First Full Access Theme Park for the Autistic and Disabled Opens in Texas

Coined as “The World’s First Ultra Accessible Family Fun Park”, Morgan’s Wonderland in Texas is 100% wheelchair accessible and boasts special features such as braille signs, crowd control aimed at supporting families with autistic children and security wristbands that can locate any missing guests. For autistic guests, this theme provides garden sanctuaries to help stimulation overload. Morgan’s theme park also credits having a highly trained staff in sensitivity with extensive background checks that will help diffuse any delicate situations.

From Their “Welcome to Morgan’s Wonderland” Homepage:
Morgan’s Wonderland is located in San Antonio, Texas. It is the World’s First Ultra Accessible Family Fun Park designed specifically for children and adults with special needs, their family members, caregivers, friends and the entire community. This 25-acre park is a unique oasis, that through the spirit of inclusion, allows people of all abilities to play, learn and share life changing experiences together, in a fun and safe environment.

Visit their site for reservations, directions and more info:

morganswonderland.com

Autism Awareness Month Extended

Autism Awareness Month and Autism Awareness Day

RocknBauble Awareness Jewelry

Autism Awareness Month is here and April 2nd was World Autism Awareness Day! RocknBauble.etsy.com supports Autism Awareness all year long with a 10 percent donation from the proceeds of its Handmade Autism Awareness Fashion Jewelry.

RocknBauble.com will support Autism Awareness Month by donating 10 percent of the proceeds from its dazzling Autism Awareness jewelry line to ASGO. We typically donate to ASGO being a member but you can advise your charity or society of choice when purchasing RocknBauble autism jewelry. High quality handmade Autism Awareness bracelets, necklaces, earrings and book thongs are available and being offered through the RocknBauble storefront located on ETSY.com (www.RocknBauble.Etsy.com). This months featured necklace is a handcrafted Dichroic Glass puzzle piece pendant on an 18 in sterling silver box chain. The Puzzle piece measures approx. 3/4 inch x 3/4 inches, and is signed by the artist on the back and includes a hand decorated cotton filled gift box. The necklaces are available with several different designs all unique unto themselves. “I am extremely excited to promote autism awareness with special autism jewelry creations and donations throughout the year to support our autistic community,” states Andi Vogel (RocknBauble Jewelry Artist). Jewelry for any awareness color or cause is also available with a percentage of the proceeds going to the cause the particular jewelry piece represents and although we place extra emphasis on Autism this month it is a top priority cause for us all year long. Additionally this year we will have a team in the Autism Society of Greater Orlando’s Autism Awareness 5k walk for ASGO on May 8^th inside the Orange County Convention Center ’s South Concourse.

RocknBauble Autism Awareness Month Necklace

About ASGO and Autism Awareness Month:

ASGO was founded in 1996 by a group of volunteer parents to better assist families of children and adults with autism in the Central Florida area. Everyone is encouraged to come out to support ASGO and the Central Florida families affected by autism. 100% of the proceeds will stay right in the Central Florida area. The mission or goal of ASGO is that all individuals within the autism spectrum will be provided a lifetime network of opportunities to become fully accepted, included, and actively participating members of our community, through family support, education, and advocacy, and public awareness. They are a wealth of information and support to families of children and adults with autism, offering social opportunities for individuals with autism to be included in the community. (www.asgo.org) The Autism Society has been celebrating National Autism Awareness Month since the 1970s. The United States recognizes April as a special opportunity for everyone to educate the public about autism and issues within the autism community.

About RocknBauble:

RocknBauble.com owner Andi states, “Wearing Autism Awareness Jewelry is one of many great ways to show your support for this important cause!” Andi crafts her fashionable awareness jewelry by hand and meticulously selects all materials to produce a truly original piece. Puzzle Pieces, Ribbons, Baubles, Stars, Lampwork Beads, Furnace Glass, Czech Republic Crystals, Swarovski Crystals, Fresh-water Pearls, Sterling Charms and Hearts are used in this superior quality jewelry, as well as some highly desirable bead variations and more unusual settings, most of which are crafted by local artisans. Her artistic sense of style and keen eye for color shines through in every awareness creation. Andi shows her confidence in the quality of her jewelry with a lifetime warranty and RocknBauble Awareness Jewelry has been showcased at many Autism events throughout the world. Visit her storefront to view and purchase her current offerings: www.RocknBauble.etsy.com

####

RocknBauble Dot Com

DeBary, FL 32713

Beads(at)RocknBauble.com

www.RocknBauble.com

www.RocknBauble.Etsy.com

ASGO 5k Walk – 30th of May, 2009

RocknBauble Autism Awareness Month Extended Press Release PDF

Sing SOS raises Autism Awareness Through Music

Sing SOS is raising Autism Awareness through donations for great music by famous artists. As we are music lovers and support Autism Awareness we wanted to share some information on the noble organization.

Enjoy this video from one of the artists – The Cucumbers (Jon Fried and Deena Shoshkes) play “Understand” from SOS, Songs of The Spectrum. At the Record Collector, Bordentown , NJ
March 6, 2010

From the Sing SOS “More About” Page

Our Mission

To use the power of music to raise awareness, funds and spirits in the struggle against autism spectrum disorders. We seek to raise awareness, because true help will not arrive until society at large understands more about this baffling disease, and the life-altering power of early detection and intensive treatment. We seek to raise funds for the struggle, because the resources on hand are not yet a match for the work to be done. We seek to raise spirits because the parents involved face an isolating and dispiriting fight. Building a sense of hope, community and more widespread understanding is vital to sustaining and advancing their efforts. We Sing SOS — Songs of the Spectrum — not only to sound an alarm, but to rally an effective national response.

Why Sing SOS?

The Need:

The number of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders has soared over the last decade. Before 1990, children with autism were so rare that schools did not even count them. A year ago, over 190,000 students were officially categorized as suffering from autism; experts suspect that many thousands more are counted under other headings.

While advocacy groups have won increases in federal spending for research and are raising increasing amounts of money themselves, autism remains a poorly funded disorder compared with rarer childhood conditions. And while schools and pediatricians are doing a better job of finding and treating cases, the CDC estimates that half of affected children are diagnosed after the window of opportunity for most effective treatment has closed, and experts in the field estimate that as many as 80 percent of affected children get treatment that falls short of recommended minimums.

What We Bring To The Cause:

There have been many CDs made for charity. Most of them are collections of songs with no relation to the cause, though there have been a few that include songs that performers have written specifically for those projects. But we know of no other CD that takes a unified set of songs on a specific subject by writers steeped in the experience, and puts them in the hands of some of the best vocalists and song interpreters of their generation.

The songs attempt the impossible: to describe the experience of autism from the point of view of the parent and the child, and to go where that experience goes: into despair, hope, exhaustion, exhilaration, awe, anger, bitterness, determination and gratitude. If there is a single message in the body of work, it’s that early intervention and dedicated, relentless treatment can have a genuinely transforming effect. If there’s a single purpose, it’s to bring listeners inside an experience that is so hard to see and so hard to understand. Autism has been called the “invisible epidemic,” and for good reason. For those who are already living it, we hope to offer a mirror. For everyone else, a window. Or better, a doorway.

Our Artists:

The CD will include songs recorded by Jackson Browne (with Valerie Carter), Dar Williams, Marshall Crenshaw, Teddy Geiger, Jonatha Brooke, Richard Julian, Dan Bern (with Mike Viola), Don Dixon (with Marti Jones), Olabelle, Christina Courtin, Ari Hest, Kelly Flint and The Cucumbers.

The Story Behind The Music

The project began as a handful of poems John O’Neil scribbled on the train. He emailed some to Jon Fried, the father of his oldest boy’s best friend, after overhearing a conversation about unlikely songwriting collaborations. The first batch of songs poured out of Fried’s guitar in a rush, and over the next two years a cycle of songs took shape, representing many aspects of the disorder and the challenges families face, expressed in as many musical moods. Others contributing to the song collection, are Deena Shoshkes, Fried’s partner in leading The Cucumbers, and John’s son Chris, who wrote on the fears and feelings of a sibling of a child with autism.

With nearly two dozen songs in hand, John and Jon decided they could put the songs to work in the fight against autism. They launched SingSOS and sought well known vocal artists who would not only bring the music to life but also inspire interest in the project.

Funds for the project were raised in large part through house concerts where the Jon and Deena performed the songs and John told the story of the songs and the project. In events from New Haven to Los Angeles, the music has never failed to strike a chord. Dr. Ami,Klin, Director of Research at the Yale Child Study Center, joined the SingSOS board after the New Haven concert, saying that in all his time in the field he had never gotten such a strong sense of a family’s experience. In Los Angeles, the hostess at one concert interrupted to tell her friends and neighbors, “You have to understand — they’re singing my life!” After that event, Dr. Daniel Siegel, an author and psychiatrist at UCLA, offered to arrange for the group to present the material at the 2007 conference of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry in Boston.

Other reactions have been equally meaningful. Jackson Browne recorded “Day After Day,” not only because of his sympathy for the cause, but because he found it “deeply spiritual.” And one of the many postings on our myspace site capture the impact we hope to have. “Thank you,” wrote one single mother of a boy with autism, who was in the midst of a battle with her school district. “I feel less alone.”

We believe that autism is a global problem with local solutions. The funds we raise will go to national organizations and local schools and autism service groups, all nonprofits. (source www.singsos.org)

MIT to Launch New Brain Research Effort

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to Launch New Brain Research Effort with Acquisition of Elekta MEG Technology

Using magnetoencephalography (MEG), Elekta Neuromag system will help MIT researchers unlock mysteries of normal and abnormal brain function

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Researchers at MIT are eagerly anticipating the summer delivery of Elekta Neuromag, a system that uses magnetoencephalography or MEG to explore brain function. MEG can detect the very weak magnetic fields arising from electrical activity in the brain, and allows researchers to monitor the timing of brain activity with millisecond precision. MIT researchers will use MEG to study normal cognition in children and adults, as well as the neural basis of autism, depression, schizophrenia and other brain disorders.

“MIT is exceptionally well positioned to benefit from a MEG facility on our campus,” says Charles Jennings, Ph.D., director of neurotechnology at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research. “MIT is among the country’s leading centers for neuroscience research, with a community of investigators that studies the brain at every level, from molecules and cells to human cognition and computational modeling. We also have strong programs to study a wide range of brain disorders, which will benefit greatly from access to MEG technology.”

“MIT’s worldwide reputation for advancing knowledge in science and technology for nearly 150 years makes its acquisition of Elekta Neuromag particularly gratifying, and we’re proud to be a part of it,” says Stephen Otto, Chairman of Elekta’s Neuromag Business. “And it is fitting that this institution, especially, will become Elekta’s latest MEG site, as MEG was invented by David Cohen at MIT.”

The Elekta Neuromag system will be housed in the Martinos Imaging Center within the Brain and Cognitive Sciences complex, home to the McGovern Institute of Brain Research, the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory and the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences. Delivery of the system is expected in June and it should be operational by the fall of 2010.

The following are examples of planned MEG research projects at MIT:

* Prof. John Gabrieli, director of the Martinos Imaging Center, will use MEG to study the neural and genetic basis of autism, dyslexia and other developmental disorders. By combining MEG with other brain imaging modalities, such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and electroencephalography (EEG), Dr. Gabrieli plans to search for differences in brain activation in subjects with different genetic variants that have been linked to these conditions. “Our goal is to correlate the changes in brain function with genetic risk factors, and in turn identify categories of patients for whom optimal treatment strategies could be tailored,” he says.

* Prof. Robert Desimone, director of the McGovern Institute, plans to study the neural basis of attention. Animal studies have indicated that high frequency brain waves known as gamma oscillations become synchronized across brain areas as these areas communicate with each other to control attention. He plans to extend this work to humans using MEG, and he hopes that this will provide new insights into the basis of diseases such as schizophrenia. “Gamma oscillations are disrupted in schizophrenia, and we think this may help explain why people with schizophrenia often experience difficulty organizing their thoughts and perceptions into a coherent and meaningful whole,” Dr. Desimone explains.

* Prof. Christopher Moore, an investigator at the McGovern Institute, seeks to understand how the cerebral cortex processes rapid sensory information. Based on his work on cortical circuitry, Dr. Moore has developed a biophysical model to account for the MEG signal. “Our aim is to link the signals that we can record from human subjects to the underlying brain mechanisms that give rise to those signals,” he says. “Arguably, we will never fully understand normal cognition or the ways that cognition fails in brain disorders unless we can achieve this deep circuit understanding.”

Other MIT faculty members expect to use the new MEG facility for a variety of studies, including MEG source localization; the neural basis of age-related changes in cognition; how individuals differ in their processing of social cues such as faces; cognitive deficits in autism spectrum disorder; the processing of complex visual scenes; neural mechanisms of speech and comprehension; how children and adults infer and reason about the mental states of other people; neural mechanisms of motor control and many other studies.

“In many ways the brain is a ‘black box.’ It is so complex — comprising 100 billion neurons and a trillion or more synapses — it’s not surprising it’s challenging to study,” Dr. Jennings notes. “But with MEG I think we’ll succeed in shining a little light in there.”

About Elekta
Elekta is a human care company pioneering significant innovations and clinical solutions for treating cancer and brain disorders. The company develops sophisticated, state-of-the-art tools and treatment planning systems for radiation therapy and radiosurgery, as well as workflow enhancing software systems across the spectrum of cancer care.

Stretching the boundaries of science and technology, providing intelligent and resource-efficient solutions that offer confidence to both healthcare providers and patients, Elekta aims to improve, prolong and even save patient lives, making the future possible today.

Today, Elekta solutions in oncology and neurosurgery are used in over 5,000 hospitals globally, and every day more than 100,000 patients receive diagnosis, treatment or follow-up with the help of a solution from the Elekta Group.

Elekta employs around 2,500 employees globally. The corporate headquarter is located in Stockholm, Sweden, and the company is listed on the Nordic Exchange under the ticker EKTAb. For more information about Elekta, please visit www.elekta.com.

About the McGovern Institute for Brain Research
The McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT is led by a team of world-renowned, neuroscientists committed to meeting two great challenges of modern science: understanding how the brain works and discovering new ways to prevent or treat brain disorders. The McGovern Institute was established in 2000 by Patrick J. McGovern and Lore Harp McGovern, who are committed to improving human welfare, communication and understanding through their support for neuroscience research. The director is Robert Desimone, formerly the head of intramural research at the National Institute of Mental Health. Further information is available at: mcgovern.mit.edu        (source Elekta)

“Love is the Drug” for Autism

‘Love hormone’ may reduce autism symptoms

NEW YORK, Dec. 28 (UPI) — The “love hormone,” released at childbirth and during sex, is being used in a U.S. trial of young adults with autism spectrum disorders, researchers say.

Dr. Eric Hollander, the center’s advisory board chairman and chairman of the psychiatry at the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, says giving oxytocin may improve social functioning and repetitive behaviors — irrespective of the age of the patient.

“For the first time, certain core systems of autism may respond to treatment,” Hollander says in a statement.

In the trial, autistic patients age 18 and older, who were given oxytocin nasally for 12 weeks significantly reduced their repetitive behavior, and were better able to recognize anger or happiness in the tone of a speaker’s voice. Upbeat results were also provided in a similar age group who took the peptide intravenously, the study said. Autism spectrum disorders refers to a group of symptoms, like a profound inability to communicate and other developmental disorders.

Oxytocin is a mammalian hormone that also acts as a neurotransmitter in the brain.

It is best known for its roles in female reproduction: it is released in large amounts after distension of the cervix and vagina during labor, and after stimulation of the nipples, facilitating birth and breastfeeding, respectively. Recent studies have begun to investigate oxytocin’s role in various behaviors, including orgasm, social recognition, pair bonding, anxiety, trust, love, and maternal behaviors.

The Healthy Rhythm of Horses and Autism

The Certainty of Hippocrates

Today, to the joy of those who promoted the birth of such a singular project some six years ago in that same place, the La Loma farm, owned by the Vivo Picart family, is once again the scene of horseback riding for therapeutic purposes.

In spite of distance (it’s located in Capdevila, in the Havana municipality of Boyeros), children with disabilities and their parents go there each Friday by their own means, under the premise that this practice can help the quality of life of these children.

As special education expert and therapist Idida Rigual points out, in the year 460 BC, the Greek sage Hippocrates made reference to the healthy rhythm of horses, something that European medicine reintroduced in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, as some doctors at the time recommended trotting on a horse to keep healthy.

It wasn’t until the end of World War II, however, that the so-called equine therapy appeared in the Old Continent, mainly in Germany and in several Scandinavian countries.

The Road To Rehabilitation
Generally speaking, equine therapy consists of the use of horses for the physical and emotional rehabilitation of children and adults with autism, neuromotor disorders, Down’s syndrome, cerebral palsy, changes of behavior, concentration problems, Rett’s syndrome, hyperkinesia and other pathologies.

sessions also include different exercises aimed at improving the patients’ coordination.

As referred to by world literature specializing in this topic, a horse trained for this activity transmits to the patients a certain amount of vibrations per minute during its pace. Those rhythmic impulses get to the pelvic belt, the spine and lower limbs, which provides a series of physiological stimuli that regulate the body tone and favor coordinated movement.

In order to have a better idea of the therapeutic effects, suffice it to say that when a person confined to a wheel chair rides a horse, they exercise the same muscles he or she would use if he or she was walking during that same time.

Generally, the modalities of passive and active riding can be used. In the first one, the person under treatment gets adapted to the movement of the animal without carrying out any other action, while the other one includes the performance of different exercises, among them doing circles with your arms, riding back to front or clinging to the horse’s body. Likewise, it includes an adapted program of sports horseback riding for disabled people.

Rehabilitation is also supported by the combination of activities like drawing, the use of didactic games, and music.

In the opinion of Vladimir Picart, a specialist in Zootechnics and responsible for the equestrian part of the project, animals used in equine therapy must be adult specimens, healthy and tame, and above all specifically prepared for this type of work.

I would go as far as to say that horses are very sensitive with disabled children. To me, they even recognize the limitations of the patients and are capable of not doing anything that can frighten them, he declared.

Today, there are several working groups using equine therapy, and despite difficulties of all kinds, the discipline is gaining space and credibility. It looks like Hippocrates was very much right when he spoke, in such remote times, about the horse-health link.

Beyond the aforementioned benefits, equine therapy encourages sensorial integration, develops vertical and horizontal balance, and also increases concentration, self-confidence, self-esteem and social interrelations. It also makes it possible to work on aspects referring to posture, language, space orientation and memory.

A specific working plan is devised for each case, explains Idida, according to medical assessments and the peculiarities of the condition

How Does a Florida Teacher Suspended for Autism Vote Get Reinstated ?

A St. Lucie County teacher who let her kindergartners decide whether an autistic child could remain in class is returning to the classroom.

St. Lucie County school board (http://www.stlucie.k12.fl.us/) members unanimously approved teacher Wendy Portillo’s reinstatement Tuesday night. Portillo was suspended after she asked her Morningside Elementary class in Port St. Lucie to vote on whether a boy should stay in the class in May 2008. The 5-year-old student was diagnosed with a form of autism called Asperger’s syndrome after the incident, in which classmates voted 14-2 against him. Officials say Portillo is expected to teach sixth-grade science and reading upon her return. (source www.pbpost.com)

We usually like to stay on a positive slant with our awareness articles and information, however,  we admit we got caught up in the emotion we felt when reading about this incident, We relate to this as we have a 7yo with High Functioning Autism and shudder thinking how this would make him feel and the potential psychological scars it could produce. It is difficult enough trying to manage this disorder in a child and our experience is the school is slow to move to assist him.

It is very concerning that a person in the position of teacher which for a child of this age most often is a major role model, would  have such aggresive behavior towards the child as to incite a “vote” against him?  Do we not question the stability of the thinking  here ?

We all need to do more to understand and help these children as the percentage has risen expotentially, the reported cases of autism have doubled since 2003, according to the latest U.S. government survey on the health of more than 78,000 children conducted as part of the National Survey of Children’s Health.

Under the latest results, scientists now estimate that 1.1 percent, or about 1 in 91 children have some form of the disorder.

1 Out of Every 91 Children Autistic

According to the Department of Health and Human Services National Survey of Children’s Health, 1 out of every 91 children — 1% of American kids today — has an autism spectrum disorder.

• That’s up from 1 child in every 150, just a few years ago in 2007!
• These statistics don’t include adult prevalence or those children who remain undiagnosed

What do we do now?

Voice our concern at government inaction and we ask our elected officials to explain why though autism prevalence is skyrocketing, investment in treatment, services and support is stagnant.

Realize that this fight is up to us

How can I help?

• Donate now to help the Autism Society get the word out and continue their ever-more-vital programs to confront the autism crisis.
• Urge Congress to provide more funding for autism
• Raise Autism Awareness by sharing this information

What’s the bottom line?

Autism is treatable | We can make a difference now | Take Action

Additional Information from the DHHS Survey:

The weighted current ASD point-prevalence was 110 per 10,000. We estimate that 673,000 US children have ASD. Odds of having ASD were 4 times as large for boys than girls. Non-Hispanic (NH) black and multiracial children had lower odds of ASD than NH white children. Nearly 40% of those ever diagnosed with ASD did not currently have the condition; NH black children were more likely than NH white children to not have current ASD. Children in both ASD groups were less likely than children without ASD to receive care within a medical home.

$60 Million to Support Autism Research

Rising to the Challenge: NIH Will Use $60 Million in Recovery Act Funds to Support Strategic Autism Research

The National Institutes of Health will commit roughly $60 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) to support autism research and meet objectives set forth earlier this year by a federal advisory committee. The Request for Applications is the largest funding opportunity for research on autism spectrum disorders (ASD) to date and, combined with other ARRA initiatives, represents a surge in NIH’s commitment to finding the causes and treatments for autism.

Four grant announcements, sharing a single title, “Research to Address the Heterogeneity in Autism Spectrum Disorders,” will use different funding mechanisms to support a range of research topics over the next two years. Examples of research topics include developing and testing diagnostic screening tools for different populations; assessing risk from prenatal or early life exposures; initiating clinical trials to test early interventions; or adapting existing, effective pediatric treatments for older children, teens, and adults with ASD. For a full listing of possible study topics, see the grant announcement listing in the NIH Guide (http://grants1.nih.gov/grants/guide/index.html). While few trials can be completed in two years, ARRA funds will be important for jumpstarting projects and building the infrastructure or foundation for longer-term autism research efforts.

These topics correspond directly to short-term research objectives detailed in the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee’s (IACC’s) Strategic Plan for Autism Spectrum Disorder Research (http://iacc.hhs.gov/reports/2009/iacc-strategic-plan-for-autism-spectrum-disorder-research-jan26.shtml), released earlier this month. Comprising representatives of federal agencies and members of the public, the IACC coordinates efforts within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services concerning ASD. The group’s strategic plan, created with the input of the scientific community, service providers, advocates, parents, and people with ASD, is organized around six critical questions asked by people and families living with ASD:

• When should I be concerned?
• How can I understand what is happening?
• What caused this to happen and can this be prevented?
• Which treatments and interventions will help?
• Where can I turn for services?
• What does the future hold?

Targeting Recovery Act funds toward objectives identified in the IACC strategic plan will help move the science forward sooner than anticipated in addressing some of the most significant challenges to understanding and treating ASD.

As part of the ARRA, these autism grants will promote economic recovery by creating and maintaining biomedical jobs, as well as supporting innovative projects to serve as platforms for future, longer-term research efforts. Beyond those who will receive direct funding for their work, these new grants will also benefit allied health workers, technicians, students, and other groups affiliated with the scientific research community. All grants funded by the ARRA and their outcomes will be posted on a new Web site, www.recovery.gov, providing transparency and accountability.

“The Recovery Act comes at an opportune time for autism research,” said Thomas R. Insel, M.D., NIMH director and IACC chair.” As reflected in the IACC strategic plan, we have a growing sense of urgency to help the increasing number of children being diagnosed with ASD. With the arrival of new funds, we can immediately start on many of the short-term objectives in the plan and use Recovery Act funds to support science that will facilitate the best possible outcomes for people with ASD and their families.”

As with all Recovery Act funds, NIH is required to obligate the $60 million within two years. Answering this mandate will entail a highly streamlined process for reviewing grant applications and allocating funds by Sept. 30, 2010. The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), part of NIH, will lead this effort, with participation from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute on Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), and the National Institute on Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS).

Researchers funded through these new autism grants will be expected to contribute to the National Database for Autism Research (NDAR). NDAR was established to serve the autism research community as a common platform for exchanging data, tools, and research-related information, as well as to serve as a portal to and for the broad autism research community. For more information about NDAR or data sharing policies, please refer to the funding opportunity announcements or see http://ndar.nih.gov.

In addition to the NIMH-led effort, NIH will allocate another portion of its ARRA funds for autism research and related programs through the NIH Challenge Grants in Health and Science initiative and other potential programs. These grants will be announced in the coming weeks.

The mission of the NIMH is to transform the understanding and treatment of mental illnesses through basic and clinical research, paving the way for prevention, recovery and cure. For more information, visit www.nimh.nih.gov.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) — The Nation’s Medical Research Agency — includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is the primary federal agency for conducting and supporting basic, clinical and translational medical research, and it investigates the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.

The activities described in this release are being funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). More information about NIH’s ARRA grant funding opportunities can be found at http://grants.nih.gov/recovery/. To track the progress of HHS activities funded through the ARRA, visit www.hhs.gov/recovery. To track all federal funds provided through the ARRA, visit www.recovery.gov.

AutismPro and The Accident

We just discovered this unique program and want to spread the word – Autism Awareness!

Cynthia Howroyd, a speech language pathologist and clinical director, created AutismPro after becoming frustrated with her attempts to provide efficient and affordable guidance to those working with children with autism.

In 2001, Cynthia was working with no funding or trained autism personnel on staff when she became unable to travel for several months due to a car accident. While she recuperated, she used the pause in her hectic schedule to think about how to continue to meet her clients’ needs. She began imagining creative ways of applying technology to the problem.

Understanding how the expertise of professionals, the internet, expert system software, and online learning might be combined into a single solution, she developed the vision of a ‘virtual autism clinic’ that would dramatically increase accessibility to treatment guidance. After three years of struggle and determination, Cynthia gathered a team of experts to begin Virtual Expert Clinics Inc. in 2004. In 2006, Virtual Expert Clinics launched their first product, AutismPro Professional, designed to help caregivers design and deliver tailored intervention plans for young children with autism.

Helping  Schools and Clinics
With strong interest from school districts and early intervention centers across North America and worldwide, Virtual Expert Clinics has developed a package of software and consulting, training, and program-design services to help these institutions deliver autism programming to improve child outcomes. (Source www.autismpro.com)