SCHAFER AUTISM REPORT "Healing Autism:

No Finer a Cause on the Planet" ________________________________________________________________

Tuesday, March 02, 2004 Vol. 8 No. 44

THE AUTISM CALENDAR: NOW WITH OVER 300 EVENTS LISTED

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RESEARCH

* Harvard Plans Stem Cell Research Center

* Men, Empathy, and Autism

* Studying Hyperlexia May Unlock How Brains Read: Washington Post

ADVOCACY

* UK Vaccine Parents Vow To Fight On

* New Report Calls For More Research In Autism

EVENT

* Recovered Autistic Boy To Speak At Allentown, PA Conference

CARE

* Scalding Death of Autistic 5-Year-Old New Jersey Boy

LETTER

* Birth Brain Injury As A Cause Of Autism

RESEARCH

Harvard Plans Stem Cell Research Center

[By Theo Emery for the Associated Press. This technology has a potential role in the treatment of autism.] http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/S/STEM_CELL_RESEARCH_HARVARD?SITE=N

YPLA&SECTION=MIDWEST&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Harvard University plans to launch a multimillion-dollar center to grow and study human embryonic stem cells, the school announced Sunday.

The center could be the largest privately funded American stem cell research project to date. It must use private funds to create new lines of stem cells because President Bush, citing ethical considerations, has limited federal funding for embryonic stem cell research to existing lines of cells.

Harvard released a statement Sunday confirming its plans, saying the school is "proceeding in the direction of establishing a stem cell institute." The final details were not complete, the statement said.

"This is very important science that has really enormous prospects to benefit humankind," said Provost Steven E. Hyman. "Throughout the Harvard system, we have scientists working on different aspects of stem cells. The goal here is to bring them together to create a very strong effort."

Harvard has not decided how much money needs to be raised for the center, Hyman said. Scientists involved told the Boston Sunday Globe that the fund-raising goal is about $100 million.

"Harvard has the resources, Harvard has the breadth and, frankly, Harvard has the responsibility to take up the slack that the government is leaving," said Dr. George Q. Daley, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School and Children's Hospital who is involved in planning the center.

The center, tentatively called the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, would bring together researchers from the university and its affiliated hospitals. About 20 researchers are now working on planning for the center, Hyman said.

Stem cells are found in human embryos, umbilical cords and placentas, and develop into the various types of cells that make up the human body. Scientists hope to someday be able to direct stem cells to grow in laboratories into replacement organs and tissues to treat a wide range of diseases, including Parkinson's and diabetes.

But to harvest embryonic stem cells, researchers must destroy days-old embryos - a procedure condemned by some religious groups, abortion foes and others.

"Every success will change the argument," said Dr. Leonard Zon, a researcher at Children's Hospital Boston and president of the International Society for Stem Cell Research. "The American people will not stand for scientists not being able to work on their diseases."

Hyman said the Harvard researchers are taking concerns over the use of human stem cells into consideration.

"We've already begun to engage people in the non-science community to help us address ethical and social issues," Hyman said.

Other American research centers also plan privately funded research. Stanford University announced in 2002 a $12 million donation to study cancer by creating human embryonic stem cell lines. The University of Wisconsin, the University of Minnesota and the University of California at San Francisco also have programs.

In California, activists are pushing a $3 billion ballot initiative to finance the work. And the governor of New Jersey said last week that the state would give Rutgers University $6.5 million to create and study new cell lines.

Copyright 2004 Associated Press. All rights reserved

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* * *

What's In A Face?

(Based on presentations given at Novartis Foundation Symposium 251 'Autism: neural basis and treatment possibilities' held in London on 18-20 June 2002)

http://www.novartisfound.org.uk/Bull_12.htm#12b

What does a face mean to you? How easily can you recognize fear when you see it? Scientists have pinpointed certain areas of the brain involved in face recognition and fear recognition through neurological research. People with autism have a specific deficit in face recognition and they find it difficult to recognize expressions of emotion. Brain scans in normal individuals show that an area the size of a broad bean, within the fusiform gyrus at the back of the brain, is activated during face recognition. This so-called fusiform face area (FFA), points out Rob Schultz (Yale University Child Study Center), is not activated in individuals with autism when they see faces. Neural activation in these people is observed in a different region normally associated with object recognition.

This led Chris Frith (Wellcome Department of Imaging Science), at a recent Novartis Foundation Symposium on autism, to raise the question, which Schultz had dealt with in an earlier publication, as to whether people with autism might be treating faces as objects. The answer is clouded by the fact that in normal individuals the FFA is activated in response to seeing certain objects. This might be the case for a camera lover when he sees his favourite lens. Perhaps faces are not as interesting for individuals with autism as they are for normal people.

In light of findings suggesting that the FFA is not selective for faces, Schultz proposes that persons with autistic spectrum disorders are less socially motivated and therefore disinterested in the face. He believes that an expertise for face processing develops gradually in normal socially motivated individuals possibly through interactions between the FFA and the amygdala. Recent studies indicate that the amygdala plays an important role in processing facial expressions in collaboration with other brain regions.

The amygdala of autistic individuals is abnormal. It has been shown that the human amygdala (situated near the fusiform gyrus) is engaged in processing fearful expressions on faces. David Amaral (UC Davis Center for

Neuroscience) has studied monkeys with damage to the amygdala. These monkeys were curiously unafraid of frightening stimuli including snakes but appeared to be capable of normal social interaction. Hitherto it had been proposed that abnormal amygdalas in people with autism were associated with altered social functioning. However, Amaral advises that "If the amygdala is pathological in subjects with autism, it may contribute to their abnormal fears and increased anxiety rather than their abnormal social behaviour".

Individuals with Turner's syndrome are females and, like males, have a substantially higher rate of autistic-like conditions than normal females; most notably Turner's females have enlarged amygdalas. Turner's females have only one X-chromosome unlike their normal female counterparts who have two Xs, one from each parent. In order to explain why males are statistically at least 4 times more likely to suffer from autistic spectrum disorders, David Skuse (Institute of Child Health, London) argues that one or more X-linked genetic loci are associated with the expression of autistic characteristics. Two different genetic mechanisms could explain male vulnerability. First, males (like Turner's females) have a single X-chromosome, therefore a lower level of X-linked product for any gene that is needed in two copies in normal females.

Second, males (whose single X-chromosome is always inherited from their mothers) may lack expression of an imprinted X-linked gene, which is active only if inherited from the father (as in normal females). Both putative mechanisms could provide protection from autism for females by increasing the threshold at which other autism-predisposing genes influence behaviour and cognition. This explanation for male vulnerability is plausible despite the fact that genome wide screens haven't revealed strong X-linkage to autism. Skuse points out that "a complex multiallelic pattern of vulnerability would be necessary for phenotypic expression". To date, linkage studies have had insufficient power to detect this.

With a limited success in drug treatment and/or intervention studies there is a greater need for genetic predictors and understanding of the pathology of autism. However, as alluded to above, this will not necessarily result from genome-wide screens until we understand how genes interact with one another and how post-translational modifications (like methylation) impact on the phenotype. There is a very large picture to complete before we approach a full understanding of the aetiology and therefore potentially successful treatment of autistic spectrum disorders. Francesca Happé (Institute of Psychiatry, London) feels that given the complexity of such disorders, it would be more profitable to search for the biological basis of the characteristic social and non-social deficits rather than the aetiology of autism per se. It would certainly be interesting to pinpoint the genes associated with neural development, specifically the development of the fusiform face area and the amygdala in relation to this spectrum of disorders.

Brona McVittie-Assistant Science Editor, Novartis Foundation, London

(top) 'Autism: neural basis and treatment possibilities' is due to be published by John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, UK in March 2003

* * *

Men, Empathy, and Autism

A British researcher offers a new theory about the developmental disorder that has skyrocketed among children

[By David Cohen. Thanks to Beth Sigall.] http://chronicle.com/free/v50/i26/26a01201.htm

Cambridge, England On a first meeting in his office here at the University of Cambridge, Simon Baron-Cohen comes off as a poster boy for the empathetic scholar. He pulls a chair close, looks directly into his visitor's eyes with a steady gaze, and pays close attention to the ensuing conversation, not only to the actual words spoken but also to the body language that can reveal so much. His own voice is soft and easy, conveying a deep understanding that has helped make him one of his country's most listened-to autism researchers over the past 20 years.

Last summer Mr. Baron-Cohen's words struck a chord much farther afield, crossing the ocean and penetrating scholarly stateside barriers where resistance was expected, and some still remains. As well as being a reminder of the fast-growing international nature of autism research, his newfound recognition coincides with an American-government effort to investigate the condition and why the number of children diagnosed with autism has skyrocketed in recent years.

The 45-year-old professor of developmental psychopathology's photogenic face and media-savvy style haven't exactly impeded his growing recognition either. His crossover appeal has been likened to that of Steven Pinker, the Harvard psychologist and best-selling author who is, as it happens, an old chum, and whose words of praise ("one of the most brilliant research psychologists of his generation") adorn the jacket of Mr. Baron-Cohen's latest book. "They're both handsome guys who know how to articulate very complex ideas in a way that's very appealing to the public," says Helen Tager-Flusberg, a neurobiologist who has worked with both men.

It is Mr. Baron-Cohen's theory about empathy, in particular, that is generating a buzz among researchers and the public alike. His new work, The Essential Difference: The Truth About the Male and Female Brain (Perseus Publishing, 2003), suggests that the capacity for empathy is the critical cognitive difference between men and women. He goes on to speculate that the empathy gap between genders could provide a key for understanding autism, which afflicts one in every 250 American children -- the vast majority of them boys, including this reporter's 4-year-old son.

A Guy Thing?

Some parents of autists have charged that mercury-containing vaccines caused their children's disorder, but most researchers, including Mr. Baron-Cohen and others here at Cambridge's Autism Research Center, discount that theory. Scholars have reached no consensus on the condition's likely cause, let alone what could be its most effective treatment or possible cure, which is another of the reasons Mr. Baron-Cohen finds himself playing to an attentive audience these days.

The Cambridge scholar identifies empathy as "the drive to identify another person's emotions and thoughts, and to respond to them with an appropriate emotion." At the core of his thesis, he postulates that the natural wiring of the human brain tends either toward a capacity for empathy or toward one for understanding systems. He labels them E-type and S-type brains.

Although the scholar's office is small, he draws his chair a bit closer to allow for a clearer look at a little chart he uses to explain the scoring on questionnaires that the center gives to subjects. One corner of the frame shades into deep blue, the other into pink.

"We find," he explains, "that women on average tend to score in this light blue area, so their empathy is better than average. But their systematizing is not as strong as their empathy." Moving a finger across the frame, he continues: "Now here. Men on average are in the pink range -- they're interested in how things work, in systems, and less interested in talking about, say, emotional problems."

The final point of the demonstration, and the book's clincher, is that autism represents nothing less (or more) than an "extreme version" of the male brain. As Mr. Baron-Cohen tells it, it's almost like an exaggerated guy thing, a disorder in which autists tend to be more male than most men.

But he takes pains to distance his work from the "Mars and Venus" tradition. Imagining that "men are from Mars and woman are from Venus," is not helpful scientifically, writes Mr. Baron-Cohen, "and distracts us from the serious fact that both sexes have evolved on the same planet." Not to mention any autistic offspring they may have.

An 'Extreme Aloneness'

Childhood autism was first described in 1943 by Leo Kanner, a child psychiatrist at the Johns Hopkins University, who spent five years studying 11 children possessed with an "extreme aloneness from the beginning of life." He borrowed the word "autism," derived from the Greek autos, meaning "self," from the Swiss researcher Eugen Bleuler, who had used it in another context some three decades earlier. Unbeknown to Kanner or any of his American colleagues, the same condition was being studied simultaneously in Europe. It was identified with the same name only a year later, by a pediatrician in Vienna named Hans Asperger, after whom a high-functioning version of autism is named.

No two young autists are the same. Some will manage to lead relatively ordinary, even intellectually exceptional, lives, while others may need to be institutionalized. But what such youngsters share, both men saw, is an iron-walled detachment from the physical environment and an indifference to other people, along with profound difficulties with communication and imaginative play.

Among the behaviors most linked to the disorder are poor language and social skills, and a propensity for repetitive, frequently obsessional behavior, including hand-flapping, toe-walking, and self-injury. Autistic kids will often repeat the same words or phrases over and over, or immerse themselves in weirdly narrow interests, spinning to the sound of a rock album until they drop or else, perhaps, staring at a leaf on a tree until the sun goes down.

Clinicians since Kanner have debated the degree of conventional intelligence possessed by autists, with the usual assumption being that most of them exhibit some mental retardation.

One of the implications of Mr. Baron-Cohen's paradigm is that the opposite could be true, at least insofar as the "extreme" brain can be taken to mean one possessed of an extreme intelligence.

This is one of a number of areas where Mr. Baron-Cohen's current findings dovetail with some of his previous work. He has argued that a number of great scholars -- both men and women -- may themselves have possessed such a highly intelligent, "extreme" brain. One of the latest book's case studies involves an award-winning Cambridge scholar who, in a typical autistic touch, is terrified of talking on the telephone.

Mr. Baron-Cohen, along with the mathematician Ioan M. James of the University of Oxford, recently made scientific headlines by arguing that at least three of the well-known personality traits of Einstein and Newton -- obsessive interests, difficulty in social relationships, and profound communication problems -- suggested that these men were autistic. He even has his suspicions about the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein. And why not? Academe is a place "of strong and narrow interests, even obsessions," he says with a shrug.

The Testosterone Theory

Mr. Baron-Cohen's latest findings in the psychological realm also fit with his continuing work on autism's biological roots. His next book, scheduled for publication this summer, looks at amniotic testosterone levels, which go to the heart -- or brain -- of his overriding theory on the condition.

Testosterone, he proposes, is the biological basis for the prenatal development of the autistic child. It starts in the womb, where some individuals receive an exceptionally high dose of the hormone, leading to the "extreme maleness" of the condition. Based on their study of thousands of samples of amniotic fluid, Mr. Baron-Cohen and his colleagues at the autism center have documented that children who experienced high-prenatal testosterone levels make less eye contact as toddlers and have lower communication skills at age 4, though he admits the evidence for any relationship between fetal testosterone and autism has yet to be established.

In different studies, Mr. Baron-Cohen's group is using scanning techniques to examine how the brains of autists respond to different social and emotional situations. They are also examining the genetics of the syndrome and developing new diagnostic tests.

If further research substantiates Mr. Baron-Cohen's testosterone hypothesis, he says, it would revolutionize the way in which autism is understood and initially diagnosed, possibly opening the door to far earlier intervention with intensive behavioral therapies. But it would also "open up an ethical can of worms with regard to terminations of pregnancy as well. ... I mean, what would be lost, as well as gained, by that?" he asks.

+ Article continues: http://chronicle.com/free/v50/i26/26a01201.htm

* * *

Studying Hyperlexia May Unlock How Brains Read: Washington Post Children With Rare Disorder Have Heightened Reading, Learning Skills

[By Shankar Vedantam for the Washington Post.] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17466-2004Feb29.html\

By the time he was a year old, Alex Rosen of Bethesda would spend time at birthday parties thumbing through magazines while other children played with toys. By the time he was 3, if his mother's finger skipped a line as she was reading a story, he would place her finger on the correct point in the text. By the time he started school, he was reading like a 12-year-old.

No one taught him to read, but Alex, who is now 11, learned on his own to organize letters in alphabetical order while he was still a toddler. He has never had to study for a spelling bee.

"When he was two, I could take him to a really nice restaurant and we would bring a stack of books," said his mother, Ilene Freed Rosen. "He would look through them. People would walk up and say, 'How old is he?' I'd say, 'two,' and they would say, 'My god, my kid would have been running around.' "

Alex has hyperlexia, a condition whose features look like the opposite of the reading and learning disorder dyslexia. The condition endowed him with some unusual abilities, but it also exacted a price: He was slow to begin speaking, and he still has some trouble with verbal communication and difficulty grasping the rapidly changing social rules of 11-year-old children.

Hyperlexia is extremely rare. About two in every 10,000 children with "autism spectrum disorders" have hyperlexia, and researchers believe that studying Alex's development may help explain why some children naturally pick up reading the same way that others pick up spoken speech. The results, they hope, may also improve the understanding of disorders such as dyslexia and autism, and also help other hyperlexic children.

There is controversy about whether hyperlexia is linked to autism or whether it is a distinct disorder. Georgetown University developmental neuroscientist Peter Turkeltaub, who has studied Alex, said he was not even sure whether to call hyperlexia a disorder or simply a phenomenon.

Understanding hyperlexia may also help explain how normal brains accomplish the feat of reading. Unlike seeing and hearing, skills acquired through evolution, reading is usually not acquired naturally. Humans have been reading for only a few thousand years, and the pressure for everyone to become good readers has become intense in only the past couple of centuries.

Reading involves a complex series of brain activities: Visual centers must first perceive variable, tiny features of printed symbols on a page, then those changes must be mentally converted into strings of sound, and finally the patterns of sound must be interpreted by language centers in the brain to register their meaning.

"Hyperlexia is the antithesis of dyslexia," said Guinevere Eden, director of Georgetown University's Center for the Study of Learning, who has studied Alex. "We spend all our time studying individuals who have a hard time learning to read, and here are these children who acquire reading in a spontaneous way. It's as if they know it already."

In a study conducted when Alex was 9 years old, researchers compared his brain function while he was reading with that of other children his age and with children who were older but read at the same level. Alex's reading ability was six years ahead of his age.

In a paper published in the journal Neuron in January, the researchers reported that the Bethesda youngster had heightened brain activity in two areas, according to lead author Turkeltaub. One area was the left interior frontal gyrus, located behind the middle of the temple, the other was the left superior temporal cortex, over and behind the ear.

"If you're reading a word that you've never seen before, you need to first translate the letters into sounds, and then put those sounds together to make a whole word," Turkeltaub said in an e-mail. "In your brain, the left superior temporal cortex will translate the letters to sounds, and the left inferior frontal gyrus will put those sounds together to create the whole word."

Alex, it seems, had a very advanced ability to identify individual sounds while reading and then to manipulate those sounds in his head. But paradoxically, even as he incessantly read text, including traffic signs and license plate numbers, Alex had trouble understanding the meaning of what he read. With training, his speaking ability has improved and he has become skilled at reading nonfiction. But he still has difficulty with fiction, in which important aspects of a story, such as a character's inner motivations, are not explicitly described.

The lack of insight into how others think affects Alex's life. If two classmates are not talking to one another, for example, Alex has trouble connecting that behavior to a fight the children had the previous day, his mother said.

"The lessons they need to learn are not in books," Rosen said of children with hyperlexia. "Is a joke funny the second time? Not if you tell it to the same person. It's so difficult to teach someone to be a social human being."

Rosen teaches Alex to pay attention to slang, which is an important part of social communication, especially among children. Rather than fight his natural talent at reading, Rosen has used printed text as a means of communicating with her son. Alex still speaks very formally, mimicking the cadences of written speech. He never uses the interjection "like," the way many youngsters do incessantly, and his sentences are always grammatical and complete.

These skills helped him run for student council president -- and win. He is a fearless public speaker, and his mother had to tell Alex that other children are typically nervous in front of an audience.

But Rosen worries that Alex's lack of insight into how other people think may leave him too trusting -- his personality is as open as the books he loves. Deception is beyond him, which is why Rosen actually celebrates when Alex tries to manipulate her.

"I love it when you lie to me, Al," she told him in the presence of a visitor last week. "Because it tells me you know what I'm thinking."

Someday, Ilene Freed Rosen sighed, her guileless child would make a fabulous husband.

* * *

ADVOCACY

UK Vaccine Parents Vow To Fight On

[Rhiannon Edward.] http://news.scotsman.com/health.cfm?id=234362004

The parents of children allegedly damaged by the MMR vaccine last night vowed to continue campaigning for compensation despite losing a court battle for funding.

Their legal bid yesterday suffered another blow when a High Court judge rejected an application for a judicial review of a decision to withdraw public funding to fight test cases.

The decision was taken by the Legal Services Commission (LSC) and upheld by the Funding Review Committee.

Richard Follis, a partner in the firm Alexander Harris, representing hundreds of parents and their children, said they would consider whether there were grounds to appeal to the Court of Appeal.

Mr Harris added: "We will also be giving urgent consideration to how the very serious concerns that exist about the safety of MMR can now be addressed.

"Since this litigation will no longer be funded, and there is no sign that the government or pharmaceutical companies are taking up the very serious questions that research in the litigation has posed, we as a law firm representing many grievously injured children will now have to consider whether we press the government to properly investigate matters the drug companies have attempted to sweep under the carpet."

The MMR litigation has so far cost £15 million and the LSC believes it would cost another £10 million to bring to trial.

Today’s judgment concerned the lead cases in a group action involving about 1,000 claimants.

Isabella Thomas, a spokeswoman for Justice Awareness and Basic Support (JABS), said: "We will fight on to the end. This doesn’t stop us because we have to have justice. Parents are willing to sell their homes. Our children’ s lives are at stake. To watch your child in such severe pain is dreadful."

Mrs Thomas, 46, from East Sussex, whose autistic sons Michael and Terry both had the MMR vaccine, said many of the claimants involved in the court battle were members of JABS, a support group set up for the carers of "vaccine-damaged children".

"These children have a life sentence and we need to find a way of protecting them against that awful vaccine strain that is in their systems," she said.

The barrister mother of one of the affected children was in court.

Jennifer Horne-Roberts, 54, of Islington, north London, said after the ruling that she and her husband, Keith, were prepared to fight on through the courts without legal aid - representing other parents "pro bono", free of charge.

Mrs Horne-Roberts said her son, Harry, who is now nine, had changed from a bright, health baby into a child who suffers learning and communication problems.

She said after today’s hearing: "In my view the evidence does exist - 1,600 parents all with similar evidence: children screaming, high temperatures, coming out in spots after the jab was given. If it was not that, what else was it?"

A Department of Health spokesman said: "We would like to see the research involved in this case, from both the claimants and the manufacturers, to be made public.

"We want to see parents given the facts about MMR - that there is no credible scientific evidence showing an association between MMR and autism. It remains the best form of protection for your child."

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* * *

New Report Calls For More Research In Autism

Published March 2, 2004

[From an announcement by the National Autism Society, UK. "Thank you" to Tony Charman.]

Scientists and parents agree that given the impact of autism on the individual and family more research into the causes of autism, its effect on families and the success of different interventions is vitally needed, according to a report launched today.

Mapping Autism Research is the first-ever comprehensive overview of the UK research field. It outlines a surprising lack of research into the causes of autism and successful interventions compared with other countries. The review also concludes that research into how families cope and into autism support services is extremely scant.

The report has been published by The Institute of Child Health (ICH), The National Autistic Society (NAS) and The Parents Autism Campaign for Education (PACE), as part of a unified campaign to help identify and reach a consensus on future research priorities. It combines the views of scientists and people with autism and their families, and presents a comprehensive picture of the state of science and funding across the country.

Dr Tony Charman, a Reader at ICH and lead author of Mapping Autism Research, said: "As well as providing a critical overview of the gaps that still exist in our understanding of autism, the report has played a crucial role in enabling us to reach an agreement on what research is needed that is both relevant to scientists and families affected by autism.

"By bringing together the views of scientists and non-scientists the findings will be instrumental in helping funding agencies and stakeholders establish funding priorities for the future to tackle this challenging condition that affects more than a one hundred thousand people in the UK."

Together the ICH, NAS and PACE outline recommendations in the report which include that: · More joint working is needed between scientists, policy-makers and people affected by autism to identify priority areas of research · Greater emphasis should be placed on research into the causes of autism and into establishing effective interventions · More research into the effects of autism on families and support services is needed, as well as a study on why these are overlooked areas · An electronic network of scientists in the autism field should be established to disseminate research findings, collaborate with parent organisations and publicise research opportunities Richard Mills, Director of Research, The National Autistic Society, added: "The NAS welcomes this vital effort in mapping current research activity in autism. While further research is needed in every area, it is clear that the UK is currently underinvesting in interventions research. Government must take responsibility for co-ordinating and funding research so that parents can be confident in knowing ‘what works’ for autism".

Download a copy of the report from here: http://www.gosh.nhs.uk/pressoffice/mapping_autism.pdf

* * *

EVENT

Recovered Autistic Boy To Speak At Allentown, Pa Conference

[From an organization announcement.]

Michael Curtin, who has recovered from autism, and his mother Jean Curtin, will speak about their journey from diagnosis to recovery at Kutztown University on Saturday, April 17th. Although Michael, now 17, is no longer autistic, he is a translator for those that still are autistic. He can remember and relate to many behaviors that, although odd to outsiders, are really just ways of coping and connecting to the world of people. Michael will present his profound insights on these behaviors, as well as what he believes worked and didn’t work in helping him recover, with the desire to bring hope and understanding to frustrated parents and healing to other children like himself. Jean Curtin will tell Michael’s life story, in her words, “straight up in the hopes that something I say will turn on a light bulb in someone’s head.” After their presentation, Jean and Michael will field questions from the audience.

“This event will bring real hope and inspiration to parents who are struggling to correct their child’s behaviors. Michael will give them a real inside view of how it feels to be autistic,” said John Sportelli-Wright, President of The Lehigh Valley Chapter, Autism Society of America (LVASA).

The conference, “The Journey From Diagnosis to Recovery” will take place in The Old Main Georgian Room at Kutztown University, Saturday April 17th, from 11:00 AM till 3:00 PM. Beverages and snacks are supplied. Registration begins at 10:30 AM. Admission is free but donations will be accepted by LVASA, who are sponsoring the event. Registration is open to anyone with an interest in Autism, parents and professionals, and is open to the first 300 registrants.

Separate space is available for child care but parents will need to advise upon registration if they intend to bring their own child minder. To register by phone please call 610 778 9212 and follow the instructions. You may e-mail your registration to asa_lehighvalley@yahoo.com. More information is available at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/asalv/, where a promotional flyer and a map of the campus are available for download. Michael has some allergies, and thus, we ask that everyone please be courteous and refrain from using any perfumes on the day of the event.

* * *

CARE

Scalding Death of Autistic 5-Year-Old New Jersey Boy

[By Robert Stern.] http://www.nj.com/news/times/index.ssf?/base/news-1/1078218310185670.xml

Trenton - Several months before Alicia Day's 5-year-old autistic son was found scalded to death in his family's West Ward apartment last week, the state Division of Youth and Family Services was twice asked to investigate if Day was an abusive or neglectful parent.

But in both cases DYFS workers determined there were no signs that Day's children were abused or neglected, DYFS spokesman Andy Williams said last night.

Law enforcement authorities are still working to pinpoint the circumstances surrounding the death of Day's son, Samuel Allen Jr., on Wednesday and revealed no new details about the case yesterday.

Day, 30, was charged last week with four counts of endangering the welfare of a child for allegedly leaving Samuel and her three other young children - ages 2, 3 and 9 - home alone overnight Feb. 24-25 while she worked her regular shift at the Trane Co. manufacturing plant in Hamilton.

Authorities have said the single mother discovered her unresponsive and severely scalded son in the bathroom of the family's Eisenhower Avenue apartment when she returned from her job sometime before 6:45 a.m. on Wednesday.

Emergency crews summoned to the scene determined that the boy had died at an undetermined time sometime during the overnight hours.

Day's other three children showed no signs of injury or abuse and are in the custody of a relative, Williams confirmed.

Day's family has said the mother, who grew up in Willingboro, was devastated by her boy's tragic death.

She remained under psychiatric evaluation yesterday at Trenton Psychiatric Hospital, said Casey DeBlasio, spokeswoman for the Mercer County Prosecutor's Office.

Day's attorney, James E. Sacks-Wilner, entered a not-guilty plea on her behalf on the child-endangerment charges and has said he will seek to have her $100,000 cash bail reduced.

Investigators believe Samuel was playing in the bathroom and was burned when he turned on the hot-water tap, DeBlasio said Friday.

For some reason - possibly because of his autism - the boy didn't turn off the tap and, detectives believe, hot water started to overflow the sink and scald him further.

The boy, who relatives have said never learned to speak, apparently passed out as hot water continued to flow from the tap, DeBlasio said.

While Williams made no suggestion DYFS mishandled its previous contacts with Day and her children, he said the commissioner of the state Department of Human Services has asked for one more review of the case history.

It's "just to make sure that we had offered some support services to the family because, obviously, you have a single mother and four kids in a home situation that could be stressful."

He said it's clear DYFS offered services, such as help with child-care, to Day after at least one of the two cases from last fall but that she indicated she didn't need assistance.

On Oct. 25, 2003, DYFS received an anonymous call that 5-year-old Samuel was running around outside naked during the day, Williams said.

Day told DYFS investigators who responded to the scene that she had gone outside and Samuel must have taken off his diapers before going outside to look for her, Williams said.

Then, on Dec. 12, 2003, DYFS received another call to check on one of Day's children - this time, her 9-year-old son, Williams said.

"There was an allegation that he had gotten in trouble at school and he was afraid that his mom would beat him when he got home," he said. So DYFS received a call from the boy's school and "we checked that out."

"Again, (there were) no signs of abuse, no signs that she had disciplined him previously," Williams said.

Day's attorney contends that even if the mother had been home that night, she may have been unable to prevent Samuel's death if she had been sleeping because the temperature of the water was so hot.

Day's family contends the hot-water temperature in the Wilson Homes apartment complex where Day and her children live is dangerously hot for children, especially at night.

Trenton Housing Authority Executive Director Dallas J. Parks said his technicians have told him the hot-water heater in Day's apartment building is a model that does not allow the temperature to be adjusted after installation.

But, he said, the equipment, installed about a year ago, is set to dispense water that leaves the tap at about 120 degrees Fahrenheit at its hottest.

THA technicians took temperature readings of the hot water coming from a tap in Day's building on Friday and determined the temperature was about 126 degrees, Parks said.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that parents not allow the hottest water coming from the tap to exceed 120 degrees Fahrenheit when young children are present.

Later Friday, Sacks-Wilner bought an off-the-shelf candy thermometer to measure the temperature of the hot water flowing from the bathroom sink of Day's sister, Tamela Befoh, who lives around the corner in the same complex.

That reading appeared to show a temperature of about 135 degrees Fahrenheit.

Parks declined to comment directly on that reading.

"Any time a child dies, it's a major tragedy," Parks said. "We are very very chagrined that the child died under these unknown circumstances."

* * *

LETTER

Birth Brain Injury As A Cause Of Autism

To the British Medical Journal

Katikireddi's claim that the increase in autism is due to a change in diagnosis from other "minimal cerebral disorders" such as ADD, ADHD, behavioural disorders, learning disabilities and mild to moderate mental deficiency does nothing to solve the problem of causality of all these diagnoses. http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/328/7436/364-b

All the above diagnoses, including "autism" correlate strongly with infant anemia, (iron deficiency anemia during the first year of life) and the most common cause of infant anemia is immediate clamping of the umbilical cord at birth (ICC). ICC prevents normal placental transfusion of blood and deprives the neonate of up to 50% of its natural blood volume. Full placental transfusion provides enough iron to prevent anemia during the first year of life.

In newborns with "major cerebral disorders" - cerebral palsy, the principal brain lesion in the neonate is ISCHEMIC ENCEPHALOPTHY - lack of blood flow; nearly every child that develops CP has its cord clamped immediately at birth. Despite all the "advances" in obstetrics over the past 30 years, the incidence of CP has remained steady; the incidence of ICC has risen.

Katikireddi's article is valuable in pointing out that autism is deficient brain function. Windle, in the 1960's produced minimal brain disorders (memory and behavioural dysfunction without palsy)in monkeys by asphyxiating them at birth using ICC. Windle also pointed out that ICC produced the equivalent of a massive neonatal hemorrhage and resulted in infant anemia.

The corrleation of autism, ADD, mental deficiency etc. with infant anemia, and infant anemia with ICC provides enough evidence to show that these disorders are due to birth brain injury sustained because of deficient brain perfusion. A large number of autism cases (whether epidemic or not) can be prevented by abolishing the practice of ICC and by allowing all neonates to clamp their own cords naturally, thus achieving physiological blood volumes and normal cerebral perfusion.

Full documentation of relevant medical literature regarding the above is available at the web site: http://www.cordclamping.com

- George M. Morley, MB ChB FACOG, Retired 10252 E. Johnson Road, Northport, MI 49670 USA

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