Help Fund Mickies Therapies

Children Forced Into Cell-Like School Seclusion Rooms

This is unbelievable. How could schools still be allowed to to this. Everybody knows, you don't leave kids unsupervised, mush less one with ADHD-which is my opinion is a label, that makes kids who wear it feel really bad as it is.

If this doesn't scare the daylights out of you, I don't know what does. If this boy was able to communicate with his parents and this still happened, imagine the ones like my Mickie, that can't speak a word. I can only imagine what those poor parents must be going through.

This part of the article from the CNN site:

• Mentally disabled, autistic kids injured, traumatized in school seclusion rooms.
• 13-year-old Georgia boy hanged himself in room with cord teacher gave him.
• Autistic Iowa girl confined in school storage closet where she pulled out her hair.

Murrayville, Georgia - A few weeks before 13-year-old Jonathan King killed himself, he told his parents that his teachers had put him in "time-out.” The room where Jonathan King hanged himself is shown after his death. It is no longer used, a school official said..............
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/12/17/seclusion.rooms/

Temporary Tattos

For parents of children and adults with autism, our worse nightmare, is to think what would happen if our children would get lost or wonder away. In Mickie's case, who doesn't speak a word, I don't even like to think about it. He doesn't like to ware bracelets and he takes them off. I've even tried to buy the fabric ones and sewed them on, but he still ripped them off.

A temporary Tattoo on the other hand, could be a solution. Temporary Tattoos With a Purpose. Placed out of reach could do the job. I haven't tried them myself, by I plan on it. I don't know what else to try to keep him safe in case he wonders away somehow.

Their security is very important in these cases. They don't know how to take care of themselves like other kids and adults can, because depending on the severity, something like these tattoos, could be very helpful for adults with autism also. Temporary Tattoos with a Purpose

ARI-Funded Study Support Hypothesis for A Link Between Mercury and Autism

A study that ARI helped fund, "Biomarkers of Environmental Toxicity and Susceptibility in Autism," (citation below) has added more evidence in confirming the long-suspected link between mercury and autism.

The study is hailed as landmark research on several counts:

* It shows a direct relationship between the severity of the autistic symptoms and the levels of urinary porphyrins associated with mercury intoxication.
* Similarly, a direct relationship is demonstrated between mercury intoxication and glutathione levels (specifically, increased levels of oxidized glutathione (GSSG), and decreased plasma levels of reduced glutathione (GSH).
* In more general terms, the study, published in the "Journal of Neurological Sciences," provides scientific evidence of the effects of mercury intoxication on those with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs), as compared with the control group.

Soon After the Autism Diagnosis

I was looking through old photos this week and found a few from 1999, right after Mickie's autism diagnosis. He used to let our pets fall sleep next to him. He didn't play with them but he let them be part of his space.