Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

Items 1 through 21 have been deleted, since they are primarily for families
living in Virginia and Maryland, and I did not want to send useless
information to the folks in the rest of the country. However, please let me
know if you live in Virginia, Maryland or DC; so that I can add you to my
private email distribution list for events in those states.


22. Free Eyeglasses. Lenscrafters will be sponsoring a community day on
December 5th. If you have a youth in need of new glasses, contact a
Lenscrafters in your area and get their prescriptions filled for free.
You'll need a valid prescription and a letter from an organization stating
financial need (with the organization's tax ID # on it). For more
information, visit / www.givethegiftofsight.org.

23. ASTRAZENECA EXPANDS FREE MEDICINE PROGRAM. NOW OFFERED TO FAMILIES
EARNING UP TO $60,000 ANNUALLY. If you or someone you know lacks
prescription drug coverage, a prescription assistance program may be able to
provide significant help in paying for medicines. And one company,
AstraZeneca, is making it even easier to get into one of those programs.
Starting Nov. 15, AstraZeneca's program will offer free medicines to people
who earn $30,000 a year or less, or a family of four making up to $60,000 a
year. The company made the income guidelines more generous, raising the
limit to get assistance from 250 percent to approximately 300 percent of the
government-determined Federal Poverty Level (FPL). For 3.8[1] million more
people, this means they could have new access to the medicines they need.
AstraZeneca's program is for people of all ages who are uninsured. The
program directly helps those in the middle class as well as those with lower
incomes. People with drug coverage experiencing financial hardship,
including people with Medicare Part D, may also apply to the program for
interim assistance. "People struggle every day to pay for their health care.
Part of AstraZeneca's core commitment to patients is to enable those who
can't afford our medicines to get them, regardless of their ability to pay,"
said Tony Zook, President and CEO, AstraZeneca US. "Expanding this program
means that a family earning the median US household income of around $46,000
will be able to qualify for our program-we think that's a significant step
in the right direction." The AstraZeneca program doesn't stop at providing
free medicines. The company will also provide one-on-one education and
information to help people find out about health insurance coverage that
they might be able to afford and obtain, including public and private
programs. The AstraZeneca call center operators will even help someone find
out about programs that aren't associated with AstraZeneca. If you or
someone you know needs to learn more, they can call the AstraZeneca PAP toll
free at 1-800-424-3727 or visit http://www.astrazeneca-us.com/drugassistance
or visit www.azandme.com after November 16th.

24. Online Survey about Health and Wellness for CSHCN. by Barbara Popper,
Family Voices Staff. Little is known about health and wellness promotion for
children with special health needs. The Family Voices and Tufts University
research team invites you to complete an anonymous online survey about
Health and Wellness for Children with Special Health Care Needs. The team is
looking for as many responses as possible from families who have children, 6
- 18 years old, with special health care needs (this includes special mental
health/behavioral/emotional needs). The aim of the survey is to learn how
families promote health and wellness for their children with special needs
in the areas of food choices, physical activity and screen time (TV and
computers). It takes about 20 minutes to complete and must be completed in
one sitting. Please go to http://go.tufts.edu/familymatters
<http://join.buddywalk.org/site/R?i=J5AcI4s7S9w5GtNeUDGJPA..> to access the
survey. The survey does not ask for identifying information; it only asks
for the name of your state and your child's age. The survey will be on-line
until December 31, 2006. Our results will be shared broadly with health
professionals, government agencies, other families and researchers in the
hope they will be better able to support healthier lifestyles for children
with special health needs, directly or indirectly through their agencies.
The Family Matters Health & Wellness Project is a partnership between Family
Voices and Tufts University School of Medicine and is funded by the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). If you have any questions, please
contact: Barbara Popper [bpopper@...], Paula Minihan
[paula.minihan@...], or Aviva Must [aviva.must@...].

25. Autism Study. Jamie Cho is a doctoral student in the Education
Department at the University of California at Berkeley. My advisor is Susan
Holloway, Ph.D. who is an adjunct professor in the Graduate School of
Education at University of California at Berkeley. I am conducting a study
investigating the beliefs and practices of Asian-American and Anglo-American
mothers of preschoolers and kindergarteners with autism spectrum disorders.
Specifically, this study will examine parents' beliefs about disability,
their roles and beliefs about parenting and their involvement in their
child's education. I would like to invite you to participate in this study.
This study involves a survey that will take you no more than 30 minutes to
complete. The survey will ask you to answer questions about the way you
participate in your child education, the qualities you would like your child
to develop, the attitudes you have about disability, and your beliefs about
being a parent. For completing the survey, you will receive a $15 gift
certificate to Target as well as be entered into a drawing for a $200 Spa
Finder gift certificate which can be redeemed at 2500 spa/massage locations
nationwide. You can also choose to participate in one optional 60 minute
interview. The total time of participation should be no more than 2 hours.
The interview will take place at a time and location that is convenient for
you. I will be asking you about your beliefs about disability and parenting.
You will be asked some sensitive questions about your child's diagnosis and
your hopes for your child's future. If you are interested in participating
in this study and meet the criteria: (a) Anglo-American or 2nd generation
Chinese, Japanese, or Korean American (e.g. you were born in the United
States with immigrant parents or you immigrated to the United States before
the age of 14), (b) you have a child with autism in preschool or
kindergarten, you can contact me, Jamie Cho, directly at 510)594-1065 or
jamie118@....

26. You can look up any disciplinary action taken against any practitioner
licensed by the Department of Health Professions by going to the website:
http://www.dhp.virginia.gov/ and clicking on License Lookup on the left hand
menu. You can also read the specifics of any complaint, at least the formal
charges and correspondence of record, from any of these cases, if you click
on the word "yes" (in cases where action has been taken, the word "Yes"
appears in red under that heading).

27. Federal Register Comment Request - IDEA Part D Comprehensive Plan. On
November 27 a notice was posted in the Federal Register inviting comments on
the IDEA Part D Comprehensive Plan. The complete notice is attached and can
also be found at
http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/01jan20061800/edocket.access.gpo.gov
/2006/pdf/06-9404.pdf. Comments are due January 11, 2007.

28. "Bullying and Peer Victimization Among Children With Special Health
Care Needs" by Jeanne Van Cleave, MD and Matthew M. Davis, MD MAPP in the
October edition of the Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics at
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/118/4/e1212.

"BACKGROUND. Dr Van Cleave's current address is Department of Pediatrics,
Center for Child and Adolescent Health Policy, MassGeneral Hospital for
Children, 50 Staniford St, Room 901, Boston, MA 02114. The association
between bullying, being bullied, or being a bully/victim and having a
special health care need has not been well described in a national sample of
children with a broad variety of special needs.

OBJECTIVE. We aimed to determine the prevalence of bullying, being bullied,
or being a bully/victim in children with special health care needs and
associations of behaviors with particular types of special needs.

DESIGN. We performed a secondary data analysis using the National Survey of
Children's Health, a nationally representative telephone survey conducted by
the National Center for Health Statistics of >102000 US households.

METHODS. We measured associations between having a special health care need
and being a victim of bullying, bullying other children, and being a
bully/victim in children and adolescents aged 6 to 17 years. Multiple
logistic-regression models were used to examine the association of children
with special health care needs overall, and of particular special needs,
with the bullying measures.

RESULTS. Overall, children with special health care needs were 21% of the
population. In multivariate models adjusting for sociodemographic factors,
being a child with special health care needs was associated with being
bullied but not with bullying or being a bully/victim. Having a chronic
behavioral, emotional, or developmental problem was associated with bullying
others and with being a bully/victim.

CONCLUSIONS. Having a special health care need generally is associated with
being bullied, and having a behavioral, emotional, or developmental problem
is associated with bullying others and being a bully/victim. These findings
may help pediatricians, mental health providers, and schools use targeted
screening and interventions to address bullying for children with special
health care needs."

29. "First Teen Vaccination Delivery Program In The Country Funded By
Boston Celtics" dated 10 November 2006 in a press release from The Miriam
Hospital at http://medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=56072.

"Reflecting a long-standing commitment to the youth in New England, The
Miriam Hospital and Boston Celtics have teamed up to develop the Boston
Celtics "Team Vaccinates Teens" program - the first program in the country
that will test and explore vaccine delivery strategies to adolescents.
Highly safe and effective vaccines that can prevent Human Papilloma Virus
(HPV) and other sexually transmitted diseases are only beneficial if they
are successfully dispersed to the critical age group of adolescents. Through
a $25,000 grant from The Boston Celtics Shamrock Foundation, researchers at
The Miriam Hospital will collaborate with organizations distributing the HPV
vaccine to adolescents at high-risk for contracting the disease. The goal of
"Team Vaccinates Teens" is for researchers to learn what structures are
effective for engaging youth in an extended vaccination program, creating a
model that will eventually allow for delivery of an HIV vaccine once one
becomes available. For more than ten years, The Miriam Hospital has been
one of the 30 sites in the world that is researching and testing HIV
vaccines for adults in the HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN). It is expected
that HIV vaccine trials will be open to adolescents in approximately two to
four years. "The goal - which we believe it is achievable - is to license
and deliver an effective HIV vaccine within ten years," said Michelle Lally,
MD, medical director of the HIV vaccine trials at The Miriam Hospital.
"However, if an effective HIV vaccine was approved tomorrow, we would not be
able to successfully administer it to the youth in New England without a
distribution plan in place. This generous grant allows us to start to test
vaccine modalities among adolescents so when anticipated vaccines become
available, we can efficiently deliver them to high-risk youth." "The Boston
Celtics Shamrock Foundation is proud to collaborate with The Miriam Hospital
to create the first program in the nation to test vaccine delivery methods
to high-risk youth," said Stephen Lewinstein, part-owner of the Boston
Celtics. "With half of all diagnosed AIDS patients today under the age of
25, a safe and effective vaccine is the best way to control the spread of
this deadly disease. Through the combined strengths of those involved in the
'Team Vaccinates Teen' program, we will ensure that when a HIV vaccine is
approved it will make a significant and direct impact on infection rates in
adolescents." Although participation in adult HIV vaccine trials has
increased in recent years, several misconceptions about the trials remain
that researchers expect to hinder adolescent participation. Among the most
popular inaccuracy is that a potential HIV vaccine can cause a participant
to contract the disease, which is impossible. Since the adolescents targeted
in "Team Vaccinates Teens" are also potential candidates for future HIV
vaccine trials, this program will help researchers move toward
implementation of an HIV vaccine program for high-risk youth that minimizes
or eliminates barriers to participation."

30. "Tackling a culture of bullying" dated 16 November 2006 in a comment
article by Sir Alan Steer in the BBC News (UK) at
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/6151928.stm.

"Sir Alan Steer, a serving head teacher who led the government's inquiry
into behavioural problems in schools, explains why bullying must be tackled.
This year's anti-bullying week - which takes place on 20-24 November -
serves as a timely reminder that bullying is one of the most significant
challenges schools face. We know that bullying can cause intense damage,
both psychological and physical, to children and young people. We also know
that it is a complex and deep-rooted issue, for which there are no simple
answers. Since September 1999 it has been a requirement for schools in
England and Wales to have an anti-bullying policy, which enables them to
handle bullying if and when it occurs. These policies are likely to reflect
the overall culture and needs of the individual school, with - as Department
for Education and Skills guidance recommends - a system of sanctions and
rewards, to be applied appropriately according to the severity of the
situation. But dealing with specific incidents of bullying is not enough:
schools also need strategies for longer term prevention. This means going
beyond the immediate situation to look at the behavioural context in which
bullying occurs. Silent approval.
There is a wealth of evidence to show that when others stand by and do
nothing it can encourage bullying behaviour: indeed, one US study, published
in 2001, describes the bystander as "the invisible engine in the cycle of
bullying". Bystanders may not actively assist bullying, but their failure
to intervene can give a message of silent approval, fostering an environment
in which bullying can thrive. Of course, intervening is not always easy.
While most children and young people recognise bullying and know that it is
wrong, there are many different reasons why they may feel unable to act.
They may be afraid that they will become the target for bullying themselves;
they may feel that it is none of their business; they may simply not know
what to do or who to tell. Yet if we are to succeed in preventing bullying,
it is vital for schools to promote a culture where it is not tolerated, and
where children and young people feel able to speak out when they witness it.
In some cases this may mean challenging other prevailing cultures both
within the school and in the wider community. One example is children's own
dislike of "snitching" or "grassing". This may derive from a sense of
loyalty to the peer group, but it may also be prompted by a fear of the
consequences of speaking out. Will adults fail to listen or to take the
situation seriously? Or will they over-react, and make things worse? ..."

31. "Jury awards $2 million verdict against school for autistic children
<http://www.boston.com/news/globe/city_region/breaking_news/2006/11/jury_awa
rds_2_m.html> " dated 17 November 2006 by Michael Naughton from the Boston
Globe at
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/city_region/breaking_news/2006/11/jury_awar
ds_2_m.html.

"A Suffolk County jury awarded $2 million today to the family of an autistic
boy who was abused at a private school for autistic children in Randolph,
the lawyers for the family said. The jury found Robert Fantasia, the
executive director of the Boston Higashi School; three teachers; a doctor;
and an administrator at the school responsible for the physical abuse caused
to Scott Tedeman. The student's family said it discovered the abuse in 2000
and later withdrew him from the school where he was a residential student
for 14 years. School officials could not be immediately reached for
comment. Boston Higashi, one of more than 200 private special education
schools where Massachusetts students can attend on state-financed tuition,
is known for its unorthodox methods of teaching autistic students. Last
year, a former teacher was convicted of injuring a student."

32. "New strategies urged for 'learning disabled'- Experts pushing for more
help for struggling readers" dated 20 November 2006 by Berny Morson from the
Rocky Mountain News at
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/education/article/0,1299,DRMN_957_5157
346,00.html.

"Large numbers of students diagnosed with learning disabilities could be
helped by better reading instruction, particularly in the lower grades,
state education officials believe. More than 30,000 Colorado students are
considered learning disabled - the largest handicap category among the
state's 83,000 special education students. Numbers are similar in other
states. But educators now believe most of those students aren't handicapped
at all. They were just allowed to fall so far behind that they look like
they're handicapped, said Ed Steinberg, a psychologist who heads the
Colorado Department of Education's special education unit. "They're
instructionally disabled, not learning disabled," Steinberg said. Steinberg
believes that more than 50 percent of learning disabled students are
misclassified. He said a similar percentage of the 20,642 students
classified with speech or language disabilities also may be misdiagnosed.
He's recommending a strategy in which teachers intervene massively at the
first sign a student is falling behind in reading. The method calls for
diagnosis of just what part of reading the child doesn't understand, along
with one-on-one tutoring. Only after such methods have failed would the
child be tested for learning disabilities. Steinberg's view is backed by
educators statewide who agree that too many kids are being misclassified as
learning disabled. Several schools in Jefferson County, the state's largest
school district, already are trying early intervention, said special
education director Ruth Stern. "There's a body of research at this point
that is telling us that many, many kids identified as having a learning
disability are identified (that way) because they can't read," Stern said.
"And the research is telling us that most of these kids can be taught to
read." All schools in Colorado Springs are moving to the new method, said
Bob Howell, the special education director for Distinct 11, which has been
experimenting with early intervention for several years. A state task force
is being assembled to help other districts learn the new method, a process
that could take up to five years. At issue is a brain dysfunction -
sometimes called "crossed wires" - that blocks learning. Reading problems
are usually the first sign. In practice, few learning disabilities are
diagnosed through a neurological exam. The process is too expensive and the
science is in its infancy, Steinberg said. The diagnosis usually comes by
process of elimination - where nothing else explains the child's failure to
learn. Sheila Buckley, of Englewood, advocacy director for the Learning
Disabilities Association of Colorado, is skeptical of the misdiagnoses
theory. Nonetheless, she said the intervention strategy is a good idea - if
teachers are adequately trained. ..."

33. "Uncertified Teachers Performing Well, Study Finds" dated 20 November
2006 by Sarah Garland from The New York Sun at
http://www.nysun.com/article/43827.

"Uncertified teachers end up performing just as well in the classroom as
certified teachers and alternatively trained teachers like Teaching Fellows,
a study to be released today says. The study's results appear to challenge
requirements under the federal No Child Left Behind Act that every classroom
have a "highly qualified" teacher, instead suggesting that schools should
put more emphasis on weeding out bad apples after the teachers have been
hired. "These are people who have no prior experience in teaching and they
go into the lowest performing schools, and they do just as well," a Columbia
University Business School professor, Jonah Rockoff, who co-authored the
study, said. "Where you went to college and what your GPA was doesn't seem
to tell you how good you're going to be in the classroom." In the study,
researchers at the Hoover Institution, a conservative think tank affiliated
with Stanford University, used standardized test scores to measure the
performance of New York City students taught by traditionally certified
teachers, uncertified teachers, and teachers who enter the profession
through alternative programs such as Teach for America and Teaching Fellows.
They found that while alternatively certified and uncertified teachers do
worse at first, they appear to improve at faster rates than traditionally
certified teachers in their first years on the job. By the teachers' third
year on the job, students of alternatively certified and uncertified
teachers are performing just as well as those of traditionally certified
teachers. That's good news for New York City public schools, since the
majority of new hires during the past five years have come through
alternative certification programs. Currently, a third of all teachers in
city schools received certification from an alternative program.
Alternative certification programs have grown in popularity around the
country since the No Child Left Behind law introduced a requirement that all
school districts have a "highly qualified" teacher - meaning a teacher with
a certificate - in every classroom by July 2006. New York City had already
been under pressure to hire more certified teachers after the state
education commissioner, Richard Mills, sued the city in 1999 for placing
uncertified teachers in the lowest performing schools. To meet the
requirements, the city invented the Teaching Fellow program in 2000 to
recruit teachers from other professions and speed them through the
certification process. The city has hired 9,000 Teaching Fellows since then.
The study shows that uncertified teachers, who are more likely to be
minorities than the other groups, end up doing just as well as the
alternatively and traditionally certified teachers. Since the Teaching
Fellows program was introduced, hiring of minority teachers has dropped
significantly, a trend that can be attributed to the effort to remove
uncertified teachers, Mr. Rockoff said. Statistics first reported by the
Amsterdam News showed that in 2001, 27% of new teachers were black, while
this year only 14% were black. The percentage of new Hispanic teachers has
also dropped. ..."

34. "Absent enemies- Much truancy is caused by bullying, new research
shows. Why aren't schools able to prevent this?" dated 21 November 2006 by
Julie Bindel from The Guardian (UK) at
http://education.guardian.co.uk/schools/story/0,,1952770,00.html.

"Today 55,000 young people will be absent from school because they are being
bullied - that is one-third of all truancies. These shocking figures are
findings from research published this week by the charity Beatbullying (BB).
To mark Anti-Bullying Week, it has commissioned a hard-hitting TV
advertisement in an attempt to raise awareness about the links between
bullying and truancy. The research also found that there are strong,
irrefutable links between persistent truancy and a young person's
opportunities in later life. "What we have discovered for the first time
ever is an inarguable link between poor behaviour, bullying and absence from
school," says Niall Cowley, head of communications at BB. "Its effect on the
future workforce is disastrous." BB's research was conducted by
questionnaire, delivered via its website and completed by almost 2,600 young
people who reported being bullied in the past year, as well as a series of
intensive one-to-one interviews with individuals. It found that of all
young people bullied, almost half truant. Reasons given by interviewees
include: "So I could get somewhere I felt safe and somewhere I knew no one
could hurt me"; "I didn't want to go to school I suppose really for fear of
my life"; and "Because I felt worthless and hated". Strategies for young
people. BB is the UK first children's charity to devise anti-bullying
strategies for young people by young people, by organising seminars,
training courses and conferences for young people and professionals working
in the area, and providing professionals with comprehensive anti-bullying
tool kits. Its website has been described as "the most user-friendly and
innovative" website aimed at young people for educational purposes. Staff
can also offer one-to-one support to young people experiencing bullying.
"There are no class, gender or race issues with young people who bully or
who are bullied," says Emma-Jane Cross, chief executive of BB. "There are
different methods in different communities, so we need to tailor our
responses and make bespoke prevention programmes by listening to the needs
of young people." During the research, BB collated a number of case studies
of young people with whom it has worked that are "fairly typical" scenarios.
One such case is Karen, who experienced chronic bullying and was terrified
of going to school. When the bullying escalated, Karen had to choose whether
to go to school and face a torrent of insults, kicks and punches at the
hands of her bullies, or stay at home and risk her mother being sent to
prison for failing to ensure her attendance. "I would cry myself to sleep
some nights knowing that I might have to go back to school the next
morning," says Karen, "and that any day they could take me from my mum and
put her in prison." Although the police were called and the girls concerned
given warnings, Karen did not return to school in September as she was too
afraid. However, when her mother received a letter threatening court action,
Karen felt that she had to go back. The bullies struck immediately, hitting
her in the corridor and during lessons. The girls were given detentions, but
Karen was now so terrified, she stayed at home. ..."

35. "Those Who Pass Classes But Fail Tests Cry Foul" dated 23 November 2006
by Ian Shapira from The Washington Post at
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/21/AR2006112100
075.html.

"Sylvia James hardly considers herself clueless in mathematics. After all,
she finished sixth grade with a B-plus in the subject and made the Honor
Roll, which she saw as a victory in a challenging year of fraction
conversion and decimal placement. But what happened when she took the state
math test? She flunked it. Now, by that measure, Virginia considers the
12-year-old below par in math. "I was kind of shocked," said Sylvia, who
attends Herbert J. Saunders Middle School in Prince William County. "I just
thought I was going to pass it because I always usually pass everything
else. I guess I went through the test pretty quickly." Many students in the
Washington region are suffering from academic split personalities. Driven by
the federal No Child Left Behind law and tougher state diploma standards,
the testing blitz has left these students in a curious limbo: They pass
their classes with B's and C's yet fail the state exams. These cases
surface frequently, with one local high school reporting, for example, that
a quarter of students in beginning algebra passed the course but failed the
state test. The discrepancies have emerged amid fierce debate over the role
of testing in public education. Supporters of the federal law say
standardized exams are the best way to raise academic standards and the only
way to hold schools accountable for results. Critics complain that time
spent on test preparation saps classroom creativity and that test scores are
just one indicator among many of student achievement. Students and teachers
offer an array of explanations for why test scores sometimes fail to match
up with grades. Some students don't take the exams seriously. Some freeze
up. Still others trip over unfamiliar language. And teachers sometimes are
not prepped in what the exams cover, especially when the tests are new.
Occasionally, some school officials suspect, classes aren't rigorous enough
to prepare students adequately. Whatever the reason, the fact that some
bright students struggle on state exams upends the perception that only the
worst students fail them. "This is a warning sign that there's something
out of tilt in the system," said Jack Jennings, president of the Center on
Education Policy in Washington, which tracks how states implement the
federal law. The law requires annual state testing in reading and math for
all students from grades 3 to 8 and at least once in high school. The
results are used to rate schools, and those that fall short of adequate
progress are threatened with sanctions. States often add more tests in high
school that students must pass to graduate. ..."

36. "Autism picture still incomplete" dated 22 November 2006 by LIDIA
WASOWICZ from United Press International at
http://www.upi.com/ConsumerHealthDaily/view.php?StoryID=20061121-020244-9498
r.

"Right or wrong, the comparatively minuscule minority convinced mercury in
medicines lies at the root of autism's ascent has something the American
healthcare behemoth does not: a cause. Going against the mainstream grain,
some parents and physicians tie neurodevelopmental and certain other chronic
health problems increasingly diagnosed in America's children to the
mercury-based preservative thimerosal, once widely used in vaccines and
still present in some booster and flu shots. Others are convinced potential
harm also may lurk in other components of the ever-expanding childhood
immunization schedule. "It is just as logical to argue that the chronic
disease and disability epidemic that has developed during the past 25 years,
in which autism takes a leading role, is more associated with an increase in
the different types of live virus and inactivated bacterial vaccines given
to all children, as well as the increases in total number of doses, than it
is to one component of those many vaccines," said Barbara Loe Fisher,
co-founder and president of the advocacy group National Vaccine Information
Center. "Human infants have never in the history of man experienced their
environment in the way that they are now experiencing it, which includes
having their first immunological experience at 12 hours of age with an
atypical manipulation of the immune system when hepatitis B vaccine is
injected," she explained. "This is followed by continuing atypical
introduction of lab altered live viruses and inactivated bacteria into the
body during the first six years of life, including seven vaccines at 2
months, seven more at 4 months, eight more at 6 months ... (B)y age 6, a
child will have received 48 doses of 14 vaccines," Fisher said. "The
cumulative effects of over-vaccinating children, especially the effects of
simultaneous injection (of) many vaccines at once, whether the vaccines
contain mercury or not, is a plausible explanation for why so many children
today are chronically ill, suffering with a variety of brain and immune
system problems, including autism," Fisher concluded. To public health
authorities, however, the matter appears much less settled. "We just simply
don't have answers to the cause of this disorder or the disorders that fall
into the autism spectrum," said Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. The agency, which
has steadfastly denied a vaccine-autism association, has a workforce of more
than 9,000, an annual budget of more than $8 billion and a mission to
protect and promote public health. Gerberding told reporters at a news
briefing that "we don't have a complete picture of the scope of the
problem." Nor even of its definition. "We don't really understand that
whole landscape very well," conceded Dr. Thomas Insel, director of the
National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, Md. "We don't know where
the dividing point was, or is," he said at a conference on autism, sponsored
by the Brookings Institution in Washington. ..."

37. "Arrested for Epilepsy- When a Seizure Gets You Thrown in Jail" dated
23 November 2006 by JIM AVILA and LARA SETRAKIAN from ABC News at
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=2675812&page=1.

"Roughly 3 million Americans live with epilepsy. And a surprising number of
them go to jail for it. Why? Around the country, police officers and
bystanders who see someone having a seizure mistake it for disorderly,
criminal behavior. That's what happened to Daniel Beloungea of Pontiac,
Mich. On most days Daniel lives the normal life of a 48-year-old single man.
But roughly once a week, he loses total control of his body and mind to an
epileptic seizure. A seizure took over Beloungea's body while walking
through his suburban Detroit neighborhood last April. When an onlooker in a
neighbor's house saw Beloungea having the seizure, which includes rapid
repetitive arm motion, she misinterpreted it as criminal conduct.
Specifically, she thought Beloungea was masturbating in public. With that
misconception in mind, she called the police. When the Oakland County
Sheriff's Department arrived on the scene, Beloungea was still undergoing
his seizure, acting disoriented and not responding to questions. When
officers couldn't get through to Beloungea they drew their weapons, shocked
him with a high-voltage taser, hit him with a baton and wrestled him to the
ground. They then handcuffed him and put him in a police car. Oakland
County Undersheriff Michael McCabe said that the officers tasered Beloungea
because he lunged at one of them. Beloungea and his lawyer say the more
police got physical the more Beloungea got agitated and aggressive - typical
behavior, according to the Epilepsy Foundation of America, for a person
restrained while having a partial complex seizure. Beloungea's wild motions
and inability to communicate were not defiance or resistance, but classic
symptoms of epilepsy. The officers put Beloungea in jail, citing assault of
a police officer and resisting arrest. Throughout the incident Beloungea,
was wearing a medical alert bracelet identifying him as an epileptic,
stating his name and the contact numbers of people who can be reached in
case of an emergency. ..."

38. "Meeting Special Needs and the Need for Peace of Mind" dated 25
November 2006 by HILLARY CHURA from The New York Times at
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/25/business/25special.html?ex=1165208400&en=8
8ebd746e74a5de5&ei=5070&emc=eta1.

"On top of the therapists, doctors, medicines and other issues of daily
living, the last thing that parents of disabled children may want to face -
establishing a special-needs trust - could provide the most comfort. It
took Wayne and Nancy Cotiaux until this year, 18 years after their son Scott
was born mentally retarded, to look into a trust. The trust, which
ultimately will be valued at $750,000, can be used to pay for anything other
than Scott's food and shelter. The couple wanted to use their life insurance
policies to sustain Scott's quality of life once they died but not
jeopardize his government benefits. "You worry so much," said Mrs. Cotiaux
of Centereach, N.Y. "As you get older and closer and closer to your
geriatric years, it just becomes a greater worry, and you build more anxiety
over it. Last year, I was a basket case. I was on medication. I feel the
weight of the world has been lifted off my shoulders." Most services for
the disabled are provided through state-administered Medicaid programs, with
federal Supplemental Security Income providing a monthly stipend for adults.
To be eligible for Supplemental Security Income, however, potential
recipients cannot have more than $2,000 in assets. Because that amount is
inadequate for a lifetime of haircuts, hobby supplies, vacations and DVDs -
expenses not covered by the government - a supplemental-needs trust can
enhance quality of life. Without a trust, a lifetime of care for a disabled
person could eat through even a sizable inheritance. "I don't care if the
parents have $10 million, chances are the child needs Medicaid," said Craig
Marcott, a certified financial planner in East Patchogue, N.Y. "Most
services are Medicaid-based, and you can't pay to get into them." About
51.2 million Americans have some disability, according to the Census Bureau.
While the term trust tends to imply great wealth, many special-needs trusts
contain less than $100,000. Because the trust does not belong to the
disabled person but is used to supplement a lifestyle, it does not
compromise government benefits. These so-called third-party special-needs
trusts cannot be financed with the money of the disabled individual. To do
so would require a different type of trust. About 60 percent of children
with special needs will require lifelong care, said Nadine Vogel, president
of Springboard Consulting, which advises companies how to market products
and services to the disabled and their families. It is uncertain how many
people who could use trusts actually have them, but an online survey of
1,718 respondents, conducted by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company and
released in January 2005, found that 88 percent of the parents of
special-needs children do not have a trust to preserve eligibility for
government benefits. Still, many parents are reluctant to start a trust
because they fear making the wrong decision, do not want to face the idea
that one day they will be unable to care for their child, or do not know how
to establish one or whom to ask. In addition, they may not like the notion
of putting their child on what is perceived to be welfare. Some may believe
they can avoid drawing up a trust by leaving the money to a trusted relative
or friend. Specialists universally discourage that. Even people who intend
to follow up on a moral obligation to care for the disabled child could lose
the money in a divorce, bankruptcy, lawsuit, premature death or other
unforeseen calamity, the specialists say. ..."

39. "Reading is the key" dated 26 November 2006 by Mark Tuscano from The
News-Herald at
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=17513914&BRD=1698&PAG=461&dept_id=
21849&rfi=6.

"Roots of a rift. Around second grade, students face a fundamental shift in
their educational process - away from learning to read, and toward reading
to learn, says Becky Malinas. "That's where the big breakdown begins," she
said. Malinas is a Wilson certified trainer and phonological intervention
specialist with the Willoughby-Eastlake School District. The breakdown
comes when students who have not learned the most basic reading
fundamentals, including letter identification and sounds, are expected to
read and comprehend textbooks. "Reading affects all their subject areas,"
she said. Malinas has been with the district for 11 years as a special
education teacher. Early on, she noticed some students who were still
having trouble with reading and writing, even after attending tutoring
sessions, she said. "I started looking at what else was out there, and
seven years ago, I researched the Wilson program. I took a two-day overview
class and could see how positive it was, so I took the level one and two
classes." Reading into it. The Wilson Reading Program was developed in
1988 by Barbara Wilson, who tested the approach on prison inmates, Malinas
said. The level classes prepare people to administer the 12 steps of the
program. Wilson, like several other reading programs, is designed to teach
students the most basic reading skills first, Malinas explained. As many as
20 percent of students experience the breakdown rift from the inability to
read at grade level, Malinas said. The variation in language skill level
can range from mild difficulty to profound inability. "Individuals who are
very bright and have this problem can lose confidence rapidly," said North
High School Psychologist Connie Newyear. "They can see others students
being successful, and they know they are not stupid, but they can't figure
out why they are falling behind. Those students may act out and become
discipline problems later." The situation for one Lake County mom and her
dyslexic son deteriorated through his middle school years and reached a
pinnacle this year, when he was sentenced to the Youth Detention Center
after a confrontation with a teacher. That student is not in the
Willoughby-Eastlake School District. The district, and the student and his
mother's names are being withheld by request. Now the mother looks back at
the wasted years and said she should have done things differently. "In
kindergarten, he just wasn't getting things," she said. Year after year,
the boy failed every spelling test. The teachers said he was lazy. "We were
punishing him for failing his spelling tests in fourth and fifth grades,"
his mom said. "Then he was always ending up in the nurse's office. We
thought he was becoming a hypochondriac or something. Could you imagine the
anxiety this little boy was having whenever he was called on to read?"
Finally, when her son was in seventh grade, she asked the school in writing
to conduct a multi-factored evaluation. The diagnosis - the child was
dyslexic. "His self-esteem was shot. He was in seventh grade and reading at
a third-grade level, and they let him slip by all those years," she said.
..."

40. "More colleges helping with disabilities" dated 27 November 2006 by
Jennifer Brown from the Denver Post at http://www.denverpost.com/ci_4726614.

"Rick LaFave spent four hours each night reading his college textbooks, but
was still two weeks behind in class. The Regis University student getting a
doctorate in physical therapy excelled at helping patients, yet his scores
on written exams were awful. The discrepancy was so stark LaFave's
professors pushed him to get tested for a learning disability. Now he is
counted among a growing number of students with disabilities attending
colleges and universities, which have magnified services to help those
students keep pace - from personal note-takers to high-tech computer
equipment that reads aloud and types research papers. "It's been a
tremendous help," said LaFave, who was placed in special reading classes in
high school and dedicated hours of study as an undergraduate only to earn
mediocre grades. "My reading used to take me forever." Regis University
scans LaFave's reading assignments onto a disk, which he takes to the Denver
campus library to pop into a computer that reads it to him. The school lets
him take tests at his own pace in a private room, and the computer reads him
the questions. "I was missing the key words," he said. "Time was an issue
so I would tend to rush through and miss pertinent information." LaFave,
38, is getting more A's now than he ever has in his life. An estimated 11
percent of American college students have disabilities - either mental,
physical or psychiatric - higher education officials said. An exact number
is difficult to determine because, unlike the K-12 system, colleges are not
required to report "special-needs" students to the government. The number
of college students with disabilities has grown fivefold from three decades
ago, when it was estimated at 2.3 percent. Like Regis, many Colorado
institutions say they've strengthened services over the past few years.
Experts believe that much of the increase is simply due to better diagnoses,
but they also credit higher expectations for students in special-needs
courses in middle and high school. Learning disabilities are "processing
disorders," not the result of mental retardation, said Candace Cortiella,
director of The Advocacy Institute in Washington, D.C. Often people with the
reading disability, dyslexia, the writing disability of dysgraphia or the
math version, dyscalculia, have high IQs, she said. Some students don't
realize they have a learning disability until college, when reading
assignments can top 300 pages per week. "There is no special education in
college," Cortiella said. "You can get special accommodations, but you still
need to do the work." At Regis, the number of students requesting
note-takers, special software or other services has grown from 240 in 2003
to 370 this fall, said disability services director Joie Williams. The most
common are learning disabilities, followed by attention-deficit disorder and
psychiatric issues such as depression, anxiety and bipolar disorder. The
number of college students diagnosed with disabilities increased
dramatically after the 1990 passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act,
Williams said. ..."

41. "Escaping 'Average'- Innovative Programs Make the Case That High-Level
Classes Aren't Just for the Gifted" dated 28 November 2006 by Jay Mathews
from The Washington Post at
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/27/AR2006112701
006.html.

"School leaders in Seaford, Del., had noticed for some time that very few
average students took the most challenging courses in the town's secondary
schools. As was the case in most small school systems, many Seaford families
did not expect much. Parents and teachers did not want to push kids beyond
their limits. But Secondary Education Director James VanSciver and other
Seaford educators became convinced that with extra help, many more students
could be taking algebra in middle school and college-level courses in high
school. Four years ago, they began offering special tutoring, summer classes
and Saturday classes. The number of Advanced Placement classes at Seaford
High swelled from four to 14. The focus on helping average students also
boosted minority enrollment in the most rigorous classes. The district has
about 3,400 students, 40 percent black and slightly more than half white.
Through the initiative, administrators found more black students doing well
and going on to college. Julius Mullen, who directs a Saturday program for
young African American males in Seaford, said the students discovered they
could advance if given more time and the assurance that they had their
friends with them. "When expectations are raised, I think students will grab
for them if they have the support programs in place," Mullen said. "They
have to see their friends achieving success." Throughout the country, the
desire to coax average students into high-level courses has inspired many
innovations. Nearly all seek to teach students how to take notes, write
papers and prepare for exams. They harness what is perhaps the greatest
force in U.S. schools -- the urge to be a part of a group -- by giving the
students a sense they are moving onto the college track with others who
share their doubts and middling academic records. The largest effort to
prepare average students for high-level courses is led by a San Diego-based
nonprofit organization called AVID, for Advancement Via Individual
Determination. It was started in 1980 by Mary Catherine Swanson, a high
school English teacher who was dissatisfied with how average students were
treated at her suburban San Diego school, particularly those who were
minorities. Swanson retired this year with the program operating in 2,716
schools in 39 states, including Virginia and Maryland, and in the District.
Fairfax County has AVID in 14 schools, more than any other school system in
the region. It uses study skills classes to prepare students for one of the
nation's strongest college-level programs. "Average students who are put
into higher-level classes without support is a recipe for disaster," said
Derek E. Steele, who heads the county's AVID program. "Our program helps
students recognize they are not average, but they have to develop certain
skills to prove that to others." ..."

42. "Cure Autism Now and Autism Speaks Announce Plans to Combine
Operations- Merger of Leading Autism Organizations Will Lead to Enhanced
Research, Treatment and Advocacy Programs" dated 29 November 2006 in a press
release from Autism Speaks at
http://www.autismspeaks.com/press/autism_speaks_can_merger.php.

"Autism Speaks and Cure Autism Now (CAN) have signed a memorandum of
understanding to combine operations, uniting the nation's two leading autism
organizations and their cutting-edge programs for research, biomedical
treatment and advocacy. The merger was announced today by Mark Roithmayr,
president of Autism Speaks, and Peter Bell, president and chief executive
officer of CAN. Due diligence and final board approvals are expected to be
concluded by February 1, 2007. The consolidated organization will be known
as Autism Speaks, Inc. The consolidation of the two non-profit
organizations will provide the scale necessary to respond to the crisis of
autism, the nation's fastest-growing developmental disorder. Both groups
share a commitment to accelerate and fund biomedical research into the
causes, prevention, treatments and cure for Autism Spectrum Disorders; to
increase awareness of the disorder; and to improve the quality of life of
affected individuals and their families. "Autism Speaks and Cure Autism Now
believe that a combined organization will attract more resources and
facilitate large-scale research, while providing the funding necessary to
launch planned clinical and quality-of-life programs. A single entity will
foster collaboration among the best scientific minds and most dedicated
advocates. This is how we will reach our common mission -- finding a cure
for autism," said Bell and Roithmayr in a joint statement. "Since their
founding, Autism Speaks and CAN have committed more than $50 million to
autism research and education, established scientific resources, promoted
awareness and led federal advocacy efforts," said Bob Wright, co-founder and
board chairman of Autism Speaks. "During the past year, we have worked
closely with CAN on critical issues facing the autism community, and now we
will truly be able to combine our efforts and passions toward our common
goals." "When we started CAN ten years ago, they told us you can't hurry
science," said Jonathan Shestack, co-founder of Cure Autism Now. "But with
an extraordinary group of committed families and scientists we created a
field from scratch and proved that, indeed, you can hurry science. In this
next chapter, with Autism Speaks, we intend to move further and faster."
Autism Spectrum Disorders are diagnosed in one in 166 children, with four
times as many boys than girls affected. Autism has increased tenfold in the
last decade. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have called
autism a national public health crisis. The combined organization will
maintain both Cure Autism Now's and Autism Speaks' national walk programs
and professional staffs. The scientific research processes, advisory boards
and protocols of each entity will be integrated and flagship CAN programs,
including the Autism Genetic Resource Exchange (AGRE), Autism Treatment
Network (ATN), Clinical Trials Network (CTN) and Innovative Technology for
Autism (ITA), will be expanded. ..."

43. "The biological factor in autism" dated 29 November 2006 by Lidia
Wasowicz from United Press International at
http://news.monstersandcritics.com/lifestyle/consumerhealth/article_1227374.
php/Ped_Med_The_biological_factor_in_autism.

"Scientists trying to dig up the roots of autism are unearthing mounting
evidence of the immune system`s involvement in the intractable disorder.
Scientific hints that the body`s disease-fighting mechanisms play a role in
autism first surfaced in 1986, researchers said. However, for the most
part, these studies were small and the results inconclusive so that what now
appears a logical concept didn`t catch on until more recently, said David
Amaral, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the University of
California, Davis, School of Medicine and Medical Center and M.I.N.D.
research director. 'You cannot have a normal neurodevelopment without
having a normal immune system,' said Judy Van de Water, an immunology
specialist at the UC Davis Center for Children`s Environmental Health. 'We
know when these kids are faced with particular environmental agents, such as
certain bacteria, they don`t respond as rigorously as the control kids do.'
Among other projects, she`s looking into whether children with autism show
signs of autoimmunity, a phenomenon in which the body`s protective system
goes haywire, turning on the very tissues and organs it`s supposed to
safeguard from attack. 'This is important because a lot of investigators
have suggested that patients with autism have auto-antibodies, so we`re
looking at whether these kids have auto-antibodies to brain tissue,' she
told an international meeting on autism research in Boston. Indeed, when
Van de Water probed the brain`s disease-deflecting armor in 30 autistic
children ages 2 to 5 and 26 without the disorder, she detected a variation
in the way specialized messenger molecules called cytokines react to
bacteria and other health threats in the two groups. These immune proteins,
which normally get into gear when a response is needed to injury or
irritation, instead appear to be constantly 'switched on,' or inflamed, in
individuals with autism, reported another team, which veered off the beaten
path to study the issue. Rather than taking the more common approach of
looking at the immensely complex immune system as a whole, the investigators
from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore and the
University of Milan in Italy decided to narrow their field of inquiry to
just a few components within the relatively restricted environment of the
central nervous apparatus. They confined their search to the
cell-coordinating cytokines, measuring their levels in brain tissue samples
taken from 11 children and adults ages 5 to 44 who had died by accident,
illness or injury. They observed the abnormal patterns of inflammation,
reinforcing the view that immune activation in the brain is involved in
autism. However, the authors noted, it is not yet clear whether the
irregularity is destructive or beneficial, or perhaps both, to the
developing brain. Wanting to see if their findings would hold up, the
investigators followed up with an analysis of cerebrospinal fluid from six
children with autism ages 5 to 12. As in the previous studies, they once
again detected elevated cytokine levels, raising the possibility that
ultimately doctors might be able to use these anomalies to diagnose autism
or even that they might be able to treat the inflammation, thereby
preventing or reversing the disorder. But that`s a long time and many
studies away. First, they must deal with such challenges as figuring out
the chicken-and-egg quandary that can sabotage attempts to definitively get
at the source of an ailment. In the case at hand, the scientists were
uncertain whether the abnormality they observed is a cause or consequence of
the disorder. Just as the body`s first-aid response to a skinned knee is to
protectively wall off the injury and ward off the agent of harm with heat,
redness and swelling, so, too, it may be that the inflammation detected by
the researchers may represent the brain`s efforts to combat some other
cell-damaging process. The finding 'backs up what we`re seeing in the
peripheral blood, that perhaps there is a change in these kids and the
cytokine production in the brain is altered,' said Van de Water, who plans
to conduct her own investigation into what those changes mean, whether they
affect brain function and how they might be related to some of the classic
symptoms of autism. For example, cytokines are known to affect slumber, and
sleep disorders are a common complaint of individuals with autism. Among
the next steps, scientists are looking into what role heredity may play in
the development of immune abnormalities in the brain that may stir up a
susceptibility to autism. ..."

44. "Industry Ties Common on Hospital Boards- Survey finds industry ties
not unusual in hospital boards that watchdog patient experiments" dated 29
November 2006 by Mike Stobbe from the Associated Press at
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/11/29/ap/health/mainD8LN0NE01.shtml.

"survey of hospital review boards that watchdog experiments on patients
shows that one in three members takes money from companies that make drugs
and medical devices that come under study. What's more, many of those with
conflicts rarely or never disclose their financial ties, researchers found.
The study of 100 university medical centers is said to be the first to look
at financial conflicts of interest on hospitals' institutional review
boards. IRBs are little-known committees responsible for protecting patients
in research experiments. The study's findings are alarming, said some
patient advocates. If the review board "is riddled with financial conflicts
of interest, it's not going to be as protective as it should be," said Dr.
Sidney Wolfe, director of the Public Citizen's Health Research Group. The
study was published in this week's issue of the New England Journal of
Medicine. Corporate funding of medical research is common and a mainstay in
the translation of scientific discoveries into medical treatments. But in
the last five years, there has been heightened scrutiny of the financial
ties between researchers and the companies that make experimental drugs and
devices. The question: Do medical researchers always act in the best
interest of science _ or patients _ if they are also getting royalties,
consulting fees or other benefits from the makers of the products being
tested? All federally funded research must be reviewed and approved by
IRBs, which consider patient safety as well as ethical conflicts. Most
members of these boards are volunteers, usually doctors or scientists
themselves, who get no extra pay for their service. They are expected to be
more sensitive to ethical concerns than the researchers they monitor, said
Dr. Jerome Kassirer, a former New England Journal of Medicine editor who
wrote a book in 2005 on medical conflicts of interest. Now researchers are
"finally getting around to looking at all the ways that pharmaceutical
companies can have an adverse influence on health," Kassirer added. In the
study, led by Eric Campbell of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard
Medical School, 575 members of IRBs at 100 universities were surveyed; they
were promised anonymity. About 36 percent _ or more than 200 respondents _
reported at least one form of industry financial ties in the previous year.
Roughly 15 percent _ or about 80 respondents _ said that in the previous
year, they were asked to review at least one research study that was
sponsored by a company with which they had a relationship or by a competitor
of that company. Both situations constitute a conflict of interest, the
study's authors noted. Of those respondents, more than half said they
always disclosed their conflict to other board members, but 35 percent said
they rarely or never did. Nearly one in five said that regardless of their
conflicting ties, they always voted on whether to approve the proposed
clinical study. Federal regulations bar IRB members from voting in a review
of a study in which they have a conflict of interest. "This (the study's
results) reflect a significant lack of law enforcement," Wolfe said. It may
also reflect a lack of awareness, said Campbell, the lead author. Of all
the study's respondents, fewer than half said their review boards had a
formal written definition of what makes a conflict of interest. As for
patients, a second study published in the journal, suggested that those
fighting for their lives were more focused on being cured than worrying
about conflicts of interest by researchers. The study, led by researchers
at the National Institutes of Health, involved cancer patients enrolled in
clinical trials. Most said such conflicts did not worry them, and 77 percent
knew little about the issue."

45. "How Many Kids Have Autism?" dated 30 November 2006 by CARL BIALIK from
The Wall Street Journal at
http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB116481159830835726-ruJnRx3EF1iafD5jh0
ETvDHh_YY_20061229.html?mod=tff_main_tff_top.

"Several skeptical Numbers Guy readers have suggested I look into an
alarming claim: that one in 166 U.S. children has autism. That stat has
received a lot of attention recently in advocacy materials
<http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/061027/clf062.html?.v=30> , television ads
<http://www.adcouncil.org/default.aspx?id=333> and newspapers, including
reports in the Dallas Morning News
<http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/nation/stories/DN-autism_1
5nat.ART.State.Edition1.906ed6a.html> , the Chicago Tribune
<http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chicago/chi-0610310273oct31,1,1410
676.story> and the Savannah Morning News
<http://savannahnow.com/node/163038> . Autism experts told me that research
broadly supports the estimate -- with two major caveats. Those caveats help
explain why the stat, while alarming, doesn't support related claims by some
advocates: that autism cases have been mushrooming with "epidemic speed,"
and that more than one million Americans have autism. First, the stat comes
from figures published <http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism/asd_common.htm> by
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, based on a review of several
studies that came up with estimates. But the CDC was careful to point out
that the studies produced a wide range of results. Indeed, the
headline-grabbing number focuses on the worst-case scenario: The CDC said
the number of children with autism was somewhere between one in 500 and one
in 166. Second, the numbers take into account a relatively modern
definition of autism that includes a full range of disorders. The changing
definition of autism has played a major role in influencing statistics. The
cause of autism isn't completely understood; a combination of genetic and
environmental factors is believed to play a part, according to the CDC
<http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism/asd_treatments.htm> . Autism can usually
be diagnosed before the age of three, according to the National Institute of
Health <http://www.nimh.nih.gov/publicat/autism.cfm> . Different from mental
retardation, autistic disorders (as they are now defined) are characterized
by impairment in communication and other social interaction. Mental
retardation, characterized in part by a low intelligence-test score, can
coincide with autism, but some people with autism have above-average IQs.
Those with "high-functioning autism" or with Asperger's Disorder --
distinguished by less-severe symptoms that may not become apparent until
later in life -- are likely to have an easier time of adapting to mainstream
society, and therefore their conditions can be more difficult to diagnose.
Other people with more severe cases of autism may require special education
throughout school years and may have difficulty living independently as
adults. The broad definition used to arrive at the one-in-166 figure, which
includes milder forms like Asperger's syndrome, was published by the
American Psychiatric Association in 1994 in the Diagnostic and Statistical
Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, known as the DSM-IV -- the
primary handbook for diagnosing mental disorders. Eric Fombonne, an autism
expert at Montreal's McGill University, told me that while about a dozen
studies around the world have found autism prevalence rates that would be in
line with the one-in-166 estimate, that same research found that the
majority of those people had a mild form of the condition. The high profile
of the one-in-166 number has been driven by increased public-awareness
campaigns about autism from the government and advocacy groups. In 2004, the
CDC, the Department of Health and Human Services, the American Academy of
Pediatrics and other groups issued an alert (Autism A.L.A.R.M.
<http://www.medicalhomeinfo.org/health/Autism downloads/AutismAlarm.pdf> )
to doctors citing the 1-in-166 stat and advising on how to screen for cases.
Since then, the CDC has reaffirmed the number in an online fact sheet
<http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism/asd_common.htm> (where it cited the broad
range of estimates) and in a May report
<http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5517a3.htm> in its Morbidity
and Mortality Weekly Report -- the latter was based on parents'
self-reporting of their doctors' diagnoses. Meanwhile, an even more recent
U.K. study published
<http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140673606690417/abstr
act> over the summer in the Lancet found a rate of children with autism of
between one in 110 and one in 70. ..."

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE
Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE