Another State's Rights Challenge to IDEA / Misc. News Shorts

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FEAT DAILY ONLINE NEWSLETTER Families for Early Autism Treatment

http://www.feat.org M.I.N.D.: http://mindinstitute.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu

Letters Editor: FEAT@... Archive: http://www.feat.org/listarchive/

" Healing Autism: No Finer a Cause on the Planet "

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Another State's Rights Challenge to IDEA / Misc. News Shorts

Tuesday, September 21, 1999

[From Jane White, a legal advocate in special education,

mjwhite@...]

On 09-16-99 the Missouri Attorney General's office filed a motion for

summary judgment in the Asbury case in the Eastern District of Missouri to

dismiss our Section 504 [provisions for students with lessor learning

disorders] claims and our IDEA claims on 11th Amendment grounds, arguing

that both Section 504 and the IDEA are unconstitutional exercises of

Congress' Section 5 14th Amendment powers and Spending Powers, based upon

broad readings of the 06-23-99 U.S. Supreme Court's Alden triology.

Unlike Arkansas, which admitted in 8th Circuit oral argument in Jim

C./Bradley that IDEA was a proper exercise of the Spending Power, with

Arkansas also admitting that it accepted the money knowingly, the State of

Missouri contends that since it didn't know the IDEA was unconstitutional

until 06-23-99, its acceptance of any IDEA money doesn't count as a " waiver "

of 11th Amendment sovereign immunity.

* * *

Pediatric Autism Research Bill Hearing Date Moved

[From Emken at CAN mailto:cc4@...]

The House hearing has been pushed back to Tuesday, October 5. No

further information is available at this time. Stay tuned! --EE

* * *

Central Texas FEAT Meeting

Families for Effective Autism Treatment Thursday, September 23, 1999

7 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. 11800 Knollpark Drive Austin, Texas 78758. For More

Information and to RSVP: Day Day@... 512-837-0218 Pizza

provided & Children welcome

Speaker: Barbara Booth Behavioral Specialist Pflugerville Independent

School District

Topic: ABA in the classroom

The Central Texas FEAT should become a resource for families and ABA

Therapists. In our first meeting we will be discussing plans for the coming

year, including developing a spring seminar in Austin for ABA therapists and

parents. We will also be developing our mission statement.

FEAT - NT (North Texas) Mission Statement

http://www.flash.net/~sjapollo/featnt

* * *

Studying the Research: Autism Research Monographs of Binstock

[From snelgrove@...]

http://www.jorsm.com/~binstock/index.htm

My research writings in 1997 and 1998 reflected a deepening interest in

biologic aspects of causation in autism. The question " what is the cause of

autism? " is erroneous; ie, there are various causes (and do note the plural:

causes) already known to be capable of inducing a child to have traits

worthy of the diagnosis " autistic " .

Some such causes are genetic -- eg, fragile X syndrome; but a goodly

amount of evidence points towards non-genetic causes in a large subgroup of

autism-spectrum children, with fungal, bacterial, and viral infections as

important factors. Furthermore, recent evidence indicates that specific

alleles of certain genes create endogenous proteins that serve as binding

sites for certain infectious agents, thereby creating a complexity of

genetic/environmental interactions as causally significant.

A short list of monographs is presented first, and an expanded list that

includes brief descriptions of each topic can be found further down this

web-page.

The major monographs:

_ Atypical chronic infections and other immune atypicalities, a new

diagnostic subgroup:

_ Immune panels for autism-spectrum children

_ Critique of Margaret Bauman's in-utero timing theory

_ Suboptimality Factors and Various Causations in Autism

_ Febrile Seizures, the Amygdala, and Autism

_ Febrile Seizures: Human Herpes Virus 6, Roseola

_ LKS and HSV: Landau-Kleffner Syndrome and Herpes Simplex Virus

_ Neonatal gastroenterologic events: immunity, IgA, CD5+ cells

_ CVID: common variable immune deficiencies; hypogammaglobulinemia of

infancy _ Ganglioside Heterozygotes, Impaired Immunity, NK cells

_ Ignaz Semmelweiss, the NIH, and models of autism causation

_ HHV6 resource page

Vaccinations and possible sequelae:

_ Vaccination-induced neuropathies

_ MMR and interferon-gamma: gastrointestinal and neurologic effects

Some additional tidbits:

_ Contra-indications to steroid therapy

_ EBV and atypical mosquito bite reactions

_ Febrile Seizures: a miscellany including somatostatin

_ Suboptimality and IgA

_ An IgA miscellany

_ infection- impaired immunity, a new direction in autism research

* * *

" I love someone with AUTISM "

is on bumperstickers and buttons that are a fundraiser for the Autism

Research Institute. You can view them at

http://www.geocities.com/HotSprings/Oasis/1343/

They are white with nice black writing, the bumperstickers are 12 " x 3 "

and the buttons are 2-1/4 " round. Only $3 each (that includes shipping in

the US). Please send a check to:

Autism Recovery Network

80 Chaney Drive

Casselberry, FL 32707

They make great gifts for teachers, grandparents, therapists and anyone

who loves someone with autism! They are also great to wear when your kid is

throwing a fit and people stare at you in the grocery store! Thanks for

your support.

Please contact me privately for shipping info outside the US.

Holly, bordman@...

* * *

Widespread Restraints Use Condemned: Autism National Committee Position

[Thanks to Anne M. Donnellan amdonnel@... and Jack Kyne.]

The Autism National Committee condemns the widespread and excessive use

of mechanical and physical restraints in restricting the civil and human

rights of people with disabilities. We believe that the use of restraints

is a failure in treatment.

_ People who have survived forceful restraint have reported they feared

they would die in restraint, and some have died. A number of tragic cases

of restraint-related deaths of children and adults have recently made the

national news. Estimates of deaths occurring during or shortly after

restraint currently range from 50 to 150 annually. The actual magnitude of

such deaths is poorly tracked and subject to under reporting, a fact

recently stated by a federal Department of Health and Human Services

spokesperson.

_ Many have reported that they now live with fear and flashbacks that

involve a sudden, involuntary re-living of this emotional and physically

traumatic experience. Post-traumatic stress disorder is increasingly being

diagnosed among persons who have been subjected to the systematic use of

restraints.

_ It is clear that individual's sometimes desperate efforts to

communicate are ignored while staff force compliance for often times trivial

reasons; that the cumulative effects of repeated restraint can lead to

diminished self-image and negative attitudes; and that when restraint is

used, struggle is provoked and this natural response increases the danger of

physical injury.

_ In our experiences as professionals, parents, and individuals with

autism, we have witnessed too many times the horror and injury done to our

citizens with autism. We are weary of seeing our people become victims.

_ Although any one of us, disabled or not, may at some point in our

lives need to be restrained on an emergency basis, that should only occur

when there is a substantial threat of injury to self and others. Behavioral

restraints are neither treatment nor education. They are merely procedures

or methods that restrict freedom of choice and adversely affect the human

development of people with disabilities. The use of restraints should be

considered a failure in treatment. We totally condemn the use of behavioral

restraints.

_ We call on national and state agencies to investigate the widespread

mistreatment of people with disabilities through the use of restraints.

_ We call on Congress and state legislatures to pass legislation to

protect people with disabilities: to limit the use of restraints on children

and adults with disabilities to brief, emergency situations involving

serious threat of injury to the person with disabilities or to others; to

require immediate reporting of these incidents; to require thorough

investigations of the circumstances that lead to the incident; and to

require the development of supports and accommodations to prevent future

incidents.

* * *

LA Mother Needs Helper

. . .with 6 yr. old, non-verbal autistic son. Tues. -Fri. drive to and

from school (in Pasadena) from L.A. (Crenshaw area). CADL, ins., own car

required. Sign language knowledge helpful, but willingness to learn a plus.

Good pay for few hours. For more information please call: Roni (323)

766-0506

* * *

My Child's Bill Of Rights

[Thanks to PAYSHUNS@... ]

1. Please teach me through sense of touch. I need hands on

and body movement.

2. Please give me a structured environment where there is a

dependable routine. I need to know what comes next.

3. Please give me advanced warning if there will be changes.

Wait for me, I am still thinking.

4. Please allow me to go at my own pace, if I rush, I get

confused and upset.

5. Please offer me options for problem solving. I need to know the

detours when the road is blocked.

6. Please give me rich feedback on how I am doing. I didn't

forget, I just didn't hear it in the first place.

7. Please give me directions one step at a time, and ask me to

say back to you what I think you said. I didn't know I wasn't in

my seat.

8. Please give me short term goals. Please don't say " I already

told you that. "

9. Please remind me to stop, think and act.

10. Tell me again in different words. Give me a signal, draw me a

symbol. Or show me. Or help guide my hand.

11. Please give me praise for partial success. Reward me for self

improvement, not just perfection.

12. Please catch me doing something right and praise me for

specific positive behavior.

13. Please give me room to grow and learn, I like doing things

for myself, and I am going to be a man one day.

14. Please remind me and yourself about my good points when I am

having a bad day.

Please pass this on to those who you think can use it, i.e. teachers,

friends, babysitters and other parents...

____________________________________________________________

editor: Lenny Schafer east coast editor: , Ph.D.

schafer@... CIJOHN@...

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