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)

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

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.

Second Autism Congressional Briefing

Federal Autism Research And Treatment Initiatives:
Dear President Obama, White House Members, and Staff, I am extremely concerned about the ever growing autism epidemic, causes of autism, and beneficial treatments and therapies for our children and adults with autism. Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) and Rep. Christopher Smith (R-NJ) are hosting a special briefing for The White House, Members of Congress and their Staff, to discuss issues related to autism research and treatment.

WHEN: Friday, July 17, 2009 at 9:30 AM

WHERE: 210 Cannon House Office Building Independence Avenue, Washington, DC.

PRESENTING: David Kirby, investigative journalist and author of The New York Times bestseller Evidence of Harm, Mercury in Vaccines and the Autism Epidemic – A Medical Controversy, will inform Members and their staff about developments regarding environmental factors in autism and the “Seven Studies to Watch” – Plus, changing ASD demographics post-thimerosal reduction. Mark Blaxill, Editor-at-Large of Age of Autism, Director of the Coalition for SAFE MINDS and co-author of a forthcoming book on the roots of the autism epidemic, who will address the policy and public health implications of the autism crisis. I respectfully request that you will attend the briefing to learn about the changing dynamics of the autism debate, as you will find many in government and science believe this debate is far from settled.  Extracted from www.congress.org

Please visit this site and submit your message, you can also use their  “Find and contact your federal, state, and local officials” search tool – the site provides the ability to send a message to the government concerning your Autism Awareness issue. We submitted our message and hope that you do the same, this is an issue that is close to our hearts as our son has Autism.

This link will take you to their post about Autism; http://www.congress.org/congressorg/issues/alert/?alertid=13706531&content_dir=ua_congressorg

Autism and Electrosmog – Cause and Effect?

An Implied Association Between Fetal/Neonatal Exposure to RF Electromagnetic Radiation and the Increased Incidence of the Autism Spectrum Disorder

Recently disclosed epidemiological data indicate a dramatic increase in the incidence of autism spectrum disorders. Previously, the incidence of autism has been reported as 4-5 per 10,000 children. The most recent evidence indicates an increased incidence of about 1 per 500 children. However, the etiology of autism is yet to be determined. The recently disclosed data suggest a possible correlation between autism incidence and a previously unconsidered environmental toxin. It is generally accepted in the scientific community that radio frequency radiation is a biologically active substance. It is also readily acknowledged that human exposures to radio frequency radiation have become pervasive during the past twenty years, whereas such exposures were uncommon prior to that time. It is suggested that fetal or neo-natal exposures to radio frequency radiation may be associated with an increased incidence of autism.

Prior to the twentieth century the only sources of radio frequency (RF) radiation were the hyper-low levels of RF energy originating from our sun and the even lower levels of extra-solar RF noise.  It is in this environment of low-level RF radiation that life on earth developed and exists to this day. During the 1940s, primarily as a result of research and development performed as a part of the war effort, industry and the military establishment were successful in bringing the state of RF energy generation to maturity.  From that time onward we have witnessed a broad range of commercial RF energy product applications including, most notably, broadcast FM radio, radar, television, public-service mobile communication transceivers, residential microwave ovens, and the portable cellular telephone.

Initially, the contribution of each radiating device was imperceptible when weighed against the background of incoming solar radiation.  However, over the span of decades the number of terrestrial RF radiation sources, now counted in the billions, has increased to the degree that, presently, the base radiation level is many thousands of times higher than from solar RF energy impinging on the earth. Notwithstanding the proliferation of RF radiation sources during the early decades of the “radio frequency age”, the 1940s through the 1970s, humans were seldom exposed to RF radiation at levels that might cause concern.  Since the late 1970s a number of commercial products have become ubiquitous, which provide human exposures to levels of RF radiation that are significantly higher than either of the previous or present background levels.  Research reports indicate that RF exposure levels, typically encountered from some commercial products, may induce alterations of biological processes or damage to the genome. Concurrently the incidence of autism diagnoses demonstrates a pronounced, approximately linear, nearly three-fold increase occurring during the last twenty years.  “The question as to when autism begins in any child remains to be answered.  Some studies provide support for a prenatal or perinatal origin for autism.”  For several decades prior to 1980 autism incidence remained essentially invariant; reportedly at about one diagnosed case per 2005 children.  Byrd has reported a present autism incidence of about one per 700 children.

RF radiation sources have become commonplace in the personal human environment from approximately 1980 to the present.  Operation of an RF radiation source such as a two-way radio or a cell phone exposes the operator to levels of RF radiation shown to be biologically active.  Operation of an RF radiation source also exposes others, in the near proximity, to similarly biologically active levels of electromagnetic field intensities 15. Some of the known effects of exposure to RF radiation include cognitive impairment 16, memory deficit 17, EEG modifications, DNA damage, chromosome aberrations, micronucleus formation, fetal malformation, increased permeability of the blood-brain barrier, altered cellular calcium efflux and altered cell proliferation. RF radiation exposures from residential microwave ovens are, typically, on the order of 1 milli-watt per cm2.  RF radiation exposures from cell phones range from about 0.1 to 10.0 milli-watt per cm2.  Portable two-way radios provide similar exposure levels.  The scientific literature confirms that RF radiation exposures, at levels more than 1,000 times lower than described immediately preceding, or on the order of 1.0 micro-watt per cm2, induce significant changes in biological processes or molecular repair mechanisms.

During gestation the possibility of unobservable embryonic and fetal damage is increased as mothers-to-be utilize and are exposed to the emissions from RF radiation devices.  Researchers have emphatically reported that an embryo or fetus should not be exposed to radio frequency radiation such as that emitted by the portable cell phone or portable telephone.  One particular reason to avoid RF radiation exposure during pregnancy is that an embryo or fetus may not be fully protected by amniotic fluid for extended periods of time due to the natural movement of the embryo or fetus within the womb.  Secondly, the pelvic structure promotes deep RF radiation penetration and that radiation can be absorbed within the developing embryo or fetus. Other researchers have postulated that there may exist a previously unidentified environmental toxin associated with the observed increased incidence of autism.  For example, the works of Byrd (California – 1999), Bertrand, (New Jersey – 2001), Taylor, (United Kingdom – 1999), and Chakrabarti & Fombonne, (United Kingdom – 2001) clearly support the proposition that the identified increased incidence of autism has an origin at about 1980: an increased incidence that has its origin established at the very time the personal RF radiation devices came into popular use – about 1980.  We propose that RF radiation, a new form of exposure of the human embryo, fetus, and infant, and an acknowledged environmental toxin under many exposure conditions, may be associated with the increased incidence of autism.  This proposition is further based on the fact that these radiating products are periodically and typically utilized in the embryonic, fetal and neonatal environment.  RF radiation is the only known toxin, exposure to which is wholly correlated with the repeatedly documented increased incidence of autism: now reported by at least some researchers as greater than 1 per 100 newborn. (source Norman Doidge M.D., Michael Merzenich, Robert C. Kane, Ph.D.)

A Little More About Electrosmog

What is electro-smog?

• popular term for artificially produced electrical and magnetic fields & electromagnetic radiation

• invisible, inaudible and odor-free

• detectable with readily available measuring equipment

• the result of the explosive growth in electrification in everyday life

• electro (electricity) + smog (smoke-fog) = Electro-smog

Where does electro-smog come from?

• domestic electrical installations and household equipment, transformers etc.

• high-voltage lines, power supplies, cables and wires

• mobile telephones, baby-phones, wireless telephones, WiFi LAN’s.

• radio and television, radio communications, satellites

• civil / military radar stations and airplane radar transmitters

• remote controls

• industrial plants, welding and drying

• electrical motors and transformers

• public transportation, buses, trains, streetcars, etc.