CNN's Autism 911: Help for a Family in Chaos

The Bilson family in Seal Beach, CA is being featured on CNN's American Morning television show. The family is like many other families: "three kids, a cat, and a small, lovely home with lots of family photos and carved wooden wall signs with sayings like "Live, Laugh, Love."
The story focuses on Marissa, a 13 year old girl with autism and helps us to understand that while each autistic child is unique in his or her behavior, there are common threads in social skills and communication. The story also gives us an authentic view of the pressures on parents as they seek assistance to help Marissa.

CNN Editor's note: You can follow the Bilsons' progress on CNN American Morning 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. through February 4 or visit:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/12/23/autism.911/index.html?eref=rss_tops...

Transporter DVD cover

Sally is an animated cable car with a real human face – and she has proven amazingly effective in helping children with autism improve their recognition and understanding of emotions.

Sally is one of eight cartoon characters starring in THE TRANSPORTERS, a groundbreaking DVD which debuted in North America on January 12, 2009. It is the brainchild of Professor Simon Baron-Cohen, a leading world authority on autism and produced in association with his research team at the Autism Research Center at Cambridge University, United Kingdom.

The DVD series Transporters, funded by the British government, focuses on the fascination many children with autism have with trucks and trains to help them focus on human emotions. According to an NPR interview with Simon Baron-Cohen of the Autism Research Centre at the University of Cambridge, UK, "the DVD uses colorful animated vehicles, each with the face of a highly expressive actor on it, to teach autistic children how to better read faces and emotions."

The Transporters website states "The media series has been thoroughly tested on children with autism throughout its development so we can learn from their feedback". To their credit, 25 % of their profits goes to further research and autism charities. The episodes and interactive quizzes are developed in collaboration with the Autism Research Centre at Cambridge University.

With permission researchers can use the Transporters series to further the understanding of autism.

To see a video sample on our website go to:
http://www.speechlanguagepractice.org/?q=node/13

To learn more about their work go to:
http://www.thetransporters.com/aboutus.html

NPR interview with Simon Baron-Cohen of the Autism Research Centre at the University of Cambridge in the U.K. (audio, video samples, and text)
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99732203

Research on the product
http://www.thetransporters.com/research.html

Autism Research Center
http://www.autismresearchcentre.com/arc/default.asp

From: Potter, J. (2008, Dec. 16). 2009 public policy agenda reflects member input. The ASHA Leader, 13(17), 28.

ASHA Highest Priority Objectives for 2009

* Higher education and research funding. Promote state/federal financial aid policies and research funding opportunities, while collaborating with state agencies/communication sciences and disorders programs to support recruitment and retention of master's and doctoral students and clinicians in education and health care settings.
* Autonomy for audiologists. Promote audiologists' autonomy through direct patient access and comprehensive coverage of audiology services under Medicare.
* IDEA funding. Support increased funding of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and the following goals: establishment of effective service delivery and manageable workloads to maximize student outcomes; participation in early intervening activities using the Response-to-Intervention model (Part B) and increased access to appropriate early intervention services (Part C); increased professional development through dissemination of information about research-based practices in speech-language pathology and audiology.

For full article/summary go to:
http://www.asha.org/about/publications/leader-online/archives/2008/08121...

Contact your Reps!

You can encourage funding of Title IV, Section 428k of the Higher Education and Opportunity Act which would offer $2,000 in student-loan forgiveness for each year of service a school-based speech-language pathologist (SLP) or audiologist spends in a high-need school for up to five years of service.

Contact your U.S. Senator and Representative and ask them to include funding for loan forgiveness for SLPs and Audiologist in the FY 2010 federal budget.
Go to http://capwiz.com/asha2/issues/alert/?alertid=12030701&type=CO and use the form ASHA provides to add your voice to this effort.

This would be a major victory in aiding school-based SLPs and audiologists – attracting more personnel to the professions and providing much-needed support to low-income children in need. Please take action today!

Other legislative issues are just a click away by going to Legislative Alerts under Resources on SLP's In Touch Website, left-side menu.

Cafe du Monde, New Orleans/Wikimedia Commons Public Domain

Goin'to New Orleans?

It's never too soon to start thinking about participation in ASHS 2009, you'll be
Goin' to New Orleans!

ASHA has "...made it easier than ever to find and purchase books."

The browsing categories include:

* Amplification, Cochlear Implants, Audiologic Rehabilitation
* Hearing and Hearing Disorders
* Language
* Service Delivery, Practice Management, Reimbursement
* Speech, Voice, Fluency, Swallowing

http://www.asha.org/about/continuing-ed/booktalk/bookbrowser.htm

ASHA Podcasts

ASHA has developed series of podcasts on related to Network News and the other on Professional Development.

According to ASHA, "Every three or four weeks, we'll be featuring a new interview with a person that is making news in the professions of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology. You can listen to an individual episode below or subscribe to the feed and receive new files automatically through an aggregator program, like iTunes." (continued)

Sorry for any inconvenience if you tried to use the SLP Forum (formerly "Cafe"). It was blocking users from posting or adding to the forum topics.
If you're logged in, you should be able to post and edit your entries.

Thanks,
SLP Web Admin

John McCain

Barack Obama

See chart prepared by the Ohio Legal Rights Service, September 2008 which gives a "side-by-side comparison of the candidates' positions on disability-related issues is based on information found on the candidates' Web sites, the candidates' Senatorial Web sites and supplemented by other sources. OLRS neither supports nor opposes any political party or candidate for office. Information provided on this page is strictly for educational purposes only". (continued)

A Gift for Autistic Children: Grandfather builds Web browser, Offers it Free

by Broam Bergstein, Associated Press, July 9, 2008

John LeSieur [of Quebec] is in the software business, so he took particular interest when computers seemed mostly useless to his 6-year-old grandson, Zackary.

The boy has autism, and the whirlwind of options presented by PCs so confounded him that he threw the mouse in frustration.