At school childrens’ unique talents are not sought out and encouraged. In fact, there is no such thing as “the individual”. Unlike in the United States, where personal interests and talents are discovered at an early age and nurtured, everyone in China is expected to perform at the same level. There is no special class for “math people” or “art people” or “music people”. Everybody must be equally good at math, at art, at music. Differences are frowned upon.

Which is why kids with autism are not accepted into kindergartens or schools. If they can’t work in the classroom like the other students, they must not be in the classroom. If they stand out in any way, either by their appearance (students in China follow strict rules for uniforms, shoe color, even hairstyles) or their behavior, they are seen as a distraction to the other students and hinder their learning. Even the few special education schools that do exist in China cater to the hearing- and visually-impaired and those with intellectual disabilities; they lack the knowledge and skills to educate children with autism. Autism “the loneliness disease” is still a new term in China, and there is very little awareness of the condition. Children with autism are therefore rejected from both the mainstream and special education system. Parents see this as a complete failure; without education, can their kids still become functioning members of society?

There is an important cultural element at play here. In China’s collectivistic culture, everyone must conform to the norm and contribute to society at large. Parents of autistic children believe that their children 1) don’t fit in, and 2) cannot contribute to society. But who is and what is really “normal”? And what exactly constitutes contribution to society? That’s another discussion in and of itself.

Because they cannot attend school, staying home becomes the only option for most children with autism in China, putting tremendous pressure on their parents. Fortunately, because extended families in China tend to live together, children with autism are often cared for by their grandparents. However, they may still lose all chances of developing any potential talents that they may have had. Furthermore, the Chinese government does not provide insurance or any form of assistance for the disabled. This is why parents are so intent on “normalizing” their children. Society does not accept their kids stereotypes and atypical behaviors, so parents have difficulty accepting them as well.

Autism is the fastest-growing developmental disability in the U.S., affecting 1 in 150 children. A recent survey by the National Autism Association found that 92% of respondents said their autistic child was at risk of wandering. This poses a great risk as these children are often unable to communicate where they live or even their name.

Recently, a new technology device was introduced to the market to help parents and caregivers with this problem. EmFinders EmSeeQ (pronounced m-seek) is a watch-like wearable device and service that works directly with our nation’s 9-1-1 system and caregivers to immediately locate adults and children with cognitive disabilities who wander.

Leigh Dusek, mother of five year old son Noah who has autism, has firsthand knowledge of the product. “When you have a child who likes to wander, you live with fear. Even if you are holding onto him, it takes seconds for him to slip right out and disappear. EmSeeQ gives us peace of mind knowing he can be found no matter where he is.”

For further peace of mind, a “two handed clasp” version is available so that the child cannot remove the device on his or her own. When a child’s life is on the line, every second counts. Stories of autistic children and adults who wander are happening in the news every day and often, the consequences are tragic.

EmFinders™ is a technology company with a single focus: the rapid location and recovery of wandering or missing adults and children. Our first product consists of an affordable wearable device and activation service, which are linked to 911 emergency response systems. It takes advantage of existing cellular telephone location technology, which already is in place in 90 percent of the USA. EmFinders will introduce this device and location service first in Texas by spring of 2009.

EmFinders was founded in 2007 by the team of Jim Nalley and Chris Buehler, who together have over 40 years of experience in the communications industry. The company is a “graduate” of the North Texas Enterprise Center for Medical Technology (NTEC) in Frisco, Texas north of Dallas.

There’s no evidence that digestive problems are more common in children with autism compared with other children, or that special diets work, a panel of experts reports in the January issue of Pediatrics.

Painful digestive problems can trigger problem behavior in children with autism and should be treated medically, the panel said.

“There are a lot of barriers to medical care to children with autism,” said the report’s lead author, Dr. Timothy Buie of Harvard Medical School. “They can be destructive and unruly in the office, or they can’t sit still. The nature of their condition often prevents them from getting standard medical care.”

The report refutes the controversial idea that there’s a digestive problem specific to autism called “leaky gut” or “autistic enterocolitis.” For now, the report states, available information doesn’t support special diets for autism.

Actress Jenny McCarthy promotes special diets in her book Louder Than Words, which detailed her search for treatments for her autistic son.

As autism continues to overwhelm our children and health officials still haven’t figured out if there’s a problem, the Internet has become a source for answers for countless thousands. The mainstream media rarely deviates from announcing the latest autism gene study and giving us the standard claim that no one knows if more kids have autism. Vaccines have been exonerated. Major news sources work to lull the public into autism acceptance. Autism happens; we just need to adjust and accommodate it.

Any rational adult can recognize that something is very wrong. A generation of children is now afflicted with a disorder no one ever heard about 30 years ago. Kids like this weren’t around when we were young. Enter the Internet. Real information is a click away. Sources that never make the network news can be found there.

The work of Steven Higgs, editor and publisher of The Bloomington Alternative since 2002, deserves recognition by the autism community.
Here is his own description of the blog’s creation: “It’s been a year since John McCain piqued my reporter’s curiosity about the parallel epidemics of autism and environmental pollution that have swept our nation the past couple decades, a journalistically productive and, sadly, intellectually reaffirming 12-month period, to be sure.

Since the Arizona senator announced on the campaign trail last year that he would find the cause of autism if elected, I have pursued the question through interviews with parents, clinicians, advocates, physicians and researchers; stories, articles and books; and more than a few studies and videos. I’ve also published nearly a dozen-and-a-half stories on the subject in The Bloomington Alternative, CounterPunch online and print editions, NUVO and IU Alumni Magazine.

So far, nothing I’ve found contradicts my initial premise that toxic pollution is a contributing factor to the meteoric rise we’ve seen in the incidence of autism. To the contrary, that argument seems more plausible today than it did when I began this time last year. All signs point to “yes,” so I am taking this project to the next level.

Phase II, as it were, will involve a more in-depth analysis of the connection between environmental pollution and autism in Indiana, within a new literary framework. From this point forward, the online aspect of this project will be called the “Autism and the Indiana Environment” blog. And it will involve research for a book with a working title of “Autism and the Environment: Indiana, Industrial Pollution and Developmental Disabilities,” as well as more freelance writing.”

What Causes Autism?

More and more research is pointing toward autism being an epigenetic disorder. This means that it is not purely a genetic disorder which can not be treated. But in fact, certain switches on the genes can be influenced by environmental factors. These are called at epigenetic triggers. These switches on the genes are influenced and can be flipped on and off by environmental factors. These multi-factorial triggers may be anything from a toxin such as mercury or lead, to prenatal and postnatal stress, delays in motor development such as crawling and walking among others. The significance is that if the switches can be flipped on they can be flipped off. This would make autism treatable.

Autism Signs and Symptoms

Although autism symptoms are varied depending on how far along the spectrum the child is. Usually, there are three core areas that typically are involved, these are social, communication and repetitive movements or limited interest. The communication aspect is usually ascertained by the age of three when there is delayed or absent speech. The “aut” in the autism refers to self. As in being by themselves, and not socially interacting with the world and others. Many times there are sensory integration issues. An increase or decrease sensitivity to various sensory input such as sight (light bothers them), sound (scared to walk into home depot), touch (doesn’t like the way clothes feel on there skin, etc.) The child may stim using repetitive movements such as rocking and flapping motions of the body and hands. The child may be fascinated by certain subjects such as dinosaurs or video games. He may have a hyper focus with certain toys or pieces of toys.

Facts about Autism

• 1 in 150 children is diagnosed with autism
• 1 in 94 boys is on the autism spectrum
• 67 children are diagnosed per day

• A new case is diagnosed almost every 20 minutes
• More children will be diagnosed with autism this year than with AIDS, diabetes & cancer combined
• Autism is the fastest-growing serious developmental disability in the U.S.
• Autism costs the nation over $35 billion per year, a figure expected to significantly increase in the next decade
• Autism receives less than 5% of the research funding of many less prevalent childhood diseases
• Boys are four times more likely than girls to have autism

• There is no medical detection or cure for autism

“Imagine if you could exercise weak areas of the brain like you can exercise your muscles. These kids have weak neurological pathways that lead to areas of the brain not being able to communicate with each other. This loss of coordinated brain function leads to loss of the higher human function such as executive planning, language and social skills (nonverbal and verbal) as well as behavioral and academic problems. We use a neurological rehabilitation program called Sensory Motor Hemispheric Integration Therapy to exercise the weak pathways and neural circuits to bring about improved physiologic capacity and learning ability.” Autism is a complex neurobiological disorder that appears during the first three years of life. It impairs the ability for one to communicate and interact with others. It is defined by certain behaviors and is classified as a “spectrum disorder” affecting individuals differently and varies in degrees. It is related with routines and repetitive behaviors. Behaviors range from mild to severe. Autism was first identified in 1943 by Dr. Leo Kanner of Johns Hopkins Hospital. At the same time, a German scientist, Dr. Hans Asperger, described a milder form of the disorder that is now known as Asperger Syndrome. These two disorders are listed in the DSM IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) as two of the five developmental disorders that fall under the autism spectrum disorders. The others are Rett Syndrome, PDD NOS (Pervasive Developmental Disorder), and Childhood Disintegrative Disorder. All of these disorders are characterized by varying degrees of impairment in communication skills and social abilities, and also by repetitive behaviors. With Autism being a dysfunction within several areas of the brain and body it doesn’t mean damage or disease, so just a few areas and systems may not be functioning as they could be.

I had heard of Lupron being touted as a cure for autism, but until reading this four-page article in the Chicago Tribune, I had no idea how widespread its use had become. Quite honestly, I assumed that most parents had the common sense to walk away from something as risky and unproven as a drug created to produce chemical castration. Here’s how the article begins:

Desperate to help their autistic children, hundreds of parents nationwide are turning to an unproven and potentially damaging treatment: multiple high doses of a drug sometimes used to chemically castrate sex offenders.

The therapy is based on a theory, unsupported by mainstream medicine, that autism is caused by a harmful link between mercury and testosterone. Children with autism have too much of the hormone, according to the theory, and a drug called Lupron can fix that.

“Lupron is the miracle drug,” Dr. Mark Geier of Maryland said after meeting with an autistic patient in suburban Chicago.

The idea of Lupron as a miracle cure for autism seems to have arisen from a finding by Dr. Simon Baron-Cohen that there is an association between autism and heightened exposure to testosterone in the womb. It’s important to note that Baron-Cohen absolutely repudiates the idea that Lupron should be used to treat autism:

“The idea of using it with vulnerable children with autism, who do not have a life-threatening disease and pose no danger to anyone, without a careful trial to determine the unwanted side effects or indeed any benefits, fills me with horror,” he said.

Bottom line: stay away from Lupron. Stay away from any risky intervention that is not absolutely proven – through replicated, peer-reviewed, blinded studies – to be effective. In fact, in the case of autism, I personally veer toward risk-free interventions whenever possible.

A goal is written into your child’s IEP because the IEP team:
1. knows it is an important skill, and
2. knows the student cannot accomplish the goal without specialized instruction.

Using a homework assignment booklet is a good strategy for children with ADHD AND Autism. It is a helpful tool for developing organizational skills. When it is written into the IEP as a goal, it is an instructional objective, not a method of discipline.

If the teacher fails to meet the instructional objective, it makes no sense to punish the child. It is the teacher’s failure. She has not taught your child what he needs to be able to do in order the reach the goal.

Ask this question: Are all students in the school required to have an agenda signed, or only special education students?

Is this a written school policy? Have you seen a copy of the policy? Even if it is not written, it appears to be a school wide practice.

You need to request a meeting of the IEP team to review the IEP. Discuss this goal.

* Is it appropriate?
* How is it being implemented?

The intent of the IEP is to design a program of specialized instruction to help your child progress and reach his individualized goals. The team should expect that your child can reasonably achieve his goals with the appropriate instruction, rather than writing into the IEP how he will be “punished” if he does not.

Explain your situation to the school and work with the IEP team to change this practice.

Autism is a sensory disability in which everything your child sees, hears, feels, tastes and smells is distorted.
They may see every strand of hair on your head individually with more detail than a Dandruff commercial, hence the need to push your hair off your face.
They may taste food in individual components that make the slightest change to the recipe seem like an entirely different food.
Touch can be too light to feel or too intense to bear, or both!
And sound most unfortunately can be very distorted, either because they hear everything and cannot tune in to what’s important, ie. your voice, or because they only hear the higher sounds or the lower sounds that are in their environment.

There are a myriad of variations on these “Unders and Overs” and no two children are alike. (Believe me I have a sample of two!)
So, imagine if you like, that having autism is a bit like being in a very busy foreign capital city where you don’t speak the language and everyone is too busy to give you directions.

You can’t read the street signs and you cannot understand what people are saying to you, or even pick up on any kind of pattern in the words they are using, as everyone talks too fast. The traffic is loud, it is really hot and you want a drink; but you don’t know how to ask for it and nobody can understand you.
Eventually you are going to recognize which shops are likely to have drinks for sale, but you will probably going to feel more comfortable going into a place where you can get it yourself.

That is how your child feels.

That is why they do not learn to imitate speech and ask for things, but instead lead you to what they want or build complex towers of chairs and climb up to get the things they need, rather than just ask for them.

That is why they often learn to read and count and do puzzles, because those things have a recognisable and consistent order; before they learn to say Mama or Dadda.

When I travel I quickly learn the written word for supermarket (Alimentari, Supermarche, Supermercado) and Toilet (Servisos) but it takes me a long time to pick up on what people are saying as they speak so fast, often with an accent or variable dialect.

When a child with autism looks at you out of the crib, they are being bombarded by such a range of sights, sounds and sensations that they are not going to pick up on your reactions. They may appear to have picked up a few words, which they use randomly, but will not necessarily, notice your reaction to the words.

A typically developing child will realize that you react and praise the first time they chance on that sound, and do it again. The autistic child will be distracted by the fantastic prism the light is making through the window, or pins and needles sensation they get every time you touch them or any one of a number of sensory over and under loads. So they have a lot of distraction when it comes to imitation and learning.

And that’s where the structured breakdown of the skills they need comes in.

“In autism there are lots of opinions and very little data,” says Lisa Croen, Ph.D. Research Scientist in the Division of Research at Kaiser Permanente in Northern California. In the past few years, however, some consensus has emerged on at least a few new pieces of the puzzle. As the research progresses, it will be easier to see the relationships among findings — and to tease out the appropriate treatments for each individual on the autism spectrum.About 25% of autistic people have digestive issues; 25% have seizure disorders; many have sleep problems. Recent findings suggest that the many different symptoms may actually indicate many different causes — and thus many different “autisms.” A massive study now underway at UC Davis’s M.I.N.D. Institute is in the process of separating out different autistic phenotypes with the hope that this information will speed better understanding of causes and treatments.
Autism has a genetic component: Autism is hereditary, in that children with autistic people in their family are more likely than other children to be autistic. Researchers are well on the way to finding genes that relate to autism — but the jury is still out regarding exactly how such genes might function to create autistic symptoms. Sophia Colamarino, Science Program Director at Cure Autism Now, explains,”We’re talking about genes because they allow us to understand the biological origins of the problem.”
There is a Relationship Between Autism and Brain Structure: Recent brain studies show that autistic brains grow at an unusual rate between age 1 and 2, and then slow again to a normal rate of growth. Some imaging studies suggest that certain areas of the brain are larger than is typical. Research is ongoing to determine whether these differences in brain structure cause autism, are caused by autism, or are co morbid with autism and caused by something else.
There Is a Relationship Between Autism and Brain Activity: Recent brain imaging studies show that autistic people and typically developing people do not use their brains in the same way. Autistic people do not use their brains to “daydream” in the same way as most people, nor do they process information about faces in the same way. So far, while we know that this information is true, we don’t know what causes these differences — or whether these differences somehow cause autistic symptoms.
There Is a Relationship Between Autism and Brain Chemicals: Chemicals in the brain transmit signals which allow the brain to function normally. Sophia Colamarino explains: “Nerve cells communicate using electrochemical signals; there is evidence from many different domains that the ability of the brain to transfer information may be defective.” An understanding of which transmitters are problemmatic may lead to effective treatments.
Genes Probably Interact with Environmental Factors: It is likely that genetics and environmental factors interact to cause autism. As yet, there is no proof of which environmental or genetic factors are to blame. Says Dr. Croen, autism “You need some kind of genetic susceptibility; then you have to be exposed to something which is elusive at the moment. This would be the impetus that sends you into autism.”
No One Factor Causes Autism: It is unlikely that any one factor — vaccines, foods, or environmental toxins — is the cause of autism. “To find clues about the cause,” says Dr. Croen, “we have to do really large studies to look at different configurations of co-morbidities… see what’s unique about each separate group.” New research will be address the questions “How do these circles overlap? What is the common thread?”