised to see three signs directing thru traffic to the center's front drive. By Taylor Dietrich

Dan Marino Foundation funds research institute at Kennedy Center - This fall the Dan Marino Foundation pledged $1.2 million to establish the Marino Autism Research Institute at the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center’s Treatment and Research Institute for Autism Spectrum Disorders. The foundation also co–sponsored the University of Miami Center for Autism and Related Disabilities in the effort, according to the Vanderbilt Register. “This will be the first philanthropically funded ‘virtual institute’ designed to sponsor cross–university collaborative research and community outreach on autism,” said Mary Partin, the foundation’s chief executive offic-er.

Decisive action needed to protect vulnerable adults - A few years ago, Solicitor Barney Giese had to call in SLED to get Richland County officials to notify police rather than doing their own internal investigations of assaults and other crimes committed at the county jail — some allegedly by jail employees. The solicitor had to intervene because the county was violating the public trust in a most basic way: You don’t allow someone with a stake in the outcome to determine whether a crime has been committed. People investigating their own organization too often will give their colleagues the benefit of the doubt; at worst, the practice can lead to a cover-up. But according to a disturbing new report, this principle is routinely ignored with allegations of abuse and neglect in the state system that cares for those who are least able to defend themselves — people with mental retardation, autism and developmental disabilities.

Developing social skills through language - Nationally renowned educational consultant Elsa Abele will speak about language and social skills on Thursday, Nov. 17 from 7:15-9:30 p.m. in the Faculty Dining Room of Chenery Middle School. The event is sponsored by the Belmont Special Education Advisory Council. Abele will share with parents many of the techniques she uses when training teachers to assist students with social pragmatics. She has had an extensive career training and consulting with families, school systems and service agencies for children and adults who have social communication disorders such as autism, Asperger's, non-verbal learning disabilities and language learning disabilities. She will be working with Belmont teachers this fall.

For boy with autism, a coach and a friend / Mother sheds tears as teen volunteer is honored for helping her 11-year-old be a runner  - For Anthony D'Addesa, there can be no better coach than Michael Rota -- or truer friend.  All of 17 years old, Michael is a volunteer running coach for Our Lady Star of the Sea R.C. Church, Huguenot; Anthony is an 11-year-old with autism.

Letters to the Press - We received an extraordinary response to our recent Oct. 27 cover story on Auditory Processing Disorder (APD), "The Hidden Disability," which was the second part of a monthly series we are running on "Our Children's Brains." Here's a sampling of the feedback...

Scientists explain brain development - MIT and UCSF neuroscientists say their new theory of how the brain's cortex forms disproves the old "protomap" and "protocortex" hypotheses. The cerebral cortex processes particular aspects of sensation, movement and cognition. The protomap and protocortex theories claimed the task-specific regions are either spawned by a zone of "originator" cells; or long nerve fibers from the thalamus -- a large ovoid mass that relays information to the cortex from other brain regions -- are activated by external stimuli to impose identity in the cortex. / Release

NC legislative leaders announce autism committee - North Carolina's legislative leaders have created a committee to help emergency responders develop practices for dealing with autistic people. The committee will study education, training and response policies. The committee is based on work done by a task force that looked at the need for policy changes related to treating people with autism. By the AP

Problems for Autism School - A school for severely autistic children in Montreal is in crisis. Employees have been assaulted 721 times since the beginning of this school year. The kids have given them 163 bites, 61 punches, 109 scratches and 388 other injuries. That doesn't even take into account the assaults on each other - or on themselves. There are only about 100 students at Etincelle, all of which are moderately or severely autistic. It's a last stop before the children need to be hospitalized. But La Presse reports that when it was announced in June that the school would stop getting 300-thousand dollars a year in government funding, about a dozen employees gave up and left. And a well-trained staff is needed. Among the 100 students at Etincelle, 40 repeatedly try to runaway, 55 shout and cry, 40 wear diapers, and 25 hurt themselves. Only 5 can get around the school by themselves.

Students With Autism Serving On The Student Council - Just last week in the homework folder I learned that my son Nicholas, who is ten, high functioning on the Autism Spectrum in the fourth grade was running for Treasurer on the Student Council. He had a paper that listed three questions he needed to respond to within his speech. The Student Council is open in the Elementary School to fourth and fifth graders. To this day I have yet to see anything about this in the school newsletter, so I have to rely on Nicholas's memory, which leaves a lot of details out. By Bonnie Sayers

The Age of Autism: `The facts say maybe` - A small text block on the cover of the current Columbia Journalism Review may be a lot bigger than it looks: 'Drug Test. Q: Does thimerosal cause autism? A: The press says no; the facts say maybe.' Thimerosal is the mercury preservative that was used in childhood vaccines; some parents and researchers blame it for an astonishing rise in autism diagnoses in the past decade, but the media has tended to treat the idea as dangerous, discredited 'junk science.''Steeped in controversy and intrigue, the thimerosal debate has all the makings of a compelling news story, yet it has been approached with caution by the news media, which, more often than not, don`t portray it as a legitimate scientific debate,' writes CJR Assistant Editor Daniel Schulman in the accompanying article. His closing line leaves no doubt that he thinks ... By Dan Olmstad

Autistic man gets 3-year sentence in ricin case - A mentally ill and disabled man was sentenced Tuesday to three years in a federal prison for violating his parole by trying to make the poison ricin. Attorneys for 38-year-old Robert Alberg, who has a form of autism called Asperger's syndrome and has been diagnosed with clinical depression and other mental illnesses, argued for leniency in U.S. District Court, saying that Alberg's unsuccessful attempts to brew the poison from castor beans posed no risk to the public.

Best-selling authors share a story from the forest with preschool / The lost fawn that wasn't really lost - About 50 preschool-aged children received a rare treat Wednesday as two New York Times best-selling authors made a stop at Central Michigan University Wednesday. Carl R. Sams and Jean Stoick, award-winning professional wildlife photographers from Milford, read their latest book "Lost in the Woods“ to children in the Human Growth and Development Laboratory.

Beluga Whales Help Autistic Children - Many parents have taken the autistic kids to Shanghai Changfeng Ocean World to play with the beluga whales after hearing the mammals helped a boy with autism. A couple said their child began to speak simple words after playing with the belugas several times. "The parents requested the beluga trainer let their child play with the belugas after a performance, as they heard that belugas' ultrasonic waves can stimulate the brain of autistic children, and the trainer agreed,"said Cao Huizhi, a manager at Changfeng Ocean World.

Can Childhood Vaccines Cause Autism? - The debate is heating up over the cause of an alarming increase in the number of childen with autism. Some parents blame childhood vaccines, but federal health officials say there's no scientific proof of any connection. Michaela Blaxill's parents say she was a normal baby, but that changed. "Sometime between her first and second year of life she slipped away, sort of quietly," says Michaela's father Mark Blaxill. "She lost the speech she had begun to acquire, she started disconnecting socially," he adds. By CBS4

It takes courage to tell mercury story - In 1988 the St. Paul Pioneer Press Dispatch won the Pulitzer Prize for feature writing. "AIDS in the Heartland" chronicled an AIDS patient from diagnosis to death. Setting the Pioneer Press apart was more than simply the passionate writing of reporter Jacqui Banaszynski. Great journalism has an attitude.

One perfect child / It cannot deliver designer babies, but embryonic genetic testing is boosting the success rate of IVF pregnancies, writes Clara Pirani - LAHRA Carey and her husband Ben Cowen had no time to waste. Desperate to have children and already in their 30s, the Melbourne couple was told medical complications would make it very difficult to conceive naturally. After 12 months of heartbreak on IVF treatment, they wanted to know why Lahra wasn't becoming pregnant. "I wanted to know if there was anything wrong with my eggs," Carey says.

Wellness Wisdom: Autism: The stranger within - Many people feet that they know what autism is if they have seen the movie “Rainman.” Certainly the character portrayed in the film represents one type of autistic individual. In truth, autism is a developmental disability that typically involves delays and impairments in social skills, language and behavior. Autism is a spectrum disorder, meaning that it affects different people in different ways. By Kym Arnold

When autism isn’ta disability - Marc Fleisher, who suffers with autism, tells Jeremy Campbell how he has learnt to rise above the condition. Marc Fleisher sits opposite me doing something which would have been impossible for him 20 years ago He is demonstrating how an object placed near on edge of a table can cause great anxiety. He does so in an extremely articulate way, and opens my eyes, illustrating clearly the challenges he has faced during his 38 year life. By Jeremy Campbell

Wrong to associate priest with notorious anti-Semite - Liam Kennedy's association of Fr Alec Reid with that notorious Redemptorist anti-Semite of 100 years ago, Fr John Creagh, really is the last straw (Belfast Telegraph, October 27). Professor Kennedy implies that Alec Reid was displaying a form of "ethnic autism" with his outburst. If I understand that odd term correctly, then it is just plain insulting to use it in relation to a man who spent 30 years trying to persuade the IRA to put away their guns, who gave last rites to dying British soldiers and who constantly engaged with people across the sectarian (emphatically not "ethnic") divide.

Diagnosing and coping with autism - The clock on the wall reads five minutes to 4 p.m. as 3-year-old Kaitlyn Lempert runs to her family's living room window asking, "Where's Logie?" She has her answer about 10 minutes later when her 6-year-old big brother steps off the school bus that stops in front of the Lempert's home. "Sissy. Cuddle. Please," requests Logan Lempert before his mother can help him take his coat off after he enters his home. "See," his mother, Donna Lempert says. "Every day, it's the same thing

Feuding Over Vaccines - It's a situation Northern Virginia pediatrician James R. Baugh says he and his partners find themselves confronting with increasing regularity: A parent, usually a mother, refuses a scheduled immunization because she has read on the Internet that it could cause her baby to develop autism. "My last patient just did it," said Baugh, who estimates he and his 11 partners each grapple with parents who refuse some or all immunizations about twice a month. Most recently, he said last week, the mother of a 2-month-old said she didn't want her daughter to receive the vaccine against measles, mumps and rubella or any other immunization federal health officials recommend to protect children from childhood diseases, some of them fatal. By Sandra G. Boodman

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy: Does It Work? - A shot of pure oxygen to cure what ails you. Sound too good to be true? Skeptics may scoff, but a growing number of athletes, celebrities, and just plain folks swear by the benefits of hyperbaric oxygen therapy - a trendy new treatment promising relief for everything from your aching back to serious health problems like diabetes, brain trauma, and even autism.

Judge refuses to delay libel case against Channel 4 -Channel 4 and warned claimants against using defamation proceedings as a tactical deterrent. The judge's comments came after a bid by Dr Andrew Wakefield to put his pending claim against Channel 4 on ice pending the outcome of General Medical Council proceedings against him. Dr Wakefield is suing Channel Four over a Dispatches programme, broadcast on 18 November last year and entitled "MMR (What They Didn't Tell You.)"  He claims the content of the programme alleged he had spread fear the measles mumps rubella (MMR) vaccine might lead to autism, even though his own laboratory had carried out tests which contradicted his own claims.  By Roger Pearson

Ramapo cop saves autistic man on rooftop - Training he received as teen counselor for the developmentally disabled helped a Ramapo police sergeant save a young man on a rooftop yesterday. Sgt. Robert Lancia went to East Concord Drive just after 6:30 p.m. yesterday after police were told a 2-year-old was stuck on the roof of a house. What Lancia found instead was a 22-year-old man with autism who had climbed atop the Hamaspik of Rockland group home and refused to come down.

Web Sites Weigh Problem of Posted Threats - Two weeks before William Freund donned a mask and cape and fatally shot two neighbors before killing himself, members of an online forum for people with a rare mental disorder read the 19-year-old's string of violent rantings. Freund's online musings and his pre-Halloween rampage raised fresh questions about the little-policed world of Internet discussion rooms: What, if anything, should Web site gatekeepers do when users post threatening messages online?

When it's hard to fit in - People can become social outcasts for lots of reasons. Such as, people get labeled as geeks or nerds when they're smart or good at something.  Doesn't seem fair, but that's reality.  Have you ever heard of someone being a social disaster because of too much imagination? There is such a thing.  It's called Asperger's syndrome. Bryce Hubbard is a senior at South Eugene High. He can be reached at 20Below@guardnet.com