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1. Educating Our Autistic Students: The Normal Developmental Model Doesn't Work

   Children who have autism may not do well in school is because educators often emphasize using a normal development model when teaching. Comparing the child with autism to the typical child is not realistic or educationally appropriate. Presently, whatever the autistic child cannot do at a specific stage becomes the focus of teaching, since the normal developmental model is the learning standard. This model has not been helpful in determining what or how to teach children with autism.

   Posted on 11/20/2008 3:18:05 PM

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2. Allergies, Asthma and Autism: How Did Our Children Get So Sick?

   Today it is estimated that 50% of Hispanic and African-American children will develop diabetes, that 1 in 90 boys has autism, and that 1 in 4 children has asthma. Pediatrics just reported that from 2002-2005, there was a 103% increase in diabetes medication for children, a 47% increase in asthma medication, a 41% increase in ADHD medication and a 15% increase in high cholesterol medicine. How did our children get so sick?

   Posted on 11/20/2008 3:16:24 PM

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3. ADHD is not autism

   I’ve been hearing lately that Sensory Integration Disorder and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder are now being included in Autism Spectrum Disorders. I don’t know who would make such a decision, and the CDC’s Web site says nothing of the kind, but I certainly hope it isn’t true.

   Posted on 11/20/2008 5:39:54 AM

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4. Autism Dogs

   Dogs for the Deaf in Central Point has begun an autism assistance dog training program, the first of its kind in the country. The goal is to provide an autistic child with both a calming effect and safety in public.

   Posted on 11/19/2008 11:01:03 AM

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The 100th Monkey

A story about social change.

Today, you are monkey number 68.

By Ken Keyes Jr.

The Japanese monkey, Macaca Fuscata, had been observed in the wild for a period of over 30 years.

In 1952, on the island of Koshima, scientists were providing monkeys with sweet potatoes dropped in the sand. The monkey liked the taste of the raw sweet potatoes, but they found the dirt unpleasant.

An 18-month-old female named Imo found she could solve the problem by washing the potatoes in a nearby stream. She taught this trick to her mother. Her playmates also learned this new way and they taught their mothers too.

This cultural innovation was gradually picked up by various monkeys before the eyes of the scientists. Between 1952 and 1958 all the young monkeys learned to wash the sandy sweet potatoes to make them more palatable. Only the adults who imitated their children learned this social improvement. Other adults kept eating the dirty sweet potatoes.

Then something startling took place. In the autumn of 1958, a certain number of Koshima monkeys were washing sweet potatoes -- the exact number is not known. Let us suppose that when the sun rose one morning there were 99 monkeys on Koshima Island who had learned to wash their sweet potatoes. Let's further suppose that later that morning, the hundredth monkey learned to wash potatoes.

THEN IT HAPPENED!

By that evening almost everyone in the tribe was washing sweet potatoes before eating them. The added energy of this hundredth monkey somehow created an ideological breakthrough!

But notice: A most surprising thing observed by these scientists was that the habit of washing sweet potatoes then jumped over the sea...Colonies of monkeys on other islands and the mainland troop of monkeys at Takasakiyama began washing their sweet potatoes.

Thus, when a certain critical number achieves an awareness, this new awareness may be communicated from mind to mind.

Although the exact number may vary, this Hundredth Monkey Phenomenon means that when only a limited number of people know of a new way, it may remain the conscious property of these people.

But there is a point at which if only one more person tunes-in to a new awareness, a field is strengthened so that this awareness is picked up by almost everyone!

From the book "The Hundredth Monkey" by Ken Keyes, Jr.