Autism Speaks, the nation’s largest autism advocacy organization, today announced that Susan Maxwell and Marcia Weinstein have been named Walk Co-Chairs for the Inaugural Treasure Coast Walk Now for Autism. Maxwell and Weinstein will be responsible for directing the Inaugural Treasure Coast Walk Now for Autism community event on Saturday, February 21, 2009 at Jensen Beach High School.

Susan Maxwell’s experience as Co-chair of the 2008 Palm Beach Walk Now for Autism and as a real estate agent with her partner Gabe Sanders of Premier Reality Group and Marcia Weinstein’s advocacy efforts for the autism community and leader of the local Autism Society make them the ideal people to lead the team of dedicated volunteers on the Treasure Coast.

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North Yorkshire Police have joined forces with the National Autistic Society (NAS) to promote a new card that alerts members of the emergency services and the criminal justice system to someone with the condition.

The cards are available to anyone in North Yorkshire who has a condition under the autism spectrum and are designed to improve communication with emergency services and criminal justice professionals.

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Researchers have found all the signs of autism in a strain of noisy laboratory mice that are used to diagnose human beings, a finding that may help them study the complicated genetics of the disorder.

For the study, Maria Luisa Scattoni of the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, Maryland, and colleagues, separated baby mice of different laboratory strains from their mothers.

They found that the pups, which had not yet opened their eyes, made noises aimed to bring their mother back.

These ultrasonic sounds, too low for the human ear to detect, come in 10 different types, from clicking to pure tones.

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Pediatricians do not know what causes autism or autism spectrum disorders, but we do understand the frustration of families who want to know the answers.

Children with autism are not all alike but they have many of the same features. They may have social problems such as not keeping or making eye contact, not reacting to a smile, or not looking at objects that we point to. They may have communication problems such as no words by age 2 or not responding to their name. They may have behavioral problems such as rocking, spinning, or flapping hands.

There are many ongoing studies looking for the cause of autism. Some cases have already been linked to genetic conditions, but most are still unknown.

While we are searching for the cause of autism, we want to continue to protect children from other diseases that we do know the cause of, specifically, vaccine preventable infections. There are many bacterial and viral organisms in the environment just waiting to make children sick. Pediatricians want to make sure that parents do not rely on incorrect or incomplete information about the safety of vaccines when deciding to get vaccines.

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ADULTS with autism in Coventry are being invited to express their personal experiences of living with the disability by entering a new competition launched by The National Autistic Society (NAS).

The theme of the UK-wide competition is 'My life with autism or Asperger's syndrome' and forms part of a campaign launched earlier this year.

The nine winning entries and any commended entries will be exhibited at various venues around the country.

The list of prizes are still being compiled and announced on the website.

NAS chief executive, Mark Lever, said: "We believe this competition is an exciting and rewarding way for adults with autism in Coventry to express themselves and share their unique experiences. We also hope that the works generated by this competition will bring home to government, local authorities and the general public just some of the realities faced by adults with autism across the UK today."

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In ARRI 16-2 (The American Journal for Autism Research) we published a letter from a mother in Florida whose very large autistic son changed from a sweet, loving boy to a teenager who flew into unpredictable rages which “were usually associated with self injury, aggression and property damage.” She went on, “At times I had to lock myself in the bathroom; otherwise he would attack me. We gave him many medications, but nothing worked.” A friend suggested a solution: a brownie with marijuana baked into it. “Soon after he ate the brownie,” she said, “my son’s anxiety disappeared, and his sweet, loving behavior returned. He shows no signs of being under the influence of a drug. He now receives one marijuana brownie and several doses of Marinol, which contains the active ingredient in marijuana, each day. This has clearly saved my child’s life and my family’s life.”

On page 7 of this issue of the ARRI you will find a letter from Ray Gallup, a well-known autism activist in New Jersey whose teenage son has become extremely assaultive, sending members of his family to the hospital and requiring police intervention on a number of occasions. Like Ray, thousands of parents are dealing with children who are so out-of-control, and so violent to themselves and others, that they can make their own lives and that of their families hellish.

In ARRI 16-1 we published an editorial on various means of dealing with such severely self-injurious and assaultive behavior, but marijuana use was not an approach that we mentioned. Many drugs are used to control these kinds of behaviors in autistic individuals, including risperidone (Risperdal), which has a large range of highly toxic effects (ARRI 16-4). It seems to me if one is going to need to use drugs, one ought to consider a relatively safe drug, like marijuana, if research bears out the good results that a number of parents have reported.

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Researchers are learning that autistic children “communicate” and Dolphins” communicate” in the exact same way.

An autistic child’s brain is not able to ground to it’s physical body

This disconnect starts the brain to run out of control and move into what is known as “hyper-drive” which in turns produces genius levels.

In fact ,it has been observed often enough to have earned a term, “intuitive genius”.

You may have learned by now, that Albert Einstein was known to have Autistic-like symptoms. It wasn’t his education that gave him the ability to come up with e=mc2, it was his “intuitive genius”. This “intuitive genius” allowed him to come up all conclusions and solutions that has paced today’s modern science.

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As the boy, not yet kindergarten age, walked into the Olathe multiplex Saturday morning, he stuck his fingers in his ears and let out a high-pitched “eeeeee … eeeeeEEEE!”

It was the sort of behavior that, inside a theater, might result in his being escorted to the parking lot. But not at this theater. Not on Saturday morning.

This particular screening of “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” had been tailored to people with autism-spectrum disorders and their family members. Because of their sometimes peculiar behaviors, as well as their hypersensitivity to certain sights and sounds, children with autism-spectrum disorders often are kept at home. It’s easier than dealing with the reactions.

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One in 150 children is diagnosed with autism, that's more than pediatric aids, diabetes and cancer combined.

One family in Westfield knows what it's like to have an autistic child, and they also know what it's like to have the support of friends, family, and total strangers.

"They just come up and donate and they become part of the effort in finding and raising money and finding a cure for autism," said Kathy Lafond, the mother of the young boy responsible for bringing a big group of people together.

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Before her son was 15 months old, Serwah Quaynor suspected that something was wrong. After going from doctor to doctor in the United States searching for answers, Quaynor's son was labeled "mildly autistic" at the age of 8. It took four more years and a two-week home-visit with a psychologist before he was finally diagnosed with full-fledged autism.

"For him to get the proper treatment, he had to have a proper diagnosis," Quaynor said. But the diagnosis was just the beginning.

As puberty and hormones hit, her son became aggressive. He required more attention and care than Quaynor could offer him alone, especially considering her own health problems. Despite her reservations about the lack of resources available to autistic children and their

families in Ghana, Quaynor decided to join her husband who had moved to Accra a few years earlier to start a business.

"Ghana was the only place I could get the support I needed," Quaynor said.

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