SCHAFER AUTISM REPORT "Healing Autism:

No Finer a Cause on the Planet" ________________________________________________________________

Tuesday, January 06, 2004 Vol. 8 No. 4

NOTE: New Update January Calendar of Events is now out:

RESEARCH

* Trials End Parents' Hopes for Autism Drug Secretin

CARE

* Family Requests Aunt Be Guardian of Assaulted Autistic Woman

AWARENESS

* Fleas And Autism - By Donna Williams

* One From "The Few. The Proud." Takes on Autism

PUBLIC HEALTH

* Montana One of 10 States Primed For A Measles Outbreak

* Immunization Rate Doesn’t Meet Standards in Florida

READERS' POSTS

RESEARCH

Trials End Parents' Hopes for Autism Drug Secretin

For several years, an experimental drug, secretin, has offered an unlikely ray of hope for some desperate parents of children with autism.

Discovered accidentally by the mother of an autistic boy and licensed to a small biotechnology company led by the father of two autistic girls, secretin has advanced through clinical trials even as study after study showed it had little or no effect.

Now, the largest and most definitive clinical trial of secretin has been completed, and it, too, showed that the drug was no better than a placebo in improving the social interaction of young children with autism. The failure, announced yesterday by the company, Repligen, of Waltham, Mass., casts doubt on whether secretin will ever get to market as a treatment, dealing a blow to scores of parents and some doctors who advocated its development.

"We're horrified at the thought of this being dropped," said Jan Henry of Chattanooga, Tenn.

The drug, which Ms. Henry said she bought from overseas sources and others at up to $10,000 a year, had helped her son Andrew speak and sleep.

"It's life to us," she said.

"My parents mortgaged their home for us," she added.

The secretin story shines a light on the difficulty of developing a drug for autism, an often debilitating condition whose incidence seems to be rising sharply and for which there are no approved drugs. Experts estimate that the United States has more than 100,000 autistic children. Children with the condition have difficulty communicating or forming relationships, and they often have repetitive actions.

The development of the drug has at times been a battle between the hopes of parents and the more dispassionate science of some experts. Some advocates say the experts too easily dismissed the drug because it was developed outside conventional academic channels or drug companies.

"This is the type of thing you see all the time in medicine, where things that get strong patient and parental advocacy and don't come through the normal channels of discovery get dismissed," said Dr. Jeff Reich, a neurologist and senior analyst at Merlin Biomed, an investment fund in New York that owns shares of Repligen.

Some experts say that parents see what they want to see and that the drug simply does not work when measured more objectively.

"We now have multiple, multiple studies showing secretin is not better than placebo," Dr. Fred R. Volkmar, a professor of child psychiatry at Yale, said. "I would say it's time to shift our attention elsewhere."

Secretin is a natural hormone that stimulates the pancreas to release juices that aid digestion. A synthetic version is approved for use in diagnosing pancreatic disorders.

In 1996, Parker Beck, an autistic boy in New Hampshire, was given secretin to help diagnose gastrointestinal problems, which afflict many children with autism. His mother, Victoria Beck, soon noticed an improvement in his development and began to suspect the secretin.

When the Becks tried to obtain more treatments for Parker and his medical records from the University of Maryland, where he had the diagnostic procedure, they were rebuffed, Mrs. Beck said. The family then learned that the university was applying for a patent on using secretin in autism. When the Becks told the university their history, the university listed her as an inventor and assigned her the patent rights. She in turn licensed them to Repligen, whose president, Walter C. Herlihy, has two autistic daughters.

The news was reported on television and in newspapers in 1998 and 1999 and led to a flurry of interest in secretin. Some parents obtained the version for pancreatic disorders. Some ordered it from overseas.

But some small studies sponsored by the National Institutes of Health showed that secretin had no benefit beyond that from placebos. Repligen conducted a larger trial that involved three doses. That test was also not convincing but the drug seemed to show some effect in younger children.

The company began a Phase III study, usually the last stage before regulatory approval, involving 132 younger children, from 2 years 8 months to 4 years 11 months, who were given six doses each intravenously. The results announced yesterday showed that the recipients of the drug did not improve more than those who received the placebo when evaluated by parents or psychologists.

Repligen stock lost more than 40 percent of its value, dropping $1.77, to $2.39.

"It's a sad day," Dr. Herlihy, the chief executive, said in an interview. He said the company would decide whether to keep developing the drug for autism after further analyzing the data and conferring with the Food and Drug Administration in the coming months.

But Dr. Herlihy and some doctors in the trial are not ready to concede. They said one reason that the trial might have failed is that it is difficult to measure improvements in autistic children. The drug did show an effect for a subset of children with higher I.Q.'s.

Also, the term "autism" probably covers a wide range of conditions. Secretin may work for some patients, but the effects would be diluted in testing on a broad population.

"I remain convinced there's a subset of children who benefit from secretin," said Dr. Paul Millard Hardy, a behavioral neurologist in Hingham, Mass., in the trial.

One of his patients, Jeremy McGlone of Kingston, Mass., was in the trial. Jeremy's father, Shayne McGlone, acknowledged that he did not know whether his son received the drug or the placebo, although he speculated that it was the drug.

"He started looking at me in the eyes a lot more," Mr. McGlone said. "As a father, that's something you want your kid to do."

Parker Beck, 10, has improved greatly and no longer takes secretin, his mother said. Anticipating royalties from secretin sales, Mrs. Beck and her husband, Gary, set up the National Autism Outreach Foundation last summer in Highlands Ranch, Colo. But now the royalties will apparently not arrive.

"We'll find other ways to raise money for it," Mrs. Beck said.

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CARE

Family Requests Aunt Be Guardian of Assaulted Disabled, Autistic Woman

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Family members of a severely disabled woman, who was raped and gave birth last year, have asked a judge in Orlando to appoint the woman's aunt as her legal guardian.

Dorothy Willis Quizon wants to be named the legal representative for the woman known as J.D.S., a move that would help her file a lawsuit on her niece's behalf, according to the petition filed in Orange Circuit Court.

J.D.S., 23, was raped while living in a southwest Orlando group home run by Hester Strong and licensed by the Department of Children & Families. Suffering from retardation, cerebral palsy and autism, J.D.S. functions on the mental level of a young child.

Last June, Orange Circuit Judge Lawrence Kirkwood appointed Patti Riley Jarrell of Longwood as J.D.S.'s legal guardian. Jarrell, a professional guardian with no family relation to J.D.S., also has said she plans to file a lawsuit to ensure J.D.S.'s health and well-being in the future. Any lawsuit likely would be filed against DCF and the state.

J.D.S. gave birth to a baby girl in August. Police used DNA evidence to determine that the child's father is Hester Strong's husband, Phillip Strong. He was charged in the rape but later found incompetent to stand trial.

The court papers were filed last week for Quizon and J.D.S.'s natural mother, identified as G.D.S, who was absent for much of her daughter's life. The petition objects to Jarrell's appointment as guardian. It asks Kirkwood to appoint Quizon as an alternative guardian, or name the aunt as co-guardian and Guardian ad Litem.

Submitted by Pensacola lawyer Daniel Soloway, the petition says G.D.S.'s parental rights were severed in 1995 without her consent. The Orlando Sentinel is not naming the mother because that would identify J.D.S., a rape victim.

The mother "formally objected to the severance of her parental rights of J.D.S. and refused the request of HRS [now DCF] that she consent in writing to such termination of rights," the petition says.

DCF spokesman Bob Brooks said he hadn't seen the petition and could not comment.

Soloway would not say why the mother was not seeking guardianship. Last year, she was in a substance-abuse treatment center in Pensacola.

Usually parental rights are severed for a parent who abandons or severely neglects a child. The child is placed into a shelter and then into foster care. A move to terminate parental rights comes after attempts to reunite the natural parent with the child fail. A court hearing is held to consider termination, and the natural parents are supposed to receive notice of that hearing. They may attend and argue against termination.

If the parent or parents don't show up, the judge may take that as a sign that they consent to the petition to terminate rights. Parents who have had their rights terminated often say they were not notified of the proceeding, court experts say.

In the J.D.S. case, the documents say the family repeatedly tried to regain contact with J.D.S. and check on her health, only to be thwarted by the state.

Now both the mother and Quizon, who both live in the Pensacola area, want to sue to make sure she is never harmed again, according to the documents.

Neither the aunt nor the mother "have any monetary interest in such damages," according to the papers. Any monetary awards would be placed in a "restrictive guardianship account for the sole use and benefit of J.D.S."

A copy of a draft lawsuit attached to the petition names the Strongs and refers to a DCF employee. It accuses the unnamed DCF employee of violating the woman's civil rights. It also accuses Phillip Strong of battery in the rape and accuses him and Hester Strong of negligence. She was charged with felony negligence and is awaiting trial.

Soloway said he wants to have a hearing to determine whether Quizon should be her niece's legal representative. A hearing has not been scheduled.

The purpose of the lawsuit is to protect J.D.S., not to exploit a tragedy, he said.

"The purpose of any lawsuit is to get a fair and just compensation for a civil wrong done," he said. "I do not intend to file that lawsuit without the court's authority to do so."

The petition filed by Soloway says Jarrell has failed "to properly pursue legal remedies" for J.D.S. The documents also indicate that any lawsuit would be filed in Leon County, where DCF has its headquarters.

Jarrell, who was not aware of Soloway's petition, said she intends to sue but does not see the need to file immediately. She has been consulting with her attorneys on the matter.

"What difference does it make [when the lawsuit is filed]? J.D.S. is not suffering. She's getting excellent care," Jarrell said. She is now living in another group home in Orange County. Her parental rights were terminated after she gave birth, and her daughter is in foster care.

Jarrell has been handling guardianship cases since 1990 and she thinks she is still the best person to represent J.D.S.

"I would never stand in the way of a competent family guardian," Jarrell said.

She added, "Family members are not given precedence in being named the guardian. The people that are named guardian or co-guardian are the people best suited to do the job."

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AWARENESS

Fleas And Autism

By Donna Williams

If the largest percentage of case of autism occur in those with compounding co-morbid (co-occuring) conditions, then the idea of 'pure' autism is actually referring to a rarity.

Most people are aware of the co-occurance of treatable gut and immune issues co-occuring in fairly large part of the autistic population (see Shattock, Waring, Gupta). It ain't rocket science to understand the effect of chronic digestive system and immune system disorders on impairing the efficient supply of nutrients to the brain. But whilst we become blinkered to focusing simply on the gut/immune issues in autism we may be blinkered to the role that severe chronic stress has to play in exaccerbating and bringing such conditions to the surface and that for some people a large part of that severe chronic stress may come down to a treatable case of 'fleas'. Quite simply, if you give the dog enough fleas and no flea powder, eventually the stress is going to lead to a break down in the dog's health or bringing any pre-existing inherited weaknesses to the surface.

Fleas are things which interfere, distract, disrupt. If we think of conditions such as epilepsy, mood disorders (such as Childhood Onset Bipolar COBD or depression which are now known to occur even in infancy), Tourette's (which can occur as young as age 2) or OCD as fleas, we might look at the mystery of many cases of 'autism' a little differently.

Various studies show that the co-occurance of Dyslexia, Scotopic Sensitivity, Epilepsy, Mood disorders, Tourette's and OCD is high in people with ASDs. If severe, these additional conditions are thought to likely compound (make worse) the developmental and information processing problems of autism.

Furthermore, the majority of these additional conditions may be manageable or treatable either through dietary intervention, nutritional supplementation and/or small doses of medication (provided appropriate to the co-morbid condition) together with an environmental approach which is RELEVANT to not just the label 'autism' but the co-morbid conditions compounding and sometimes underlying the information processing problems of autism. So what about addressing the fleas?

For example, whilst ABA is surely useful in some forms, in some situations, with some people, it certainly isn't going to be so in all of its forms, in all situations or with all people. There may be little point addressing the persistant disabling behavioural and/or vocal tics of Tourette's or OCD through ABA (and it's likely to be extremely frustrating, perhaps even damaging to convince such a person their problems are a matter of learning appropriate responses) and to use ABA whilst ignorant to the mechanics of Bipolar could result in exaccerbating very explosive and unpredictable behaviour, or even complicate unipolar depression which may then blamed on the 'autism' rather than the inappropriateness of the environmental approach. Rewarding children with sweets who have no immunity to fight Candida or rewarding people with food allergies or food intolerances with the very substances which send them off their head is madness. The water is awfully muddy and a market pushing THE approach to autism doesn't help.

If the majority of cases of autism are actually compositions of a combination of co-morbid conditions combining to severely disrupt development, communication and information processing (not to mention the effect 'fleas' may have on chronic digestive/immune disorders), then the idea that someone who is severely autistic will grow up to be just as severely autistic, may in many cases depend on whether the compounding co-morbid conditions are recognised and addressed. Once the label 'autism' has been applied, many of the conditions underlying this may simply be overlooked.

Many doctors, however, whilst acknowledging the high incidence of epilepsy occurring in autism (between 25-50% depending on whose studies you

read) will overlook severely impairing behavioural tics attributable to treatable conditions such as Tourette's or OCD or disabling mood disorders underlying progressive phobic responses to overstimulation (such as Exposure Anxiety), withdrawal and self injurious or explosive behaviours, too often attributing these things instead to 'the autism'. Even when medication is given for such things, it is unfortunate that what may often be happening is that the person gets overly drugged in order to suppress the behaviours rather than address the underlying biochemistry issues appropriately and comprehensively which may involve a much smaller dose of a more appropriate medication or combination of dietary intervention, supplementation and minor medication. When looking at the incidence of co-morbid conditions such as severe mood disorders, Tourette's or OCD, the idea of finding A cure for 'autism' may also be a myth. There may be many answers in identifying and reducing all the compounding factors underlying the presentation of what gets called 'autism' and what we need are multidisciplinary experts who are not blinkered to look just for the ' triad of impairments ' associated with autism but actually ask about the indicators of these other co-morbid conditions, perhaps underlying or exaccerbating conditions, as an indicator of how to address the underlying causes of each particular person's autism so fewer people are so severely effected and real wholistic and appropriate help comes at an earlier age. However much many high functioning people on the autism-spectrum may celebrate their 'autism' and see it as a ' culture ', finding answers to the fleas which exaccerbate or underly autism is not about loving some myth ideal of normality nor hating autism but about caring about the freedom of people to develop beyond the very real limitations of what can be a severe disability.

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One From "The Few. The Proud." Takes on Autism

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At first glance Savine and Jacob look like any ordinary six and four year old, but their normalcy runs only skin deep because of a disorder they both have: autism.

One Miramar Marine quickly learned that autism affects every aspect of the entire family's life.

Known to Savine as "Daddy Justin," Cpl. Justin Schreiter, G-6 operations clerk for Headquarters and Headquarters Squadron, recently married Victoria who had two children from a previous marriage.

"If you have autism, you don't see me as a person talking to you, you see a shape, connected to another shape, that makes sounds, and moves, has a scent and may even touch you," said Victoria. "The average person processes all of this very quickly and realizes everything's connected. They don't," she said. "They have to process everything, with all of the senses out of tune. It's very confusing to them."

The Shreiters met posting ads on the information super highway.

"I met her on Yahoo Personals," said Schreiter. "We talked for a while, and then decided to meet. We've been together ever since."

Victoria let him know right away that she had two children with autism.

"I had no idea what it was. She said it was a disorder that affected how they learned and interacted with other people," said Schreiter.

When it came time for Justin to meet Victoria's children, she had no doubts he would interact well with her children.

"I could tell by Justin's character, he would be great with my kids," said Victoria.

"I had no experience with children. I knew they were autistic, but I had nothing to compare them to. They seemed like a normal four and six-year-old to me," said Schreiter.

But, they're far from that. Savine, a beautiful little girl with long blonde hair, attends therapy five days a week after school instead of going outside to play. Savine, who was originally non-verbal and disconnected from human contact, has made great progress and is now diagnosed with high-functioning autism. She once could not even tolerate a human voice singing. Now she sings along with her mom in the car on the way to therapy, is up to grade level in her academics, and now has a few children she considers good friends in her class at school.

"Our goal for Savine is to be able to take care of herself and now, Jacob," said Victoria. "Because of the different therapy she goes to, Savine is progressing very well, and we're pretty confident she'll be able to do that."

Jacob is four and learning how to use a Velcro board with pictures of things such as water, pretzels and a ball in order to communicate what he wants. Jacob was diagnosed with autism at 18 months and according to Victoria has not made the gains Savine has, and is more severely affected by the disorder. He does not have many language skills, has not developed "normal" toy play and cannot yet understand most basic requests that are made of him.

"He isn't expected to ever be able to take care of himself," said Justin.

"They are also on a special diet, the gluten and casein-free diet, which doesn't allow them things like wheat, oats or dairy products. When we go to McDonalds, I order them a double cheeseburger happy meal. They get the meat, drink, fries and toy, I get the bread and cheese," said Justin.

"This diet is part of the Pheiffer treatment program. After a lot of research of the different biomedical theories that are out there, this is the one we felt had the most concise testing, with years of research behind it," said Victoria.

"When it comes to the food they eat, we can tell if they ate something they weren't supposed to by the way they respond and act," said Justin. "They will be more distant, compulsive and not as focused," he said.

"We're pretty limited as to where we can shop for groceries or go out to eat, but the results are well worth it," said Victoria.

Victoria is a parent coordinator at a center where parents go once they find out their child has autism, or other developmental disabilities. She helps direct them on where to go for resources and what to expect in the intake process.

When she's not at work, she's attending conferences on the newest therapies, serving on the Board of the San Diego Chapter Autism Society of America and taking the children to the therapies her husband can't.

"I joined the Marine Corps to pay for school. I'm still able to go, but only one class at a time. Right now my family comes first. When my children get situated and I feel comfortable that they are well on their way in therapy, I'll take more classes. Right now, I'm in a therapeutic program offered at Grossman College," said Schreiter.

"Justin gives 100 percent to the Marine Corps as well as his family," said Ken Verdoliva, G-6 Operations officer.

Verdoliva says Schreiter is one of the best Marines he's ever worked with.

"I've never once had to look over his shoulder or wonder if he got the job done," said Verdoliva.

"My work section really works with me," said Schreiter. "There are days I need to leave early in order to make it to (Savine and Jacob's) therapy, and as long as I get my work done, they don't have a problem with letting me go."

"I don't know how he does it, balancing his responsibilities at home with the needs of the Marine Corps, without a single complaint," said Verdoliva.

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PUBLIC HEALTH

Montana One of 10 States Primed For A Measles Outbreak

Needles and damage done

Considering not immunizing your infant? "Success has created complacency," says Brante Goode, Coordinator of the Missoula County Health Department Communicable Diseases Program.

Last month, the federal government listed Montana as one of 10 states primed for a measles outbreak. Only two-thirds of Montana’s two-year-olds have received the full array of vaccination shots recommended by doctors, according to state immunization officials. These low numbers have put the spotlight on why some Montana parents are choosing not to vaccinate.

Missoula health officials argue that Montana’s weak economy might be partly to blame. Parents overwhelmed by multiple jobs or the stress of unemployment can forget to bring their children in for their shots, according to Vicki Dundas, Nursing Supervisor for the Missoula County Health Department. "Sometimes immunizations are the last thing on their mind," said Dundas. Parents can also delay immunizations because of a lack of insurance or limited coverage.

However, a smaller number of Montana parents make a deliberate choice not to vaccinate. They are not alone: over one-quarter of Americans question the need for vaccinations, according to one children’s health magazine. A national debate has emerged over the safety of vaccines, and our own sparsely populated state is not immune.

As the number of unvaccinated children grows, industrialized countries are now facing the possibility of outbreaks of preventable diseases. Great Britain and Japan have both issued warnings of possible measles epidemics this winter due to low vaccination rates, and in Boulder, Colo., so many children are unvaccinated that pertussis (whooping cough) has once again become a widespread childhood illness.

The reasoning behind parents’ anti-vaccination choices is complex. Some have witnessed adverse reactions in their own or friends’ children. Heather, who lives outside of Missoula with her three children, ages 7, 4, and 14-months-old, had concerns when her oldest son became sick after his first round of shots. "I wanted to learn exactly why I was doing this to my child," she said. She started reading, and eventually decided not to immunize her two youngest children.

She argues that contracting the disease is the best immunity for children in good health. Other anti-vaccination advocates agree. Jill (her name has been changed) purposefully exposed her three children in Missoula, ranging in age from 16 to 5, to the measles virus. She was vigilant about keeping the children home when they were contagious.

Heather also would prefer her children contract measles while they are young. "The only way to get 100 percent immunity is to get the disease. Measles for healthy children is not a big deal," she said. Public health officials disagree. "Success has created complacency," according to Brante Goode, Coordinator of the Missoula County Health Department Communicable Diseases Program. Because of vaccines, most people haven’t seen these diseases in their lifetime, and few people understand the risks, he said. "It might be useful for people to talk to their grandparents about measles," Goode said. Before the 1960s, about 500 Americans died each year from the virus.

The choice to not immunize doesn’t affect just individual families. High vaccination rates protect unvaccinated children as well; when this "herd immunity" breaks down, epidemics can result. Infants and children with compromised immune systems are at the highest risk from an outbreak. "Our culture focuses on individual rights, but public health is often at odds with that," said Goode.

Currently, Montana state law regarding vaccinations is stricter than in many states. Parents must obtain a medical or religious exemption for K-12 students or a medical exemption only for preschoolers. Less than one percent of school-age children in Montana receive a religious exemption, according to Joyce Burgett, Director of the Montana Immunization Program.

Both Heather and Jill were able to obtain religious exemptions from school for their children. A signature from a church official was not required.

In the meantime, drug companies manufacturing vaccines have addressed many of the concerns and issues raised by anxious parents. In 1996, the pertussis vaccine shifted from DTP to a new acellular version, DTaP, after finding that some children experienced adverse reactions to the original vaccine. The new version claims significantly reduced side effects.

Health officials have also started using an inactive polio vaccine instead of the live version, which had caused some children to contract the polio virus.

The best-known controversy involved Thimerosal, a mercury-containing preservative used in vaccines, which many anti-vaccination activists blame for rising rates of autism. The link between vaccines and autism has never been scientifically established, but over the last three years, Thimerosal has largely been phased out of use in vaccines.

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Immunization Rate Doesn’t Meet Standards in Florida

State falls short in public health

Tallahassee — While several of Florida’s key public health measurements have improved during recent years, a number of goals set by lawmakers have not been met, including the rate for immunizing 2-year-olds and the AIDS rate, according to a legislative audit released Monday.

Standards set by the Legislature for infant mortality, the percentage of low birth weight babies born to poor women, and the rate of vaccine-preventable diseases also weren’t met, said the audit by the Legislature’s Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability, or OPPAGA.

Lee County Public Health Director Dr. Judith Hartner said Lee was one of many districts guilty of not meeting state and federal goals for the immunization of children and is meeting with her staff this week to hammer out a plan to turn those numbers around.

She said federal goals recommend that 90 percent of children are completely immunized by their second birthday, and last year only 80 percent of Lee County toddlers met that goal.

"I think part of it’s the mobile nature of our families; people moving in and out of Florida lose some of that continuity of care," she said. "But there’s certainly been a lot of media attention to concerns about adverse effects from vaccines — an alleged link to autism, mercury — and all of those things are alarming to parents."

Education, Hartner said, will be the key, but the state health departments also may need to change as well.

"I don’t want to throw all the blame on the parents," she said. "Parents have a responsibility for sure, but the health care system may need to adapt and make it more enticing, more convenient ..."

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READERS' POSTS

Looking for a talented computer hardware engineer who would be able to help me reverse engineer an idea recently developed in Germany that is able to show via a computer graph print out, the state of wellness/illness or a person. This device could be useful to test how effectively treatments/supplements are working. Basically the device samples 150 skin electrode conductivity values, sends them to the computer where software manipulates the data and prints out a graph. david@awex.freeserve.co.uk

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Principal and vice-Principal of Morehead City Primary Rene Newman and Chris Yeomanns respectively, suspended a 4 yr. old autistic boy for biting teacher, Pam Fallin. As his mother, I have visited his classroom numerously and can witness he is the ONLY child requiring constant supervision of approximately 10 children. It is amazing to me how a teacher and 3 aides cannot supervise "ONE" child. Revealing her leg bite I realized why she was embarrassed. There was a slight reddish mark no bigger than my pinky fingernail with NO bite mark and NO broken skin. It is truly amazing that she had such audacity causing a child like this to be suspended (missing his Christmas party) and yet not realize the ludicrousness of "her" behavior. The Morehead City Police came to the school to write up a report, so I guess now an autistic child has a record. Tanya ttesti@hotmail.com

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We are relocating to the No Va area from FL in January! I spent time yesterday on the phone with special ed. reps from Fairfax, Loudon, and Prince William counties. We have some flexibility (hopefully) in where we can live --husband will be working at Pentagon. Anyone in Fairfax county with a child in lower elementary grades having success with either mainstreaming, inclusion, or self- contained classrooms? Bonnie davisgang90@yahoo.com

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The Center for Autism Resources and Education (C.A.R.E.) has a few openings for children with high-functioning autism or Asperger's Syndrome (ages 4 to

7) for drama group at CBS Studios. Debra Clark dclark0704@yahoo.com

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AutismConnect is delighted to announce the following vacancies on autismjobs.

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Employer : autism.west midlands, Job title : Employment Supporters, Region

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[Thanks to Terrie Silverman for compiling these posts.]

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